GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 147 



IV. Many of the crania of the stone graves and mounds bear a striking resem- 

 blance to those of the Natchez, described and figured in Morton's " Crania 

 Americana." 



That the aborigines of Tennessee were probably descended from the Toltccs, and 

 were related to the Natchez, is rendered probable, not only by the configuration of 

 the crania, but also from the history of this once powerful but now extinct nation. 

 A large proportion of the Indian nations inhabiting the present bounds of Florida, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, at the time of the expe- 

 dition of De Soto, were worshippers of the sun, were governed by hereditary and 

 despotic princes, and were probably either intimately associated in their origin, or 

 had been brought at some remote period under the dominion of the Natchez. This 

 nation, in former times, extended from the river Manches or Iberville, which is about 

 fifty leagues from the Gulf of Mexico, to the Wabash River, which is about four- 

 hundred and fifty leagues from the gulf; and it is probable that the Natchez 

 extended up all the rivers which fall into the Mississippi between these two 

 extremes, and included the region of country occupied by the mounds and fortifi- 

 cations. 



V. It is impossible to establish, by authentic history, the relations of the stone- 

 grave race of Tennessee with the Natchez, and we do not assert that they were 

 one and the same people, but only that they were most probably closely related in 

 their origin, and may, at some former time, have been subjected to the same form 

 of government, and practised the same or similar religious rites. 



VI. The inquiry into the name and history of the ancient race which inhabited, 

 in past ages, the fertile valleys of Tennessee and Kentucky, has been attended 

 with difficulties; and the conclusions must necessarily be stated with caution. 

 Upon many points, only conjecture can be offered. The valleys inhabited by the 

 aborigines of Tennessee and Kentucky, and in fact the entire valley of the Missis- 

 sippi, has been, for centuries past, the theatre of constant revolutions amongst the 

 aborigines of the soil ; wars, conquests, subjugations, extinctions, and productions 

 of new races appear to have marked the life of American as well as of European and 

 Asiatic nations. In order to throw light upon the origin of the monumental 

 remains of tlie Mississippi Valley, I instituted an extended inquiry into the name 

 and history of the nations formerly inhabiting Tennessee, before the inroads of the 

 Anglo-Americans, and while it was clearly established that the early French and 

 Spanish explorers were acquainted with a numerous and powerful people inhabiting 

 the valleys of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, at the same time I was 

 unable to adduce absolute historical evidence to show that this people constructed 

 the stone graves, and filled the caves Avith their dead. The extended synopsis 

 which I drew up of the observations of the early Spanish and French explorers 

 and historians is too voluminous to be introduced into the present work, and we 

 shall simply present the general results. 



The valleys of Kentucky and Tennessee, and more especially the Cumberland 

 valley, were inhabited two centuries ago, by the nation originally called by the 

 early French explorers and missionaries Clmouanons. This name has become, 

 by certain vocal changes, Shawnees. The Chaouanons are supposed to have been 



