NO. 3 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, IQI5 7s 
are widely scattered; conditions are complicated by former polyg- 
amy; and there are many blends which doubtless follow some laws 
of heredity, but the complexity is too great to be unraveled by such 
investigations as are possible on the great and sparsely populated 
reservation, and with people who, due to their limitations, can be of 
but little assistance to the anthropologist. 
THE NACOOCHEE MOUND IN GEORGIA 
In pursuance of a plan for cooperative archeological research by 
the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Museum of the Ameri- 
can Indian of New York, Mr. F. W. Hodge, Ethnologist-in-charge, 
early in July joined Mr. George G. Heye of the museum mentioned, 
in the excavation of the Nacoochee Mound in White County, north- 
eastern Georgia, permission to investigate which was accorded by 
the owner, Dr. L. G. Hardman. 
The Nacoochee Mound is an earthwork built by the Cherokee 
Indians, who occupied it until early in the 19th century. The name 
‘““ Nacoochee,” however, is not of Cherokee origin, or at least it is 
not identifiable by the Cherokees as belonging to their language, 
and by no means does the word signify “the evening star” in any 
Indian tongue, as one writer has claimed. 
The summit of the mound, which had been leveled for cultivation 
about 30 years ago, measured 83 feet in maximum and about 67 feet 
in minimum diameter; the height of the mound above the adjacent 
field was 17 feet, 3 inches, and the circumference of the base 410 
feet. These measurements, however, are doubtless less than they 
were at the time the mound was abandoned by the Cherokee, as all 
the dimensions have been more or less reduced by cultivation, the 
slope at the base particularly having been plowed away for several 
feet, 
It was the custom of the Indian tribes of the South, and especially 
throughout the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, to erect 
mounds for various purposes, namely, to serve as a site for the 
domicile of the chief or for the “ town-house ” of the settlement, as 
a burial place of the dead, or merely as a place of refuge during 
periods of flood. The Nacoochee Mound was reared both for 
domicile and for cemetery purposes, and was composed of rich 
oe 
alluvial soil from the surrounding field. The excavations determined 
that the mound was not built at one time, but evidently at different 
periods as circumstances demanded. This was shown plainly by the 
stratification of the mound soil, the occurrence of graves at different 
depths with undisturbed earth above them, the presence of fire-pits 
