Harvard researcher on Native American running, from prehistory to the present-day Boston Marathon

In anticipation of the 2016 Boston Marathon, Harvard paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman and Chris Sockalexis, relative of 1912 Olympian Andrew Sockalexis, give a brief overview of the diverse traditions of endurance running in Native American cultures. From the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn, Native Americans have run long distances to hunt, to deliver messages, and to celebrate rituals. Lieberman says it's no surprise that the history of modern competitive running is peppered with elite Native American runners, such as Tom Longboat (Onondaga Nation), who won the 1907 Boston Marathon and competed in the 1908 Olympics at London; and Ellison "Tarzan" Brown (Narragansett Nation), winner of the Boston Marathon in 1936 and 1939, and competitor in the Olympics at Berlin in 1936.