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I was reprimanded today by a lady who told me I hadn’t posted anything since August. I checked and she was right… but it WAS on August 31st, not that many days ago. Wow. Way to keep me on my toes! Okay… Remember, this current series is about the advanced, complex, mature, and long lasting civilizations that were on the North American continent long before Europeans got here. Yes, there were tons of people who arrived in bits and dribbles from Europe and Asia, but we are looking at much larger, more significant people-groups. We’ve looked at the Adena, Hopewell, and the Mississippian cultures. Now, we move away from mound builders and into the American southwest.

On July 4th 1054, light arrived on earth from the long ago detonation of a star in the Crab Nebula. The light was so bright that it could be seen during the day for two years. Writers in China, Japan, the Mideast, and Italy all noted it in some detail and it is an interesting bit of science/history… but we are only interested in it because, at the same time, a people entered history — the Anasazi. They arrived during a time when the earth was two degrees warmer than it is now (or has been as far as we can tell). These warmer temperatures allowed agriculture to flourish in areas that had formally been cold and barren. The Medieval Climate Optimum (its official name) didn’t last long. Volcanoes erupted in what is now Arizona and wiped out all the tribes in that area (who remain without names or history. Very few artifacts survived) along with all animal and plant life. The ash from these explosions created rapid global cooling in a huge band around the world north of the equator. Halley’s Comet streaked by shortly afterward… And all of these things were recorded by the Anasazi in art and petroglyphs that survive to this day.

The Anasazi’s homeland is now home to very, very few people; and they only pass through. The closest Native American tribes, the Hohokam, have kept the Anasazi’s art alive but only a few Apache shaman types walk through that area on a regular basis. It is called “Gateway to Hell” by the Hohokam and other tribes, but sorcerers say there are networks of tunnels there in which secret ceremonies are regularly held, the participants surrounded by relics of the Anasazi.

It is thought that the Anasazi were a conglomeration of several Desert Archaic tribes and a larger group of hunters who migrated all the way from Siberia via the Bering Strait. They all met at just the right time — the recent eruptions of volcanoes created a bounty of rain and fertile soil. Maize grew so well that the tribes had enough left — after feeding their people and trading with far flung tribes for goods — to experiment with variations and new strains. Ever eaten blue corn chips? Then you’ve eaten one of their crops. Suddenly, the Anasazi were prominent and powerful. They built Great Houses all along the canyon floor, by high mesas, and on top of some mesas. Architecture was scientifically sound — it collected and pooled rain water efficiently. Worship/meditation areas known as kivas dot the communal housing areas. Ladders provided access to apartment style housing as well as down into the 12-15 foot deep kivas.

The Tewa, a tiny tribe that claims the Anasazi as ancestors, say that they have kept the old religion alive. Their story — and I have no way of knowing how true this is — is that their religion and the Anasazi’s way of building homes and kivas was all built around a spiritual/symbolic recreation of the Great Flood… yes, THAT one. I am not qualified to accurately describe and explain it all, but I’m working on it. Maybe one day…

One of the Great Houses was three times as big as the White House in Washington, DC. Think of the Coliseum in Rome. Yes, that big. Walls were three feet thick and designed to support massive roofs, some of which weighed 90 tons or more. In one canyon alone, Chaco Canyon, there are 3,000 rooms. More than 900 million stones were used to build Anasazi houses, most of them brought in from miles away. The 250,000 massive conifer logs used as supports were hand carried (there are no signs of damage from dragging or rolling) even though they weighed, on average, 600 pounds each. This leaves no doubt — this was a highly evolved, organized, mature civilization. And it had time to build these elaborate structures because of the bounty caused by, first, global warming, then catastrophe, and then bounty caused by cooling and higher than normal rainfall. It seems that weather cycles are good for us. Just saying…

No wonder that the Anasazi spent a lot of time noting the weather and the stars. They built a communication system using posts strung out all along the southwest. Those manning the outposts signaled each other with fire, smoke, or polished mirrors. Each signal outpost had a twin a mile or so away building redundancy into the system so that signals got through even if one line failed. Following these lines, we have been able to uncover more and more Anasazi artifacts and, thus, their history. It is how we found a huge dam the Anasazi built in New Mexico’s Animas Valley. It is five and a half miles long and had a movable section to allow drainage. Modern archaeologists say that, when the river ran here, the dam would have formed a lake five miles long, 10-20 feet deep, and a quarter mile wide. That would have been better than gold to Southwestern peoples.

