New Discovery Confirms Native American Views on Their Ancestry   
      
      
      
   Alex Ewen   
      
      
      
   5/18/14   
      
      
      
      
   The discovery and scientific examination of one of the oldest human remains   
   found in the Americas confirms what Native people have known all along, that   
   they are the original inhabitants of this hemisphere.   
      
   For the past 15 years the question of whether modern American Indians were   
   descended from the ancient people who lived in North and South America more   
   than 10,000 years ago has been the subject of a contentious and bruising   
   scientific debate. This debate    
   has had profound legal implications, since under the current laws in the   
   United States, the custody and control of human remains is dependent on   
   whether or not there is a relationship to a modern Indian tribe.   
      
   The new discovery of "Naia," as the human skeleton found off the coast of the   
   Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has been named, as well as the recent examination   
   of the Anzick child, may have now put this debate to rest.   
      
   RELATED: DNA Politics: Anzick Child Casts Doubt on Bering Strait Theory   
      
   Naia, Greek for "water nymph," was discovered by divers in 2007, in an   
   underwater sinkhole called Hoyo Negro (Black Hole), about 20 miles north of   
   the ancient Mayan city of Tolum. Part of the Sac Actun underwater cave system,   
   the largest underwater cave    
   system in the world, Hoyo Negro also contained a trove of extinct prehistoric   
   animal skeletons such as saber-toothed cats, gomphotheres (elephant-like   
   animals related to mastodons) and giant sloths.   
      
   Naia, believed to have been a young girl of 15 or 16, apparently fell to her   
   death in the sinkhole sometime between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago. About   
   10,000 years ago, as the Ice Ages came to an end and melting glaciers raised   
   sea levels around the    
   world, the cave system was flooded. Her remains, now 130 feet below sea level,   
   were preserved. Under Mexican law her skeleton could not be disturbed, even   
   for scientific study, but the cave systems are a popular tourist dive location   
   and divers had been    
   found digging around her, prompting the government and scientists to recover   
   her.   
      
      
      
   Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/   
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