," Vol. IV., p. 192.
(37) Bandelier's "Fifth Annual Report Arch. Inst.," p. 76.
(38) U.S. Survey West of 100th Meridian, Vol. VII., p. 381.

Chapter XII

THE PREHISTORIC AMERICANS.<1>

Different views on this subject--Modern system of government--Ancient
system of government--Tribal government universal in North
America--The Indians not wandering Nomads--Indian houses communal in
character--Indian methods of defense--Mandan villages--Indians sometimes
erected mounds--Probable government of the Mound Builders--Traditions
of the Mound Builders among the Iroquois--Among the Delawares--Probable
fate of the Mound Builders--The Natchez Indians possibly a remnant of
the Mound Builders--Their early traditions--Lines of resemblance
between the Pueblo tribe and the Mound Builders--The origin of
the Indians--America inhabited by Indians from a very early
time--Classification of the Indian tribes--Antiquity of the Mound
Builders' works.

The attempts to explain the origin of the numerous tribes found in
possession of America at the time of its discovery by Europeans have
been many and various. There are so many difficulties attending the
solution of this problem that even at this day no theory has received
that full assent from the scientific world deemed necessary for its
establishment as an ascertained fact. New interest has been thrown
around this question by the discoveries of late years. In our
south-western territories we have clearly established the former wide
extension of the village Indians, remnants of which are still to be
found in the inhabited pueblos; and, as we have seen, the wide expanse
of fertile soil, known as the Mississippi Valley, has undoubtedly been
the home of tribes who are generally supposed to have attained a much
higher stage of culture than that of the Indians--at least, of such
culture as we are accustomed to ascribe, whether justly or not, to
Indian tribes. It becomes an interesting question, therefore, to
determine what connection, if any, existed between the Mound Builders
and the Indian tribes on the one hand, and the Pueblo tribes on the
other.

As to the works of the Mound Builders, one class of critical scholars
think they see in them the memorials of a vanished race, and point out
many details of construction, such as peculiarities in form, in size,
and position, which they think conclusively prove that the works in
question could only have been produced by races or tribe