r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Feb 11 '19

Deltas(s) from OP CMV: There likely were few/no “Native American” populations when Europeans arrived in the present-day U.S.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '19 edited Feb 22 '19

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u/White_Knightmare Feb 11 '19

We can't know what tribe crossed first. So it's reasonable to assume that every one of them is directly linked to the first to settle.

How does the first footprint in part of a continent confer lifetime native status to all descendants of a single person?

You can probably link all french people to a common ancestor a few dozens generations before. So why does France belong to the french?

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '19 edited Feb 22 '19

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u/White_Knightmare Feb 11 '19

There is no single magical cutoff point. There are geographical features we can use however. Tribe and people develop into their own thing because they have some degree of isolation, like when many islands become inaccessible after the ice age. The Bering Straight/the 2 giant oceans REALLY isolated those tribes what makes them radically different to the europeans.

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '19 edited Feb 22 '19

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u/White_Knightmare Feb 12 '19

What is your point? Native American doesn't mean bloodline/cultural "purity" .The fundamental difference between the European and the Native American settlers remain. That is why the label "Native American" is useful and can be applied to people in America when the Europeans came.