428 



ENVIKONMENT 



[b. a. e. 



and evergreens furnished materials for 

 supplying a great diversity of wants. 

 From the soft wood were made dugOut 

 canoes. The dense forest growth ren- 

 dered foot traveling irksome. Nuts, ber- 

 ries, roots, and maize furnished food; flax 

 and tough pliant woods and bark gave tex- 

 tile materials. The life conditions for eco- 

 nomic animals were as varied as possible. 

 Beginning with the shallow marshes and 

 numerous salt-water inlets, furnishing 

 clams, oysters, crabs, cod, mackerel, her- 

 ring, halibut, shad, sturgeon, eels, and 

 terrapin, as shell-heaps attest, it termi- 

 nated in the trout streams of the moun- 

 tains. There were birds of the air, like 

 the eagle and wild pigeon, ground birds, 

 like the quail and the turkey, and water 

 birds innumerable. Mammals of the 

 water were the muskrat, otter, and beaver; 

 of the land, moose, elk, deer, bear, rab- 

 bit, squirrel, raccoon, opossum, and wood- 

 chuck. The wide range of latitude neces- 

 sitated different dwellings for different 

 climates, as the bark tipi, the mat house, 

 and the arbor house. For clothing, gar- 

 ments of hide, rabbit skin, and feathers 

 were used. Stone was abundant for 

 making tools, for flaking or grinding, but 

 neither materials nor motives for artistic 

 work of a high order were present. 



(5) Gulf coast. — The Southern states, 

 from Georgia to Texas, were inhabited by 

 Muskhogean tribes and several small lin- 

 guistic families. The characteristics of 

 this area are a climate ranging from tem- 

 perate to subtropical, w'ith abundant rain, 

 low mountains, and rich river valleys and 

 littoral with varied and profuse mineral, 

 vegetal, and animal resources. The en- 

 vironment yielded a diet of meat, fish, 

 maize, pulse, melons, and fruits. It was 

 favorable to meager dress and furnished 

 materials and incentives for featherwork 

 and beadwork, stonework, earth work, and 

 pottery. Traveling on foot and in dug- 

 out canoes was easy. 



(6) Mississippi valleii. — This area in- 

 cludes the states of the Middle West 

 beyond the Great Lake divide, extend- 

 ing to the loosely defined boundary of 

 the great plains. Its characteristics in 

 relation to Indian life were varied climate, 

 abundant rainfall, numerous waterways, 

 fertile lands, alternate timber and prairie, 

 and minerals in great variety and abun- 

 dance, including clay for pottery. The 

 economic plants were soft and hard 

 woods, and plants yielding nuts, berries,, 

 fruits, and liber. The fertile land w'as 

 favorable to the cultivation of maize and 

 squashes. Animals of the chase were buf- 

 falo, deer, small rodents, and wild pigeons 

 and other land birds; but there was a 

 poor fish supply, and the only shellfish 

 were river mussels. This environment 

 developed huntingand agricultural tribes, 



chiefly of Algonquian lineage, including 

 sedentary tribes that built remarkable 

 mounds. 



(7) Plains. — This environment lies be- 

 tween the Rocky mts. and the fertile 

 lands w. of the Mississippi. To the n. it 

 stretches into Athabasca, and it termi- 

 nates at the s. about the Rio Grande. The 

 tribes were Siouan, Algonquian, Kiowan, 

 Caddoan, and Shoshonean. The Mis- 

 souri and Arkansas and many tributaries 

 drain the area. The plants were bois d'arc 

 and other hard woods for bows, cedar for 

 lodge poles, willows for beds, the pomme 

 blanche for roots, etc., but there were no 

 fine textile fibers. Dependence on the 

 buffalo and the herbivorous animals asso- 

 ciated with it compelled a meat diet, skin 

 clothing and dwellings, a roving life, and 

 industrial arts depending on the flesh, 

 bones, hair, sinew, hide, and horns of 

 those animals. Artistic and symbolic de- 

 signs w'ere painted on the rawhide, and 

 the myths and tales related largely to the 

 buffalo. Travel was on foot, with or with- 

 out snowshoes, and transportation was 

 effected by the aid of the dog and travois. 

 The horse afterward wrought profound 

 changes. The social order and habit of 

 semi-nomadic wandering about fixed cen- 

 ters were the direct result of the surround- 

 ings and discouraged agriculture or much 

 pottery. No canoes or other craft than the 

 Mandan and Hidatsa skin boats. 



(8) North Pacific coast.— From Mt St 

 Elias to the Columbia mouth, lying along 

 the archipelago and cutoff from the inte- 

 rior by mountains covered with snow, was 

 the area inhabited by the Tlingit, Haida, 

 Tsimshian, Nootka, and coast Salish. It 

 has a moist, temperate climate, a moun- 

 tainous coast, with extensive island 

 groups and landlocked waters favorable 

 to canoe travel. The shores are bathed 

 by the warm current of the n. Pacific. 

 The days in different seasons vary greatly 

 in length. The material resources are 

 black slate for carving and good stone for 

 pecking, grinding, and sawing; immense 

 forests of cedar, spruce, and other ever- 

 green trees for houses, canoes, totem-posts, 

 and basketry; mountain goat and big- 

 horn, bear, beaver, birds, and sea food in 

 great variety and in quantities inexhaust- 

 ible by savages. This environment in- 

 duced "a diet of fish, mixed with berries, 

 clothing of bark and hair, large com- 

 munal dwellings, exquisite twined and 

 checkered basketry to the discourage- 

 ment of pottery, carving in wood and 

 stone, and unfettered travel in dugout 

 canoes, which provided opportunity for 

 the full development of the dispersive clan 

 system. 



(9) Columbia- Fraser region. — This in- 

 cludes the adjoining basins of these 

 streams and contiguous patches, inhab- 



