Part 9 : The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America ... Extremely Ancient Red Haired Mummies ... Megalithic Catalina

The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America

by Richard J Dewhurst

10 

EXTREMELY ANCIENT RED-HAIRED MUMMIES 

Mummies of ancient Caucasian giants with red hair have been found in startlingly diverse areas of the country, from Florida to Nevada. Along with these finds ample evidence of sophisticated culture, such as fine weavings, has also been found. Then there are the members of North Dakota’s Mandan tribe, long known from the earliest days for their red hair and blue eyes. Perhaps the magnitude of the mystery they represent has been partially responsible for the lack of general knowledge about them, or has it been because of definite attempts at suppression of evidence that flouts all previous theories about origins? 

GIANT MUMMIES OF SPIRIT CAVE 

What do you think the international reaction would be to news that mummies were found in Egypt that predated the earliest ones ever discovered there by more than five thousand years? Surely it would be front-page news from one end of the planet to the other. Yet news that two 9,500-year-old mummies were found in America has elicited barely a whisper. You may think this is impossible or that I’m referring to some discredited rumor, but the truth could not be clearer or more convincing. 

It turns out that the original discovery was made in 1940, and it has taken more than sixty years to come to light. Perhaps the only reason the public is now belatedly finding out about this earth-shattering discovery is the fact that the remains were not turned over to the Smithsonian, but kept instead by the Nevada State Museum. The original find in 1940 of two amazingly well-preserved mummies was made by Sydney and Georgia Wheeler, a husband and wife archaeological team working for the Nevada State Parks division, who were commissioned to study the archaeological effects that guano mining was having on any possible historical remains to be found in the arid caves scattered across the Nevada wastelands. (Bat guano is mined because it contains saltpeter, which is used to make fertilizer and is the main ingredient of gunpowder.) 

The site was appropriately called Spirit Cave, and it is located thirteen miles east of Fallon, Nevada. In order to find the mummies and the sixty-seven related artifacts associated with the burial, the Wheelers had to dig through several feet of guano droppings that covered the base of the cave and preserved what lay underneath. The two human mummies were expertly wrapped in a highly sophisticated weaving made of tule matting that exhibited extremely fine knotting and hand weaving not thought to exist until thousands of years later. Because the mummies were sealed in bat guano the weavings are extremely well preserved, and they are arguably the greatest evidence of ancient weaving in the world, yet close to nothing is generally known about them. 

THE SPIRIT CAVE MAN AT THE 

MIDDLE OF ALL THE CONTROVERSY 

The male mummy was in better condition and was found lying on a fur blanket, dressed in a twisted skin robe with leather moccasins on its feet and a twined mat sewn around its head and shoulders. A similar mat was wrapped around the lower portion of the body and bound under the feet. Skin remained on the back and shoulders as well as a small tuft of straight dark hair, which changed to reddish-brown when exposed to light and air. The age of the mummy was estimated at forty-five years and its height well in excess of six feet. 

The original dig in 1940 was led by the Wheelers with the help of local residents, and the two mummies and sixty-seven related objects were taken to the Nevada State Museum, where they were examined and dated at between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. They were then transported to the museum’s storage facility in Carson City and promptly forgotten about. In 1996 the mummies came to the attention of Erv Taylor, an anthropologist at the University of California, Riverside, who decided that new breakthroughs in mass spectrometry dating could reveal the true age of the mummies, especially in light of the extremely good condition of the tule diamond-plaited matte wrappings and the excellent preservation of the mummified bones and associated assorted relics. 

One can only imagine Taylor’s stunned reaction when the results came in. The mummies were dated to 9,400 before the present, in what is scientifically referred to as uncalibrated radio-carbon years before present (URCYP)—11.5 KYA. 

Yet instead of this momentous news shattering the world of archaeology to its very roots, the Bureau of Land Management stepped into the breach and shut down all news of the discovery in 1997 when it ruled in favor of a claim by the Paiute-Shoshone tribe of Fallon, Nevada, that the bones belonged to them by rights of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). 

Although no DNA testing was allowed at the time of Taylor’s dating, the Paiute-Shoshone tribe’s claim held until pressure from the academic community forced the courts to reconsider the claims of the Bureau of Land Management related to the Indian ancestral claims. In 2006, the courts overturned the findings of the bureau and the Paiute-Shoshone tribe and allowed DNA testing of the mummy by Douglas W. Owsley, division head of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Richard L. Jantz, an anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The tests revealed that the mummy was of a Caucasian origin, with a long face and cranium that most closely resembled either Nordic or Ainu ancestry and bore no ancestral relationship to either the Paiute or Shoshone tribes. Although these findings were made public and extensively covered by the local media, this groundbreaking news has received barely a glimmer of attention in the outside world. 

In order to put this find in its proper context and understand the other related and equally amazing finds in this part of the western United States, it is imperative that we reconstruct the local topography of this area as it existed ten thousand years ago. Although this knowledge should be commonplace to most schoolchildren, the true map of ancient America remains a complete mystery to most all its citizens. 

As it turns out, much like the Sahara region prior to 6000 BCE, the western United States prior to the gigantic Lassen volcanic explosion, posited at some time around 5000 BCE, was home to one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world and contained a lush biodiversity that one geologist has characterized as abundant in every respect, perhaps the lushest in the world at that time, with every kind of plant and animal necessary for human life. The area of this ancient lake was immense, covering approximately 8,500 square miles in the northeast section of Nevada, bordering on California and Oregon. 

It's name is Lake Lahontan, and at its peak around eleven thousand years ago it was almost one thousand feet deep in places and was fed by the Humboldt, Walker, Truckee, and Carson River systems. Remnants of the dried-out lake can be seen at Pyramid Lake, Lake Russell, and Lake Tahoe. At its peak the lake’s resting waterline was at approximately 5,200 feet, and consequently many of the finds around its ancient shoreline are found at least at that height. 

