Transcription
North America holds secrets to its past. Secrets that have evaded investigators for centuries.
When the pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, they met Algangquians. The pilgrims knew their own origins and migration story, the several thousand-year history of Europe that culminated in them fleeing Europe for the new world. What they didn't know was the backstory to their Alangquan neighbors. For example, 500 years earlier, were the Algangquin ancestors on Cape Cod? Were they even in America?
At contact, the Alangquins, the Algic, were among the most successful North American indigenous language groups. They had diversified into more than 30 languages, and they covered a large land mass, especially when compared to some of the other language families in the North American continent. Notice here the salmon color covers a lot of Canada and is among the larger colored groups here in this map. What was the origin of the Alangquans and how do they spread so far?
Now, four centuries after the first Thanksgiving, new clues from genetics are disclosing this secret. My name is Nathaniel Jensen. I'm the research biologist with Answers in Genesis and this is They Had Names. This is episode two in our series in which we're going to cover the biggest secret in all of pre-EU European North America. If you're a Native American and watching this episode, stick with me to the end where I'll have a special request for you as it relates to research going forward.
This covers a newly published book they had names and will represent the content, a significant portion of it from chapters 4, 5, and 8. Unlike our previous episode, today you'll hear plenty of modern tribal names. That's because genetics has finally bridged the gap between the peoples that contact and some of the archaeological sites that we haven't known who they belong to before. It's linked up indigenous histories, linguistics, genetics, and archaeology.
Before DNA finally cracked the code on algic history, language comparisons had hinted at a historical pathway for ancient migrations. You might say, "What language comparisons?" So, let's get our bearings here for the Algic language family and the members in it. The Algic family is called such rather than the Algangquian language family because of two people groups, the Euro and Wat. They're not wellknown. They're among the most divergent or different language groups compared to the rest. These other groups are going to be more familiar and represent the Algangquian subgroup within the Algic language family.
For example, on the Great Plains, the Black Feet are among the better known Algic or Algangquan language family members if you're Canadian. The Cree peoples, of course, will be familiar. There's the Granon. There's the Ojiway or in the United States the Chipoa people who are part of the Algic Algangquian language family. Again on the great plains the Cheyenne the Arapjo are familiar. Illinois are going to be familiar because they also lived in the state that bears their name. I'm from Wisconsin so Monomin are familiar as are Padawatami Sock Fox Miami Shaunie. I'm of course giving this lecture from Northern Kentucky. So this would be familiar grounds to the Shauny people back in the day. On the east coast there would be the Delaware, the Virginia Alangquans, the Algic Alangquans of Thanksgiving fame, the Massachusetts, Naroganset, and Wanoag.
This is what I'm talking about when I say language comparisons. If you compare these languages to one another, what emerges is a language hierarchy? Before I give you the details, you might say, "So what again? What does a language hierarchy matter?" Let me give you an analogy to something more familiar. I'm giving this talk in English. English is part of a language family. In this case, it's the Indo-Uropean language family. So named because the languages in this grouping stretch from Iceland all the way to India. The colors on the screen represent the different subgroups. There is a hierarchy in the Indo-Uropean language family. One of the most basil divisions is between the Indo-Iranian here in pink and sort of magenta purple and the rest of these colors including Russian. Of course, Russian is this far out east because of recent events in history. They were here with the rest of the Slavic peoples earlier in history. The point being you can line up these language divisions with the known history of Europe and language tells a story. If you have a hierarchy, you can begin to infer the history. So the fact that the Algic Algangquian languages exist in a hierarchy implies there's a story to tell.
And I want to point out here that Euro and we there's numberings on the screen. One, two, and then lighter tan. three, four here in darker yellow, five in very light tan yellow, and six in white here on the east coast. That's the arrangement. I'll give you the quote here in a minute. But the Euro and Wat are the most different in terms of the languages from everyone else. Next most different would be the Black Feet. Then the Cree and includes here Arapjo Gron. Next grouping would be the Cheyenne and Monomony. Five would include the Ojiway, Shauny, Illinois, and others. And then a lot of these East Coast from the Mcmack down to Delaware and below would include that last grouping. So, I'm arranging it this way because that's how the academic community views it. This is a quote from Lyall Campbell's 1997 book, American Indian Languages, where he cites someone else, Goddard, talking about a west to east cline, greatest time depth found in the west, shallowest in the east, implying without going into technical details, that the first to break away from the main group of algixs would be the Euro and then the black feet and so on. It almost implies a west to east migration. This isn't dates. I haven't given you a time frame, a chronology, a history yet. Simply a direction. But that direction implies that the last group to form would be the east coast. East coast, of course, is where the Wanoag, Massachusetts were. It implies these people were one of the last groups to form in the Algic history.
