April 24 - Daily Feast

The wild pink verbena that grew so profusely along the slopes have moved to another area. In their place are yellow flowers, unfamiliar but like sunshine after a shower. A familiar saying is that the more something changes the more it stays the same. Flowers, like people and circumstances, change so swiftly and unexpectedly that it seems like the very foundation of the familiar is moving and changing before us.
The Cherokees call this a ma yi, creek water. It is always moving and changing before our eyes. Nature reminds us to renew our minds - to update and enlarge our vision instead of accepting the daily changes of the world that come to nothing. No one has ever been so perfect that he cannot surpass himself and bloom more brilliantly in another area.

The ancestral lands of the Mi’kmaq once extended from the Gaspé to Acadia and included the Listuguj hunting ground. The traditional daily activities of the Mi’kmaq reflected how the life cycle of the fishing family was regulated by the seasons.

This film recounts the difficult battle waged by the Listuguj Mi’kmaqs against the Government of Quebec in 1998 for the right to manage their own natural resources. 

Peninsula.http://www.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?mode=theme&language=english&theme=30663&film=51406&excerpt=612324

This link is a 3 minute excerpt from a longer movie. Click on the film reel in the lower right corner to view the entire movie.

The Mi’kmaq Of Eastern Canada - Why We Dance

by Trudy Sable and Julia Sable

Mi’kmaq have always danced to pray, court marriage partners, trade,
hunt, prepare for war and celebrate important events such as weddings.
Dances also sealed treaties, celebrated birth, mourned death, gave
thanks and bestowed honour. A Jesuit priest living among the Mi’kmaq in
1616 said, “As long as they have anything, they are always celebrating
feasts and having songs, dances and speeches” (Biard 1616: 107).

Mi’kmaq would dance to prove their physical prowess and endurance.
Competitions have often been part of large seasonal gatherings. The
best dancer, the one who danced the longest, would win and bring honour
to his or her community.

You can still see a rutted dance circle on Chapel Island, Nova
Scotia, and on Indian Island, New Brunswick where people have danced
for centuries.

Throughout the last 500 years, colonization and centralization have
altered Mi’kmaw culture – changes the people did not willingly choose.
But the Mi’kmaq have never surrendered their culture.

Today, some people continue to dance to heal their community’s
wounds. “I dance for all these people, especially these young teenagers
with alcohol and drugs, that’s in all of this community,” said Mi’kmaw
elder Joseph Meuse. “I dance and pray for them because that’s a
sickness in our community, because we are going to not only lose our
way, but we are going to lose a lot of our people” (Joseph Meuse,
personal communication, Dec. 15, 2005).

Also, dancers have considered their art an offering (Sable 1990: 1).
Alasutmaqney means “a prayer in the form of dance.” Among other
benefits, Mi’kmaw people have said dances can bestow supernatural
powers. Vivian Basque, a Mi’kmaw dancer and school teacher said:
“People used dance to call out spirits. They used to be able to enter
another world of different states of mind to seek answers and
communicate with each other telepathically” (Sable 1996a: 6).

Dance has become a way for people to express their identity as
Mi’kmaq. “When I dance I dance with my whole being. It makes me feel
complete and so happy,” said dancer Beverly Jeddore. “I feel very proud
of who I am when I dance. . . It is like a big package with a big bow
on it when I dance and when I sing” (Beverly Jeddore, personal
communication, Jan. 21, 2006).

The Mi’kmaq Of Eastern Canada - Who We Are

by Trudy Sable and Julia Sable

According to archaelogical evidence, the Mi’kmaq people have lived
in their homeland for approximately ten thousand years. The region they
called Mi’kma’ki included what is now Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island, the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, the north shore of New Brunswick
and inland to the Saint John River watershed, eastern Maine, and part
of Newfoundland, including the islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as
well as St. Pierre and Miquelon. They thought of their homeland as
containing seven districts: Kespukwitk, Sikepne’katik, Eski’kewaq,
Unama’kik, Piktuk aqq Epekwitk, Sikniktewaq, and Kespe’kewaq. A keptan
orsaqmaw (district chief) presided in each jurisdiction, doubling as
local ruler and delegate to the Grand Council Sante’ Mawiomi (Johnson
1996: 376-378).

