y, we ought certainly to find common features in the
culture of the Pueblo Indians of the South-west, the Mound Builders of
the Mississippi Valley, and the various Indian tribes; and if the lines
of resemblance are sufficient to show a gradual progress from the rude
remains of savage tribes to the more finished works of the Pueblos, and
between these and the Mound Builders, then we may consider this fact
as one more reason for believing that they constitute but one people in
different stages of development.

The tribal state of society is always associated with village life. It
makes no difference where we commence our investigations, we will soon
be convinced that village life is the form in which people organized in
tribes lived. This is true of the wild tribes in Africa, and of the hill
tribes of India to-day.<8> The same was true of the early Greeks.<9>
There must be a reason for this. It is found in their peculiar system of
government. People divided into groups and clusters would naturally be
drawn together into villages. We would expect, then, to find that the
Indian tribes lived in villages. We are accustomed to speak of them as
wandering nomads. This is scarcely correct; or rather, it is certainly
wrong, if applied to the tribes east of the Mississippi, when first
encountered by the whites. Some of them may have been in a state of
migration, in search of better homes, or homes more secure from the
attacks of too powerful enemies, as was the case with the Shawnees, and
wandering bands on hunting or warlike expeditions were common enough.
The Germanic, tribes that overthrew the Roman Empire, for a similar
reason, were in a migrating state. But it is none the less certain that
they established permanent villages wherever they found suitable places.

Nearly all the tribes claimed separate districts, in which they had
permanent villages, often stockaded.<10> The site of Montreal was a
famous Indian village,<11> and other villages were found in Canada. The
Iroquois tribes had permanent villages, and resided in them the greater
part of the year.<12> One visited in 1677 is described as having one
hundred and twenty houses, the ordinary one being from fifty to sixty
feet long, and furnishing shelter to about twelve families. In one case,
at least, the town was surrounded by palisades.

In 1539 De Soto made his appearance on the coast of Florida. Four years
later a feeble remnant of this expedition landed at Panuco, Mex