THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

The ancestors of today's Americans began their westward trek many, many years ago. But today's historian has almost no interest in most of that westward movement, the part that took place before they crossed the Atlantic into America. Few of today's Americans are aware that most of the real and historical "Wagons West!" saga ever took place.

For thousands of years, the ancestors of today's white Americans traveled from the ancient Indo-European homeland somewhere far to the east of Poland. They migrated steadily west and south from there. Our Indo-European ancestors moved steadily westward into Europe.

Only after they had been in Western Europe for many, many centuries did a part of this Indo-European people go on to settle America.

Americans who arrived on these shores over a century and a half ago would not have recognized ancient Roman or Egyptian or Grecian housing and clothing. But the homes of the Germanic and Celtic "barbarians" would have looked very familiar indeed.

The "barbarians'" clothing was not the togas or robes of Greece or Rome, much less that of Egypt. They wore shirts and pants. An old Celtic outfit looks like a suit of primitive but very recognizable Western clothing.

But our children are taught that THEIR ancestors had no history. History comes from Egypt, up through Greece and Rome, and on to our brutish, scarcely human ancestors in Northern Europe.

Back in the real world, real Western history goes back to a westward trek our American ancestors would have readily recognized.

We have no idea when the first wagon set out.

We do know that the first wagon journey that led to to today's America was at least four thousand years ago. Some of our ancestors were probably called "Scythians" in the ancient Middle East. They brought the wheel to Egypt. Before them, the Egyptians had no wheel. Egypt had no iron until another group of people rolled south, an Indo-European group called the Hittites, and brought it with them. In fact, there is no real evidence that the Egyptians' rigid, priest-ridden, pyramidal society ever INVENTED anything.

Egyptian history is filled with these northern invasions. Greek history is also a series of northern invasions. Then Roman history becomes a series of northern invasions. In fact, the Italic tribes, some of whom became Romans themselves, were almost certainly northern invaders into the Italian peninsula before history takes note of them.

But the people who rolled into Egypt and into Greece and into Rome were not only from the north, but from the northeast as well. They rolled into Iran about two thousand years Before Christ and the name "Iran" -- as you probably know -- means "Aryan." Aryan is also the word those who invaded India from the north and set up the caste system called themselves.

"Caste" is a Portuguese word. The old Indian word for caste is "varna," which means "color."

All of these groups were part of the great movement of the same people, the people the ancients called "Scythians" and "barbarians." Other branches of this same westward drive ended up in America and bred you and me.

Ireland was named "Erin" by the Celts for exactly the same reason that "Iran" and the Indian "Aryans" got their names. Erin, Iran, Aryan -- they are all the same name. One of the great linguistic discoveries of the nineteenth century was that many words from ancient Persian and ancient Indian, or Sanskrit, are almost exactly the same as the same words in English, Old Irish (Gaelic), German, Greek, Latin, Russian and all the languages related to them.

And what is the excuse for this total perversion of history? It is the same one that pops up everywhere else in our perverted society: Hitler talked about Aryans, so anybody who traces their history this way is anaziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.