Five hundred years ago, Europeans first landed on the Atlantic
shores of what to them was a new continent. The Mi’kmaq welcomed them
and identified themselves as the L’nu’k, the people. Since then they
adopted the name Micmac, which is sometimes written Mic Mac, or in
French, Micmaque. The term Mi’kmaq comes from their word nikmak,
meaning “my kin-friends” (Whitehead 1988: 1).

The current spelling, Mi’kmaq, is from the 1974 Smith/Francis
spelling system that the communities in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton
have adopted (Mi’kmaq is the plural form; Mi’kmaw is the singular).
Throughout this essay we will be using the Smith/Francis system to
offer alternative spellings (in italics) to various ones used in
historical records. In other areas, including New Brunswick, many
people have modified a writing system that Capuchin missionary Father
Pacifique created in the 1890s while he lived among the Mi’kmaq.

Mi’kmaq culture belongs to the great family anthropologists call
Algonkian because their languages and cultures are similar. This
extended family includes nations and tribes across North America such
as the Maliseet, Abenaki, Eeyou Cree, Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) and other
peoples.

Europeans, mostly English, Scottish, Irish, and French, began to
settle in Atlantic Canada 500 years ago. Initially, it was more French,
followed by the English, followed by waves of Germans, Irish, Scots,
Black Loyalists from the United States, and Loyalists from the U.S.
This influx of Loyalists following the American Revolution doubled the
population and caused many Mi’kmaq to lose their lands.

Also, wars and disease have disrupted the communities, as has what was then a new religion – Roman Catholicism.

The culture began to die out as the new Canadians restricted the
Mi’kmaq to reserves. The government compelled children to attend
educational systems designed to eliminate both their families’ ancient
culture and their language. The federal government considered
aboriginal dances harmful, so from 1876 to 1951 it actively suppressed
Mi’kmaq traditions. For example, the 1927 Indian Act severely
restricted celebrations and prohibited aboriginal people from dancing
both on and off the reserves (Joseph 2006: 11).

Ellen Robinson, a Mi’kmaw elder, recalled in the 1930s that no more
than two aboriginal persons could gather in one place at one time.
Also, the Catholic church discouraged or forbade traditional dances,
the Mi’kmaw language and other cultural activities (Ellen Robinson,
personal communication, Dec. 14, 2005).

Sarah Denny, a Mi’kmaw elder now deceased, said the priests
constantly told her people that their dances and chants were the work
of the devil (as cited in Sable 1990: 17).

Caroline Gould, a Mi’kmaw elder from Waycobah Reserve (formerly
Wycocomagh) in Cape Breton, remembered that she could only receive Holy
Communion if she said prayers in English (Margaret Johnson and Caroline
Gould, personal communication, Dec. 19, 2005). Hpwever, not all priests
worked to destroy indigenous ways. Some would even join in the dances
themselves.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the colonizers forced the Mi’kmaq to settle
on a few large reservations such as Eskasoni and Indianbrook in Nova
Scotia, as well as Big Cove and Burnt Church in New Brunswick.
Settlement, or “centralization,” deeply affected Mi’kmaw culture. The
system cut the Mi’kmaq off from ancestral lands that held their
peoples’ memories.

Anti-language and cultural policies in school, church and other
places divided the older and younger generations. The Mi’kmaq could no
longer openly hand down the ceremonial rituals and cultural knowledge
their forbears had embedded in traditional songs and dances.

Yet the Mi’kmaq First Nation and its distinctive music, dance,
stories, language, ceremonies and traditions persist today in testimony
to the strength and determination of its people.

We have a new baby Eaglet over at Barton’s Cove~Take a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LhqVmzz7uo

What’s not mentioned is that Green Drinks is now happening in over 320 cities around the globe. Check www.greendrinks.org to see exactly where. Maybe there’s one where you’re going or where friends would be glad to hear about it.

‘Happy hour’ Goes Green: Third Wednesday series focuses on renewable energy, environment

By RICHIE DAVIS

Drinking of grasshoppers or Midori cocktails like The Grinch will be purely optional at the first in a monthly series of Green Drinks events in Greenfield.

Think of it as a “down-to-earth” happy hour to explore what renewable energy is all about and ways to take better care of the environment.

