BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION IN AMERICA
_America Was Peopled from the Old World_.--The origin of the people of
America has been the subject of perennial controversy. Gradually,
however, as the studies of the human race and their migrations have
increased, it is pretty well established that the one stream of
migration came from Asia across a land connection along the Aleutian
Islands, which extended to Alaska. At an early period, probably from
15,000 to 20,000 years age, people of the Mongoloid type crossed into
America and gradually passed southward, some along the coast line,
others through the interior of Alaska and thence south. This stream of
migration continued down through Mexico, Central America, South
America, and even to Patagonia. It also had a reflex movement eastward
toward the great plains and the Mississippi valley. There is a
reasonable conjecture, however, that another stream of migration passed
from Europe at a time when the British Islands were joined to the
mainland, and the great ice cap made a solid bridge to Iceland,
Greenland, and possibly to Labrador. It would have been possible for
these people to have come during the third glacial period, at the close
of the Old Stone Age, or soon after in the Neolithic period. The
traditions of the people on the west coast all state their geographical
origin in the northwest. The traditions of the Indians of the Atlantic
coast trace their origins to the northeast.
The people of the west coast are mostly of the round-headed type
(brachycephalic), while those of the east coast have been of the
long-headed type (dolichocephalic). The two types have mingled in
their migration southward until we have the long heads and the round or
broad heads extending the whole {187} length of the two continents.
Intermingled with these are those of the middle derivative type, or
mesocephalic. From these sources there have developed on the soil of
America, the so-called American Indians of numerous tribes, each with
its own language and with specialized physical and mental types. While
the color of the skin has various shades, the coarse, straight black
hair and brown eyes are almost general features of the whole Indian
race.
At different centres in both North and South America, tribes have
become more or less settled and developed permanent phases of early
civilization, strongly marked by the later Neolithic cultures. In some
exceptional cases, the uses of copper, bronze, and gold are to be
noted. Perhaps the most important centres are those of the Incas in
Peru, the Mayas, Aztecs, and Terra-humares of Mexico, the
cliff-dwellers and Pueblos of southwestern United States, the
mound-builders of the Mississippi valley, and the Iroquois nation of
northeastern United States and Canada. At the time of the coming of
the Europeans to America, the Indian population in general was nomadic,
in the hunter-fisher stage of progress; but many of the tribes had
tentatively engaged in agriculture, cultivating maize, squashes, and in
some cases fruits. Probably the larger supply of food was from
animals, birds, fish, and shell-fish, edible roots and grains, such as
the wild rice, and fruits from the native trees in the temperate and
tropical countries. The social organization was based upon the family
and the tribe, and, in a few instances, a federation of tribes like
that of the Iroquois nation.
_The Incas of Peru_.--When the Spaniards under Pizarro undertook the
conquest of the Peruvians, they found the Inca civilization at its
highest state of development. However, subsequent investigations
discovered other and older seats of civilization of a race in some ways
more highly developed than those with whom they came in contact. Among
the evidences of this ancient civilization were great temples built of
stone, used as public buildings for the administration of religious
{188} rights [Transcriber's note: rites?], private buildings of
substantial order, and paved roads with numerous bridges. There were
likewise ruins of edifices apparently unfinished, and traditions of an
ascendent race which had passed away before the development of the
Incas of Pizarro's time. In the massive architecture of their
buildings there was an attempt to use sculpture on an elaborate scale.
They showed some skill in the arts and industries, such as ornamental
work in gold, copper, and tin, and the construction of pottery on a
large scale. They had learned to weave and spin, and their clothing
showed some advancement in artistic design.
In agriculture they raised corn and other grains, and developed a state
of pastoral life, although the llama was the only domesticated animal
of service. Great aqueducts were built and fertilizers were used to
increase the productive value of the soil. The dry climate of this
territory necessitated the use of water by irrigation, and the limited
amount of tillable soil had forced them to use fertilizers to get the
largest possible return per acre.