Then… knowing this… why are the Anasazi reviled by modern day Native Americans and called “evil wizards” or “sorcerers of the desert”? Next time…

When we ask questions about where the Mississippi Mound Builders came from, what tribes came together to form them, or what happened to them we need to be comfortable with an elaborate shrug of our shoulders and say… “we don’t know.” That is where I am. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to let you know of a theory which has gained some traction in recent decades. It is not accepted by the majority of historians, but there is enough “there” there to at least begin a discussion.

Could the Mississippians have been Mayans? The end of the Mayan culture has always been a mystery. For a thousand years they lived, built, farmed, and warred all over the Yucatan and beyond. Then… they were gone. Every theory I have found about their disappearance has in common one serious flaw: no evidence. There is no evidence of climate change, war, famine, disease… no mass graveyards, no signs of conquest. These incredibly gifted artisans and builders (who were also, it must be admitted, a people who didn’t value human life) just disappeared around 900AD. Other civilizations leave behind signs of collapse, but not the Mayan. They just… left.

Much of Mayan history was lost when their cities were abandoned. To this day, we have to admit we know very little about them and, if we’re honest, we have to admit that much of what we think we know may be wrong! For example, El Mirador was found in 1978; a Mayan city of 65,000-80,000 people built centuries before most historians thought the Mayans existed. The old story that went something like “the Olmec people disappeared and then the Mayans arose” had to be rewritten hurriedly when it was found that their civilizations overlapped for hundreds of years. Some believe that the Mayans were an offshoot of Olmec culture (though Olmec statuary seems to represent people with more African and Asian features than most Mayan statuary). To bolster their claims, they refer to the Mayan calendar. It says their civilization began on August 12, 3113BC… and that is when we first find the Olmec. If you have a history book that is older than 10 years, it will tell you the Olmec appeared around 1200BC but recent discoveries at Jalapa have been dated to @3000BC and it looks like more discoveries will confirm that soon.

The Mayans believed in a large collection of gods, but only one god was supreme — Hunab Ku (literally, “God Alone”). They made no paintings or carvings of him for they believed he had no form. They called him the creator of all things on earth and in the heavens. Their studies of the stars and their creation of their calendar were all done to 1) honor him, 2) learn more about his ways and 3)live in accordance with his patterns and laws. When the Aztec people came (perhaps the bloodiest people who ever lived), they adopted a perverted copy of this god and created a class of astrologers to make sure they never displeased him. Every decision the Aztec made — marriages, war, contracts, journeys — had to wait until the astrologers determined the Blessed Day; the time their god said such an action could commence. This longer this blood soaked astrologer/priesthood spoke for this god, the more that god took the form of a serpent. Shuddering is, perhaps, understandable at this stage in the story.

It is thought that — as one body — the Mayan deserted their cities around 900AD. Some moved north and established new centers — briefly — at Chichen Itza and Tulum but others… perhaps… moved further north. That is the theory that is being pushed at present by several prominent historians. There are mounds found from Cahokia, IL down through Alabama that, if found in Mexico, would have been attributed to the Mayans but I see some serious problems with simply saying the Mississippi people were Mayan. First and foremost, the Mayans left behind stone cities with elaborate carvings, paintings, and statuary. The Mississippians didn’t. The standard answer is that the Mayans who moved northward were divorced from their supply lines, had no access to stone, and represented a “Mayans in decline” period. That doesn’t sound right to me when I see the incredible amount of work and detail put into Mississippian mounds, cities, and trade routes.

So… I just shrug. I don’t know where they came from. Or where they went. The idea that they were Mayan is not really a new one. Thomas Jefferson, after visiting Cahokia, said it reminded him of Mayan cities. To be fair to this theory’s proponents, there are other bits and pieces of evidence that might link these mounds to the Mayan. The natives around Cahokia, for example, call that city “Snakeskin” for reasons that have never been clarified. Is this a reference to the snake god of the Aztec or late Mayans? Some Mayan and Aztec artifacts have been found in Mississippian mounds, perhaps obtained in trade or… brought with them as they moved north.

But the one thing that both the Mayan and Mississippian cultures absolutely have in common is that both of them suddenly disappeared. Both of them left their cities without warning and for reasons which are still lost to us.

Next, another mysterious, ancient American civilization rises… and fades away quietly…

Hidden History will come back in a few days. I am sitting in Tulsa airport waiting for my flight back to Detroit. I left home on Friday around noon and flew down here. Then, I rented a car and drove 2hrs northeast to the tiny town of Neosho, MO. The Rocketdyne Church of Christ hosts a very cool youth rally each year named Jumpstart. This was my third time to speak at it and it wasn’t in my (or their) original plans that I do so. One of the speakers had to bow out for some reason so the youth minister, Tye Zola, called and asked if I could possibly make it out here. I thought and prayed awhile and finally said ‘yes.’

