btw, being partially of native american descent myself, i once read about an [N.A.] indian culture whose language included absolutely no provisions for the concept of past, present or future... anyone know something about this?

Wow, Caradea. Which nation do your ancestors come from?

I have no idea of which nation uses only one tense but it is quite similar to to the Japanese language. It has no tenses either. Einstein's Theory of Relativity must have been hell for them to translate!!!

It sounds plausible that there was a common belief that crossed the Pacific rim over the millenia and embedded itself into the many developing languages of the time.