The Lenni Lenape Indians on the East Coast of America report that they originally lived in the West until their world was destroyed by fire and they were forced to migrate to the other side of the Mississippi River in search of food and shelter. When we understand that these desert regions were once home to abundant life, the other related prehistoric archaeological finds in this area become understandable and even expected, as we are no longer looking at isolated desert remains devoid of logic and contextual understanding. 

Fig. 10.1. Ice age lakes in the Southwestern United States, with Red Rock Pass located on the north side of Lake Bonneville (courtesy of Ken Perry) 

THE ANCIENT RED-HAIRED 

GIANTS OF LOVELOCK, NEVADA 

In light of this, the equally amazing finds at Lovelock Cave, eighty miles east of Reno, should come as no surprise. Once again we are dealing with a guano-filled cave on the shoreline of Lake Lahontan, in an area called the Great Basin, only this time the original find was made in 1911 and involved considerably more bodies and artifacts that, because of their highly unusual nature, are routinely criticized and dismissed by mainstream archaeology to this day, although the related finds at Spirit Cave should change all of the doubters’ minds, especially as the reality of Lake Lahontan Great Basin culture becomes more well known and accepted. 

Quite simply what we are dealing with here is what the popular press at the time called “red-haired giants,” which immediately roused the hackles of mainstream academia and caused them to immediately sweep the whole unpleasant subject under the rug. Fortunately for us, the skeletons and artifacts were not sent to the Smithsonian, and although many of the pieces have disappeared from the historical record, some can still be found in local universities and museums in the area. 

THE LEGEND OF THE SI-TE-CAH 

The Paiute Indians have a legend about their ancestors and red-haired giants. These giants, known as the Si-Te-Cah, were a red-haired tribe of cannibals who lived near the Paiutes, often harassed them with constant war and occasionally captured victims to eat. Eventually the various Paiute groups had had enough and decided to band together to eradicate the Si-Te-Cah (translated as “tule eaters”). Legend has it that the Paiutes cornered the giants and forced them underground, into a cave system, piled brush over the entrance, and set it on fire with flaming arrows, extinguishing the Si-Te-Cah for good. 

Modern historians and anthropologists have dismissed this legend as fantasy and allegorical myth, but others have claimed that archaeological finds indicate otherwise. Could there really have been a race of Caucasoid giants that inhabited North America before the Native Americans? Are the artifacts discovered in Lovelock Cave proof that history is wrong, or are they just another hoax? 

Lovelock Cave first caught the attention of archaeologists in 1924, thirteen years after miners began harvesting the several-foot-thick layer of bat guano that had built up on the cave floor. The miners continued to dig until sifting out the ancient relics beneath the top layer of bat guano became too much hassle. They notified the University of California about their finds, and the excavation began. 

Fig. 10.2. These skulls were photographed at the Humboldt Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada. 

Fig. 10.3. L. L. Loud of the Paleontology Department of the University of California removes the famous duck decoys from Lovelock Cave. 

Among the artifacts found were woven cloth, tools, duck decoys (for hunting), inscribed stones, and supposedly, very tall red-haired mummies. Thousands of pieces were found discarded outside the cave after being separated from the guano. Most of the nonhuman artifacts can be found in local museums or at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley, but the mysterious bones and mummies are not so easy to come by. The artifacts themselves prove that an advanced culture did indeed predate the Paiute Indians, but whether the legend of red-haired giants is historically accurate remains unknown. 

What is significant to note is that the scientific community has assiduously scrubbed all references to the six- to eight-foot-tall, red-haired skeletons found at the site. As will be seen, this repeated effort to clear the historical record of all references to a pre-Indian Caucasian culture in the United States can be seen as working in harmony with the NAGPRA policies of the federal government, which works on agendas based on political correctness and not objective science. 

Fig. 10.4. A view from the mouth of Lovelock Cave Fig. 

                                         

10.5. Heads of the exquisite tule-wrapped duck decoys from Lovelock Cave Fig. 

10.6. Examples of the fine workmanship found in association with the Lovelock Cave burials 

Fig. 10.7. Normal-size teeth compared with a giant jaw from Lovelock Cave 

Lovelock Cave, or Horseshoe Cave, as it was then known, was originally mined for fertilizer in 1911 by two miners named David Pugh and James Hart, who were hired to mine for bat guano from the cave, to be later used as gun powder and fertilizer. They removed a layer of guano estimated to be from three to six feet deep and weighing about 250 tons. The guano was dug up from the upper cave deposits, screened on the hillside outside the cave, and shipped to a fertilizer company in San Francisco. The miners had dumped the top layers into a heap outside of the cave. They were aware of the presence of some ancient artifacts, but only the most interesting specimens were saved. As the finds began to accumulate, L. L. Loud of the Paleontology Department at the University of California was contacted by the mining company, and in the spring of 1912 he arrived to recover any materials that remained from the guano mining of the previous year. Loud also excavated Lovelock Cave for five months and reportedly collected roughly ten thousand material remains. The majority of the finds were made in refuse pits inside and outside the cave, but the University of California alleges that no comprehensive lists of the skeletons and artifacts that were found were ever made, which is quite unusual and not in keeping with the protocol of the day. 

What was reported at the time was that in addition to the thousands of artifacts, mummies similar to the ones found at Spirit Cave were, in fact, unearthed. The mummies were reported as being from six to eight feet tall with red hair and lying some four feet under the surface of the cave. 

Twelve years after the first excavation, in the summer of 1924, Loud returned to Lovelock Cave with M. R. Harrington of the Museum of the American Indian. It was at this time that the most famous Lovelock artifacts were found, the amazing cache of eleven duck decoys that attests to the lake culture that predominated in this region. These amazing artifacts were made from bundled tule, which the Lake Lahontan culture used much like papyrus for clothing, boats, and artistic and religious objects. The decoys were painted and feathered, and despite their rich cultural and artistic importance, again, for unknown reasons, neither the Museum of the American Indian nor the Smithsonian nor the American Museum of Natural History accepted any of these objects into their collections. 

