132 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the Mississippi. The ancient Chigantalgi, whom De Soto found on the east hanks 

 of the Mississippi, as high as the Yazoo, had the worship of the sua established 

 with all the fixity and rites of the Toltecs. From these we date the Natches, who 

 still at the period of their overthrow by the French retained the art of mound- 

 building, two of which structures they erected in the Ouichita (Wachita) valley. 

 The large mound developments formerly existing on the Kaskaskia and Cahokia 

 rivers in Illinois, display traits of the Toltecan arts of building, and of their religion 

 and mythological ideas. The ancient displays at Marietta, at the mouth of the 

 Muskingum, the circular walls of Circleville, and the striking remains on Paint 

 creek, the Little Miami, and in the Scioto valley generally, all within the limits of 

 Ohio, have the same air and traits of the southern element worshippers." (Ibid., 

 147-8. See also Vol. V. p. Gl.) 



The above citations are selected as serving to illustrate Mr. Schoolcraft's manner 

 of employing native traditions as materials of evidence, and also as in part exhibit- 

 ing his views on some leading archaeological questions. The authority of traditions 

 is in fact recognized incidentally, if not directly, throughout the work ; and the 

 inquiry suggests itself whether he does not make, and whether there should not be 

 made, a distinction between traditions that have been long known to be current in 

 tribes and larger divisions of the Indian race, and such as have only the warrant 

 of individual testimony. There are, doubtless, national legends that have been 

 transmitted through generations of savages with a view to the preservation of some 

 historical truth. It is equally true that individuals among them have the habit of 

 inventing tales founded upon questions asked them, and in accordance with what 

 they conjecture to be the expectation of the inquirer, which they are often very 

 quick to discern. It is, therefore, extremely important that careful discrimination 

 should be exercised respecting the sources of traditions, and the nature of the 

 authority on which they rest. If Mr. Schoolcraft would draw the line so that it 

 should be as evident to the reader as it is perhaps to himself, greater justice might 

 be done to the merit of this kind of testimony. 1 



Mr. Schoolcraft has thrown much light on another archaeological element of 

 great interest, that of Indian inscriptions, or pictography. The ideographic devices 

 and symbols of the natives are very elaborately explained and illustrated in his 

 volumes; and it is shown that the aborigines have a hieroglyphic and pictorial 

 system of considerable power in the conveyance of ideas. It appears, from his 

 account, that the Algonkins have a form of symbolic characters called " Kekeewin, 



1 Even statements like the following are insufficient to guard the reader from the danger of mis- 

 apprehension : — 



" Aboriginal history, on this continent, is more celebrated for preserving its fables than its facts. 

 This is emphatically true respecting the huuter and non-industrial tribes of the present area of the 

 United States, who have left but little that is entitled to historical respect. Without any mode of 

 denoting their chronology, without letters, without any arts depending on the use of iron tools, without, 

 in truth, any power of mind or hand to denote their early wars and dynasties, except what may be 

 inferred from their monumental remains ; there is nothing in their oral narrations of ancient epochs 

 to bind together, or give consistency to, even this incongruous mass of wild hyperboles and crudities." 

 (Vol. I. p. 13. See also Ibid., p. G5, Vol. III. p. 314, etc.) 



