Origins

Blog #6

Origins

Here are todays questions. Where did all these Hawai'ians, Tahitians, Samoans, Maoris and myriad other populations that live an area as big as the Pacific Ocean come from? And when? What made them leave the beautiful places they came from to travel thousands of miles in open canoes?

More evidence of where they came from is being discovered each year. DNA and archaeology point back 6,000 years to a migration from Taiwan, or Eastern China, or farther East in the Indo- Archipelago. Lapita Culture people went from island to island on rafts and, later, canoes looking for food and places to live. Pottery found in Samoa, New Guinea and the Torres Straits is traced to those early explorers.

Islands probably became over-populated in a hurry which caused people to move on just like the folks in the science fiction books and movies do. When Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii in 1778 he estimated the population of the Islands at 400,000. Other estimates vary from 150,000 up to 750,000. Regardless, Cook observed that there was a lot of tribal warfare and a highly regulated kapu system; both indicators of a lot of people on limited space. Maori people were involved in a lot of tribal conflict as well.

These are the musings of someone only qualified to speculate. But my speculation caused me to take the Hawai'ians farther North and put them in contact with natives of the Pacific Coast of North America. It could be that my fictional proposition is the earliest way Polynesian DNA got to North America. Later this week I'll introduce you to a unique part of Alaska; Lituya Bay. Thanks for reading my blog.