The series, which opens this Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Hope and Olive in Greenfield and will be hosted by a different “watering hole” the third Wednesday of each month, is the brainchild of Turners Falls filmmaker Carlyn Saltman, who helped create the EarthThrives.com Web site as a way to share stories and short videos of how local residents are saving energy.

After a November panel discussion about vital downtowns, it seemed like a way to foster discussion of ideas about energy conservation and the choices we make, she said.

“There’s no shortage of projects,” she said, “but there is a shortage of cross-fertilization among various groups and perspectives. This is meant to be informal and enrich people’s decision-making.”

The idea came from Green Drinks International, an umbrella group for an international collection of informal gatherings around the planet — including Northampton, Pittsfield and Great Barrington. Those events, described online at www.greendrinks.org are intended for “people who work in the environmental field,” but the new Franklin County series recognizes that we all work — and play — in the environmental field, whether we know it or not.

“This is a place for people to ask questions in an open-minded way,” said Saltman, who hopes the series will bring about greater understanding among “neighbors and colleagues we don’t usually get to talk with about these issues. … Just open-minded, open-ended conversation.”

Suggestions       Take action to protect the Catskills from development that threatens New York City’s water supply and the rural character of the area. Sign up for news about the Catskills and free seasonal wallpaper from The Catskill Center. Read my personal story on saving water under duress, and learn how you can do it, too (and why).       Scrapbook       Some pictures from my trip: Aaron and Peter took the lead on an unusually level trail. As the Catskills are mountainous, most hikes involve a climb. I could have spent all afternoon daydreaming by this emerald-green stream. This is the home of The Catskill Center, which works to preserve the natural resources and scenic beauty of the Catskills, while simultaneously improving the area’s economic prospects – along sustainable lines, of course!       Resources       Francis X Driscoll - Images of the Northern Catskills - photos of the region showing some of its more stunning landscapes Retrospective on the New York City Water Supply - personal essay and slide show on building the Ashokan Reservoir Catskills GIS Atlas - map-based exploration of the Catskills The State of U.S. Drinking Water - 2003 study by NRDC on drinking water systems in 19 cities   From BioGems newletter: Aha! by Sheryl Eisenberg Remember the thrill, at the climax of The Miracle Worker, when Helen Keller grasps her first word: water? As the liquid flows from a pump over her hands, a light suddenly goes on in her mind, and she makes the connection between the bewildering sign language she has been learning and the wetness running through her fingers. I had a similar, if less momentous, moment of illumination over water last fall. My husband, Peter, and I had driven up to the Catskills from Manhattan, two hours away, for a whirlwind tour of its woodlands, mountains and streams as guests of The Catskill Center, a local conservation and sustainable development organization. Our guides were Aaron Bennett and Chris Olney, directors of education and conservation, respectively, who know the natural landscape of the Catskills as intimately as I know the streets of New York. I had come to experience the connection between New York City and its watershed, and the first stop we made was the Ashokan Reservoir, one of six reservoirs in the Delaware-Catskill system that provide New York City with ninety percent of its water supply. From here, I was told, the water travels via the Catskill Aqueduct some ninety miles to the city. It was hard to visualize. The water in the reservoir, which looked much like a natural lake, appeared far too placid to be moving anywhere. And what did a modern-day aqueduct look like anyway? Standing in that serene and pastoral setting, I felt as removed from the city as I did from the Catskills when at home. But the connection between the two grew clearer over the next two days. Markers on the road for towns that had been destroyed (and, in some cases, relocated) to make room for the reservoir became the departure point for a history lesson on what it took to get the reservoir built a hundred years ago. I also saw a segment of the aqueduct — underground but clearly visible as a hump in the land. And on one of our hikes, I drank some Catskill water at its source — from a makeshift water fountain in the woods that consisted of nothing more than a pipe projecting from the rocky face of the hillside. Then came my Aha! experience. We were following in our car behind Tom Alworth, The Catskill Center’s executive director, when suddenly he pulled over, got out and motioned for us to do likewise. First, he pointed out the Shandaken Tunnel on our right, which brings water through the mountains from the system’s northernmost reservoir, the Schoharie, eighteen miles away, to a little canal running under the road. Then, we crossed the road to see the canal spilling its water into the Esopus Creek, which travels eleven miles from there to the Ashokan. As we watched the streams of water merge and race past, Tom said, “All that water’s going to you.” Finally, I got it. I could see, and even feel, that this was where the lifeblood of my city came from, and appreciate the gift of the people of the area in sharing their bounty with us. I was terribly excited — except for one thing. The water flowing in from the canal was brown and turbid, muddying the sparkling water of the Esopus. I remembered an article I’d read a couple of months earlier about this problem, which wasn’t one of chemical pollution, but clay and other particles that were routinely washing into the water after storms. Because of it, the city, which currently has the largest unfiltered water system in the United States, may be forced to build a multi-billion-dollar filtration system in the next few years. The problem may yet be solved by constructing a new water intake system at the Schoharie, but the larger meaning to me was clear and even visceral: What runs off from the land in the Catskills will eventually end up in my glass in New York. Another thing I came to understand deeply that day was how the city has gotten away without filtration for as long as it has. A large portion of the watershed overlaps with the 700,000-acre Catskill Park, a patchwork of private and public lands, including the Forest Preserve, which is protected as “forever wild” by the New York State Constitution. As a result of this far-sighted arrangement, development in the region has been contained, and with it, erosion and chemical runoff into the waterways. The protection isn’t quite good enough (there is a major threat right now from a proposal for two massive golf and hotel complexes), but it’s helped to hold the land together relatively well so far. What a blessing — and not just because it keeps our drinking water clean, but also because it preserves, just a hundred miles from the city, an honest-to-goodness wilderness. For animals, including black bears, bobcats, coyotes, bald eagles and rare migratory birds like Bicknell’s Thrush, the Catskills provide much-needed habitat; for people, hundreds of miles of hiking trails, famously good fly-fishing, skiing, rock-climbing, canoeing and other recreation in a beautiful half-wild, half-rural landscape — the same that inspired the Hudson River School painters more than a century ago. If you have a chance to go sometime, be sure to grab it. Whether your dream of a perfect day is tubing down a river, climbing a 4,000-foot peak or meandering through a woodsy setting as magical as Lothlorien, I guarantee you’ll find reason to say, “Eureka, I found it! And give the Catskills — or whatever your watershed is — a thought now and again when you turn on your tap. You may not live on the land where your water originates, but you do live off it. Care for it as if it were yours — because it is.

