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America has been a very long time in its making. It has taken 4.6 billion years to get from initial formation of the Earth to today. During that time, plate tectonic processes created pieces of land that “drifted” around the world, colliding with each other to make larger land masses like Pangaea, then rifted apart into smaller land masses that drifted apart. About 1.1 billion years ago, the Mid-Continent rift began to tear our region apart. Lake Superior overlies a segment of this rift. The Grenville Province, another drifting land mass, subsequently collided with the eastern edge of our region and closed the rift. Eventually both American continents as we see them today were fully assembled from the collisions of multiple “drifting” land masses.
During the Pleistocene, a.k.a. Ice Age, from about 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago. the North America continent experienced multiple continental glaciations. As glacial ice accumulated on the continent, sea level lowered by up to 400 feet. Lowered sea level exposed the Bering Sea land bridge between the Asian continent and the North American continent. This opened the way for America’s first human beings to immigrate from Asia to North America.
A buried forest that was exposed by excavation during CCI’s construction of the Gribben Basin proved that the glacier retreated from our area about 10,000 years ago. Local archaeological enthusiast Jim Paquette identified several local sites, including Deer Lake, where he found artifacts left by America’s first human being inhabitants. He proved that these people re-entered this area soon after the glacier retreated from our area. Immigrants leaving Asia and entering North America via the Bearing Sea land bridge fully colonized the North and South American continents and were the true first peoples of the Americas, the first Native Americans.
Ocean sailing technology in Europe developed long before 1492. The opportunity for trade between continents and lust for riches lead to attempts to sail around the world and find trade routes. This eventually led to the “discovery” and take-over of America by European immigrants. These “colonizers” brought sicknesses and diseases that killed many Native Americans. They took land from the Native Americans and committed numerous atrocities against them. Today, many Native Americans live on reservations created by the European colonizers. To many Native Americans, America’s 250th birthday understandably represents 250 years of injustices against them by the white conquerors.
Conquering whites of the southern states imported Black people from Africa for use as slaves. Slaves were used, abused, bought and sold as livestock. When the southern white’s lifestyle was threatened by the North, they attempted to secede from the United States and went to war with the North. The South claimed the war was about state’s rights per the constitution, The North claimed the war was about ending slavery and treating Blacks as equals with the right to liberty, freedom, pursuit of happiness. Today, many Back Americans understandably do not fly an American flag at their home. They still feel the bite of 250 years of injustices.
Horrific events are a part of America’s history and must be acknowledged along with all the good things as a part of the whole story of America. In spite of many great patriotic achievements of Blacks (Tuskegee Airmen) and Native Americans (Code Talkers) that helped America win wars, many whites still see them as second class humans. Trump wishes to erase their achievements from the record. MAGA believes only whites deserve to be American citizens.
Happy Birthday America! Seek and embrace the truth