2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



able points of contact of the various groups and to reveal how the 

 movement of one must necessarily have affected the position of others. 



In tracing the movements of the native peoples away from their 

 earlier habitat, and later after they had become more widely dispersed, 

 the linguistic families have been treated as units, with few specific 

 references to any of the numerous tribes, often detached, of which 

 each group was composed. 



In determining the section of country claimed or occupied by the 

 groups centuries ago. the conclusions have been reached by tracing 

 back from the present to the distant past, but in presenting the evi- 

 dence, the opposite method has been adopted, and consequently the 

 first map shows the probable position of the tribes during the earliest 

 period now being considered. No attempt has been made to indicate, 

 nor will it ever be possible to determine, the exact bounds of the regions 

 dominated by the groups at a given time. The areas as shown on the 

 maps are only approximated and consequently must not be considered 

 as definite or positive, although their relative positions, based on such 

 information as is now available, are assumed to be very nearly correct. 



The migratory movements of the tribes resulted in the crossing and 

 recrossing of some parts of the country by peoples who differed greatly 

 in manners and customs, whose characteristic forms of burial, varied 

 types of pottery vessels, and stone implements and weapons are now 

 discovered intermingled on the same sites. However, tribes belonging 

 to the same group often differed as greatly from one another as they 

 did from tribes of other stocks. Thus, the material recovered from the 

 numerous sites is often difficult or impossible to identify, but in the 

 future, when additional mounds, burial places, and camp sites have 

 been examined and the objects discovered have been studied and com- 

 pared, new light will be shed on the early movements of the tribes, 

 which will result in either the verification or refutation of certain 

 theories about to be presented. 



Obviously, many of the conclusions expressed in this brief sketch 

 are hypothetical, but nevertheless it is believed that they are based on 

 sufficient evidence to justify their presentation in this form in order 

 to provide a basis for future research in the endeavor to determine, 

 more clearly, the tribal moA^ements east of the Mississippi in prehistoric 

 times. 



EARLY TRIBES EAST OF THE AIISSISSIPPI 



The Algonquian tribes are believed to have come from the far 

 northwest and to have skirted the shores of the Great Lakes before 

 reaching the country farther south. At their first coming, long before 