Down-to-earth interest fuels Green Fair

BY JEREMY DIRAC RECORDER STAFF

Published: Monday, April 21, 2008

GREENFIELD — On Saturday, David Lovler, or ‘Dr. Worm,’ a barefoot man
with glasses and a ponytail, showed an earthworm wriggling between his
fingers.

‘A
pound of worms could eat a pound (of compost) a day,’ Lovler said, his
orange and red shirt decorated with two bright button-pins saying
‘Worms eat my garbage.’

You can easily do indoor composting with earthworms or ‘vermicomposting,’ Lovler said. ‘It’s fun.’

Lovler’s table, under a large tent at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, was especially popular with kids.

The
fairgrounds was the site of the 27th Better Living Show and the fifth Green Fair. Lovler’s worms was one of many displays where people
learned: whatever it is, someone is trying to make it greener.

In
another tent, people ate toothpick samples of vegetarian Italian-and Chorizo-style sausages from Turners Falls’ Lightlife Foods.

A
grain product uses less energy than a meat product, said Nora
McAuliffe, a Lightlife employee from Turners Falls, as Desiree Ball and
her daughter, Audrey Lewis, took samples.

Lewis, a Stoneleigh-Burnham School student, said the samples and eating Bart’s ice cream were probably her favorites.

Her
mother, an organic farmer with dairy cattle and laying hens, said she
was happy learning she could send soil samples to the University of
Massachusetts for testing.

Meanwhile, Rob Setka, an engineer, learned about using renewable energy sources for power.

He
got into a conversation about geothermal energy with Beth Adams, who
had a table to tell people about her run for the Greenfield Town
Council. ‘Had Setka gotten a chance to talk to David Reynolds?’ Adams
asked.

Reynolds, the president of Atlantic Geothermal LLC, wore a
green-collared shirt and tie. His Florence-based company is seeking
community support for plans to build a 160-Megawatt geothermal power
plant for western Massachusetts.

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg,
D-Amherst and Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, sponsored a well-met
presentation for Atlantic before the state Department of Energy,
Reynolds said.