The Peruvians, or Incas, were called the children of the sun. They had
a sacred feeling for the heavenly bodies, and worshipped the sun as the
creator and ruler of the universe. They had made some progress in
astronomy, by a characterization of the sun and moon and chief planets,
mostly for a religious purpose. However, they had used a calendar to
represent the months, the year, and the changing seasons. Here, as
elsewhere in primitive civilization, religion becomes an important
factor in social control. The priest comes in as the interpreter and
controller of mysteries, and hence an important member of the
community. Religious sacrifices among the Peruvians were commonly of
an immaculate nature, being mostly of fruits and flowers. This
relieved them of the terrors of human sacrifices so prevalent in early
beginnings of civilization where religion became the dominant factor of
life. Hence their religious life was more moderate than that of many
nations where religious control was more powerful. Yet in governmental
{189} affairs and in social life, here as in other places, religion was
made the means of enslaving the masses of the people.
The government of the Incas was despotic. It was developed through the
old family and tribal life to a status of hereditary aristocracy.
Individuals of the oldest families became permanent in government, and
these were aided and supported by the priestly order. Caste prevailed
to a large extent, making a great difference between the situation of
the nobility and the peasants and slaves. Individuals born into a
certain group must live and die within that group. Hence the people
were essentially peaceable, quiet, and not actively progressive. But
we find that the social life, in spite of the prominence of the priest
and the nobility, was not necessarily burdensome. Docile and passive
in nature, they were ready to accept what appeared to them a
well-ordered fate. If food, clothing, and shelter be furnished, and
other desires remain undeveloped, and life made easy, what occasion was
there for them to be moved by nobler aspirations? Without higher
ideals, awakened ambition, and the multiplication of new desires, there
was no hope of progress. The people seemed to possess considerable
nobility of character, and were happy, peaceful, and well disposed
toward one another, even though non-progressive conditions gave
evidence that they had probably reached the terminal bud of progress of
their branch of the human race.
As to what would have been the outcome of this civilization had not the
ruthless hand of the Spaniard destroyed it, is a matter of conjecture.
How interesting it would have been if these people could have remained
unmolested for 400 years as an example of progress or retardation of a
race. Students then could, through observation, have learned a great
lesson concerning the development of the human race. Is it possible
when a branch of the human race has only so much potential power based
upon hereditary development, upon attitude toward life, and upon
influence of environmental conditions, that after working out its
normal existence it grows old and decays and dies, just as even the
sturdy oak has its normal life {190} and decay? At any rate, it seems
that the history of the human race repeats itself over and over again
with thousands of examples of this kind. When races become highly
specialized along certain lines and are unadaptable along other lines,
changes in climate, soil, food supply, or conflict with other races
cause them to perish.
If we admit this to be the universal fate of tribes and races, there is
one condition in which the normal life of the race can be prolonged,
and that is by contact with other races which bring in new elements,
and make new accommodations, not only through biological heredity, but
through social heredity which causes a new lease of life to the tribe.
Of course the deteriorating effects of a race of less culture would
have a tendency to shorten the spiritual if not the physical life of
the race. Whatever conjecture we may have as to the past and the
probable future of such a race, it is evident that the Peruvians had
made a strong and vigorous attempt at civilization. Their limited
environment and simple life were not conducive to progressive ideas,
and gave little inducement for inventive genius to lead the race
forward. But even as we find them, the sum-total of their civilization
compares very favorably with the sum-total of the civilization of the
Spaniards, who engaged to complete their destruction. Different were
these Spaniards in culture and learning, it is true, but their great
difference is in the fact that the Spaniards had the tools and
equipment for war and perhaps a higher state of military organization
than the peace-loving Peruvians.
