Ivor T. Sanderson, in his book "A History of Whaling" (originally published as "Follow the Whale") (Barnes and Noble, 1993), makes a number of good points. One of them I've alluded to before in this thread, that "There is nothing inexplicable about these Norse voyages. The simply island-hopped straight ahead and seldom had to cross a hundred miles of open water, while the winds and tides helped them." (Notes to Map 2, pp. 86 & 87).

His Map 3 (pp. 104 and 105 discusses the possible routes the Japanese (and others) might have taken to reach the West Coast of the US.

Dammit, I'd like to KNOW! Humankind did not evolve in the Western Hemisphere, but arrived somehow, and I can't believe that they ALL crossed the Bering Land Bridge, and then spread out across N. and S. America AND built their civilizations as they did by utilizing only one point of entry!

This is a journey of the human spirit, something greater than any other migration people have ever before undertaken. The studies can be done with respect (and bloody well should be!) and, yes, reverence. But they should be done, not just to satisfy curiousity but to honor those who made the journey.

The time of Ales Hrdlicka is over (or should be), but the hurt still rankles. I understand that. But I still think that we can more honor our ancestors (and there's only one race on this planet) by understanding than by secrecy and silence.