It was not until 1984 that the duck decoys were properly studied in an academic environment. At that time, A. J. T. Tull of the University of Arizona, Tucson, conducted the dating of the specimens. Duck Decoy 13/4513 was dated at 2,080 + 330 BP, and Duck Decoy 13/4512B was dated at 2,250 + 230 BCE. In addition to these duck decoys, a wide range of other materials has been recovered that includes slings, nets, sandals, tunics, and baskets. Not only are these items not on general public display, they also have never been tested as to their antiquity. 

Since the scientific community refuses to acknowledge the reality of the skeletons found at Lovelock, the site has been dated by studying the coprolite droppings found in association with other artifacts on the accepted “surface floor” of the cave. Based on those findings it has been determined that the tule people had a diet rich in fish and game, and the earliest habitation of the cave has been dated to 2580 BCE. Since the remains of Spirit Cave were found in the same general area and on the shoreline of the same lake, this could mean that as the lake shrunk in size, the resident tule culture moved to recently exposed caves closer to the new shoreline, or more simply that the cave has never been properly studied and more extensive excavations could reveal continuous occupation going back at least five thousand more years to a date that corresponds to the similar cultural context of the findings at Spirit Cave. 

Recently it has been confirmed that four of the ancient skulls unearthed at Lovelock Cave are, in fact, in the possession of the Humboldt Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada. According to Barbara Powell, who is director of the collection, the museum is prohibited by the state of Nevada from putting the skulls on public display because “the state does not recognize their legitimacy.” They are instead kept in the storage room and shown to visitors from all over the world only by request. In addition, Powell said that additional bones and artifacts were transferred to the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, California, where they are kept but also never put on display. 

Whether the Lovelock Cave mummies ever really existed or were deliberately covered up, we may never know. The existing artifacts do seem to substantiate the Paiute legend, and evidence of gigantism has been discovered, and documented, in other places across the planet. The Lovelock Cave claim seems to have all the vital pieces, except for the giant mummies themselves. Were they hidden away in some warehouse, so humanity wouldn’t see the errors of modern history? Or were they the imaginary compilation of an ancient legend and a few mysterious bones? 

Fig. 10.9. The Lovelock Cave hugs the Humboldt River Fig. 

10.10. The entrance to Lovelock Cave can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of the photograph. 

If you want to follow the trail and perhaps answer that question, you might begin with the PDF file of a document by Loud and Harrington titled “Lovelock Cave,” published by the University of California in 1929. See appendices 3 and 4 for personal accounts of the legends of the cave. The investigators at the time did a very good job of analyzing what they could of the site. However, at that time knowledge of native U.S. archaeology and history was not what it is today, and they had so many interesting issues competing for their attention. I only wish the site and the legends could be reinvestigated today with open minds and that the original artifacts were still available. 

Something to ponder in the meantime is provided by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of Paiute Chief Winnemucca, who related many stories about the Si-Te-Cah in her book Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. 

My people say that the tribe we exterminated had reddish hair. I have some of their hair, which has been handed down from father to son. I have a dress, which has been in our family a great many years, trimmed with the reddish hair. I am going to wear it some time when I lecture. It is called a mourning dress, and no one has such a dress but my family. 

GIANT SKELETON FOUND IN UTAH 

THE NEW YORK SUN, AUGUST 27, 1891 

The gigantic skeleton of a man, measuring 8 feet 6 inches in height, was found near the Jordan River just outside Salt Lake City, last week. The find was made by a workman who was digging an irrigation ditch. The skull was uncovered at a depth of eight feet from the surface of the ground and the skeleton was standing bolt upright. The workmen had to dig down nine feet in order to exhume it. The bones were much decayed and crumbled at the slightest touch. They were put together with great care and the skeleton was found to measure 8 feet 6 inches in height: the skull measured 11 inches in diameter and the feet 19 inches long. A copper chain, to which was attached three medallions covered with curious hieroglyphics, was found around the neck of the skeleton and near it were found a stone hammer, some pieces of pottery, an arrowhead, and some copper medals. Archaeologists believe that the original owner of the skeleton belonged to the race of mound builders. 

THE FLORIDA BOG MUMMIES 

Let’s now turn our attention to the northeast coast of Florida and the case of the Florida bog mummies. The original finds were made in 1982 at Titusville, Florida, when real estate developers Jack Eckerd and Jim Swanson began building a road over the one-quarter-acre Windover Pond in Brevard County, about five miles from Cape Canaveral. When their backhoe operator uncovered several skulls, the developers immediately called in local archaeologists to have a look at the ancient stained bones that were being uncovered. 

Fig. 10.11. This photo clearly shows the amazing preservation of the bog mummies’ knotted red hair. Brain samples were also obtained, confirming a date of 7500 BCE (courtesy of Bullenwächer). 

Despite the fact that the state of Florida has a responsibility to test finds of this nature, once the state determined that no current murder was involved, they refused to pay for proper radiocarbon dating of the bones. If not for the largesse and intellectual curiosity of Eckerd and Swanson, the age of what has been called “one of the most significant archaeological sites ever excavated” may never have been discovered at all. 

Thankfully, Swanson and Eckerd paid for the radiocarbon dating out of their own pockets, and once the results came in, everyone was stunned by the findings. 

Despite the fact that two anthropologists, Jerald T. Milanich of the University of Florida, Gainesville, and Glen Doran of Florida State University, were both apprised of the spectacular findings, no monies were allocated to drain the bog pond to see what else was waiting to be discovered under several feet of water. In order to facilitate a proper excavation, the two developers changed their construction plans and even donated $60,000 worth of pumping equipment to see that the pond was properly drained. Once again, no state or federal funds were forthcoming, and Doran had to spend the next two years securing private donations to facilitate the drainage of the pond. 