Setka’s partner, Joanne Reed, meanwhile learned
about ‘green’ burial from Carol Coan, of the Funeral Consumers Alliance
of Western Massachusetts Inc.

Reed wore a ‘Green Mountain Wind
Power’ baseball cap from a trip she and Setka had taken on a
biodiesel-run bus to Searsburg, Vt., to visit the windmills there.

The
most ecologically sound of options for disposing of bodies is to bury
them without a casket or vault, and without first preserving bodies in
formaldehyde, Coan said. Coan would like to see a green cemetery in
western Massachusetts, as the nearest one is in New York, she said.

‘I think it’s a ridiculous waste to do coffins,’ Reed said.

Becky
George-Kurber, coordinator for the Greenfield Business Association,
which put together the shows, said that the Better Living Show and
Green Fair drew at least as many people as last year.

George-Kurber said that the events went from 30 vendors last year to 47 this year and she had to turn people away.

Especially popular were new panel discussions about careers in environmental and energy-related fields, George-Kurber said.

But
beyond green there was plenty to keep you busy at the Better Living
Show, be it a free massage, a hot tub display, a vacuum cleaner to
clean up the most recalcitrant dust, a cooking display of the original
waterless cookware, soy-wax candles, or even invisible, radio-frequency
dog fences.

David Lovler, known as Dr. Worm, holds a clump of earthworms as Abigail and Nathan Patterson of Conway examine the worms at the Green Fair at the Franklin County Fairgrounds on Saturday. Lovler uses the worms as part of a composting effort

Down-to-earth interest fuels Green Fair

BY JEREMY DIRAC RECORDER STAFF

Published: Monday, April 21, 2008

GREENFIELD — On Saturday, David Lovler, or ‘Dr. Worm,’ a barefoot man
with glasses and a ponytail, showed an earthworm wriggling between his
fingers.

‘A pound of worms could eat a pound (of compost) a day,’ Lovler said, his
orange and red shirt decorated with two bright button-pins saying
‘Worms eat my garbage.’

You can easily do indoor composting with earthworms or ‘vermicomposting,’ Lovler said. ‘It’s fun.’

Lovler’s table, under a large tent at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, was especially popular with kids.

The fairgrounds was the site of the 27th Better Living Show and the fifth Green Fair. Lovler’s worms was one of many displays where people learned: whatever it is, someone is trying to make it greener.

In another tent, people ate toothpick samples of vegetarian Italian-and Chorizo-style sausages from Turners Falls’ Lightlife Foods.

A grain product uses less energy than a meat product, said Nora McAuliffe, a Lightlife employee from Turners Falls, as Desiree Ball and her daughter, Audrey Lewis, took samples.

Lewis, a Stoneleigh-Burnham School student, said the samples and eating Bart’s ice cream were probably her favorites.

Her mother, an organic farmer with dairy cattle and laying hens, said she
was happy learning she could send soil samples to the University of Massachusetts for testing.

Meanwhile, Rob Setka, an engineer, learned about using renewable energy sources for power.

He got into a conversation about geothermal energy with Beth Adams, who
had a table to tell people about her run for the Greenfield Town Council. ‘Had Setka gotten a chance to talk to David Reynolds?’ Adams asked.

Reynolds, the president of Atlantic Geothermal LLC, wore a green-collared shirt and tie. His Florence-based company is seeking community support for plans to build a 160-Megawatt geothermal power plant for western Massachusetts.

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst and Rep. Stephen Kulik D-Worthington, sponsored a well-met presentation for Atlantic before the state Department of Energy, Reynolds said.

Setka’s partner, Joanne Reed, meanwhile learned about ‘green’ burial from Carol Coan, of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts Inc.

Reed wore a ‘Green Mountain Wind Power’ baseball cap from a trip she and Setka had taken on a biodiesel-run bus to Searsburg, Vt., to visit the windmills there.

The most ecologically sound of options for disposing of bodies is to bury
them without a casket or vault, and without first preserving bodies in formaldehyde, Coan said. Coan would like to see a green cemetery in western Massachusetts, as the nearest one is in New York, she said.

‘I think it’s a ridiculous waste to do coffins,’ Reed said.

Becky George-Kurber, coordinator for the Greenfield Business Association,
which put together the shows, said that the Better Living Show and Green Fair drew at least as many people as last year.

George-Kurber said that the events went from 30 vendors last year to 47 this year and she had to turn people away.