I spoke last night at then again at 8:30 this morning (quite early for a youth rally crowd). I was expecting around 400 kids but the rally continues to grow and Tye said he thought the total count would be around 700. I believe him. The kids were spectacular as usual. We laughed and learned together and I got more than a few hugs, which is very cool for this over-the-hill guy!

I got to visit with a youth minister friend and listen to him set up a situation he wanted advice on. After that was done, I hopped back in the rental car and headed to Tulsa. The rental car was supposed to be the smallest can they had but Alamo had rented all those out when I got in Friday afternoon. They wanted to give me a minivan or charge me (and, therefore, Jumpstart) $11 more for a full size car. I didn’t want to drive a minivan — I still have standards — but I didn’t want to pay more, either. At the last minute, after a lot of hemming and hawing, an “intermediate” showed up — a Chevy HHR. Not my favorite car but certainly a good enough car. It turned out to be a safe and comfortable car.

On the way back to Tulsa, I drove through some beautiful farm and woodland scenery. The eastern half of Oklahoma has some beautiful places. I had a dilemma — my flight had been changed by Delta. My original flight was now wiped from the board. The replacement flight wouldn’t leave until 5:30PM and I was going to get to the airport just after 1PM. Did I really want to sit around that much? I almost went looking for a mall or a guitar shop but decided that I didn’t want to spend money so I came here. I had a late lunch/early supper at TGI Fridays and then bought access to the internet (why can small airports like Flint offer it free and bigger airports always charge for it?) and caught up on email, Facebook, and the “Restoring Honor” rally in DC. I am looking forward to the replay of that on CSPAN tomorrow.

Oh… tomorrow… It will e one of those days that tests me. I preach both services, of course, and there is a special elders’ meeting called during class time so I’ll be wrapped up in that, too. Then, I help man a table at Rochester College to welcome the incoming freshmen. We will give them gifts and encourage them to start their college career in worship and Bible study with us at Rochester Church. After a couple hours there, I return to Rochester Church for a special worship evening. We do this once or so a year — meet and sing traditional songs with no praise team, no powerpoint… just hymnals and someone up front. Our people are mainly newly churched folk without southern CoC traditions so this is interesting to them. For them, it is a visit to a strange land which is “nice but I wouldn’t want to live here.” For some of our members, though, this will be heaven. We will wrap it up with an ice cream social and then I will drag my weary bones home.

I am taking Monday morning off but I have to be in court to support one of our families as their son goes on trial. I can’t say more about that except to say that it is such a painful thing to see happen to people we love so much. The least I can do is stand with them.

Monday night, of course, we will have our house church going until 8PM when they leave and the guitar students come in around 8:15 to play and learn more tunes.

Maybe I should look at these hours in the Tulsa airport as my vacation and rest time. Doesn’t look like I’m going to get too much of that in the days ahead!

The Mississippi Culture had their great necropolis at Spiro, Oklahoma and their largest city at Cahokia, Illinois but their religious capital — and the religious capital of all of North America at the time — was centered at Moundville in West Central Alabama. Sitting on the Black Warrior River, this complex was second in size only to Cahokia and the local Native Americans have a dozens of stories about those who made it. Three thousand burials have been uncovered there. Most are simple burials but 100 have extensive grave goods; some with materials made and imported from as far away as the Pacific, the northern Atlantic coast, and Florida. Children are generally buried with their toys. One woman was found buried with a corncob pipe in her mouth.

The complex was the center of a loosely formed city that stretched from modern day Tuscaloosa to Demopolis. Mound State Monument maintains and protects only a tiny portion of that area — a mere 320 acres with 20 preserved mounds. These particular mounds were protected because early archaeologists found that they were once encircled with a wooden fence. Poles were driven deep into the ground and snugged up against each other, forming a palisade with one entrance. While there are lots of the aforementioned burial grounds, there is ample evidence that people also lived in the complex. In fact, it is thought that a lot of the burials were actually in the floors of the homes in which people lived.

