THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 533 
tory, and yet perhaps more than any other, it justifies the statement 
that the Indian had made great advance in the scale of civilization. 
Instead of being the wandering barbarian that he is painted, without 
fixed home, or any means of subsistence save that furnished by the 
chase, it presents him to us in the light of a successful farmer—a 
worthy rival, in this respect, to his white neighbor—fighting desperately 
a losing battle in defense of all he held most dear. Upon this point 
Gen. Wayne is certainly competent authority. Writing from Grand 
Glaize, A. D. 1794, just after the battle of the Maumee, and before the 
work of destruction had been begun, he uses the following emphatic 
language: ‘“‘On the margins of these beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the 
Lake and the Au Glaize, appear like one continued village for a num- 
ber of miles, both above and below this place; nor have I ever before 
beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada 
to Florida.* 
This brings us around to the point from which we started, and geo- 
graphically speaking, completes the circuit. In the course of the in- 
vestigation, it will be observed that I have taken nothing for granted, 
but have endeavored to substantiate every assertion by a reference to 
undoubted sources, retaining as far as possible the very language of 
the authors. These citations might have been multiplied indefinitely, 
but it is believed that enough have been given to show: 
(1) That the red Indians of the Mississippi Valley lived in fixed vil- 
lages, which they were in the habit of fortifying by palisades. 
(2) That they raised corn in large quantities, and stored it in caches 
and granaries for winter use. 
(3) That whilst, as a fact, the women, children, old men, and slaves 
always cultivated the fields, yet the warriors cleared the ground, and, 
when not engaged in war or hunting, aided in working and harvesting 
the crop, though the amount of such assistance varied, being greater 
among the tribes south of the Ohio, and less among the Iroquois or Six 
Nations. 
A further examination of these same authorities will show that 
slavery was more or less common among all the tribes east of the Mis- 
Sissippi; that the rights of property were duly recognized and respected, 
and that there existed among them a system of inter-tribal traffic, in 
which, among other things, corn and slaves were bartered for skins 
and such other articles as were needed. 
II—THE INDIAN AS A WORSHIPPER OF THE SUN. 
The question of subsistence being thus disposed of, let us now ex- 
amine into the form of government and the religious belief of the mod- 
ern Indians, in order to see whether in these particulars there were 
any such differences between the state of affairs that can be shown to 
* Quoted in Our Indian Wards, p. 84: Cincinnati, 1880. 
