102 ABORIGINAL POTTERY OF EASTERN UNITED STATES [i:th.ann.20 



A liivgv .serio.s of the vases from Louisiana and Texas would, if tliey 

 were brouy-ht together, undoubtedh" yield many points of interest 

 witli respect to tlie influenee of Mexican and Pueblo art on that of tliis 

 province. Such a series would also be of much value in connection 

 witli the history of the various tribes occupying the valley when it 

 was tirst visited ))y the French. Du Pratz and Butel-Dumont have 

 left us brief but valual)le records of the practice of the art in this 

 section, but we are not dctinitely informed which of the various peoples 

 were referred to in their accounts. In those days no distinction was 

 made between the linguistic families, although Natchesan, Toniiian, 

 Caddoan. ]Muskhogean, and Siouan peoples were encountered. So far 

 as the evidence furnished by the collections goes, there is l)ut one 

 variety of the higher grade of products. Citations regarding- the 

 practice of the art in this province have been made under the head 

 Manufacture, and need not be repeated here. 



X 



Fig. 52 — Bowl made l.^ i.ln.' ;av. ii.'ii.tn- .iiiout 180U (diameter 'J^nches). 



The only specimen of recent work from this province which is pre- 

 served in the national collections is a blackish bowl, well polished 

 and ornamented with a zone of incised lines encircling the body. It 

 is illustrated in figure 52. The record shows that it was made by the 

 Choctaw Indians at Covington, St Tammany parish, Louisiana, about 

 the 3^ear 1860. It is said that the art is still practiced to a limited 

 extent by these people. 



The highest types of va.ses from Louisiana and Mississii^pi have 

 but slight advantage o\-er the best wares of the St Francis and Cumber- 

 land valle3's. The simpler culinary wares are much the same from St 

 Louis to New Orleans. Some localities near the Gulf furnish sherds 

 of pottery as primitive as anything in the country, and this is consistent 

 with the early ob.servatious of the condition of the natives. The 

 Natchez and other tribes were well advanced in many of the arts, 

 while numerous tribes appear to have been, at times at least, poverty- 

 stricken wanderers without art or industry worthy of mention. It is 

 possible that the primitive forms of ware found on some of these 