Enough artifacts have been harvested (the kindest word I could think of) from Moundsville to paint a fairly complete picture of life in the complex. Sadly, they were saddled with the name “Southern Death Cult” and that is how they are known to most historians who study the area… even though they admit that there is no sign that these people were particularly fixated on death. We DO know that they used a symbol which shows up in esoteric religions from ancient times to the present: an eye in the center of the palm of a hand. They also used jimsonweed as a hallucinogen. Some wore copper jewelry and plates while others — perhaps the shaman — wore a large clear quartz crystal with a trace of red hematite in it. That made it look like an eye. We are guessing the Mississippi Culture as found in Alabama had a hint of the “Summer of Love” and “the Beatles visiting India about it”.

At the other end of the Mississippi River, the same culture had a fort enclosing its mounds. That area is known today as Aztalan and it is worth a visit. Over 2000 warriors could stand on the walls of its guard towers. At night, fires were lit on those walls making it one of the most incredible sights imaginable. The center of the complex is where we find the Pyramid of the Sun, a large, complex mound. In one mound a single body was found; that of a young woman wrapped in fine cloth that had 1200+ polished shells woven into its fabric. Part of the city is now under water (long story, but a river that ran through it is now Rock Lake). While controversial, recent expeditions to the bottom of the lake have identified effigy mounds in the shape of a turtle, a headless man, and a dragon. Only one dozen burials have been found in Aztalan itself, but it is assumed there were others washed away by the river.

It is thought at Aztalan was a refuge for the copper miners who would have lived 250 miles away. Aztalan was warmer and rarely ice-locked, so the miners could come shelter there in the worst part of the winter. It all ended in 1320 when a great fire burned down the palisades, guard towers, and homes of Aztalan. It had been built around 1100 so its life was relatively short. The cause of the fire is unknown. The people left their city and it was never rebuilt. Local Native American tribes refused to make their homes there.

At the same time, the Mississippi Culture collapsed and disappeared. We are left with mysteries — what caused the fire? Where did they go? WHY did they go? And, of course… where did they come from? We’ll deal with that question next time.

(thanks to all who wrote to encourage me to keep writing. I’ll write until I am done with mysteries. As for Teacher Todd, I am writing a different book at present. I might share it here but it will more likely be shopped for publication. I have thought about bringing Teacher in as a character even though the story belongs to another… interesting… person)

Thanks for the comments. I do wonder how many are reading this anymore. I used to have a counter on the blog but that has disappeared. Maybe someone at Theobloggers can give me an idea of traffic. In the meantime…

As Illinois allowed the mounds and the Chicago Pyramid to be plowed under, disappearing forever under apartments and highways, Oklahoma went out of its way to protect its mounds. This may be because of the high number of Native American tribes that make their home there (due to Andrew Jackson’s and the Democrats forcing them to leave their homes). Not all mounds received protection in time, however. Still, the state seems determined to protect what they can NOW and repair and replace as much as possible. Some of the mounds were severely damaged during the Depression when desperately hungry men did whatever they could to find artifacts to sell.

A case in point: the Spiro Mounds. I have written of these before and of the “Spiro Gypsies” who live nearby. I have visited both the mounds and the gypsies three times in the last six years and, since writing about them, I receive sporadic hate email from them… but that is understandable.

In 1934, a group of hungry men looking for a way to feed their families approached the Spiro Mounds with shovels and picks. They had no training in history or archaeology — they were treasure hunters, an American tradition going back all the way into the early 1800’s. They climbed up Craig’s Mound, a mound measuring 300 feet long and 30 feet high… and dug straight down. They hadn’t dug long before coming across shells with wonderful, intricate engravings of men, birds, and animals. Some bones and skulls were found early on, too. They tossed the bones in one pile and the shells in another and kept digging (both bones and shells would be sold at roadside tables and disappear forever). It took them only a day to dig all the way down into the mound — a slice of history vanishing before their spades. They came across a wooden chamber and tore away its roof. Grabbing a flashlight, five men were lowered into the darkness under the mound.

The walls and ceiling of the chamber were made of wood but the floor was hard packed earth. The room stretched for 100 feet and was just over 6 feet tall. At one end, the wooden wall was made of cedar and those planks crumbled as axes were brought into play. Behind the cedar was an oval room that averaged 25 feet round and 15 feet high. Its walls had coverings made of hair and fur. A tub with tens of thousands of pearls was in the room — later determined to be very high grade pearls indeed.

And there was a skeleton… wearing copper armor. The armor bore the image of animals and scenes in great detail. Other sheets of copper were laying stacked around the skeleton. The men had found what they were looking for and in a matter of weeks had sold it all to collectors. Almost none of it has been seen since, except for several hundred of the artistically done shells. Some have questioned this or that about what the men said they found but the fact remains that they made enough money to keep digging… unfortunately. For months, they tore through the mounds with hand tools and even a tractor mechanized digger. They made a living for nearly a year doing this before being shut down by authorities.