_Aztec Civilization in Mexico_.--When Cortez in 1525 began his conquest
of Mexico, he found a strong political organization under the Emperor
Montezuma, who had through conquest, diplomacy, and assumption of power
united all of the tribes in and around Mexico City in a strong
federation. These people were made up of many different tribes. At
this period they did not show marked development in any particular
line, except that of social organization. The people that occupied
this great empire ruled by Montezuma, with the seat of power {191} at
Mexico City, were called Aztecs. The empire extended over all of lower
Mexico and Yucatan. As rapidly as possible Montezuma brought adjacent
tribes into subjection, and at the time of the Spanish conquest he
exercised lordship over a wide country. So far as can be ascertained,
arts and industries practised by most of these tribes were handed down
from extinct races that had a greater inventive genius and a higher
state of progress. The conquering tribes absorbed and used the arts of
the conquered, as the Greeks did those of the conquered Aegeans.
The practice of agriculture, of the industrial arts, such as clothing,
pottery, and implements of use and ornaments for adornment, showed
advancement in industrial life. They built large temples and erected
great buildings for the worship of their gods. There was something in
their worship bordering on sun-worship, although not as distinctive as
the sun-worship of the Peruvians. They were highly developed in the
use of gold and copper, and produced a good quality of pottery. They
had learned the art of decorating the pottery, and their temples also
were done in colors and in bas-relief. They had developed a language
of merit and had a hieroglyphic expression of the same. They had a
distinct mythology, comprising myths of the sun and of the origin of
various tribes, the origin of the earth and of man. They had developed
the idea of charity, and had a system of caring for the poor, with
hospitals for the sick. Notwithstanding this altruistic expression,
they offered human sacrifices of maidens to their most terrible god.
As before stated, there were many tribes, consequently many languages,
although some of them were near enough alike that members of different
tribes could be readily understood. Also the characteristic traits
varied in different tribes. It is not known whence they came, although
their tradition points to the origin of the northwest. Undoubtedly,
each tribe had a myth of its own origin, but, generally speaking, they
all came from the northwest. Without doubt, at the time of the coming
of the Spaniards, the tribes were non-progressive except in {192}
government. The coming of the Spaniards was a rude shock to their
civilization, and with a disintegration of the empire, the spirit of
thrift and endeavor was quenched. They became, as it were, slaves to a
people with so-called higher civilization, who at least had the tools
with which to conquer if they had not higher qualities of human
character than those of the conquered.
_The Earliest Centres of Civilization in Mexico_.--Prior to the
formation of the empire of the Aztecs, conquered by the Spaniards,
there existed in Mexico centres of development of much greater
antiquity. The more important among these were Yucatan and Mitla. A
large number of the ruins of these ancient villages have been
discovered and recorded. The groups of people who developed these
contemporary civilizations were generally known as Toltecs. The Maya
race, the important branch of the Toltecs, which had its highest
development in Yucatan, was supposed to have come from a territory
northeast of Mexico City, and traces of its migrations are discovered
leading south and east into Yucatan. It is not known at what period
these developments began, but probably their beginnings might have been
traced back to 15,000 years, although the oldest known tablet found
gives a record of 202 years B.C. Other information places their coming
much later, at about 387 A.D.
All through Central America and southern Mexico ruins of these ancient
villages have been discovered. While the civilizations of all were
contemporaneous, different centres show different lines of development.
There is nothing certain concerning the origin of the Toltecs, and they
seemed to have practically disappeared so far as independent tribal
life existed after their conquest by the Aztecs, although the products
of their civilization were used by many other tribes that were living
under the Aztec rule, and, indeed, traces of their civilization exist
to-day in the living races of southern and central Mexico. Tradition
states that the Toltecs reached their highest state of power between
the seventh and the twelfth {193} centuries, but progress in the
interpretation of their hieroglyphics gives us but few permanent
records. The development of their art was along the line of heavy
buildings with bas-reliefs and walls covered with inscriptions
recording history and religious symbols. One bas-relief represents the
human head, with the facial angle shown at forty-five degrees. It was
carved in stone of the hardest composition and was left unpainted.
