98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
well known, were a comparatively recent arrival in that country. 
They may have been preceded in the region along the Missouri north 
of Omaha by the Mandan, the Pawnee, or the Arikara, or possibly 
by some offshoot of the Sioux. East of this region were the Oto and 
the Iowa, while little-known tribes of the Algonquian confederacy 
were settled in what is now the state of Hlinois.¢ 
(h) Besides all preceding considerations, it should be remembered 
that the ridge of Long’s hill contained also at least one other mound 
which yielded human bones, and still another aboriginal burial. 
Such high places were the favorite locations for burials with the 
Indians on both sides of the Missouri, and it appears probable that 
the Gilder mound belongs simply to this category of Indian mortuary 
structures. 
XVIH.—GENERAL CONCLUSION 
The various finds of human remains in North America for which 
geological antiquity has been claimed have been thus briefly passed 
under review. It is seen that, irrespective of other considerations, in 
every instance where enough of the bones is preserved for compari- 
son the somatological evidence bears witness against the geological 
antiquity of the remains and for their close affinity to or identity 
with those of the modern Indian. Under these circumstances but 
one conclusion is justified, which is that thus far on this continent 
no human bones of undisputed geological antiquity are-known. This 
must not be regarded as equivalent to a declaration that there was 
no early man in this country; it means only that if early man did 
exist in North America, convincing proof of the fact from the stand- 
point of physical anthropology still remains to be produced. 
Referring particularly to the Nebraska “loess man,” the mind 
searches in vain for solid ground on which to base an estimate of 
more than moderate antiquity for the Gilder Mound specimens. The 
evidence as a whole only strengthens the above conclusion that the 
existence on this continent of a man of distinctly primitive type and 
of exceptional geological antiquity has not as yet been proved. 
There may be discouragement in these repeated failures to obtain 
satisfactory evidence of man’s antiquity in America, but there is in 
this also a stimulus to renewed, patient, careful, scientifically con- 
ducted and checked exploration; and, as Professor Barbour says in 
one of his papers on the Nebraska find, “the end to be attained is 
worth the energy to be expended.” <A satisfactory demonstration 
of the presence of a geologically ancient man on this continent 
would form an important link in the history of the American race, 
and of mankind in general. The Missouri and Mississippi drainage 
areas offer exceptional opportunities for the discovery of this link of 
humanity if such really exists. 
«See Bulletin 30 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. 1, 1907. 