Today, the Spiro Mounds are enclosed in a very nice State park and efforts have been made to restore the mounds to their former shape and size… with varying success. It sits right by the Arkansas River and every time I’ve been there the day has been hot and humid. Still, you can see the whole complex in an hour and a half if you take your time. It used to have 15 conical mounds but has less than that now. In each of them, many, many people were buried. It seems that the Spiro Mounds were a necropolis similar to the vast cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland (Google it). This was where people were brought when they shuffled off this mortal coil and were ready to cross the river into a new world. The “river” was symbolized by a shallow ditch around the whole complex that was kept filled. No one lived in the mounds even though a community of around 12,000 lived around it. They moved in and built the mounds sometime around 900AD and suddenly quit and left around 1325AD. That was a length of time that is twice our official age as a nation. Makes you think, doesn’t it? It is probable that the Wichita Indians are their descendants for their religious ceremonies and tales speak of the men and animals that were carved at Spiro.

These Mississippian people were also sailors; the only “native’ people to build three masted boats. These boats were not ships in the standard sense as they were only 18-20 feet long and would often be tied together to make an outrigger style flotilla (as represented in carvings found at Spiro). They sailed these vessels as far north as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as far south as the Gulf. Some Spiro-type carvings are found all along their route, with an especially good set at Wisconsin’s Gottschall Site.

Next… Alabama…

It was a little freaky yesterday afternoon to watch Glenn Beck’s Fox News Channel show at 5EST and what did he lead with? The Moundbuilders. He even discussed the Newark Mounds and the Bat Creek Stone, both of which have been discussed in these blogs. I was afraid he was headed into the long since discarded Mormon concept of Jews settling here in massive numbers (a la the Book of Mormon) but he veered from that at the last possible moment and spent his time using this as an illustration of how the Smithsonian and other mainstream historical associations work to muzzle any history they don’t like (i.e. it is politically bothersome). All in all, I’d give him a C. Which, by the way, is better than I’d give myself for the last blog. I kept switching out the names of the Adena and Hopewell and got several important sentences wrong as a result. I apologize. I’ll fix that this weekend. Now…

Three hundred years after the fall of the Adena and long after the memory (and real name) of the Hopewell was lost, another civilization rose up around the Mississippi River and blossomed for 200 years before it collapsed. Because of the location of most of their cities and mounds and sacred places, they are called the Mississippian culture. Their towns and massive cities lined the river from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to Wisconsin. They were much more agriculturally adept than the Adena and Hopewell and left behind evidence of great fields of corn (maize), wheat, and other vegetables. They built the city of Cahokia just east of St. Louis on the Illinois side of the river; a city that was as large as London and Rome at the time it was built.

Across from Cahokia (where a decent State Park now exists to protect and interpret the mounds), is the modern city of St. Louis. That isn’t what it was named originally, however. When white people first settled the area, they called it Mound City due to the huge number of large, intricate, and well designed mounds there. Sadly, as early as 1811, there were writers lamenting that the majority of the mounds were being casually destroyed for agriculture and so that the young city could continue to grow. The government archaeologist sent out to record what was left, Stephen Peet, described pyramids, cones, terraces, platforms, and structures designed to be “falling gardens” similar to those — he supposed — created by Nebuchadenezzar. At his writing, there were still 150 earthworks extant. Now that aerial and satellite searching has turned up where other mounds used to be, we now that Cahokia (of which Mound City was a suburb) at one time sustained a population of up to 200,000 people. You read that right. The style of their pottery, clothing, and tools (called Cahokian) has been found several states away in all directions, indicating that they had great influence on their neighbors.

While St. Louis has lost almost all of its estimated 300+ mounds, Cahokia still has 68 mounds within the park and 41 outside on private land. They had a far flung suburb right outside Evansville, Indiana that is called Angel Mounds. That is an amazing site and I encourage any and all who can to go there whenever you are anywhere near Cahokia. It is thought that 4,000 people lived there, connected to Cahokia by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It seemed to be a haven for sports and the arts. A sunken bowl for athletic games still exists as do fields that show extensive evidence of agriculture. Not only did they grow tons of different vegetables, they grew flowers — lots of flowers. One other interesting thing about Angel Mounds is that they were constructed not by piling up dirt and gravel and clay in different amounts but by forming the walls of the mounds out of interwoven reeds and sticks and then covering those with a plaster made out of the shells of freshwater mollusks. Only then was dirt piled on top.