Ethnologists have tried repeatedly and in vain to show there was a
resemblance of this American life to the Egyptian civilization. In
art, architecture, and industry, in worship and the elements of
knowledge, there may be some resemblance to Egyptian models, but there
is no direct evidence sufficient to connect these art products with
those of Egypt or to assume that they must have come from the same
centre. The construction of pyramids and terraces on a large scale
does remind us of the tendency of the Oriental type of civilization.
In all of their art, however, there was a symmetrical or conventional
system which demonstrated that the indigenous development must have
been from a common centre. Out of the fifty-two cities that have been
explored which exhibit the habitations of the Toltec civilization, many
exhibit ruins of art and architecture worthy of study.
In the construction of articles for use and ornament, copper and gold
constituted the chief materials, and there was also a great deal of
pottery. The art of weaving was practised, and the soil cultivated to
a considerable extent. The family life was well developed, though
polygamy appears to have been practised as a universal custom. The
form of government was the developed family of the patriarchal type,
and, where union of tribes had taken place, an absolute monarchy
prevailed. War and conquest here, as in all other places where contact
of tribes appeared, led to slavery. The higher classes had a large
number of slaves, probably taken as prisoners of war. This indicates a
degree of social progress in which enemies were preserved for slavery
rather than exterminated in war. Their laws and regulations indicate a
high sense of {194} justice in establishing the relationship of
individuals within the tribe or nation. These people were still in the
later Neolithic Age, but with signs of departure from this degree of
civilization in the larger use of the metals. There were some
indications that bronze might have been used in making ornaments.
Perhaps they should be classified in the later Neolithic Age of the
upper status of barbarism. Recent excavations in Central America,
Yucatan, and more recently in the valley near Mexico City, have brought
to light many new discoveries. Representations of early and later
cultures show a gradual progress in the use of the arts, some of the
oldest of which show a great resemblance to the early Mongolian culture
of Asia.
_The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest_.--In northern Mexico and Arizona
there are remains of ancient buildings which seem to indicate that at
one time a civilization existed here that has long since become
extinct. Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, irrigation was
practised in this dry territory. Indeed, in the Salt River valley of
Arizona, old irrigation ditches were discovered on the lines of which
now flow the waters that irrigate the modern orchards and vineyards.
The discoveries in recent years in the southwest territory indicate
that this ancient civilization had been destroyed by the warlike tribes
that were ever ready to take possession of centres of culture and
possess or destroy the accumulation of wealth of the people who toiled.
If one could fill in the missing links of history with his imagination,
it would be easy to conjecture that the descendants of these people
fled to the mountains, and became the Cliff-Dwellers of the Southwest.
These people built their homes high on the cliffs, in caves or on
projecting prominences. Here they constructed great communal
dwellings, where they could defend themselves against all enemies.
They were obliged to procure their food and water from the valley, and
to range over the surrounding _mesas_ in the hunt. Gradually they
stole down out of the cliffs to live in the valleys and built large
communal houses, many of which now are in existence in this territory.
{195}
These people have several centres of civilization which are similar in
general, but differ in many particulars. They are classed as Pueblo
Indians. Among these centres are the Hopi Indians, the Zunian, Taoan,
Shoshonean, and many others.[1] The pre-history of these widely
extended groups of Indians is not known, but in all probability they
have been crowded into this southwest arid region by warlike tribes,
and for the shelter and protection of the whole tribe have built large
houses of stone or adobe. The idea of protection seems to have been
the dominant one in building the cliff houses and the adobe houses of
the plain. The latter were entered by means of ladders placed upon the
wall, so that they could ascend from one story to another. The first
story had no doors or windows, but could be entered by means of a
trap-door.
