444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ing tribes living along the fringe to the eastern forested area. We have 

 then rather good evidence that cultural transitions went on in both di- 

 rections within the Plains area. On one side were the typical non-agri- 

 cultural tribes in the midst of buffalo, on the other were the forest tribes 

 living in fertile valleys amid the trees with their small fields of maize; 

 between them along the Mississippi, the lower Missouri, the Illinois, etc., 

 were interspersed prairies and woodlands. Naturally, the people in this 

 middle ground might take to alternating in buffalo hunting and plant- 

 ing, finally some going over entirely to the one or the other. Thus we 

 had, no doubt for many decades, a shifting of culture influences, now in 

 one direction, now in the other, and while we have here no evidence of a 

 fixed direction of development we do have what may be taken as a typ- 

 ical example of how a people develop culture. In general, we believe 

 that the facts warrant the assumption that the typical Plains culture 

 was developed in the heart of the area and was the composite result of 

 independent invention and the adaptation of intrusive cultural traits 

 from the east, south and west. 



