THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. - 5OT 
tion however it will be seen that itis based upon the assumption that 
the Mound-builders were an agricultural people, and lived under a 
strongly centralized form of government, no matter whether that gov- 
ernment was one of force, or of opinion founded upon policy or religion. 
This assumption is probably not far from the truth; but to have any 
weight in this discussion, it must carry with it, as a correlative, the 
further admission that the Indian was not an agriculturist, and was 
not subject to any such central authority, or controlled by any such 
impelling motive. This of course is not admitted, and it is precisely 
upon these points that the issue is to be joined. 
I.—THE INDIAN AS AN AGRICULTURIST. 
Taking up, in their order, the requirements that are admitted to have 
been possessed by the builders of these mounds, and which are popu- 
larly supposed to have been wanting in the Indian, we are met, first of 
all, with the statement, made either directly or by implication, that he 
was not an agriculturist, but depended almost entirely upon the chase 
for the means of subsistence. * True, there exists a vague notion that 
succotash and hominy were not unknown in the aboriginal cuisine, and 
there may be those of us who are sufficiently skilled in culinary mat- 
ters to say that these succulent dishes are made of Indian corn; but 
of the substantial truth of the above statement there is little or no 
doubt, even among those who have taken the trouble to write on the 
subject. Exactly why this is so, when all the records tell us that the 
early colonists in New England, Virginia, and elsewhere throughout 
the eastern portion of the United States owed their lives, on more than 
one occasion, to the timely supplies of corn begged, bought, or stolen, 
from the natives,t is something of a mystery, though perhaps it is 
* Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 45. Baldwin, Ancient America, p. 
34. Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 300. Schooleraft’s Indian Tribes 
of the United States, vol. V1, p. 183. Gookin in vol. 1 of the first series of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Collections, p. 149. Colden’s History of the Five Nations, p. 13: 
London, 1767. 
+ Plusieurs nations sauvages s’etablirent sur le Mississippi assez pres de la Nou- 
velle Orleans et comme la plupart de ces Peuples sont dans l’usage de cultiver la terre, 
ils defricherent des grands terreins, ce qui fut une resource pour cette ville a laquelle 
ils ont souvent fourni des vivres dans le besoin:” Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle 
France, vol. 1v, p. 198: Paris, 1744. ‘‘I was sately conducted to Jamestowne, where 
I found about eight and thirtie poore and sicke creatures; - - - such was the 
weakness of this poore commonwealthe as, had the salvages not fed us we directlie 
had starved. And this relyfe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought by this 
lady Pocahontas; - - - during the time of two or three yeares, shee next, under 
xod, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from death, famine and utter 
confusion :” Capt. Smith, Relation to Queene Anne in History of Virginia, p. 121: 
London, 1632. ‘By selling them corn, when pinched with famine, they” (the In- 
dians) ‘‘relieved their distresses and prevented them from perishing in a strange land 
and uncultivated wilderness:” Trumbull, Connecticut, vol. 1, p. 47: Hartford, 1797. 
“They got in this vioage, in one place and other, about 26 or 28 hogsheads of corne 
and beanes:” Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 