We can add dates once we bring in modern genetics to this equation. And I'm going to bring in modern genetics and modern census numbers. So let's start with the latter. If you go to the Canadian census, I think this is the 2016 census, and you look at the list of First Nations members, group them by language family, which ones are along or algic, which ones are maybe at aabaskin, which ones are and so on, 72% of Canadian First Nations belong to the Algic language family.
In the United States, if you look at census numbers, so again, here we're looking at the 2010 US census. We're looking specifically at those who would say yes, I'm Native American. I think I narrowed my focus specifically to those who would say I'm only Native American because this is a going to be a better match to the genetics less likely to be intermixed with Europeans. The biggest groups would be the Navajo and the Cherokee by census. So those would be in the Aabaskcan and Uricquan language families, not the Algic. The point I'm getting at is the Algic language family members by census in the United States are a smaller percentage, much smaller than in Canada. Only 15% of US Native Americans belong to the Algic language family. That's going to be our baseline. That's going to be our our our comparison. We're going to compare genetics to census numbers.
I'm going to use a specific type of DNA to make this comparison. The male inherited Y chromosome DNA. It's only 1% of a man's total DNA. Any of our DNA is what's called autotoal DNA. If you've taken a DNA test, a genetic test, ancestry DNA, this is the type of DNA they're testing. Less so the Y chromosome DNA. 23 andme does the sorts of tests. Family Tree DNA does this sorts of test as as a standalone. This is the key tool for our purposes. This particular type of DNA is inherited from fathers to sons and it's inherited imperfectly. We now know from experiments on average there's about three mistakes made per generation. So if you compare my Y chromosome to one of my boys, there should be three differences. You compare one of my Y chromosomes to my dad's, there should be three differences. If you compare my dad's to his grandsons, my boys, there should be three plus three six differences. And so this leads to a general principle, a methodology where if you compare the Y chromosomes of any two men, count the number of differences, divide by three or in some cases by six. You can estimate how many generations ago they had a common ancestor. This has been done then around the globe.
This graph represents a study of 600 men from around the globe from Europe, North Africa, subsaharan Africa, Middle East, Pakistan, East Asia, Pacific Islanders, and importantly, Native Americans. One of the branches to which Native Americans belong is this branch C. Now, don't let the numbers and letters and colors intimidate you. This is simply shorthand for knowing where exactly we are in the tree. So, you don't have to say, "Okay, go to the, you know, find the top of the tree, count down 50 branches." You just say, "Well, go to branch C." Something like that. Why is this branch significant? It's one of two dominant Y chromosome branches among Native Americans, Canadian First Nation members, US Native Americans. And we can calculate percentages. What percentage of the Native American branches are in C? What percentage of Native American branches are in other types of Native American branches? That's the question we're trying to answer. Those are the numbers we're trying to get. And then we're going to compare these genetic percentages to the census percentages.
So what percentage of Native American Y chromosome branches and there's really only two C and then there's this Q. What percentage of US Native Americans are found in this C branch and the number is small only about 6%. This comes from the family tree publicly available data set. In Canada, if you look at branch Q, which is the other Native American branch, in branch C, a whopping 96% of Canadian First Nations belong to this branch. What I want you to see here is there's a correlation, a correlation between genetic percentages and census percentages. In terms of Native American branches, almost all the Canadian First Nations belong to this C branch. And by census, the vast majority of Canadian First Nations are in the Algic language family. In the US, a small fraction of the total Native Americans by census are algixs. And among Native Americans in the Y chromosome tree, 6% of the Native American branches in the United States are in C. The rest would be in branch Q.
Why does this matter? This is essentially a way to identify the algic genetic branch. What I'm saying is this correlation shows that C is the algic or along branch. This matters because branch C has a known defined origin, a date for its entry into the Americas. This map represents the relative abundance of this branch around the globe. These circles represent the relative abundance. The bigger the circle, the higher the percentage among Navajos. I think it's 5% or less belong to this. So, it's a small circle. Notice this exists in the old world. The different colors represent subbranches within branch C, sublineages. The Native American branches are most closely connected to the northern Asian, northeastern Asian, Siberian branches. They came from there genetically then and the timing of their origin in the Americas is the 8900s. Again, I've identified by census and genetic comparisons branch C. We know branch C enters the Americas about the 900s. And so, we can add to our story that we've been building up from linguistics. Not only is this migration from west to east, but it began in the 8900s.