The Pueblos were, as a rule, people of low stature, but of an
intelligent and pleasing appearance. They dressed in cotton goods or
garments woven from the fibre of the yucca plant, or from coarse bark,
and later, under Spanish rule, from specially prepared wool. Their
feet were protected by sandals made from the yucca, or moccasins from
deer or rabbit skins. Leggings coming above the knee were formed by
wrapping long strips of buckskin around the leg. The women and men
dressed very much alike. The women banged their hair to the eyebrows,
allowing it to hang loosely behind, although in some instances maidens
dressed their hair with two large whirls above the ears. The Zuni
Indians practised this custom after the coming of the Spaniards.
The Pueblos were well organized into clans, and descent in the female
line was recognized. The clans were divided usually into the north,
south, east, and west clans by way of designation, showing that the
communal idea had been established with recognition of government by
locality. Here, as elsewhere among the American aborigines, the clans
were named after the animals chosen as their totem, but there were in
addition {196} to these ordinary clans, the Sun clan, the Live Oak, the
Turquoise, or others named from objects of nature. Each group of clans
was governed by a priest chief, who had authority in all religious
matters and, consequently, through religious influences, had large
control in affairs pertaining to household government, and to social
and political life in general. The duties and powers of these chiefs
were carefully defined. The communal houses in which the people lived
were divided into apartments for different clans and families. In some
instances there was a common dining-hall for the members of the tribe.
The men usually resided outside of the communal house, but came to the
common dining-hall for their meals.
There were many secret societies among these people which seemed to
mingle religious and political sentiments. The members of these
societies dwelt to a large extent in the Estufa, or Kiva, a large
half-subterranean club-house where they could meet in secret. In every
large tribe there were four to seven of these secret orders, and they
were recognized as representing the various organizations. These "cult
societies," so called by Mr. Powell, had charge of the mythical rites,
the spirit lore, the mysteries, and the medicines of the part of the
tribe which they represented. They conducted the ceremonies at all
festivals and celebrations. It is difficult to determine the exact
nature of their religion. It was a worship full of superstition,
recognizing totemism and direct connection with the spirits of nature.
Their religion was of a joyous nature, and always was associated with
their games and feasts. The games were usually given in the
celebration of some great event, or for some economic purpose, and were
accompanied with dancing, music, pantomime, and symbolism. Perhaps of
all of the North American Indians, the Pueblos showed the greatest
fondness for music and had made some advancement in the arts of poetry
and song. The noted snake dance, the green-corn dance, and the cachina
all had at foundation an economic purpose. They were done ostensibly
to gain the favor of the gods of nature.
{197}
When discovered by the Spaniards, the Pueblos had made good beginnings
in agriculture and the industrial arts, were living in a state of peace
and apparently contented, there seeming to be little war between the
tribes. Their political organization in connection with the secret
societies and their shamanistic religion gave them a good development
of social order. After nearly 400 years of Spanish and American rule,
they appear to have retained many of their original traits and
characteristics, and cherish their ancient customs. Apparently the
Spanish and the American civilization is merely a gloss over their
ancient life which they seek every opportunity to express. They are
to-day practically non-assimilative and live to a large extent their
own life in their own way, although they have adopted a few of the
American customs. While quite a large number of these villages are now
to be seen very much in their primitive style of architecture and life,
more than 3,000 architectural ruins in the Southwest, chiefly in
Arizona and New Mexico, have been discovered. Many of them are
partially obscured in the drifting sands, but they show attempts at
different periods by different people to build homes. The devastation
of flood and famine and the destruction of warlike tribes retarded
their progress and caused their extinction. The Pueblo Indians were in
the middle status of barbarism when the Spaniards arrived, and there
they would have remained forever or become extinct had not the Spanish
and American civilizations overtaken them. Even now self-determined
progress seems not to possess them. However, through education the
younger generations are being slowly assimilated into American life.
But it appears that many generations will pass before their tribal life
is entirely absorbed into a common democracy.
