THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 2Q 



tribes that had built up their material culture during long periods of 

 peace. Indeed, also, these peace-loving peoples, having larger stores 

 of pelts, corn, dried food, utensils and other valuable movable 

 property, were subject to raids by other more predatory tribes. The 

 more peaceful and sedentary tribes, therefore, built fortifications and 

 stockades, some of them of considerable dimensions. Probably the 

 greatest wars of which we have any means of knowing were those 

 in which the mound-building peoples were reduced and expelled 

 from their country between the Ohio and the Mississippi. A later 

 war of importance was that of the Huron-Iroquois, in which they 

 pushed aside the Algonkian tribes and established themselves in the 

 areas where they w r ere found at the opening of the historic era. 

 AYars of this kind did occur in ancient times, but it is to be doubted 

 that the loss by killing was ever very heavy, except in rare instances. 

 Like the European, however, the Indian was war-loving, but the 

 Indian was equally fond of great councils in which matters of dis- 

 pute were peacefully settled. 



Stock and tribes thus pushed out as their needs and impulses 

 dictated. The country was vast and there was room for many, but 

 when the hunting grounds were depleted and food became scarce, 

 each group, and indeed each individual, fought first for individual 

 survival. In a measure, therefore, the tribes that developed a form 

 of social organization suited to its environment survived. How 

 these tribes and stocks were distributed at the opening of the 

 colonial period we have already outlined. 



In any consideration of the displacement of tribes and stocks we 

 must give weight to the possibilities of migrations due to the 

 encroachments of wild animals. It is quite possible that the buffalo 

 herds or other ruminants invaded the mound-builder territory and 

 made agriculture so precarious that it was necessary to press farther 

 south and east. In so doing there would be an intrusion of the 

 Muskhogean and Algonkian area and subsequent wars for read- 

 justment. 



