Your Daily Giant 6/28/2013

 

 

 

Today's Daily Giant is a continuation of an earlier post from The Washington Post, January 16th, 1910. Captain Newton H. Chittenden the famous ethnologist, archaeologist and explorer is the focus of this story. Chittenden is noted to have spent 20 years devoted to ethnological research for the benefits of governments, society at large and accuracy in history. Here is a bio of Chittenden "The first white man to explore the interior of the Queen Charlotte Islands, Captain Newton Chittenden was an American lawyer and lecturer who wrote both popular and governmental reports. He was a Union Calvary Regiment officer during the Civil War who was admitted to the Supreme Court. He also exhibited Indian and Inuit relics in Europe. These he collected while travelling 3,400 miles on burro and foot through the Southwest, Northwest Coast, and Central Plains." During his explorations for the Government, Chittenden collected the massive skull of a giant. The article states that he "long treasured it as a priceless possession" and the skull was the "of great interest to European Anthropologists who examined it." He was offered great sums to part with this skull but he ended up donating it to the Smithsonian Institution. Assistant director of Anthropology Hrdlicka when presented with the skull said it surpassed any previously in the institution. We find in the Smithsonian's Annual report of 1911 noted on page 82 in their list of accessions- Chittenden, Capt. Newton H., Brooklyn N.Y., Skull of Flat Head Indian, two head flattening pillows and the hunting shirt of a half-blood Cree-Indian (51082). This is the massive skull of the giant skeleton in question, received by the Smithsonian. Seven years earlier, the following was reported in The San Francisco Call, December 31, 1903 pg 6. "Captain Newton W. Chittenden, the explorer and lecturer, has proved the theory he has held for some time that this neighborhood was formerly the home of giants by finding the bones of one of the species... The bones found by Captain Chittenden make almost a complete skeleton...The thigh bones are large and measured by present day standards, indicate that the owner of them must have been a man at least eight feet high. Half the skull is gone but the half that remains shows that the head must have contained about twice as many brains as that of the modern man. The skull is like one found several years ago in West Berkeley when excavations were being made for the foundation of a building. "I have no doubt," said Captain Chittenden, "that ages ago giants roamed around this country. This man was no monstrosity, such as we occasionally have nowadays, but a perfectly formed man and possessed of great intellectual powers. I hope to continue my investigations in the hope of finding more of the bones of our ancestors." Captain Chittenden will present the skeleton to the Berkeley High School." Quite a damning bit of evidence for the institution that continues to proclaim to this day that giants are a myth. "I have no doubt," says Jim Vieira, "that ages ago giants roamed around this country.