In 1984, work finally got under way to drain the pond of its six to ten feet of water in order to gain access to the bones that were found under six feet of peat. All told, the workers had to dig 160 wells, which drained more than ten thousand gallons of water a minute, in order to finally drain the pond down to its peat base. Once it was drained, workers then used picks and shovels to dig into the peat until the ritual burials were discovered at the level of six feet under the surface of the pond’s bottom bed. One of the head archaeologists on the excavation compared digging out the peat to trying to scoop up chocolate pudding while bobbing underwater. Due to finances, only half the pond was eventually excavated, but what was found was historic. 

All told, the bones of 168 individuals were recovered, ranging in age from infants to adults in excess of sixty years of age. That this was an official cemetery there can be no doubt, as the heads of all the individuals were held down by ritual stakes and the bodies were all laid on their left sides with their heads pointing to the west. The oldest skeletons were found to be in excess of 8,280 years old, and there was evidence of continual use of the burial site for more than one thousand years. 

Around 8000 BCE the oceans were about three hundred feet lower than they are today, and the weather was cooler and less humid than at present. Food was plentiful in this heavily forested region of Florida, making life good for the people who buried their dead in a shallow pond near what is now Titusville. In the shadow of today’s Disney World, they hunted white-tailed deer and bobcat among the pine and oak trees and fished for bass and sunfish or scooped up turtles, frogs, and snakes.

“They enjoyed a good lifestyle,” said Doran, the Florida State University anthropologist who oversaw the Windover Pond excavation, which lasted from 1984 to 1986. “Life was a little easier than it even may have been a few thousand years later. You had a lot of different resources packed pretty densely into this area within a few kilometers walk in any direction. Clearly, this was a good place to be.” 

Even more incredible was the state of preservation of the skeletons due to being sealed in the acid neutral peat. In over ninety of the skeletons actual brain matter was preserved. This allowed the scientists the unprecedented opportunity to test the intact skulls with X-rays, computed tomography (CT) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The average height of the inhabitants was between 5'2" and 5'8", and the bodies were buried within twenty-four to forty-eight hours after death, based on the DNA and tissue that was examined. DNA testing on the bodies was conducted by Joe Lorenz, and as was the case with the skeletons at Spirit Cave in Nevada, the genomes were found to contain Haplogroup X, which is a distinct DNA marker, only found in Caucasians of generally northern European origin. That these were what are called “water burials” is evidenced by the tight textile wrapping f the body and the ritual wooden stakes that were used to secure the heads and keep the skeletons from floating to the surface. The only other evidence for this type of water burial is found in northern Europe and most specifically the British Isles.

Fig. 10.12. This bog mummy from Wales illustrates the remarkable state of preservation possible in a bog burial (courtesy of Carlos Muñoz-Yagüe). 

In addition, the textiles found at this site exhibit a high degree of weaving sophistication, and like the textiles found at Spirit Cave, they fly in face of the general understanding of the weaving techniques at that distant date. “To put this into context,” Doran said, “these people had already been dead for three thousand or four thousand years before the first stones were laid for the Egyptian pyramids!

Despite the problems associated with gaining the finances to excavate this site, they pale in comparison with the problems that have been encountered since the passage in 1990 of the NAGPRA federal laws, now enforced arbitrarily in defense of Native American tribes’ sensibilities regarding extremely ancient skeletons. One of the major reasons the discoveries at this site are not better known and the results of the Haplogroup X DNA tests are not general knowledge can be laid at the door of the NAGPRA restrictions regarding discussion or exhibition of any of these ancient finds, as it would be considered sacrilege by the local Indian tribes of the area. 

The irony about this slavish obedience to local American Indian sensibilities is that at both the Spirit and Lovelock Caves in Nevada and the now numerous bog sites in Florida, the Indians’ own native lore speaks of the original inhabitants of the area as being white-skinned, red-haired giants. 

The vast number of finds at Windover Pond caused archaeologists to reappraise other bog and water burial sites found in that area of Florida, and what they have found is even more astonishing in terms of dating in relation to the original inhabitants. The other Florida bog burial sites that are now officially recognized as being from the same general era date, incredibly in some cases, to 12,000 BCE and before. The first of these burial sites is located on the western coast of Florida, a little over midway down the coast, in Little Salt Springs on U.S. Route 41 in North Port, Florida, which is located in Sarasota County. In the 1950s, scuba divers in the area discovered that this seemingly small freshwater pond was actually a sinkhole or cenote that extended more than two hundred feet down to its peat moss base. Later underwater mapping revealed that the lake was actually forty-five feet deep, and an inverted cone shaft dropped vertically from the bottom another 245 feet, and that its general shape resembled similar cenotes found in the Yucatan peninsula. During unofficial dives in the 1960s and 1970s, bones and other human and animal remains were discovered, both in the peat moss base and along the sides of the shaft, and in 1979 the pond was added to the National Register of Historic Places and in 1982 was officially gifted to the University of Miami so that it could be preserved and catalogued in proper academic fashion. 

Although bone, wood, stone, and charcoal objects dating from 4000 to 12,000 BC have been found there, it is the hundreds of human burials dating from 3000 to 6000 BCE that are causing controversy at the site. Although the site has been in the possession of the University of Miami since 1982, it has not been under the supervision of anyone from the archaeology department, but instead has been overseen by Associate Professor John Gifford of the university’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and it was not until 2009 that the William and Marie Selby Foundation donated $100,000 to support studying the remains found in the spring in a more comprehensive manner, in conjunction with John Francis, vice president of research, conservation, and exploration at National Geographic. Although a majority of the hundreds of burials have been recovered with brain tissue intact, as was the case with the Windover Pond mummies, the university alleges that no definitive DNA Haplogroup evidence has been obtained so far, which is ridiculous and, if true, argues very badly for the scientific reputation of the university. 

Finds similar to those found at Windover Pond and Little Salt Springs have also been reported at Bay West in Collier County near Naples, on the west coast of Florida, south of Little Salt Springs. The bones at this site have been dated to between 4000 and 6000 BCE, and despite the fact that the site has been known about for more than thirty years, no other information regarding DNA status has so far been released. Similar finds in Republic Grove in Hardee County have also been found to date between 5,500 and 6,500 years ago. 

