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Found this map online. I have not seen the languages decribed like this before. By Delawarean I assume they mean the same thing as Algonquian-based Lenape languages Munsee and Unami.
It came from this site: http://www.internet.is/baldurs/Amerindians/Haudenosaunee-location.html
The main site is in Icelandic, the Amerindian part is in English. I assume the site author is interested is focused on Delaware/Lenape because of the stories around the Norse and the Lenape meeting a thousand+ years ago.
There is a lot of interest and controversy around the possibilities of this connection. DNA seems to be shedding new light on it. I’m not sure what is true, but I find the stories and debates fascinating because as far back as I can go in my genealogy my ancestors are virtually all Northern European or Eastern Woodland tribes.
Icelandic people in particular seem intrigued, due to stories like this one in Nat Geo: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/101123-native-american-indian-vikings-iceland-genetic-dna-science-europe/
The people doing Melungeon research did some DNA studies. One test was of a group of Mohawks that they saw having a Zena mitochondrial mother, which is the Meditteranean and ‘Black Irish” group. Their theory is that there were people wandering into the Americas from Europe during the Ice Age. Makes sense to me.
I have come to believe that people were going all over since before the Vikings. I no longer buy the idea that such and such a DNA haplogroup is definitively European as we were told with the DNA results we got when we tested a descendent of our Sinkey ancestor who we thought was at least mixed. Indeed, researchers have found alleles in his DNA that match a those of a known Native American. National Geographic had an article last year of an archeological dig in VA that was finding European artifacts from long before “Columbus discovered America.”
Techteach
techteach;37308 wrote: I have come to believe that people were going all over since before the Vikings.
I agree with you. Even Leif Erikson did not ‘discover’ America – another mariner told him about it. It is not that much of a stretch to think someone else could have journeyed across even a thousand years earlier than that. It is well known that the Inuit spread eastward across the Arctic from western Alaska to Greenland – clearly they demonstrated the ability to migrate over large distances. Iceland is the next logical destination eastward from there. It begs the question when did Americans discover Europe?
Another more recent example of Inuit skill in travel is the 1950s. When the Canadian government relocated families from Inukjuak in northern Quebec to the high arctic – Ellesmere Island and Grise Fiord. The land was very foreign to them but they managed to survive by learning the migration patterns of the whales and hunting over a range of 7,000 square miles. (The Canadian government apologized for this forced relocation in 2009 which essentialy used these families as ‘human flag poles’)
There is an interesting land claim dispute between Denmark and Canada over Hans Island. This is in the Kennedy Channel between northern Ellsemere Island and Greenland. There the distance between the two land masses gets as narrow as 14 miles. There are Inuit (Thule) and Norse artifacts found on this island.
What is the most fascinating part to me is some of the similarities between the two cultures. The Innu of Labrador/Newfoundland have traditional stories that describe tall, white haired people with large owl-like eyes. That sound like a description of the Norse. Likewise the Norse Sagas describe the indigenous people they encountered as Skraelings. Neither groups descriptions of each other seem to be very flattering.
The stories are also similar in that both traditonal Indian stories and Viking sagas are/were not taken seriously by many. It wasn’t until L’Anse aux Meadows was discovered in Newfoundland in the 60s that people began to take the stories seriously. The history of both these peoples has been written largely by outsiders. Viking is a name given to these people by those that saw them as rapistrs and plunderers – more correctly they are the Norse. Like Indian – although widely used like Viking – is not really historically correct.
Iceland with it’s isolation seems to be where the Norse legends were best kept. They still have the letter thorn (like Th) letter in their alphabet that is gone from other Nordic languages. Our Quaker ancestors hadn’t forgotten about Thor and the Norse by the 1700s. Their disapproval of the ‘pagan’ Thor is why they called it Fourth Day instead of Thursday (Thor’s Day).
It would be interesting to me to find out how many Inuit have Dupuytrens Contracture, also called Viking Hand. I have it, compliments of my Scotch-Irish ancestors who were heavily impacted by Viking invasion. While there is correlation with this between things like diabetes and fibromyalgia, the best cause is genetic, and indeed, the research is leaning toward a genetic cause that is triggered by something. In Britain, they recently gave it a workmen’s compensation designation. There is strong correlation to those who climb contracting the disease. In my case, I think it is the wear and tear of teaching technology.
Still, with a strong genetic component and heavily found in northern European peoples, I wonder how many supposedly purely indigenous people who live in areas that might have been visited before the alleged first Viking may also have this disease. We just had someone who is India Indian identify as having it. Of course, he pointed out the history of British rule of his country.
Hmm. Were it my field, it might be an area of research.
Techteach
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