NO. 3 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I915 75 



are widely scattered ; conditions are complicated by former polyg- 

 amy ; and there are many blends which doubtless follow some laws 

 of heredity, but the complexity is too great to be unraveled by such 

 investigations as are possible on the great and sparsely populated 

 reservation, and with people who, due to their limitations, can be of 

 but little assistance to the anthropologist. 



THE NACOOCHEE MOUND IN GEORGIA 



In pursuance of a plan for cooperative archeological research by 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Museum of the Ameri- 

 can Indian of New York, Mr. F. W. Hodge, Ethnologist-in-charge, 

 early in July joined Mr. George G. Heye of the museum mentioned, 

 in the excavation of the Nacoochee Mound in White County, north- 

 eastern Georgia, permission to investigate which was accorded by 

 the owner. Dr. L. G. Hardman. 



The Xacoochee Mound is an earthwork built by the Cherokee 

 Indians, who occupied it until early in the 19th century. The name 

 " Nacoochee," however, is not of Cherokee origin, or at least it is 

 not identifiable by the Cherokees as belonging to their language, 

 and by no means does the word signify " the evening star " in any 

 Indian tongue, as one writer has claimed. 



The summit of the mound, which had been leveled for cultivation 

 about 30 years ago, measured 83 feet in maximum and about 67 feet 

 in minimum diameter ; the height of the mound above the adjacent 

 field was 17 feet, 3 inches, and the circumference of the base 410 

 feet. These measurements, however, are doubtless less than they 

 were at the time the mound was abandoned by the Cherokee, as all 

 the dimensions have been more or less reduced by cultivation, the 

 slope at the base particularly having been plowed away for several 

 feet. 



It was the custom of the Indian tribes of the South, and especially 

 throughout the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, to erect 

 mounds for various purposes, namely, to serve as a site for the 

 domicile of the chief or for the " town-house " of the settlement, as 

 a burial place of the dead, or merely as a place of refuge during 

 periods of flood. The Nacoochee Mound was reared both for 

 domicile and for cemetery purposes, and was composed of rich 

 alluvial soil from the surrounding field. The excavations determined 

 that the mound was not built at one time, but evidently at different 

 periods as circumstances demanded. This was shown plainly by the 

 stratification of the mound soil, the occurrence of graves at different 

 depths with undisturbed earth above them, the presence of fire-pits 



