4 ms·

>Before the Cold War intervened, many Alaska Natives had family in Siberia, and vice versa. No land bridge needed. You lost me on this sentence. How is Alaska

>Before the Cold War intervened, many Alaska Natives had family in Siberia, and vice versa. No land bridge needed. You lost me on this sentence. How is Alaska Natives having family across pond in modern times related to land bridges 2000 years ago and what did the Cold War do to those families? I just don't understand. What am I missing?

throwanem 6y ago
Not OP, but your quote directly follows this: > While a temporary land bridge may well have had some influence on the population of the Americas, the fact remains that indigenous peoples were perfectly capable of crossing the Bering Strait. Crossing in boats, that is, not via land bridge. One assumes the Cold War made this crossing no more physically difficult, but politically impossible due to the mutual suspicion (especially of espionage on the part of the other) between the two powers whose territories it involves.
- Turing_Machine 6y ago
  > One assumes the Cold War made this crossing no more physically difficult, but politically impossible due to the mutual suspicion Exactly so. While there's reluctance to admit it (even now) there are stories that some Alaska Natives maintained contact with their friends and relatives in Siberia, even during the Cold War. I can certainly believe it. There's a lot of lonely coastline in that area, and not much monitoring -- certainly not back then. But yeah, the main thrust of what I was saying was that the indigenous people had boats capable of making the crossing long before Europeans arrived on the scene, so the "land bridge" idea is not the pat explanation that many seem to think it is. The "land bridge" may have existed, and was probably used when it did exist, but it's clearly not the whole story. We know that Alaska Natives were making this trip, and even longer ones, regularly before the arrival of Europeans. Heck, the Tlingit in Southeast Alaska were running water-based slave raids as far afield as California before the Europeans arrived.
  - roywiggins 6y ago
    There's even a special visa waiver for people with family across the Bering Strait: "the program allows indigenous residents from both sides of the Bering Strait to visit for up to 90 days without a visa. Travelers must have documented invitations from family or other residents living on the other side." https://apnews.com/article/5e16cfadd90c478d80a374ef1cd99c2d https://apnews.com/article/5e16cfadd90c478d80a374ef1cd99c2d

throwanem 6y ago

Not OP, but your quote directly follows this: > While a temporary land bridge may well have had some influence on the population of the Americas, the fact remains that indigenous peoples were perfectly capable of crossing the Bering Strait. Crossing in boats, that is, not via land bridge. One assumes the Cold War made this crossing no more physically difficult, but politically impossible due to the mutual suspicion (especially of espionage on the part of the other) between the two powers whose territories it involves.

Turing_Machine 6y ago
> One assumes the Cold War made this crossing no more physically difficult, but politically impossible due to the mutual suspicion Exactly so. While there's reluctance to admit it (even now) there are stories that some Alaska Natives maintained contact with their friends and relatives in Siberia, even during the Cold War. I can certainly believe it. There's a lot of lonely coastline in that area, and not much monitoring -- certainly not back then. But yeah, the main thrust of what I was saying was that the indigenous people had boats capable of making the crossing long before Europeans arrived on the scene, so the "land bridge" idea is not the pat explanation that many seem to think it is. The "land bridge" may have existed, and was probably used when it did exist, but it's clearly not the whole story. We know that Alaska Natives were making this trip, and even longer ones, regularly before the arrival of Europeans. Heck, the Tlingit in Southeast Alaska were running water-based slave raids as far afield as California before the Europeans arrived.
- roywiggins 6y ago
  There's even a special visa waiver for people with family across the Bering Strait: "the program allows indigenous residents from both sides of the Bering Strait to visit for up to 90 days without a visa. Travelers must have documented invitations from family or other residents living on the other side." https://apnews.com/article/5e16cfadd90c478d80a374ef1cd99c2d https://apnews.com/article/5e16cfadd90c478d80a374ef1cd99c2d