[Verginius Rufus]

How do they know that the "Clovis hunters" looked like the American Indians who were living in North America in A.D. 1492, rather than like the "Paleoamericans" found at the South American sites? What is the oldest human skull in North America which could pass for a direct ancestor of Hiawatha?

By modern-day Australians, I assume they have in mind the aborigines, not the Crocodile Dundee types.

[Alas Babylon!]

"You call THAT a clovis point?" (Pulls out much larger stone spearhead....) "Now THIS is a clovis point, mate!!!!

[blam]

"How do they know that the "Clovis hunters" looked like the American Indians who were living in North America in A.D. 1492, rather than like the "Paleoamericans" found at the South American sites? "

Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, in one of his books, says that the oldest (undisputed) Mongoloid skeleton ever found is only 10,000 years old. It looks like a fairly recent body style.
The oldest modern human skeleton found in Japan is that of a Jomon, 13,000 years old. The Jomon are the ancestors of the Ainu who are of the Kennewick Man variety. I believe the Ainu types were here at least 25,000 years ago and Oppenheimer's DNA studies seem to support this early entry.

What is the oldest human skull in North America which could pass for a direct ancestor of Hiawatha?"

I've read 6,000 years...and, I will admit that I can't recall if it was 6,000 years ago or 6,000BC. Either way, they're late comers.

BTW, I'm glad to see them using the term 'paleoAmericans' instead of 'paleoIndians'.

[blam]

"By modern-day Australians, I assume they have in mind the aborigines, not the Crocodile Dundee types."

'First Americans Were Australian'

[blam]

First Americans

"And Spirit Cave Man doesn't look like the Siberians of today, either. From the shape of his skull, it's clear that he had a longer, narrower head, flatter cheekbones, and a more prominent chin than those typical of both northern Asians and Native Americans today. In fact, in recent analyses of some ten early American skulls, anthropologists have found just two individuals who could pass as kin of either contemporary northern Asians or Native Americans."