ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 25 



nal and European manufacture dug up from the site of an old Chero- 

 kee town near the Hiavvassee river, the former being precisely of 

 the same character as those found in the mounds alluded to. 



In order to show that these mounds could not have been built 

 by the Creeks or more southern Indians he presented arguments to 

 prove that the Etowah mounds in Bartow county, Georgia, were on 

 the site of the town named by the chroniclers of De Soto's expedi- 

 tion Guaxule, which evidently from the narrative could not have 

 been in the territory of the " Chelaques " (Cherokees). He then 

 alluded to the construction of the mounds of this group, and to 

 specimens found in one of them, (exhibiting some of the speci- 

 mens), which showed clearly that they were built by a different 

 people from those who erected the mounds of North Carolina and 

 East Tennessee. 



DISCUSSION. 



Major Powell said Prof. Thomas' paper furnished additional 

 evidence that a number of our Indian tribes were primitive mound- 

 builders. In relation to that part of the paper respecting the 

 ancient habitat of the Cherokees, I have some curious evidence 

 to offer. Some years ago I discovered that the Cherokees, Choctaws, 

 Chickasaws, Muskokis, Natchez, Yuchis, and other tribes have 

 among them the tradition of an ancient alliance for offensive and 

 defensive purposes against the Indians to the west of the Mississippi 

 river of the Siouan stock. In the grand council of the tribes men- 

 tioned the terms of an alliance were under consideration, and from 

 day to day the subject was considered without arriving at a conclu- 

 sion. The relation of the tribes to each other could not be ad- 

 justed satisfactorily to all, and it seemed likely that the council 

 would break up without effecting an alliance. Now the savage 

 state or body-politic is a kinship body ; the ties are of consanguinity 

 and affinity ; and this is the only conception of a state possible to 

 people in this grade of culture. So the disagreement arose about 

 the terms of kinship by which the tribes should know one another, 

 as this would establish their rank and authority in the alliance. 



After many days had passed in fruitless discussion a Cherokee 

 orator proposed a plan of alliance that has given him renown among 

 all the tribes interested down to the present time. To those who 

 have studied Indian oratory and the reasoning of Indian minds his 

 plan and the reasons therefor are of great interest. He commenced 



