lakes, is said by scholars to have been the home of a people
well advanced in the arts of barbarian life. What connection, if any,
existed between them and the Indians, is yet unsettled. We are certain
that many years before the Spanish discovery of America they made their
settlements here, developed their religious ideas, and erected their
singular monuments. That they were not unacquainted with war, is shown
by their numerous fortified inclosures. They possessed the elements of
agriculture, and we doubt not were happy and contented in their homes.
We are certain they held possession of the fairer portions of this
country for many years.

We must now seek to gather more particular knowledge of them, and of
the remains of their industry. We must not forget that these are the
antiquities of our own country; that the broken archaeological fragments
we pick up will, when put together, give us a knowledge of tribes that
lived here when civilization was struggling into being in the East. It
should be to us far more interesting than the history of the land of the
Pharaohs, or of storied Greece. Yet, strange to say, the facts we have
just mentioned are unknown to the mass of our people. Accustomed to
regard this as the New World, they have turned their attention to Europe
and the East when they would learn of prehistoric times. In a general
way, we have regarded the Indians as a late arrival from Asia, and cared
but little for their early history. It is only recently that we have
become convinced of an extended, past in the history of this country,
and it is only of late that able writers have brought to our attention
the wonders of an ancient culture, and shown us the footprints of a
vanished people.

We must first try and locate the territory occupied by the remains of
the mound builders. They are not to be found broadcast over the whole
country. We recall, in this connection, that the early civilization of
the East arose in fertile river valleys. This is found to be everywhere
the case, so we are not surprised to learn that the broad and fertile
valley of the Mississippi, with its numerous tributaries, was the
territory where these mysterious people reared their monuments and
developed their barbarian culture. Throughout the greater portion of
this area we find numerous evidences of a prolonged occupation of the
country. We are amazed at the number and magnitude of the remains.
Though this section has been under cultivati