ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 15 



were a distinct race, and one of greater antiquity than is now known 

 to be the case. 



Major Powell said the paper by Prof. Thomas is a valuable con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the North American Indians. It 

 opportunely falls in with the present lines of research in two dis- 

 tinct ways : First, as identifying the mound-builders with various 

 tribes found on the discovery of this country ; second, as an addi- 

 tion to our knowledge of the dwellings of the ancient inhabitants 

 of this country. 



At our last meeting we had an interesting paper from Mr. Holmes, 

 who, from his studies, concluded that the mound-builders were 

 no other than the Indians inhabiting the country. Last year we 

 had a paper from Mr. Henshaw arriving at the same conclusion 

 from the facts discovered in another field of research. And now 

 Prof. Thomas finds that some of the earth-works of this country 

 are domiciliary mounds, as suggested long ago by Lewis H. Morgan, 

 who was the great pioneer of anthropologic research in America ; 

 and, further, that the houses found in ruins on the mounds are such 

 as were built by the Indians, as recorded in the early history of the 

 settlement of this country. 



Thus it is that from every hand we reach the conclusion that the 

 Indians of North America, discovered at the advent of the white 

 man to this continent, were mound-builders, and gradually the exag- 

 gerated accounts of the state of arts represented by the relics dis- 

 covered in these mounds are being dissipated, and the ancient 

 civilization which has hitherto been supposed to be represented by 

 the mounds is disappearing in the light of modern investigation. 



But Professor Thomas' paper is valuable from the fact that it 

 gives us a clearer insight into the character of the habitations of 

 these people. The Indians of North America made their dwellings 

 in various forms and of various materials. The rudest dwellings 

 found in the country are those made by some of the Indians of 

 Utah and Nevada of the great Shoshonian family. These are 

 simple shelters made of banks of brush and bark, especially the 

 bark of the cedar, piled up so as to include a circular space, but 

 open toward a fire. Boughs near the summit of the bark project 

 over a portion of this space, and bark and boughs are piled indis- 

 criminately on all. Such a shelter is good protection against wind, 

 and, to some degree, against snow and rain. But these same people 

 occasionally build larger habitations with small posts and cross- 