In Cahokia, there is evidence of human sacrifice but no such evidence exists at Angel Mounds. The Mississippians seem to have created different cities for different purposes. One of those cities almost disappeared without a trace; Chicago. It took an immigrant, amateur historian named Charles Dilg to gather experts and workers to dig around the young city of Chicago and find what others had missed. At that time (1869) Chicago was growing but was still a backwater. Most thought it had always been that way. Dilg found what is now called the Chicago Pyramid (take 79th street south until it ends in Lake Michigan) and an effigy mound made in the shape of a serpent. He unearthed more than a TON of arrowheads, hammers, axes, etc. showing that this was more than a ceremonial center — it was a place that sustained a population, many of whom were artisans and others were warriors.

Even more fascinating, he found evidence of lots of copper and the same kind of tools used by somebody to mine billions of pounds of ore up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan back in the  years 900-1300AD. Dilg believed — as many still do — that Chicago was a part of that mining enterprise. We have earlier mentioned the possibility of Norse, Keltic, or Templar involvement in those mines. The fact is… somebody mined that area extensively and then took the ore somewhere else. No Native American tribe says they were involved. In fact, all of them I’ve spoken to and all of their legends I’ve been able to find say they were NOT involved. Who was?

Dilg was not able to save ancient Chicago. The serpent mound existed until the late 1920s when a large apartment building was built right on top of it. The Chicago Pyramid was first plowed out of existence and then, as the farms fled before the contractor, homes and streets topped it. Nothing of either of them remain except for some of the truckloads of artifacts Dilg dug up as the Civil War drew to a close.

One state rushed in to protect the Mississippian Mounds found there. Their story next…

This is a long delayed part two on the screwy theory that the Hopewell were Japanese. We are spending this much time on it because, unlike most screwy theories, there is enough out there to make you go “hmmm.” Were the Japanese able to sail long distances? Did they? In short — yes.

In recent years, an ancient sea-going vessel was uncovered from the Torihama Shell Mound in Fukui Prefecture (remember — ancient Japanese people built mounds that were almost identical to those built by the Hopewell). The ship was carbon dated at 3500BC and had the ability to carry 1100 pounds of goods. That was thousands of years before the Hopewell showed up in America and, already, the Japanese were building ships capable of very long distance sailing. The Ryukyu islands had already been settled by their sailors by the time this ship was built and shrines have been found on islands far, far from Japan where even mainstream archaeologists agree that Japanese sailors left gifts and worshiped thousands of years ago. Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon, told the “Japan Times” recently, “What was once imponderable now seems entirely conceivable and increasingly likely…The oldest form of DNA ever recovered from the New World — around 10,300 years old — is common in type to that found in Japan in Tibet. And similar DNA has been found in American Indians all the way down the west coast of North and South America.” Wow… only kooks would have said that thirty years ago. And, now, it is becoming mainstream science.  That opens up a world of possibilities concerning cross-cultural contact and migration between Japan and the New World.

I don’t want to make your eyes roll up in the back of your head so I won’t go into detail on the research into that DNA. It is fascinating, but only for the eight people on the planet who like that stuff (I am one of them). Let’s just say that it would have been called “fringe, kook, and screwy” twenty years ago and, now, is being touted as outstanding and true by top researchers such as Dr. Theodore Schurr of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (San Antonio). They have traced the DNA back over 1300 years and seen how it moves from mainland Japan across the Pacific rim to Alaska and then on to California (USA and Mexico). Four major lineages have been identified from the mitachondrial DNA studied so far… and a fifth lineage was recently discovered. The first four are all Asian and can be positively identified as coming from Japan. The fifth is fascinating but a little off topic in this blog — it originates in Europe and is most common among Native American tribes who claim they were founded by people who came from the Old World (Algonquian speaking tribes). That fifth group — haplogroup X — does not exist in Asia.

It is now thought that Blackfoot and Iroquois Indians are direct descendants of these Japanese sailors/settlers. More specifically, they are of the Japanese tribe called the Jomon, mentioned in the last blog. The Jomon were such masters of the sea that their pottery has even been found in South America; not an easy sail against prevailing currents. Neither the Japanese nor the Kelts were the first people here. In fact, I believe that we will quit even talking about who was first in a decade or so as we keep finding more and more people coming to the New World long before the “Native Americans” or their ancestors were here. Those people came from every corner of the globe indicating that many cultures were advanced in sailing or migration… or that the land masses on our planet separated much later and more suddenly than uniformitarian science has said. Can anyone say “global Flood” or remember Genesis 10:1-4 or 10:25?

