MOUNDS OF THE UNITED STATES BUSHNELL, 665 



neighbors to the southward members of the Muskhogean stock, in- 

 chiding the numerous tribes of the Creek Confederacy, the Choctaw, 

 Chickasaw, and others. Northern Florida was peopled by the 

 Timucua, whose villages were scattered across the peninsula from 

 the Atlantic coast to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Siouan 

 Tribes, remotely related to those who lived far westward in parts of 

 the valley of the Mississippi, were found in Virginia and Carolina. 

 Several other families were represented by the people encountered 

 east of the Mississippi, but they appear to have been greatly reduced 

 from their former strength and numbers. Of the many linguistic 

 groups found west of the Mississippi one may now be mentioned — 

 the Caddoan, to wdiich belonged many tribes including the Wichita, 

 Arikara, and Pawnee. Less than 50 years have passed since the 

 great earth lodge villages of the latter stood near the banks of the 

 Platte, west of the Missouri. 



With such well-defined groups of tribes who had probably occu- 

 pied certain regions for many generations, it is reasonable to attribute 

 to them the majority of the ancient mounds and other works of a 

 similar nature encountered within the limits of their territories, 

 although in some instances works standing in a section known to 

 have been occupied by a certain group during historic times were 

 undoubtedly erected by others at an earlier period. However, it is 

 now possible to identify the builders of the gi'eat majority of ancient 

 works of various sizes and forms found between the Atlantic coast 

 and the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. And as a conse- 

 quence of the different manners and ways of life of the people of 

 widely separated parts of the country the existing traces of their 

 ancient camps and villages, their burial places, and the earth and 

 stone structures which were erected by many tribes vary in form and 

 appearance. 



Many writers in the past have referred to all tumuji, inclosures, 

 embankments, and other forms of earth and stone monuments left 

 by the native tribes as mounds, which is not only erroneous but 

 quite misleading. The ancient works are of many forms and sizes, 

 and in the present sketch it will be shown that in some localities 

 types are to be found that do not occur elsewhere, and these in many 

 instances present characteristic features proving their builders to 

 have possessed manners and customs radically different from those 

 of their neighbors. In addition to the burial mounds and other 

 structures which were intentionally planned and raised are some 

 which may be termed accidental but which, nevertheless, must be 

 considered with the former. The principal of these are the shell 

 heaps which are encountered along the coasts wherever edibjle 

 mollusks were obtainable in quantities. The vast accumulations of 

 shells resulted from the gathering of clams or oysters by the native 



