Some inquirers, not always without hesitation, suggest that the Indians
inhabiting the United States two hundred years ago were degenerate
descendants of the Mound-Builders. The history of the world shows that
civilized communities may lose their enlightenment, and sink to a
condition of barbarism; but the degraded descendants of a civilized
people usually retain traditional recollections of their ancestors, or
some traces of the lost civilization, perceptible in their customs and
their legendary lore. The barbarism of the wild Indians of North America
had nothing of this kind. It was original barbarism. There was nothing
to indicate that either the Indians inhabiting our part of the
continent, or their ancestors near or remote, had ever been civilized,
even to the extent of becoming capable of settled life and organized
industry. And, besides, the constant tradition of these Indians,
supported by concurring circumstantial evidence, appears to warrant the
belief that they came to this part of the continent originally from the
west or northwest, at a period too late to connect them in this way with
the Mound-Builders.
Two hundred years ago the Valley of the Mississippi, and the regions
east of it, were occupied by two great families of Indians, the Iroquois
and the Algonquins, each divided into separate tribes. Between these two
families there was a radical difference of language. The Indians of New
England were Algonquins. The Iroquois dwelt chiefly in New York, and
around Lake Erie, from Niagara to Detroit, although separate communities
of the group to which they immediately belonged were found in other
places, such as the Dacotahs and Winnebagoes at the West, and the
isolated Tuscaroras of the Carolinas. Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, who has
discussed "Indian Migrations" in several interesting papers printed in
the North American Review, thinks the Iroquois were separated very early
from the same original stem which produced the great Dacotah family. The
Algonquins were spread most widely over the country when it was first
visited by Europeans.
Among all these Indians there was a tradition that their ancestors came
from a distant region in the Northwest, and this tradition is accepted
as true by those who have studied them most carefully. Mr. Morgan
supposes they came across the continent, and estimates that not less
than a thousand years must have passed between the departure of the
various groups of the Algonquin family from a common centre in the
northwest and the condition in which they were found two hundred years
ago. When Europeans began to explore North America, this family had
become divided into several branches, and each of these branches had a
modified form of the common language, which, in turn, had developed
several dialects. A long period was required to effect so great a
change; but, whatever estimate of the time may be accepted, it seems to
be a fact that the Algonquins came to the Mississippi Valley long after
the Mound-Builders left it, and also later than the Iroquois or Dacotah
family. That the Iroquois preceded the Algonquins at the East appears to
be indicated by the relative position of the two families in this part
of the country. Mr. Parkman, in his work on "The Jesuits in North
America," describes it as follows: "Like a great island in the midst of
the Algonquins lay the country of tribes speaking the generic tongue of
the Iroquois."
There is no trace or probability of any direct relationship whatever
between the Mound-Builders and the barbarous Indians found in the
country. The wild Indians of this continent had never known such a
condition as that of the Mound-Builders. They had nothing in common with
it. In Africa, Asia, and elsewhere among the more uncultivated families
of the human race, there is not as much really _original_ barbarism as
some anthropologists are inclined to assume; but there can be no serious
doubt that the wild Indians of North America were original barbarians,
born of a stock which had never, at any time, been either civilized or
closely associated with the influences of civilization.
Some of the pottery and wrought ornaments of the Mound-Builders is equal
in finish and beauty to the finest manufactured by the ancient
Peruvians. They constructed artificial ponds like the aguadas in Central
America. They used sun-dried brick, especially at the South, where walls
of this material have been discovered supporting some of the mounds and
embankments. They manufactured cloth. But their intelligence, skill, and
civilized ways are shown not only by their constructions and
manufactures, but also by their mining works. Who can imagine the
Iroquois or the Algonquins working the copper mines with such
intelligence and skill, and such a combination of systematic and
persistent industry! They had no tradition of such a condition of life,
no trace of it. It is absurd to suppose a relationship, or a connection
of any kind, between the original barbarism of these Indians and the
civilization of the Mound-Builders. The two peoples were entirely
distinct and separate from each other. If they really belonged to the
same race, which is extremely doubtful, we must go back through
unnumbered ages to find their common origin and the date of their
separation.