It is thought that the Japanese began their widespread travels to escape a period of extreme volcanic activity beginning around 3550BC with the explosion of the island of Kikai. The gases, ash, and resultant darkness made neighboring territories uninhabitable for scores of years. The Jomon really started their explorations around that time but didn’t seem to settle on the New World until 1000BC. They took the mounds of the Kelts and modified them to make their their own. And we call those mounds and their builders, the Hopewell. At least, that is the idea that is gaining currency among most students of that era at this time.

The Zuni Indians have legends of an Eastern people who came from the western sea and then marched down through the Rockies until they came into contact with them. They call them the Munakata and, indeed, DNA studies back up those legends. The Munakata — Japanese settlers who were intermarrying at a slow but steady pace with local tribes — then turned eastward, settling on the western bank of the Mississippi. The local tribes say they were peaceful, much smaller than the Adena, and very developed in art and navigation. Every attempt to match the DNA of those buried in their mounds to Native American tribes has failed, for their mitachondria traces back to Japan and the Jomon.

When the Hopewell (the name given to these mound builders) were wiped out near Fort Smith, Arkansas another mound building people entered the picture. Their story, next…

After the last week of 100 degree temps and heat indices in the 110 range, I am glad to be headed north tomorrow. On Saturday, I will drive 650 miles or so from Benton, KY to my home in Lake Orion, MI. It will be a good trip because Miss Kami is at the end of the road, waiting for me.

The work here in Benton at the Central Church of Christ is a marvelous one. Wade Gillespie and Brian Borphy are doing a fantastic job as a ministerial team that, along with the elders, are leading a new congregation in a spirit of love, freedom, and joy. They are less than 5 years old but now run in the high 200’s, often going over 300. After meeting with them, I can see why. The other 12 congregations of the Church of Christ in their county don’t fellowship them, but that sad fact doesn’t keep them from reaching their community in ways those other churches don’t. The spirit of the congregation is amazing. People are friendly, the singing is energetic and heartfelt, and attendance was easily two or three times what I would have expected for a weekday meeting.

When I get home, I will toss my stuff in the laundry and get some rest. Then, I preach twice on Sunday morning before heading to Cass Park to spend the rest of the day feeding our homeless friends. On Monday, I attend a funeral and lead the graveside service for a 19 year old girl who died after a horrible motocross accident. Her parents aren’t members at Rochester but they have been attending recently and we are glad to be there for them at this worst of all times. The rest of Monday is taken up with small group meetings and guitar lessons. On Tuesday, I will go to court to support one of our young men who is facing charges. I am not going to declare his guilt or innocence; I am going because I do not want him to be there alone. Meetings take up the rest of Tuesday. Wednesday begins with planning a wedding with a couple from Rochester Church… and it just keeps going from there. A busy, busy week. No time to rest… gotta hit the ground running.

That is why it means so much to me when I hear that you are praying for me and for Rochester. I can feel those prayers. They carry me home and they keep me going even when this tired, aging body says to stop! Thank you.

I’ll get back on Hidden History when I can, probably in two or three days. See you then.

I made it safely to Columbus on Sunday night and spent all day Monday teaching at Ohio State. It went well — a TON of students. After my eight hours was over, I dismissed them and made my way south and east all the way to the Ohio River and the tiny burgh of Gallipolis. It was good to see my mom and dad. It was the first time I’d seen them in 8 months or more. They’d moved to this riverside town six or seven months ago so it was all new to me. The church building he preaches in now hovers over the entire town. It has such an incredible position! It would be very hard to drive through or around that area without seeing that building. And yet… division has hit that congregation five times in the last few decades. The result is that many, many go to worship nowhere at all anymore and a building that is quite attractive and would comfortably hold 300+/- now holds 35 or so… and they meet in a side hall instead of the auditorium.

Dad will serve it faithfully. I hope he is loved in return.

On one level, the visit with my parents was a blast. It felt so good to see them again, to hear them talk about their lives, and see their joy at serving the Lord. On the other hand, it was a painful visit. My mother didn’t complain, but I saw her fighting her back pain (she has six cracked vertebrae due to osteoporosis and a couple traffic accidents) and you could really see the scars she carries from the dog attack she suffered right after moving there. My dad is slowing down and it really, really bothers him. He is not as confident as he used to be and he is upset that his body is settling into a rounder shape, that it no longer allows him to work 18 hour days, and that he is… old. I am upset about that, too.

I wish they would always be the young, dynamic, and confident people I knew but this is the path all must travel. I know that. Doesn’t mean I like it.