In terms of human dating the most spectacular finds in Florida so far are those made at Warm Springs, another sinkhole found in the city of North Port, on the western coast of Florida. 

Unfortunately for history, the Warm Springs sinkhole was virtually stripped bare by amateur divers before the city of North Port in Sarasota County finally bought it for $5.5 million at the end of 2010. The sinkhole is an hour-glass-shaped structure approximately 250 feet deep with a peat moss base like its sister sinkhole in Little Salt Springs, which is also in the city of North Port. Scuba divers led by Col. Bill Royal began diving in the sinkhole in the 1950s and almost immediately began finding human and animal remains, including the skeletons of giant ground sloths, saber-toothed tigers, horses, and camelids dating up to twelve thousand years old. Unfortunately the site was turned into a health spa in the 1960s, and guests were encouraged to dive the site and take home any artifacts they found while they were exploring underwater.

In 1972 Wilburn Cockrell of Florida State University became aware of the importance of the site and explored there from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1984 to 1986. During that time he reported finding twenty skeletons with their skulls held in place with ritual wooden stakes, all resting on their left sides with their heads turned to the west in the exact same manner as the skeletons found at the adjacent sinkholes in Little Salt Springs and Windover Pond. Also consistent with the other finds, intact brain matter was also recovered, and radiocarbon dating placed the oldest of the skeletons at 9000 BCE. The skeletons on average were between 5'6" and 6'2" tall. Cockrell also found a variety of grave goods and artifacts and is convinced that this was a major burial ground that at one time probably contained thousands of burials and artifacts, which were stripped from the site during its history as a recreational diving hole. Although intact brain matter has been recovered from the site, Florida State University has never released any DNA testing on the Haplogroup status of the skeletons in question, but since the burial methods are identical to those found at Windover Pond, one can safely assume that they are also of Haplogroup X. 

THE LOST KINGDOM OF THE RED

HAIRED, BLUE-EYED INDIANS 

The Mandan Indians are generally found in North Dakota, and since their first contact with French explorers in 1738, this blond- and red-haired, blue-eyed tribe has been the source of intense speculation as to their European origins. In 1796, the Mandans were visited by the Welsh explorer John Evans, who was hoping to find proof that their language contained Welsh words. Evans had arrived in St. Louis two years prior, and after being imprisoned for a year, was hired by Spanish authorities to lead an expedition to chart the upper Missouri. Evans spent the winter of 1796–1797 with the Mandans but found no evidence of any Welsh influence. In July 1797 he wrote to Dr. Samuel Jones, “Thus having explored and charted the Missurie for 1,800 miles and by my Communications with the Indians this side of the Pacific Ocean from 35 to 49 degrees of Latitude, I am able to inform you that there is no such People as the Welsh Indians.” In 1804, Lewis and Clark spent time visiting with the tribe, and it was here that they met Sacagawea, who later aided them as a scout and translator. Then, even later, in 1833, Western artist George Catlin, who was also convinced of their European roots, lived with the tribe and painted their village life and religious ceremonies. Although traditional archaeologists reject outright any European heritage for this mysterious tribe, no definitive Haplogroup X testing has ever been done on any of the surviving tribe members, and until scientific blood work is performed, all theories as to their original origins are purely based on superstition, academic bias, and ill-founded opinions. 

THE MANDANS AND REPORTS OF 

RED-HAIRED, BLUE-EYED INDIANS

LEWIS AND CLARK JOURNALS 

The following section regarding the Mandans is from James P. Ronda’s book Lewis and Clark among the Indians, a modern telling of Lewis and Clark’s explorations that uses their journals to focus on their interactions with the various Indian tribes they encountered. 

From Lewis and Clark among the Indians 

BY JAMES P. RONDA 

The center of a Mandan village was the sacred cedar post and the open plaza around it. The cedar post represented Lone Man, the primary Mandan culture hero. On the north edge of the plaza was the large medicine or Okipa lodge. Hanging on poles outside the Okipa lodge were effigies representing various spirits. The Mandan villages seen by Lewis and Clark consisted of about forty to fifty domestic lodges arranged around the plaza. The social position of each household determined the location of lodges. Those families with important ceremonial responsibilities and those who owned powerful bundles lived near the plaza while less prominent households occupied lodges farther away. Mandan and Hidatsa earth lodges were usually occupied for anywhere between seven to twelve years. Each lodge housed from five to sixteen persons with the average number in a Mandan lodge being ten persons. At the time of Lewis and Clark, Mandan and Hidatsa villages were defended by log palisades. 

These villages, so familiar from the descriptions of explorers and traders like Lewis and Clark and Alexander Henry the Younger and nineteenth-century artists like George Catlin and Karl Bodmer, were in fact only part of the settled experience of the Upper Missouri villagers. They divided their time between large, permanent summer lodge towns and smaller winter camps. The winter lodges, built in wooded bottoms to escape the harsh winter storms, were neither large nor especially well constructed. Lewis and Clark did not comment on these winter camps, and it is possible that fear of Sioux attack kept many Mandans and Hidatsas within the protection of the more substantial summer villages. Looking down on the towns from a high riverbank, David Thompson was reminded of “so many large hives clustered together.” And so must they have seemed to Lewis and Clark seven years later. 

Lewis and Clark were not the first white men to see the Mandan and Hidatsa villages and their surrounding fields of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. The first recorded European visit to the villages had occurred on the afternoon of December 3, 1738, when Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de La Vérendrye, accompanied by French traders and Assiniboine guides, entered a Mandan “fort” near the Heart River. Attracted by tales of fair-skinned, red-haired natives who lived in large towns and possessed precious metals, La Vérendrye had made the long journey from Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine River to see those mysterious people. Although La Vérendrye did not find the fabled white Indians, he did record the first European impressions of the Mandan lifeway. That record, taken along with evidence preserved from the 1742–43 visit of La Vérendrye’s sons to the region, offers the picture of prosperous earth lodge people living along the Missouri River near the Heart and already enjoying French and Spanish goods 

11 

MEGALITHIC CATALINA 

The Blond-Haired Children of the Nine-Feet-Tall Kings 

The most amazing discoveries in California were eventually found on Catalina Island. In the 1920s, the island of Catalina was owned by the Wrigley Chewing Gum family, who hired Professor Ralph Glidden, curator of the Catalina Museum, to conduct a series of digs on the island under the direction of the museum. What they found made headlines around the world, only to be written out of the history books less than ten years later. In short, Glidden and his team exhumed the remains of 3,781 skeletons of a race of blond-haired giants. The tallest was believed to be a king who measured nine feet, two inches tall and the average height of the skeletons was reported to be around seven feet. In addition, the team found the remains of a megalithic “Stonehengeera” temple. 

