THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK ^ 



Until then we may only point out the differences that we observe 

 between these sites and others and cautiously state that culturally 

 they resemble those of the Eskimo. 



4 THE MOUXD-BUILDER OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



There was a time when western New York was regarded as 

 peculiarly the domain of a mysterious Preindian race known as the 

 " mound builders." 



Observers, astonished by the existence of earthworks and other 

 prehistoric tumuli, have written elaborate descriptions and devoted 

 considerable space to more or less melancholy speculation. The term 

 "mound builder" became quite as romantically wonderful in the 

 new world as that of Druid did in the old. 



The mounds and earthworks of Ohio early attracted interest, and 

 especially as the colonists pushed westward and cleared new land 

 for settlement or agriculture. Thus we find such early authorities as 

 Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, President Ezra Stiles of Yale 

 and Noah Webster advancing theories about the builders of the 

 mounds. The first extended discussion of the subject was written 

 by Dr Benjamin S. Barton, who in 1797 published his work on 

 " Xew Views on the Origin of the Tribes in America." In this 

 work he advanced the theory that the mounds were not built by 

 Indians but by "A people of higher cultivation, with established law 

 and order and a well-disciplined police." Doctor Barton seems to 

 have been the first writer to advance the notion of a " lost race." 



Soon after Doctor Barton's book appeared two other writers dis- 

 cussed the subject, Bishop Madison of Virginia and the Rev. T. M. 

 Harris of Massachusetts. Mr Harris thought the mounds proved 

 their builders possessed superior skill and were of higher civiliza- 

 tion, but Doctor Madison, who had traveled widely and studied the 

 mounds and their antiquities, saw nothing in the evidence to con- 

 vince him that the mounds were not the product of the Indians. 

 Each of these observers was a pioneer of different schools of belief, 

 but for more than half a century those who believed in " a lost race 

 of civilized men whom the Indians displaced or annihilated " con- 

 trolled public opinion on the subject. Even today there are many 

 who puzzle over the " mysterious race now departed." J. P. Mc- 

 Lean, for example, who in 1879 published his book on " The Mound 

 Builders " commenced his first chapter thus : "An ancient race, 

 entirely distinct from the Indian, possessing a certain degree of 



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