There have been claims that Navajo were recent migrants from Asia as recent as 1200AD.

Gavin menzies also claims Navajo were influenced by Chinese.

They sort of look similar but the navajo didn't even have writing or bronze casting or the horse.

click here

and here

Maybe there are some influence from Chinese, I can't be sure. But apparently it has not become the major component. Also, I'm not sure how they would speak Chinese, do they speak Cantonese?

Actually I seriously doubt of this. IMO Navajo looks more like Southeast Asian than Chinese. Also, their language is not even Sino-Tibetan. Of course, some of the physical characteristics might be quite similar, afterall they are both "Mongoloids".
The more doubtful thing is about 1200 AD. If it were only 800 years of separation, at least a Cantonese would not distinguish them from Chinese.
The 4 maternal lineages are just too common in East Asia and Americas, how does it hint directly to Chinese?
Furthermore: "the Navajo are some distance from the Chinese – further away than any other Indians people he studied"

I'm still rather suspicious of Menzies's claims. Actually, I don't believe them at all.

The Navajo story of creation is also rather distinct and very much in they line of what can be seen as perhaps even what is now considered stereotypically North American Indian (i.e. the coyote as a trickster and etc.). I really doubt any influence and/or origins in common with the Chinese other than the fact that they might have some deep ancestor long ago (but we can say that about every other ethnic group in the end can't we?).

There is no denial,natives of N & S Americas migrated from Asia continent & they're of Asiatic-stock.However,it's over-stretched to claim Chinese culture influenced Navajo.

There is a much stronger connection with the northwest Pacific Indians and the similarity to Shang artwork. The Tao Tie of the Shang bears a great resemblance to the totems and masks.
You can see that there might once have been a common influence between those cultures a long time ago.

New evidence is showing that the origins of the native peoples of the Americas is much more diverse. The good 'ol Bering Strait theory is having a bit of competition these days. New evidence and theories suggest not one, but multiple migration routes including the Bering Strait theory, boat hoppers along the coast of western North America (indicating that perhaps people were in the Americas much earlier than historians and archaeologists had previously suspected), boat hoppers from the lower Pacific, and even people in boats following routes from Europe to Greenland and eventually to the North American mainland. It's a bit more complex than they old "They're all Asians like us" rhetoric.

Presumably these days you can settle such speculations definitively with just some DNA sample testing. Less artful than other methods perhaps but it cuts out the guesswork on questions of genetic lineage.

I have been reading about these alternative theories for a long time.
They have only now become more accepted by mainstream historians.
About 20 years ago I saw a short clip in a show that suggested that some of the arrow heads that were being found along the coastal areas of the southern east coast were exactly like the type of arrowhead that until then had only been found in stone age Spain.
The find suggested that there might be a connection between these particular style of chipping pattern and some sort of migration between Spain and America.
Just recently I saw where academics have been forced to accept new evidence that America was peopled long before what was the accepted standard for the oldest humans in the Americas.



Yes, There is no doubt that this should be a great help, but just how many 'pure-blood' native Americans are we really going to find to test.
I may be mistaken, but I do not believe that the DNA testing shows when a gene was introduced to a races gene pool.
Test me and you will find Indian genes, along with Celtic ones. At what generation did those become infused into my families line?

That's a rediculous claim chinese influencing navajos? yeah right i've spent a great deal of time in new mexico. 1st Navajos do not look very similar to typical east asians. they maybe look about as similar as.........well lets say greeks to chinese. Their are a great deal of different facial features between the too. And the cultures are not similar at all

I don't doubt multiple origins & migrations.

It doesn't completely erase the connection to Asia continent.

In my opinion, the people from the tribes of the northwest US and Canada seem to have more "Asian" characteristics. Here is a picture of an Inuit (Eskimo) man. Even their dances remind me of Thai dancers... the women use a fan and the swaying of the head and the way the arms are moved and positioned.

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Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse is a Lakota (Sioux) actor:

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I've even thought that the Apache looked more Asian, like Naiche (Chiricahua), than the Navajo (Dineh)

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Kimchee

Here is another photo of actor, Eric Schweig, who is of Inuit heritage: (his German surname is only because he was adopted)

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Kimchee

edit: on second thought, I believe he was partly Metis, which is of mixed Native heritage, too.

Sorry for all of the posts, but I couldn't upload all of the pictures in one due to limited space:

Finally, some shots of Navajo people.

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Kimchee

Hmm..................those navajos look pretty much like the average native americans look they don't look asians





inuits are going to look asian it's because their related to tribes in siberia who are in turn related to mongolians

I find the people in the very last picture posted by Kimchee to have very asian features.

On the streets I see plenty of Chinese without typical Asian features, except for their color. Especially people from Anhui often look more European than Han. And once I met the actual copy of Mr Bean, just his skin was darker. Nevertheless ...

BJ