Mandan Contacts (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

> From: Muhammed Suleiman <suleiman at lineone.net>
> Still, travellers stories of colonies of 'white Indians' (such as in
> Louisville, Kentucky), persistent Old World legends like that of Madoc ap
> Owain, and the discovery of Caucasoid skeletal remains in all parts of the
> Americas remain tantalizing, to say the least.

I regret that I'm not sure that I agree with this assessment, at least in
connection with the Mandan along the Middle Missouri.  Travellers' stories
of 'white Indians' strike me as inventions, or naive reactions to
variations within or between various Native American populations, or
differences in styles of adornment.  Persistent Madoc stories strike me as
persistent tall tales.  Even if true, any finds supporting contact would
be comparatively late and on the northern East Coast, like the actual
evidence of Norse or Basque visits.  The only Caucasoid remains I'm aware
of are Kennebeck Man, which is much earlier and on the West Coast, and the
advisability of the characterization is debatable, though it has excited
newspaper reporters.  It doesn't mean anything like putatively
Indo-European speaking or European, for example.  When I put these three
unconnected, variously dubious considerations together I don't get
anything tantalizing.