26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



by describing the geography of the country inhabited by the several 

 tribes in order from east, passing by the south to west, and passing 

 by the north again to east. After describing all of this country — 

 the mountains and valleys and rivers — he called attention to the 

 fact that the rivers now known as the Savannah, the Altamaha, the 

 Appalachicola, the Alabama, the Tombigbee, the Tennessee, and 

 the Cumberland all head near one another in the mountain land 

 occupied by the Cherokees ; that the Cherokees, therefore, drank 

 first of the waters of all the rivers, and that the rivers then passed 

 from the land of the Cherokees into the lands of the other tribes to 

 be used by them, and that, therefore, mother earth had signified 

 their precedence to all the other tribes. He therefore proposed 

 that the Cherokees should be the father tribe, and that the various 

 other tribes should take rank as sons in the order in which the sun 

 rose upon their lands — the tribe farthest to the east to be the first 

 son or elder brother, the second tribe the second son, and so on. 

 This geographical argument was at once recognized by all the tribes 

 as being invincible, and the plan was immediately adopted. 



Now this tradition serves us a double purpose. First, it exhibits 

 the methods by which one tribe has called another, now here, now 

 there, by terms of kinship, and that these terms of kinship do not 

 signify that the people have traditions of formerly belonging to 

 the same tribe, but that they give evidence of alliances having 

 been formed by such tribes. The second point of interest, and 

 that which bears upon the communication of Prof. Thomas, is 

 this : That the traditions of all of these tribes place the Cherokees 

 in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, about the sources of the 

 rivers from the Savannah around to the Cumberland, this being the 

 very territory which Prof. Thomas claims to have belonged to 

 the Cherokees from historical evidence and evidence obtained from 

 the mounds. 



Mr. Holmes exhibited and commented upon some delineations 

 of the human figure in copper and on shell gorgets found in the 

 mounds of Tennessee, remarking that the designs were not Euro- 

 pean but resembled the art of Yucatan, and if manufactured in 

 Spain were made from designs furnished by those who had been in 

 Yucatan, and if they were of European manufacture they were 

 of no great value except to prove the intrusion of Europeans. 



Col. Seely remarked that the opinion that was gaining ground 

 among American students, and particularly among the members of 



