A BURIAL CAVE IN KENTL'CKY 



By NEIL M. JUDD, 

 Curator, Divisio)! of American Archeology, U. S. National Miiscnni 



The United States was functioning as a " melting-pot " for racial 

 groups long before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. Diverse 

 Indian tribes roamed the eastern woodlands, the central plains, the 

 deserts and mountains of the West. Ethnologists estimate that more 

 than 200 mutually unintelligible languages or dialects were spoken 

 by the Indian population of the United States at the beginning of 

 French and English exploration. Each of these languages represents 

 an aboriginal group distantly, if at all, related to the others. Each 

 group claimed a certain area as its own and defended that area from 

 attack or occasionally increased it at the expense of neighboring 

 peoples. Tribes contended with each other for the most desirable 

 hunting grounds and frequently migrated far from their ancestral 

 homes. When horses were introduced by Europeans in the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries the Indians speedily appropriated all they 

 could capture, thus facilitating tribal movements and the activities of 

 raiding parties. 



The southeastern United States with its fertile valleys, forested 

 mountains and temperate climate was inhabited by various tribes whose 

 prehistoric remains have partially survived the passing centuries. In- 

 numerable village sites and camping places are known lictween the 

 Mississippi and the Atlantic coast ; mounds erected as sepulchers or 

 sanctuaries stand as monuments to their primitive l)uilders from the 

 Ohio to the Gulf. Archeologists seek to recover something of these 

 native American civilizations which slowly evolved, reached the zenith 

 of their development in pre-Columbian times and rapidly perished 

 under the impact of European conquest. The prehistory of the United 

 States is distinct from, yet inseparably connected with, its histor\- 

 since Sir Walter Raleigh attempted unsuccessfully to found the 

 Roanoke Colony in 1584. From its estaljlishment in 1846, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution has actively participated in researches pertaining to 

 every phase of American prehistory. 



Indian village sites are to be found in each of the 48 States but it 

 is not yet possible always to identify the former occupants of a par- 

 ticular site from the ancient remains found there. Our aboriginal 



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