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EURASIAN / POLYNESIAN CONTACTS

[Contacts]

 

         In Polynesia, including the areas of Hawaii, Samoa & Tahiti, there are widespread legends of pre-Bronze Age contacts and mixing of peoples from Eurasia via North America with the people living in Polynesia at that time.  One case of such kinship is through Chief Mauga Sai of American Samoa.  The legend relates how after the biblical flood, the families Erik, Leif, Pomerenia, Rollo, V’e, Vili Vani and Vana met an Asian tribe and intermingled.  These names exist in Polynesia and the offspring were said to be Caucasian with blond or red hair. The early American natives that occupied Alaska were believed to have encountered white, blond people.  Those people had reached Alaska from northern Asia and eventually spread down the coast and, in some cases, out to the far Pacific Islands.  The legends also maintain that some of these adventurers continued down to South America.  Indeed, the recent discovery of Asian chicken bones in PreColumbian archeological sites along the west coast supports these legends.  Recently legal claims have been filed by Polynesians to the body of “Kennewick” man that was unearthed in Washington State (Joseph B. Frazier, The Associated Press, 26 Jul 2001).  When the Tahitians reached Hawaii for the first time, the legends hold that there were white blond and red-haired people already present in the area. These people provided the newcomers with food and drink before they returned to Tahiti.  Subsequent voyages from Tahiti by warrior groups then succeeded in conquering most of the indigenous residents whilst setting up their own domination of the area.  It is believed that the Ainu of northern Japan especially made these voyages.  The language that these early voyagers spoke are thought to have resembled modern Basque, as the meanings of the names of major islands and sites in the Pacific may be translated with the Basque dictionary (see Saharan language).  The precursor of Basque was Saharan that was a widely spoken language before the Christian Era (see Nyland),  Later the Igbo Language of West Africa was found to predate Saharan. 

 

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