l6o SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



skeletons were exposed, two adults and an adolescent, but the crania 

 and many of the other bones had been carried away as curios. It is 

 probable, though not certain, that the baskets and headband were 

 deposited with the luu'ials — my informants had not made close obser- 

 vations. On the occasion of my visit the sky was so dark no photo- 

 graphs could be made with the kodak at hand. 



The three individuals buried in the Wolf Creek cave may have been 

 members of any one of several related tribes belonging to the Musko- 

 gean linguistic stock ; they may have belonged to the Cherokee, that 

 aggressive and culturally advanced Iroquoian people whose forefathers 

 migrated southward from the St. Lawrence region in ancient times. 

 The covered basket would serve as an excellent means of identifica- 

 tion provided it were peculiar to a single tribe. Its straight sides 

 suggest a Choctaw origin ; but the Chickasaw wove similar receptacles. 

 Almost without question it came from farther south. In his Histoire de 

 La Louisiane, published in Paris in 1758, Du Pratz describes similar 

 baskets employed by Indian women " to protect their jewels and all 



that contrilmtes to ornamenting their j^ersons It is into these 



that they put their earrings, bracelets, garters, beads, hair ribbons, 

 and vermilion to paint themselves." Although Du Pratz may be 

 suspected of pure conjecture, at least in so far as the " hair ribbons " 

 are concerned, there can be no doubt these covered baskets were de- 

 signed to protect the more precious possessions of their makers. 

 Nomadic peoples did not trouble to acquire property. 