The selected articles below from 1928 to 1930 detail the discoveries and demonstrate the excitement about them at the time. 

HOW OUR WHITE INDIANS ARE RISING 

OUT OF LEGEND INTO FACT FOUND: 

THE MYSTERIOUS ROYAL BURYING GROUND OF BLOND CHILDREN FATHERED BY A RACE OF GIANTS THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO ON CATALINA ISLAND 

OGDEN, UTAH, NOVEMBER 10, 1929 

That a race of magnificent, tall, white Indians once roamed the Americas long before the first European sailor crossed the Atlantic has been a subject for mild, almost bantering debate among archaeologists. None of them took the thing very seriously; it was regarded as picturesque legend. But now amazing new discoveries have confirmed beyond question that white men had already lived in America for centuries when Columbus landed. 

THESE FINDS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IN YEARS 

New finds on Catalina Island, off the California coast, overshadow in richness and significance most of the archaeological finds of recent years. Digging on an outlying part of the island, long the favorite location for movie directors, Professor Ralph Glidden, curator of the Catalina Museum, has uncovered overwhelming truth that a fair-skinned, tow-headed, highly intelligent race once lived in the West. 

A VAST CACHE OF SKELETONS 

Glidden’s discovery of a vast cache of skeletons, urns, heads, wampum, and domestic utensils, is no ordinary Indian relic find. Not only does it reveal the existence of a white race of Indians living in Catalina at least 3000 years ago, but it poses a tragic mystery. 

Professor Glidden’s first startling find was a huge funeral urn carved out of stone and containing the skeleton of a young girl, crouched in an upright position within, the finger-bones of her little hand clenched over the wampum-inlaid brim. In a circle surrounding the urn were interred the bodies of 64 little children in tiers four deep, their little heads placed close together. 

Some five feet below the children, was the skeleton of a gigantic man: a man measuring seven feet eight inches from the top of the skull to the ankle bone. A spear blade was imbedded in the ribs of the left side. 

There was conclusive evidence—including strands of hair—that all these people were blondes. At first these white Indians were thought to be albinos. But careful examination proved that they were not, although they did possess some albino characteristics. 

One of the curator’s chief problems was to dry the skulls, which he found buried in damp sand near the water’s edge. Great care had to be taken that they did not crumble when exposed to the air. In the daytime he would place them in rows in front of his tent. At night he covered them with tarpaulin to keep out the dampness. 

A GIFT TO CHEW ON: 187 GIANT SKULLS PRESENTED TO WRIGLEY HEIR, ALSO 187 ARTIFACTS FOUND 

One evening, Philip K. Wrigley of Chicago, whose father, William Wrigley Jr., owns Catalina Island, visited the expedition’s leader. Wrigley had been on a strenuous wild mountain goat hunt and stopped by to ask how Professor Glidden was getting on. 

“Fine,” replied the Professor and pulled away the tarpaulin. The revelation was startling: 187 human skulls, staring grimly at Wrigley in the moonlight. 

Fig. 11.3. Professor Ralph Glidden, curator of the Catalina Museum, 1929 

GIANTS TEMPLES AND MISSING 

SKELETONS ON THE WEST COAST 

A GIANT’S TEMPLE TO THE SUN 

GOD FOUND ON CATALINA ISLAND 

BY LYLE ABBOTT 

TYRONE DAILY HERALD, JANUARY 6, 1930 

A trail of human sacrifices leading to the temple of the sun god of the ancient Channel Island Indians was followed today by Professor Ralph Glidden, archaeologist. Three of the four gates of the supposed temple of Chinigchinich, that bloody deity of the long ago, have been unearthed. A rich reward of relic treasures awaits the third expedition in search of the east gate. Glidden is Curator of the Catalina Museum. 

At the north temple gate, Glidden found a large funeral urn containing the skeleton of a girl. He believes the girl, a princess from the riches of her ornament, was a human sacrifice. The small hands of the sacrifice were clutching the rim of the urn. Beneath the urn lay the skeletons of 64 children, the heads forming a circle. 

SEVEN-FOOT, SIX-INCH GIANT 

UNCOVERED IN CATALINA 

Still deeper in the soil, Glidden found the bones of a man who in life measured seven feet, six inches, in height. He had been killed by a spear thrust. The first spear head was still imbedded in the chest. Pearl pendants, carved eagle claws, little boxes of clam-shell trinkets of carved bone and stone, and a jasper knife blade were found with the skeletons. 

IN 1542 AND 1602 SPANISH HISTORIANS 

REPORTED ON THE SUN TEMPLE 

Two Spanish historians who accompanied the expeditions of Don Juan Cabrillo and Don Viscaino to Catalina Island in 1542 and 1602, have left vivid word-pictures of the Indians they found there. Both Father Torquemada and Father Geronimo de Zarate Zalmeron saw the Temple of Chinigchinich. 

At that early time the Temple consisted of a large circle of upright stones, similar to the Druid temple at Stonehenge, England. The stones were believed to point to the sun at midday. The circle of upright monoliths enclosed the hideous idol of the Sun God. This idol bore some resemblance to the images found by the Spaniards in the Aztec temples of Mexico. Thousands of artifacts have been unearthed by Glidden. “They show,” he says, “a high state of barbaric progress on the island.” 

