LL-L 'History' 2006.08.02 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 02 August 2006 * Volume 03
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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L 'History' 2006.08.01 (08) [E]

    From: R. F. Hahn
    Subject: History

    Paul:

    > And arguably did. There is some evidence that,
    although the Norse
    > Greenland settlements vanished, the people didn't;
    they got absorbed
    > by the Inuit.

    Wow! That's a new one for me.

    This whole story seems like good historical novel
    material. Has anyone ever pursued this?

    Helllo,

    Regards,
    Reinhard/Ron

The possibility of the absorbing is discussed by J. Robert Enterline in "Viking
America: The Norse Crossings and Their Legacy".  He also wrote "Erikson, Eskimos
and Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America", but I haven't read that.
 
Jane Smiley's novel "The Greenlanders" alludes to the possibility in that one of
the Norse characters virtually abandons the settled farming life and spends most
of his time living off the land, and can "speak the Skraelings language".
 
Paul Finlow-Bates

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From: Clarkedavid8 at aol.com
Subject: LL-L 'History' 2006.08.01 (08) [E]

In a message dated 02/08/2006 01:19:25 GMT Standard Time,
lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net writes:

> And arguably did. There is some evidence that,
> although the Norse
> > Greenland settlements vanished, the people didn't;
> they got absorbed
> > by the Inuit.

The Greenland colony finally disappeared during a "mini ice age", when conditions
became even more difficult and colder. A few centuries later, in the ninetheenth
century, conditions in Iceland itself became so bad that there was talk of
abandoning it and resettling all the people in Denmark. When conditions were a
little better, after WW2, there was talk of Iceland joining the United States as
the fifty-first state. That would have been interesting - what an opportunity missed!

In fact, we are all still in the middle of an ice age, but for the past 12,000
years, we have been in an "interstatial", when the ice temporarily retreats. I
don't know why everybody is worried about global warming.

David Clarke

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From: Tom Mc Rae <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: LL-L 'History' 2006.08.01 (03) [D/E/V]

On 01/08/2006,   R. F. Hahn wrote:
>
>     As we know from later encounters, the Inuit and Northeast
>     American peoples were on the whole peaceable and helpful to newcomers. Had the
>     Europeans befriended them they would have learned how to survive in those
>     regions.....

According to Nova Scotian friends Highlanders displaced by The Clearances were
shipped (often forcibly) to NS and just dumped on the shoreland.
Had it not been for local Inuits they'd have all probably died.

Regards
Tom Mc Rae
Brisbane Australia

Oh Wad Some Power the Giftie Gie Us
Tae See Oorsel's as Ithers See Us
Robert Burns

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: History

The same applied to the early "Pilgrims" in New England, hence the "Indian" theme
in American Thanksgiving celebrations.

Also, many early European Australians wouldn't have survived had it not been for
help from indigenous polulations.  Most of the (usually male) convicts with
one-way tickets tried to get as far away from British colonial power as possible
once they had been released.  So they "went bush."  Most roamed around in bands;
some tried to make it by themselves.  Especially the loners either perished or
they hooked up with native women or even got adopted into tribes.

Similarly, many early European trapper pioneers of North America had to go native
or semi-native to survive, and many of them lived with (usually common-law)
native wives, some with native men (usually berdaches), from whom they would
learn the ways of survival in the wild.

Similar things can be said about early Russian pioneers in Siberia and Alaska. 
One of my neighbors is of part Aleutian and part Russian descent.  She explained
that her Russian ancestors had been mostly adventurers and treasure seekers.

But all that refers to the early days.  Later on, the native populations
certainly were not thanked for it, to put it mildly.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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