Post #609574 by Bruddah Bear on Sun, Oct 9, 2011 5:35 PM

What? The History Channel showing something OTHER than WW2 Nazi Documentaries? There was a reason we used to call the history Channel "The Hitler Channel" back when we actually had cable. Shows on anything other than The Third Reich were few and far between back then.

Anyway, there is indeed evidence that Polynesians had contact with native populations in SoCal. The Chumash and Tongva (Gabrielinos) both built sewn plank canoes in a style similar to Polynesians and both tribes ventured out upon the ocean. I've always had trouble with the old line academics who constantly pooh pooh the idea that ancient peoples could cross oceans. There is all sorts of evidence that it occurred.

Any mariner can tell you that the historians and archaeologists, that claim that ancient peoples always stayed close in to shore and never ventured out onto the vast oceans because of the dangers, are full of it. Because anyone who has been a sailor can tell you that inshore is really the most dangerous place to be, that tends to be where the things that ships run into and sink are. Sailors will tell you that deep water is safer than shorelines.

Far too many people think that because those earlier people lived in a time without our modern technology, that they must have been stupid or something. Our ancestors were just as smart as we are, they just had a different knowledge base, different understanding of the world, and a different set of technologies than we posses today. The concept that it COULDN'T have happened because of WHEN it supposedly happened is egotistical, backwards, and in my opinion, outright stupidity.

Bear