Glidden’s work is sponsored by William Wrigley, Jr., owner of the island. 

The following account of the Catalina temple appeared less than two years prior to the preceding story. This syndicated story provides additional details, like the discovery of an ancient map and the machinelike details of the 134-pound urn, which indicate the high degree of masonry and machining skills of the extremely ancient settlers of California. 

CHILD SACRIFICES AT THE CATALINA SUN GOD TEMPLE 

APPLETON POST-CRESCENT, NOVEMBER 19, 1928 

An attempt to follow ancient trails to the long lost ancient island temple of Chinigchinich, the Sun God, has resulted instead in the discovery of a burial space of a small Indian princess some 3000 years ago, and evidence indicating that child sacrifices were made in wholesale fashion by tribes of the Channel Islands, off the coast of California. Within a stone urn, weighing some 134 pounds and fashioned as skillfully as though by modern tools instead of primitive instruments was found the skeleton of an Indian girl between five and seven years. Her small hands had clutched the rim of the urn whose rich ornamentation bespeaks her royal lineage. In a circle with the urn as a center were counted by Professor Ralph Glidden, curator of the Catalina museum of the Channel Island Indians, the skeletons of 64 children buried in tiers four deep, with small heads touching each other. Beneath them was the skeleton of a seven foot man. A spear blade was still fixed in the ribs. The sand within the funeral urn had the appearance of ground crystal—apparently, according to the discoverer, a sacred sand used in the burial of Indian royalty —and was far different from that which had sifted over the graves of the other children. 

These finds, as well as a wealth of obsidian knives, spear points, and arrow heads and hundreds of other articles of wampum-inlaid stone and bone have provided material over which Glidden has puzzled since he has discovered them. 

A MAP TO MORE ANCIENT BURIAL SITES 

One thin piece of slate he believes to be a stone map, holes having been drilled to indicate trails to the four main burying grounds on Santa Catalina Island. Wampum-inlaid in four broken circles on the rim of the urn with “gates” leading to the four points of the compass led Glidden to believe that the burial place may be near the site of the temple of Chinigchinich. 

Fig. 11.5. Photograph of shell artifacts from Catalina Island, California, early to mid-1900s (courtesy of Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection) 

REWRITING THE HISTORY OF THE WHITE RACE 

“The whole significance of the finds now related has not yet been worked out by anthropologists. But the establishment as fact of the old story of a fair race of giants in America is causing a new leaf to be written in the textbooks. It may result finally in a revision of our ideas as to where the white race originated—and as to how the primeval races reached what is called the New World,” naively concluded a reporter for the Examiner in 1929. 

187 ARTIFACTS, ALSO 187 SKULLS RECOVERED 

EXAMINER, 1929 

Buried in the pit with the skeletons were 187 artifacts. These, fashioned of shell, bone and stone, included treasure boxes made of two large clam shells cemented together with asphaltum and containing abalone pearl pendants, carved stone beads, small stone rings, and other trinkets. There were also small paint pots, bone needles, carved heating stones, pipes, stone toys, and miniature canoes. 

Later radiocarbon dating revealed that some of the skeletons unearthed were seven thousand years old. For more than fifty years the proofs pertaining to these discoveries were vigorously denied by the University of California and the Smithsonian, but in 2011 it was finally admitted that the evidence for these finds had been locked away from the public in the restricted-access evidence rooms of the Smithsonian, along with detailed field reports and hundreds of photos, as can be seen from the following inventory chart: 

RALPH GLIDDEN NEGATIVES, 1919–1923 

Creator: Glidden, R. (Ralph) 

Title: Ralph Glidden negatives, 1919–1923. 

Phy. Description: 536 acetate negatives: black and white; 5 × 7 inches. 

Bio/His Notes: Ralph Glidden w as an archaeologist and curator at the Catalina Museum of the Channel Islands in the 1930s. He also worked for the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation. 

Summary: This collection contains 536 black-and-white acetate negatives taken by Ralph Glidden between 1919–1923. Most of the images depict scenic view s and archaeological excavations on Catalina Island, San Miguel Island, San Nicolas Island and San Clemente Island, California. Also included are approximately 88 images of objects excavated by Glidden; these objects are now in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian. 

Organization: Organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number. 

Cite: as Ralph Glidden negatives, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number). 

Restrictions: Access is by appointment only, Monday– Friday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment. 

Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian. Some images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Please contact the archivist for further information. 

Subject Topical: Excavations (Archaeology)–California Indians of North America–California 

Subject Geographical: California–Antiquities San Clemente Island (Calif.) San Miguel Island (Calif.) San Nicolas Island (Calif.) Santa Catalina Island (Calif.) 

Form/Genre: Black-and-white negatives 

Repository Loc:National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Cultural Resources Center, 4220 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland 20746. (tel: 301-238-1400, fax: 301- 2383038, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu). 

DOCUMENTS DISCOVERED BY MUSEUM CURATOR REVEAL CATALINA ISLAND’S EARLIEST HISTORY 

ART DAILY, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 

He was a colorful character whose research into many of North America’s earliest human settlements was both groundbreaking and highly controversial, which made all the more remarkable the announcement this past week that a large cache of original papers and photographs had been discovered documenting the earliest excavations of Catalina Island by the amateur archaeologist Ralph Glidden. Details of the discovery were first reported in a front-page article published in the Los Angeles Times. The article describes how a curator at the Catalina Island Museum discovered numerous journals, personal letters, albums, newspaper articles, and, most significantly, hundreds of photographs that Glidden had compiled during his years of research on the island. 

“The sheer scale of this discovery is immense,” stated John Boraggina, the curator who discovered the collection and who has been on the job for less than a year. “One scholar from UCLA looked at all the documents and claimed that it represented 20 years of research.” 

