212 AMERICAN NATIVE RACES OF MEN 



dominate it — a fate suggested by Cooper in the " Last of 

 the Mohicans " and other tales. 



There are to-day but a pitiful remnant of these splendid 

 savages to tell the story. Where the large lake cities now 

 stand the Iroquois flourished — noble examples of so-called 

 savage man, and but a few years ago their canoes dotted 

 many parts of the St. Lawrence, where now the yachts of 

 American millionaires cut the waters. 



These people are now represented by several thousand 

 living in the upper Tennessee Valley. What memories the 

 names Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Mo- 

 hawks bring up ! the famous five nations forming one of 

 the most notable democratic confederacies known in primi- 

 tive America. Then there were the Tuscaroras, also a part 

 of this clan from farther south. The Iroquois were famous 

 as warriors, intrepid, bold, daring, relentless, only succumb- 

 ing before countless numbers. In our histories we read of 

 the savage and murderous foe, the Indian that crept upon 

 villages and slaughtered men, women, and children ; but 

 the just American will remember that the American Indian 

 had the same right to fight for his home that the Ameri- 

 cans would to-day if they were threatened by an over- 

 whelming and persistent force. 



In the Southern States the Seminoles lived, now repre- 

 sented by a few individuals living on the borders of the 

 great swamp, and in the Southeast lived the tribes of 

 Apalachi, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek. These, or 

 some of them, were the natives that De Soto met in 1 540. 

 To call them savages would be to do them a grievous wrong. 

 Their weapons and vessels display high intelligence. They 

 had hieroglyphic writing, and gold ; their various utensils 



