HOLMES] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 123 



11. The Great Northern Interior Area 



Archeologically the great interior region of British America is 

 practically a negligible (quantity. It may contain traces of early 

 occupancy of deep interest to the historian of the race, but research 

 has as yet made slight progress within its borders. It is assumed 

 as probable that successive installments of migrating peoples entered 

 the gateway at the northwest and moved southwaji'd and eastward 

 over the region, some remaining, unaware of better things, others 

 passing on to more genial climes. Xone appear, however, to have 

 made a perceptible impression upon the face of the northern wil- 

 derness. Over a large part of the area, at least, all traces of very 

 early occupancy, if such there ever were, must have been wiped out 

 by the ice sheets which, one after another, swept southward over the 

 country, the latest invasion in the central region continuing doAvn 

 to the period which witnessed the building of the Egyptian pyra- 

 mids. Liuiited areas in the west and nortlnve.st were 

 Antiquities Rare not thus invadcd, but thcse have, as yet, yielded 

 nothing of particular value to archeology. The ex- 

 tensive operations of the gold miners of the Yukon have, during 20 

 years of unprecedented activity, brought to light no trace of man 

 or his works. 



That the primitive Athapascan and Algonquian stocks — the cari- 

 bou-hunting peoples — liave long occupied the region and have left 

 the simple products of their handicraft on countless abandoned 

 sites is safely to be inferred, but it is probable that past cultures did 

 not in any instance rise above the level of the present. The re- 

 searches of Mackenzie, Ilearne, Morice, and others indicate the 

 poverty of the historical tribes in manifestations of material culture, 

 and the archeologist may expect to find little beyond artifacts of 

 the simplest type — projectile points, knives, scrapers, abrading 

 stones, hammerstones, boiling stones, and minor relics of other ma- 

 terials — merely such things as are necessary to the existence of 

 hunter tribes. Traces of intrusive culture may be ex])ected along 

 the western and southern borders. The unfolding of the story of 

 the past in this area must prove a tedious and almost thankless task. 

 At any rate, it is apparent that in the present state of our re- 

 searches this region will seldom be referred to in the discussion of 

 the antiquities and culture history of the continent. 



Explorers of this area who have made contributions to the history 

 of early times include Mackenzie, Hearne, Morice, Hill-Tout, Daw- 

 son, and others. 



1-2. The North INIextcan Area 



Consideration of the culture areas of Middle and South America 

 is here limited to the broadest possible geographical grouping, the 

 brief sketches presented being intended merely to define the areas 