The archive of material provides the kind of documentation of Glidden’s excavations that many scholars believed either did not exist or had been lost. Found in two modestly sized boxes in the museum’s research center, the entire archive is related to the hundreds of sites Glidden excavated on the island between 1919 and 1928. Many of the oldest settlements known are located on Catalina Island and date back at least 8,000 years. Glidden was the first archaeologist granted permission to excavate the island’s interior by William Wrigley, Jr.—the chewing gum magnate—who virtually bought the island in 1919. 

Glidden uncovered thousands of artifacts, including mortars and pestles used for preparing food, knives of bone and stone, cooking stones for boiling soup in baskets, f lutes made of bone, beads used as currency, arrowheads, war clubs, and fishhooks made of shell and weighted with stone. The artifacts reside today in the permanent collection of the Catalina Island Museum, a museum that William Wrigley, Jr.’s son, Philip K. Wrigley, helped to establish in 1953. Glidden’s digs uncovered human remains often, and perhaps his greatest discovery was an enormous ancient cemetery with hundreds of burial sites. The archive of documents recently discovered has been described as a “missing link” that provides written and visual documentation of the thousands of skeletons and artifacts uncovered by Glidden during his nearly 10 years of excavating Santa Catalina. 

“The insight that the photographs alone lend into Glidden’s work is remarkable,” Boraggina stated recently. “We had previously thought that Glidden paid little regard to any type of scientific method when working with human remains. But these photographs are evidence of his attempt to document human remains during the earliest stages of their excavation. We see a large number of undisturbed skeletons, the majority of which have been buried in what seems to be the fetal position. We’ve never before had this amount of evidence related to Glidden’s work.” 

“None of the Glidden archive had ever been exhibited,” Dr. Michael De Marsche, Executive Director of the museum recently stated while standing before a display case now dedicated to material from the discovery. “I assumed my position less than two years ago, and we now know that some 20 years ago research took place on the collection, but then it was all put in boxes and placed on a shelf. I know scholars from other museums have asked if it might exist. But our records were so poor that we didn’t know. We have no central catalog listing all the material in our archive. The boxes John discovered were simply marked ‘Glidden.’ We’re in the midst of updating and organizing everything, but this won’t be fully accomplished for years.” 

In 1924 Glidden opened the first “museum” on Catalina Island: the Museum of the American Indian on the Channel Islands. It certainly lived up to Glidden’s expectation that it be “unlike anything else anywhere in this country.” He based its interior on a chapel on the island of Malta, whose walls were decorated with motifs formed from the bones of monks. Many of the recently discovered photographs provide views of the museum and Glidden’s use of skeletal remains as a macabre form of decoration. But the photographs also reveal that the unsettling interior of his museum was a popular stop for tourists. In one photograph, Glidden holds a skull while talking to two women dressed in their Sunday best. 

“I think this archive lends a more complex portrait of the man,” Boraggina said while scanning the photographs. “You have to acknowledge that Glidden exploited Native American remains in the most insensitive manner imaginable. He certainly did not honor the sanctity of these remains when he organized his museum. He resorted to crass sensationalism when trying to sell tickets. On the other hand, we now know that while excavating he attempted, at times, to subscribe to a standard of archaeology prevalent during his day.” 

Glidden’s museum closed in 1950, and in 1952, Philip Wrigley purchased Glidden’s entire collection of remains, documents, and artifacts and donated them to the Catalina Island Museum. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 granted Native Americans the right to reclaim the remains of their ancestors and other sacred objects. Today, museums in the United States no longer exhibit Native American remains. “We’re in the midst of building a new museum, which will allow us to store and study this collection with the respect it deserves,” De Marsche said. “I hope to exhibit as much of our archival material and artifacts as possible. It’s exciting to think that the day our new building opens, the Catalina Island Museum becomes a respected center of scholarship in this incredibly important area of our history.” 

The Catalina Island Museum is Avalon’s sole institution devoted to art, culture and the rich history of Santa Catalina Island. Notice how they have studiously avoided mention of the giants and the true extent of the thousands of burials? 

BONES FLESH OUT AN ISLAND’S HISTORY FILES OF MAN WHO DUG UP INDIAN SKELETONS COULD CHANGE VIEWS OF EARLY CATALINA LIFE BY LOUIS SAHAGUN LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 2, 2012 

The curator of the Catalina Island Museum opened the door to a musty backroom a few weeks ago hoping to find material for an upcoming exhibit on the World War II era. Closing the door behind him, he trudged down a narrow aisle lined with storage boxes and bins filled with gray photocopies of old letters, civic records, celebrity kitsch, and dust. 

“No luck,” curator John Boraggina muttered. 

But as he made his way to a back corner, he noticed another row of boxes. He carried the largest to a table, blew off the dust and lifted the lid. 

Inside were leather-bound journals and yellowing photographs showing freshly unearthed skeletons lying on their backs or sides, or curled as if in sleep. Many were surrounded by grinding stones, pots and beadwork. 

Several photos showed a man in soiled clothes standing tall with spade in hand beside chaotic jumbles of bones. Boraggina recognized him: Ralph Glidden. 

The images, Boraggina soon realized, came from a time 90 years ago that many on Santa Catalina Island had forgotten—or tried to forget. The photos were of the work of a pseudo-scientist—some say a huckster—who made a living unearthing Native American artifacts and human remains for sale and trade. Glidden had ruined much of Catalina’s Native American cultural heritage, but in the process he also made discoveries thought lost in the passage of time. 

Boraggina closed the big box and called the museum’s executive director, Michael De Marsche. “Michael, hurry over. I discovered something amazing,” he said. “I found Glidden’s archives.” 

Minutes later, De Marsche was taking stock of enough historical photographs and handwritten documents to fill a gallery in the 60-year-old museum. 

In the weeks since, the contents of the boxes have grown in importance. Researchers and scholars of California history—especially at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, where some 200 of Glidden’s skeletons are housed—say the discovery will probably change the understanding of early life here and could eventually ease the anger of Native Americans outraged by the grave-robbing of the last century. 

It is not often that a small-town curator unearths modern-day clues to a prehistoric past, but scientists believe that’s what happened here.

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INSIGHTS INTO ORIGINS

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