I called my son as I traveled today. It was good to hear his voice. I hope he will walk with me when it is my turn to sit in my father’s chair. I’d still rather go before then, I think. Maybe I’ll change my mind later…

I drove 8 hours today, most of it in Kentucky. The first hour was on the twisting, slow Route 7 on the Ohio side of the river. For about a half hour, I drove in West Virginia and it felt really good to be on Mountaineer soil again, even if only briefly. Then… Kentucky for the rest of the day. It was HOT — temps around 100 much of the day — but I drove through four thunderstorms where the wind rocked my Hyundai and the temps dropped up to 16 degrees in a matter of a few minutes… only to rebound as I drove out of the storm.

I spoke tonight at the Central Church of Christ in Benton, just west of the marvelous Land Between the Lakes region of west Kentucky. Tomorrow, they are going to work me to death. I speak at a local school, then I give two talks to the church. I will have lunch with one minister and supper with the congregation. That means I will be “on” almost all day and that is hard for this cranky loner. Friday is a little easier… at least, so far.

It is now after 11PM according to my clock. I really need to go to bed but I think I will take some more time to pray about my mom and dad. I wasn’t expecting my visit to stir up such conflicting feelings, with melancholy threatening to win over all the rest. So, it is time to pray, thanking God for their lives, their testimony, and their gifts to me. While I am very different from my father in many ways, we are also very similar. He gave me many gifts. Our journey together has not been smooth, but love has trumped our differences. And my mother? Wow. What a mom. I wish she was still young. I’d love to take her places and show her things now that I have the time, money, and power to do things like that. But, just as I am ready, she isn’t. So, I hooked them up on Facebook and made sure we got Skype working so that they can see us more often, see our photos, and keep up with us.

I am more convinced than ever — this world is not my home. I’m just a’passing through. Come Lord Jesus…

I’ll most probably not be writing a Hidden History update for a week and a half. I’ll post an update or two on this marathon week, though, if I get time — and I should. After preaching first service tomorrow, we have Children’s Musical instead of classes and then I preach again. After that, Kami and I will take out some friends from TN to lunch. Then, my car already packed, I kiss her goodbye and head off 265 miles south to Columbus, Ohio. I’ll stay in a hotel Sunday night and then teach all day Monday at Ohio State University. Sorry — no time to stop and say hello to friends there. Because…

Right after teaching 8+ hours, I’ll drive 2.5 hours southeast to the tiny town of Gallipolis, Ohio. My mom and dad recently moved there to work with a church. The church has had a few splits, if I understand correctly, and now there are a few churches in the town as well as quite a few who moved on to other religious tribes. The big building only has 35 or so on Sunday now. I don’t know how long they will stay there, but that is where they are now so I am taking advantage of that and getting down to see them. I only see them once or twice a year. They can’t travel more than a few hours; their bones just won’t take it. I’ll spend Monday and Tuesday night with them and then…

On Wednesday morning, I head 8 hours west to Benton, Kentucky, a small town a half hour or so south of Paducah. Kami and I drove through that area on our honeymoon 31 years ago (our honeymoon was a drive from Colorado to the east coast of North Carolina where we helped a black church build a building. We stayed with them 6 months before moving on). I remember the “Land Between the Lakes” as being exceptionally beautiful but, this time, Miss Kami won’t be with me. I am supposed to speak at the church each night, Wednesday-Friday, on “Re-Imagining the Church.” I am also speaking a couple of times on Christian Evidences at a local school. The weather forecast says it will be 100 or so each day. That is going to be tough to take. I am leaving my golf clubs behind because golfing in that kind of heat is punishment, not sport. Then, on Saturday…

I drive 670 miles home through southern Illinois, almost all of Indiana, up into south central Michigan, cutting over through Ann Arbor and back to the Metro region. I should get home around 9-10PM Saturday night just in time to hit the bed because the next morning… I preach at Rochester Church twice again.

Other than that, I don’t have much going on this week. I expect to drive 1500 miles or so this week. Keep me in your prayers.

And just in case some bad guys are reading this and thinking the house and Miss Kami will be easy pickings… remember that Duncan (aka Marine, Sniper, Dark Warrior, He Who Walks At Night, etc.) will be here, Scooby the Wonder Parrot will be here, and we are surrounded by the best neighbors a family could ask for. They are actively looking out for Miss Kami and our property. Thank God for the Finns, the Lebanese, the Italians, and the Scots (names withheld, of course) who treat us like family. Or better.

See you on the road…