THOMAS. ] “WHO WERE THE MOUND-BUILDERS?” $3 
Those holding the opinion that the Indians were not the authors of 
these works, although agreeing as to this point and hence included in 
one class, differ widely among themselves as to the people to whom they 
are to be ascribed, one section, of which, as we have seen, Dr. Harris 
may be cousidered the pioneer, holding that they were built by the 
Toltees, who, as they supposed, occupied the Mississippi Valley pre- 
vious to their appearance in the vale of Anahuace. 
Among the more recent advocates of this theory are Mr. John T. Short, 
author of “The North Americans of Antiquity;”! Dr. Dawson, in his 
“Fossil Man,” who accepts the tradition respecting the Tallegwi, but 
identifies them with the Toltecs; Rey. J. P. MacLean, author of the 
“Mound Builders” and Dr. Joseph Joues, in his ‘‘ Antiquities of Ten- 
nessee.” 
Wilson, in his ‘Prehistoric Man,” modifies this view somewhat, iook- 
ing to the region south of Mexico for the original home of the Toltecs, 
and deriving the Aztees from the mound-builders. 
Another section of this class includes those who, although rejecting 
the idea of an Indian origin, are satisfied with simply designating the 
authors of these works a “lost race,” without following the inquiry into 
the more uncertain field of racial, national, or ethnical relations. To 
this type belong a large portion of the recent authors of short articles 
and brief reports on American archeology, and quite a number of dili- 
gent workers in this field whose names are not before the world as 
authors. 
Baldwin believes that the mound-builders were Toltecs, but thinks 
they came originally from Mexico or farther south, and, occupying the 
Ohio Valley and the Gulf States, probably for centuries, were at the 
last driven southward by an influx of barbarous hordes from the more 
northern regions, and appeared again in Mexico.’ Bradford, thirty years 
previous to this, had suggested Mexico as their original home.* Lewis 
H. Morgan, on the other hand, supposes that the authors of these re- 
mains came from the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico. Dr. Foster® agrees 
substantially with Baldwin. We might include in this class a number 
of extravagant hypotheses, such as those held by Haywood, Rafinesque, 
and others among the older, as well as by a few of the more recent 
authors. 
The opposite class, holding that the mound-builders were the ances- 
tors of some one or more of the modern tribes of Indians, or of those 
found inhabiting the country at the time of its discovery, numbers 
comparatively few leading authorities among its advocates; in other 
words, the followers of Bishop Madison are far less numerous than the 
followers of Dr. Harris. The differences between the advocates of this 
view are of minor importance, and only appear when the investigation 
is carried one step further beck and the attempt is made to designate 


' Page 253. 4 American Autiquities, p. 71. 
2Vol. I, p. 353, 3d edition. 5 Prehistoric Races, p. 339. 
*Ancient America, pp. 70-75. 