Especially popular were new panel discussions about careers in environmental and energy-related fields, George-Kurber said.

But beyond green there was plenty to keep you busy at the Better Living
Show, be it a free massage, a hot tub display, a vacuum cleaner to clean up the most recalcitrant dust, a cooking display of the original waterless cookware, soy-wax candles, or even invisible, radio-frequency dog fences.

The fossilized human feces found in Oregon’s Paisley Caves have been radiocarbon dated to 12,300 B.C. Dennis LeRoy Jenkins

All Things Considered, April 3, 2008 · Archaeologists are abuzz over the discovery of several 14,000-year-old pieces of fossilized human excrement found in Oregon.

These
coprolites, as they’re called by experts, are remarkable for several
reasons. For one thing, they’re older than most artifacts left by the
earliest Americans. For another, they contain DNA, which gives
scientists a rare opportunity to learn about the first people to arrive
in North America.

Ancient Camp Site

Archaeologists
knew about Oregon’s Paisley Caves back in the late 1930s. These shallow
caves were carved into a hillside by a prehistoric lake. Inside, they
found animal bones, stone tools and other signs that humans camped or
lived there. But in 2002, a team dug deeper and found what you might
call pay dirt, says archeologist Dennis Jenkins.

“At the bottom
of cave No. 5, we recovered horse and camel bones and a coprolite which
produced human DNA,” Jenkins says. He and colleagues at the University
of Oregon eventually found hundreds of coprolites. Six contained human
DNA. What amazed Jenkins was how old they were: 14,300 years.

Before the Clovis

That
radiocarbon date is important because no one has been able to agree on
when people came to the Americas. The earliest clear evidence is about
13,000 years ago, but it’s mostly stone tools and butchered animal
bones. These were left by the Clovis people, traditionally thought of
as the first Americans.

But nobody had human remains that old,
not even bones or teeth. So fossil feces — especially with DNA — is a
watershed discovery, says Jenkins.

“We finally have human
remains or cells,” he says, “basically molecular evidence for human
beings before the Clovis time, and they’re basically the individual’s
signature that they left.”

And they left it at least 1,000 years before the Clovis people.

Out of Asia

And the DNA tells more.

“Our
results show that the oldest evidence we have to date of human presence
in North America is definitely of Native American origin,” says Eske
Willerslev, the University of Copenhagen scientist who extracted the
DNA.

The coprolite DNA shows certain genetic patterns — called
haplogroups by geneticists — common to present-day Native Americans.
These patterns are also found among certain people in eastern Asia.
That adds weight to the hypothesis that people first came here across
the Bering Sea on a land bridge connecting the two continents.

On the Menu

Jenkins
says scientists are still teasing out more information from the fossil
feces; not surprisingly, for example, what early American cuisine was
like.

“They certainly ate sage grouse and smaller animals,” he
says. “I think we recovered some chipmunk bones from one of the
coprolites.”

Jenkins says there are residues in the coprolites from types of plants that still can be found near the caves.

“What
we have,” he says, “are visitors coming for a short stay, doing some
hunting and collecting. They would have been looking out over a grassy
plain, probably with a pretty rich environment, probably a few trees
here and there, junipers, some pine trees possibly, but mostly an open
shrub and grassland.”

Widening the Picture

There
are some puzzles raised by the mix of coprolites in the cave bottom,
however. Thomas Dillehay is an archeologist at Vanderbilt University.
He says some of the coprolites “did not have human DNA, and some of
them had canine, perhaps fox, DNA. So those admixtures are somewhat
problematic and those problems need to be resolved in the future.”

So there’s a chance that the coprolites were left by canines, or contaminated by them.

But
Jenkins notes that some of the coprolites contain human hair and human
proteins, in addition to human DNA. He suggests that if they were left
by dogs, then they were dogs that were eating humans, which doesn’t
change the conclusion that people lived — and died —there 14,300 years
ago.

With hundreds more coprolites to examine, genetics expert
Eske Willerslev says there’s lots they can still find out from the DNA.

“We can actually investigate, you know, what was the diversity
of the people first entering the Americas,” says Willerslev. “How many
people were there, you know, what was the population, how was the
frequency of females vs. males?”

The research on the Paisley Caves coprolites appears in this week’s issue of the journal Science.