What makes this discovery even more interesting is that it lines up exactly with what one of the Algic language family members themselves has written down. The Delaware people, they were one of the East Coast Alangquian peoples have a document called the Red Record or the Wallom. If you Google this document or if you look up, I think it's the Oklahoma band of the Delaware, they would say, "No, this is not our authentic history. We used to think so, but now we don't." And the reason is a 1995 thesis that was published by a man named Oriker saying this document was a forgery, a fraud. The origin of this document is a Kuckian named Constantine Rafenque. He lived in the early 1800s. Said he got the document from a Delaware man. The claim of the 1995 thesis was that Rafinesque forged this document that it's not Delaware at all. It's simply invented out of whole cloth by this Raphan guy. It turns out, as I mentioned, this document describes a migration and the dates that we can infer from internal clues in the red record are exactly in line with genetics. So my argument to those who doubt the authenticity and veracity of this record is to say, "Okay, if you think Rafenesque forged a document in the early 1800s, how is it possible that he could do such a good job forging it that he anticipated genetic discoveries 200 years in the future?" I don't think that's possible. It it seems implausible. Instead, I think the explanation is Rafinesque obtained an authentic Delaware document that described an authentic history and it's a vital clue to understand the origin of the Algix, the Wanoag, the Massachusetts, and their backstory, where they were when they arrived in Massachusetts before the pilgrims arrived.
I want you to notice that this reconstruction I'm following heavily David McCutchen's reconstruction. So this book cover is actually from his 1993 translation. And I've redrawn here from the clues in the red record that he used to infer where they were at specific times. Now let me add one more piece of data here that'll help you understand this better. The crux of the red record is a list of sichchums or chieftains or leaders. They call them sichchums. Essentially so and so they'll give a name. So and so was the sichchum and we started agriculture. Something significant that happened during his reign. So and so was the sichchum. We started recording our histories. So and so was a sage and we fought these people over here. So and so was a sage and then we lost to these people over here. It's reads like straightforward history. And from those clues we can infer where they were at what time and what they were doing. But I want you to notice that this reconstruction begins in the northwest goes south but then basically proceeds west to east which is exactly what the hierarchy from linguistics shows a west to east migration. So it's not just that the red record is consistent with genetics. It's also consistent with linguistics and I'll give some examples here in a minute. It's also consistent with other nations indigenous histories.
So what exactly is the backstory then to the algixs the algans? What does their history say? 900s they arrive in Alaska across the bearing straight and they talk about immediately fighting enemies that there were people here before them. And this is consistent with genetics and other things that I don't have time to get into. It's authentic. At contact, the dominant peoples on the western coast, Pacific coast of Alaska were the members of the Eskimo Alute language family. They weren't just in Alaska. At contact, they had reached all the way over to Greenland. Archaeology identifies an eastward migration from Alaska eastward, eventually ending up again in Greenland. And what's interesting is the timing archaeologically this west to east migration is very close to the timing of the algic arrival which implies a potential cause effect relationship as if the algic arrived they talk about defeating enemies and perhaps the losers perhaps the Eskimo elite language family members as a result go fleeing eastward eventually ending up in Greenland.
Another group of peoples in Alaska at the time of contact, which is a good starting point for thinking backwards in time about who may have been there, were members of the Aabaskcan language family. These may not be familiar to you, but if you've ever heard of the Apache or Navajo, who are in Arizona and New Mexico at the time of contact, they are members of the Aabaskcan language family. The Mescalero Apache in particular have as part of their girls puberty ceremony a a recounting this 4-day ceremony retells the history of their migration. And they talk about "we came from the north, the land of cold and ice and went south." This fits linguistics. This is actually technically the Aak Aabaskcan language family. The deepest division linguistically in this family is between Aak way up here in Alaska and the rest of the Aabaskcans implying or consistent with them originating up there and then eventually going southward. These may have also been people that the Algs encountered when they first arrived and defeated.
By the AD 1000s, the Algic were further south going down the western part of Canada. Again, the majority of the red record talks about "so and so is the Sichchum. Here's what happened. So and so is the Sichchum. Here's what happened during this period." They say 10 satums passed. They don't name the sichums. 10 of them passed without names. And they say this was a time of much evil. It's unclear whether the algix were the cause of the much evil or the recipients. Either way, history wasn't recorded or it was history I don't think they wanted to talk about. Who may have been involved in this evil at contact members of the Salish language family were in the Pacific Northwest. Now, growing up in Wisconsin, I don't remember much learning about the Pacific Northwest peoples. So, they weren't familiar to me. They might be familiar to you, the Salish language family members. Their own histories talk about migrating from the east westward. But I think again based on details that I don't have time to get into describe probably Minnesota or that region as the origin point then migrating across the plains into a forest region eventually ending up on the western coast western region of United States and Canada. I think they were likely there when the algixs passed that way and could have been involved in this time of much evil.
