Michelle Shetti, age 7, of Gastonia, N.C., for her question:
WHERE DID THE AMERICAN INDIAN ORIGINATE?
Vikings are believed to have explored the coast of North America about 1000 but lasting contact between the Europeans and the Indians, who had been living in the Americas for thousands of years, didn't start until Christopher Columbus' voyage of 1492. Columbus thought he was discovering a short sea route to India, and so he was the first to call the people he met Indians.
When Columbus came to the New World, the Indians had no single word for themselves. Each Indian group had its own name. Many of the names reflected the pride of each group in itself and its way of life.
Today many people, including lots of Indians, refer to them as Native Americans.
Scientists say the first Indians came to the Americas from Asia more than 20,000 years ago. At that time, a huge ice sheet covered much of the northern half of the earth. Much of the world's water came from the sheets, and when the Indians arrived, lots of the dry land they found later became covered with water.
The first Indians, it is believed by many historians, wandered across the 50 mile area that is now the Bering Strait. They may have followed animals they were hunting. By the time Columbus arrived, the Indians were living in the New World from the Far North all the way to the southern tip of South America.
Many scientists classify the American Indians as one of the groups of people in the Mongoloid race. In some ways, Indians resemble the Chinese, Japanese and other Eastern peoples. But there are many differences. Their skin is brownish rather than yellowish and their eyes do not have the slanted appearance common among other Mongoloids.
Looking at all of the facts, Indians are placed in a separate group called the American Indian. The Eskimos are also in this group but are not generally considered Indians. From about 5000 B.C. to 2000 B.C., Mexican Indians greatly improved the science of farming. By 700 B.C. they had built large cities. When Columbus landed in what is now known as the West Indies, about 20 million Native Americans were living in the New World. At least 7 million lived in North America and between 15 and 20 million lived in Middle and South America.
The early Indians in the Americas lived in hundreds of different tribes. Each tribe had its own ways of life.
Today there are more than 250,000 Canadians registered as Indians with most of them living on the country's more than 2,200 reserves. There are about 800,000 Indians in the United States and about 20 million in Latin America.