_The Mound-Builders of the Mississippi Valley_.--At the coming of the
Europeans this ancient people had nearly all disappeared. Only a few
descendants in the southern part of the great valley of the Mississippi
represented living traces of the Mound-Builders. They had left in
their burial mounds {198} and monuments many relics of a high type of
the Neolithic civilization which they possessed. As to their origin,
history has no direct evidence. However, they undoubtedly were part of
that great stream of early European migration to America which
gradually spread down the Ohio valley and the upper Mississippi. At
what time they flourished is not known, although their civilization was
prehistoric when compared with that of the Algonquins, Athabascans, and
Iroquois tribes that were in existence at the time of the coming of the
Europeans. Although the tradition of these Indians traces them to the
Southwest, and that they became extinct by being driven out by more
savage and more warlike people, whence they came and whither they went
are both alike open to conjecture.
Their civilization was not very different from that of many other
tribes of North American Indians. Their chief characteristic consisted
in the building of extensive earth mounds as symbolical of their
religious and tribal life. They also built immense enclosures for the
purpose of fortification. Undoubtedly on the large mounds were
originally built public houses or dwellings or temples for worship or
burial. Those in the form of a truncated pyramid were used for the
purposes of building sites for temples and dwellings, and those having
circular bases and a conical shape were used as burial places.
Besides these two kinds was another, called effigy mounds, which
represented the form of some animal or bird, which undoubtedly was the
totem of the tribe. These latter mounds were seldom more than three or
four feet high, but were of great extent. They indicated the unity of
the gens, either by representing it through the totem or a mythical
ancestry. Other mounds of less importance were used in religious
worship, namely, for the location of the altar to be used for
sacrificial purposes. All were used to some extent as burial mounds.
Large numbers of their implements made of quartz, chert, bone, and
slate for the household and for the hunt have been found. They used
copper to some extent, which was obtained in a free or native state and
hammered into implements and ornaments.
{199}
Undoubtedly, the centre of the distribution of copper was the Lake
Superior region, which showed that there was a diffusion of cultures
from this centre at this early period. They made some progress in
agriculture, cultivating maize and tobacco. Apparently their commerce
with surrounding tribes was great, which no doubt gave them a variety
of means of life. The pottery, judging from specimens that have been
preserved, was inferior to that of the Mexicans or the Arizona Indians,
but, nevertheless, in the lower Mississippi fine collections of pottery
showing beautiful lines and a large number of designs were found. It
fills one with wonder that a tribe of such power should have begun the
arts of civilization and developed a powerful organization, and then
have been so suddenly destroyed--why or how is not known. In all
probability it is the old story of a sedentary group being destroyed by
the more hardy, savage, and warlike conquerors.
_Other Types of Indian Life_.--While the great centres of culture were
found in Peru, Central America, Mexico, southwest United States, and
the Mississippi valley, there were other cultures of a less pronounced
nature worthy of mention. On the Pacific coast, in the region around
Santa Barbara, are the relics of a very ancient tribe of Indians who
had developed some skill in the making of pottery and exhibit other
forms of industrial life. Recently an ancient skeleton has been
discovered which seems to indicate a life of great antiquity.
Nevertheless, it is a lower state of civilization than those of the
larger centres already mentioned. Yet it is worthy of note that there
was here started a people who had adopted village habits and attained a
considerable degree of progress. Probably they were contemporary with
other people of the most ancient civilizations of America.
So far as the advancement of government is concerned, the Iroquois
Indians of Canada and New York showed considerable advancement. As
represented by Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, who made a careful study of the
Iroquois, their tribal divisions and their federation of tribes show an
advancement along {200} governmental lines extending beyond the mere
family or tribal life. Their social order showed civil progress, and
their industrial arts, in agriculture especially, were notable.
