96 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The accompanying map (plate 19) indicates the area occupied or 

 influenced by the mound culture. It may be well to compare it with 

 the map of the Algonkian occupation. 



The mound-building people seem to have disappeared from New 

 York at or before the time of the coming of the Iroquois into their 

 recognized area of occupation. We can not be entirely sure, how- 

 ever, that all were driven out or exterminated. A survey of the 

 earliest Iroquoian sites, especially in western New York, leads U3 to 

 believe that the earliest Iroquoian immigrants were measurably influ- 

 enced by the mound-building culture. This is so appreciable that 

 one is led to consider three propositions as within the bounds of 

 possibility: first, that the Iroquois were originally a part of the 

 mound-building peoples who had separated themselves from the 

 main cultural body ; second, that the Iroquois in entering this region 

 absorbed large numbers of the mound people and adopted certain 

 of their culture traits and rejected others; third, that the early 

 Iroquois were merely influenced at their early entrance by the mound; 

 culture. 



Our present knowledge would lead us to conjecture that the Iro- 

 quoian hordes pushing up the Ohio came into conflict with the mound 

 people and finally overcame them. We may then inquire whether 

 or not the Catawba, Tutelo and Saponi do not represent the sur- 

 vivors of the vanquished peoples. We also pause to compare cer- 

 tain artifacts of the Muskhogean and early Cherokee with such 

 mound objects, as the platform pipe. The earlier Iroquois sites fre- 

 quently yield, especially in the graves, objects similar to those found 

 in the mounds, but not gorgets, bird stones or related forms. To be 

 explicit, the points of similarity between certain Iroquois forms 

 and mound area forms, as between those of Ripley, N. Y., and 

 Madisonville, Ohio, are certain pipes and certain pottery vessels. A 

 prehistoric Iroquois site at Richmond Mills, N. Y., known as " The 

 Old Indian Fort," has yielded metapodal scrapers, similar in every 

 way to those found in Ohio mound sites. From these facts and 

 from an examination of the entire field of the earlier Iroquoian 

 occupation in New York and Ontario, we are led to believe that the 

 Huron-Iroquois were the immediate successors of the mound-build- 

 ing people in this area. Our belief is confirmed by the abundance of 

 polished slates in Ontario in close proximity to the later Huron- 

 Neutral sites. This fact has confused some archeologists, and led 

 to the statement that the polished slates are Huron or Neutral 

 artifacts, but the graves of the two peoples tell different stories. 



