ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II 
By Gerrarp Fowke 
EXPLORATIONS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY IN 
LOUISIANA 
It is a matter of actual knowledge that the Natchez Indians built 
many large mounds along the bluffs bordering the Mississippi River 
on the east, and that this practice continued, though perhaps in a 
diminishing degree, until the period of French occupation of the 
territory. But it is not of record that this tribe, or a colony from it, 
moved permanently to the west of the river until within historic 
times. 
Also, it is now an established fact that the small mounds so 
numerous over much of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, extending 
in great numbers down the Red River to Alexandria, and sparsely 
even beyond that point, are the work of the Caddoans. The latter 
tribes, so far as we know, did not erect the quadrilateral or flat- 
topped mounds such as are prevalent to the eastward. This leaves 
unexplained, as yet, the comparatively few such structures found 
along the Red River, always near the stream, reaching up the valley 
nearly or quite to Texarkana. These may be due to Natchez, or 
others, who once lived here for a time but left no further traces. 
Between the known territory of the Natchez and that of the Cad- 
doans, that is, between the Mississippi and the vicinity of Alexan- 
dria, is a strip of country which, so far as its ancient remains suggest, 
did not belong to either of these people, and yet there is some 
resemblance to both. Whether these works indicate a mingling of 
the two, or an overlapping of boundary lines at different periods, 
or whether there may have been another people in between them who 
borrowed somewhat from the customs of both, is not determined. 
The lowlands subject to overflow from the two rivers are, of course, 
extremely fertile; but, as a rule, the soil on the uplands is not pro- 
ductive, is so flat as to be swampy much of the time where not arti- 
ficially drained, and apparently not of a nature to invite a primitive 
people whose sustenance must depend in large measure upon agri- 
culture. That there were, nevertheless, settlements of Indians here 
and there is shown by the tumuli, sometimes more than 20 feet high, 
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