At some point the algixs move on the great plains. They talk about growing crops on the great plains. This is now the 80100s. They mentioned a number of enemies they had to fight. I also want to mention that during this whole process, again, I said this is from the Delaware, but there's a lot of clues indicating this was not just a Delaware history. I think this is the ancestors of the Delaware and includes the ancestors of many other members of the Algic language family. There's six or seven points in the red record where they say "at this period, this people group went away or this subgroup broke away." Sometimes it's, "hey, we multiplied. We were enjoying life. We needed more rooms. We kind of separated into different bands." Other times it's "there was a fight and so these people were angry and so they they went away and and left us." The timing and the number of these divisions correlates with linguistics. It correlates with the indigenous histories of other members of the Algic language family. So I can tell you that one of these divisions represents the separation of the Cheyenne Monomony. There's another one that's the Arapjo Grovon and I think the CRE the Cheyenzone in history talk about coming from Minnesota. So I think effectively what what's going on is the Aljix are on the great plains. There's a group that breaks away and goes eastward. That's where the Cheyenne and Monam ended up. Later in history close to or after contact the Cheyenne move back westward and then onto the Great Plains. And this is the type of history we can begin to reconstruct with the red record which is from the Delaware but describes I would contend the history of the entire language family.
There was a group of enemies that they they described there was also of course internal conflict but a conflict that was external was with a group of people they called the north walkers. This is preuropean introduction of the horse. My presumption is everyone is moving by walking. But who are the north walkers? Remember that the Aabaskcan language family was up here in Alaska, but that the Navajo and Apache are also members in Arizona, New Mexico at the time of contact. The Mecalera Apache migration account puts dates on their migration. And the Mescaleros say "we were actually the last of four groups moving southward." To make a long story short, my guess is the timing of the Atabaskcan migrations, the timing of the Algic conflict here in the plains. If you put those pieces of data together, I think what's going on is the Algic are actually fighting the ancestors, the Atabaskcan ancestors who are migrating southward, possibly the ancestors of Apache and Navajo. Eventually, the Algic got tired of all that fighting on the planes and they said, "Let's just go eastward." It was at the Mississippi where they had the greatest battle or where the greatest battle in all of pre-European North America occurred. Stick with us for the next episode where I'll give you the details where we talk about the greatest hero in all of pre-colian North American history.
To skip ahead, they eventually did make it across the Mississippi where there were additional separations origins of subgroups within the Algate language family. The Shaune separated shortly after that the crossing of the Mississippi. The Ojiu or Chipoah would have as well. Their own accounts describe coming from the Atlantic. So they I think then if you put the pieces together left here, migrated over to the Atlantic and then migrated backwards where they ended up at the Great Lakes by the time of contact. And then finally of course you have the Delawarees themselves and the other members of the East Coast Alangquans who arrive in the Atlantic Ocean. But with linguistics and genetics and these indigenous histories and archaeology, I can now tell you that the Massachusetts Naganset and others in New England arrived there just a century and a half before the pilgrims did. And so now you have the rest of the story of the first Thanksgiving, the backstory to the European Americans, Alonquan neighbors.
If you'd like to participate in future research, this is just the beginning of unraveling the Algangquan story and the rest of the story of pre-European North America, you can go to our website, answers genesis.org/go/letheadnames. You'll find a page like this. If you scroll down, you can find place to enter your first name, last name, email, and of course, a message. This goes directly to my inbox. This is not the first video we've done. And so through this series of videos I've been doing, we have contacts now in about 30 to 35 nations to discuss and figure out how can we solve this more. So just contact me doesn't commit you to anything. If you just have questions, you're like, "Hey, tell me more about this project." This is the way to do it. What I'd like to do in the future is to continue to collect indigenous histories. These are one of the most vital clues to understanding what exactly went down. In mainstream science, these are often dismissed as mythological or irrelevant or they just don't know what to make of them. What I'm finding over and over again as genetics is confirming these indigenous histories, which for me as a Caucasian growing up not knowing anything about pre-colian North America is fantastic. Here's a what's been a great mystery for me finally solved.
I've shown you this map on a number of occasions. You can find this map, a free PDF download, same website, answers genesis.org/go/leadnames. We do have it available for purchase as a poster if you like that. I'm a map person, so I I enjoy that. You can find other episodes in this series on our YouTube channel and specifically the playlist They Had Names. Again, a lot of this content comes from this new book called They Had Names: Tracing the History of the North American Indigenous People. This is a follow on, in a sense, a sequel for this specific region to a book I published in 2022 called Traced Human DNA's Big Surprise. This is the DNA history of the globe. This represents fulfilled predictions that were made several years prior 2017 in replacing Darwin. This is the general question of the origin of species. You can find the cliffnotes version here in this booklet.
This has been episode two, the biggest secret in pre-uropean North America. Come join us again next time for episode three, the greatest hero in pre-uropean North America. Thanks so much for being with