_Why Did the Civilization of America Fail?_--There is a popular theory
that the normal advancement of the Indian races of America was arrested
or destroyed by the coming of the Europeans. Undoubtedly the contact
of the higher civilization with the latter had much to do with the
hastening of the decay of the former. The civilizations were so widely
apart that it was not easy for the primitive or retarded race to adopt
the civilization of the more advanced. But when it is assumed that if
the Europeans had never come to the American continent, native tribes
and races would eventually, of their own initiative, develop a high
state of civilization, such an assumption is not well founded, because
at the time of the coming of the Europeans there was no great show of
progress. It seems as if no branch of the race could go forward very
far without being destroyed by more warlike tribes. Or, if let alone,
they seemed to develop a stationary civilization, reaching their limit,
beyond which they could not go. As the races of Europe by
specialization along certain lines became inadaptable to new conditions
and passed away to give place to others, so it appears that this was
characteristic of the civilization of America. Evidently the
prehistoric Peruvians, Mexicans, Pueblos, and Mound-Builders had
elements of civilization greater than the living warring Indian tribes
which came in contact with the early European settlers in America.
It may not be wise to enter a plea that all tribes and races have their
infancy, youth, age, and decay, with extinction as their final lot, but
it has been repeated so often in the history of the human race that one
may assume it to be almost, if not quite, universal. The momentum of
racial power gained by biological heredity and social achievement,
reaches its limit when it can no longer adapt itself to new conditions,
with the final end and inevitable result of extinction.
The Nordic race, with all of its vigor and persistency, has {201} had a
long and continuous life on account of its roving disposition and its
perpetual contact with new conditions of its own choice. It has always
had power to overcome, and its vigor has kept it exploiting and
inventing and borrowing of others the elements of civilization, which
have continually forced it forward. When it, too, reaches a state when
it cannot adapt itself to new conditions, perhaps it will give way to
some other branch of the human race, which, gathering new strength or
new vigor from sources not available to the Nordic, will be able to
overpower it; but the development of science and art with the power
over nature, is greater in this race than in any other, and the
maladies which destroy racial life are less marked than in other races.
It would seem, then, that it still has great power of continuance and
through science can adapt itself to nature and live on.
But what would the American Indian have contributed to civilization?
Would modern civilization have been as far advanced as now, had the
Europeans found no human life at all on the American continent? True,
the Europeans learned many things of the Indians regarding cultivation
of maize and tobacco, and thus increased their food supply, but would
they not have learned this by their own investigations, had there been
no Indians to teach? The arts of pottery have been more highly
developed by the Etruscans, the Aegeans, and the Greeks than by the
American Indians. The Europeans had long since passed the Stone Age
and entered the Iron Age, which they brought to the American Indians.
But the studies of ethnology have been greatly enlarged by the fact of
these peculiar and wonderful people, who exhibited so many traits of
nobility of character in life. Perhaps it would not be liberal to say
the world would have been just as well off had they never existed. At
any rate, we are glad of the opportunity to study what their life was
and what it was worth to them, and also its influence on the life and
character of the Europeans.
The most marked phases of this civilization are found in the
development of basketry and pottery, and the exquisite work {202} in
stone implements. Every conceivable shape of the arrow-head, the
spear, the stone axe and hammer, the grinding board for grains, the
bow-and-arrow, is evidence of the skill in handiwork of these primitive
peoples. Also, the skill in curing and tanning hides for clothing, and
the methods of hunting and trapping game are evidences of great skill.
Perhaps, also, there is something in the primitive music of these
people which not only is worthy of study but has added something to the
music culture of more advanced peoples. At least, if pressed to learn
the real character of man, we must go to primitive peoples and
primitive life and customs.
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. What contributions did the American Indians make to European
civilization?
2. What are the chief physical and mental traits of the Indian?
3. What is the result of education of the Indian?
4. How many Indians are there in the United States? (_a_) Where are
they located? (_b_) How many children in school? Where?
5. If the Europeans made a better use of the territory than did the
Indians, had the Europeans the right to dispossess them? Did they use
the right means to gain possession?
6. Study an Indian tribe of your own selection regarding customs,
habits, government, religion, art, etc.
[1] Recent discoveries in Nevada and Utah indicate a wide territorial
extension of the Pueblo type.
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_PART IV_
WESTERN CIVILIZATION