Mat 2, ]913] 



SCIENCE 



671 



It is proposed to issue this paleobotaiiical 

 volume each year. This laudable intention in 

 a measure depends upon the acquisition of a 

 regular subscription list and it is to be hoped 

 that individual botanists and geologists as well 

 as institutions will make the absurdly small 

 expenditure that will insure the permanence 

 and prompt appearance of this work, 



Edward W. Berrt 



Johns Hopkins Univeesitt 



The Ahorigines of Minnesota. A Report 

 based on the Collection of Jacob V. Brower 

 and on the Field Surveys and Notes of 

 Alfred J. Hill and Theodore H. Lewis. 

 Collated, augmented and described by N. H. 

 WmcHELL. Published by the Minnesota 

 Historical Society. Illustrated by 36 haK- 

 tone page plates, 26 folded inserts and 642 

 figures inserted in the text. St. Paul, 

 Minn., The Pioneer Company. 1911. Pp. 

 xiv-|-V61. 



This profusely illustrated monograph con- 

 tains a mass of useful archeological and eth- 

 nological information, much of which is a 

 monument to the scientific activities of the 

 late Jacob V. Brower. Pages 1-579 treat of 

 the Dakota, with some notes on the related 

 Winnebago, etc.; pages 580-731 of the Ojibwa; 

 while in appendices (pp. 732-743) are given 

 Brebeuf's account of the solemn feast of the 

 dead, from the Jesuit Relations, an account 

 of the battle of Pokogama, from Science of 

 1886, a part of the Walum Olum, a tradition 

 of the Delaware Indians, etc. A good index 

 adds to the value of the book. Besides his- 

 torical and geographical information, data as 

 to treaties, and a detailed record and descrip- 

 tion (occupying pages 77-379) of earthworks 

 in Minnesota, there are sections on the habita- 

 tions, implements and instruments, manufac- 

 tured articles, ornaments, food, pipes and 

 emoking — also matter relating to death and 

 burial, dances and " medicine," traditions, 

 myths, etc., pictographs. A good deal of bib- 

 liographical material is included — on pages 

 25-62 is an annotated list of old maps of the 

 Minnesots country, on pages 575-579 a partial 

 bibliography of the Dakota, and on pages 707- 



731 (two columns to the page) a valuable list 

 of Ojibwa personal names. 



In connection with the discussion of the 

 " pre-Indian inhabitants of Minnesota " 

 (pp. 1-23) one should read the recent 

 studies of the antiquity of man in North 

 and South America by Dr. A. Hrdlicka, 

 and remember also that no convincing 

 evidence of the existence of " pre-Indian 

 inhabitants " of the new world has as 

 yet been produced, either for Minnesota or 

 for any other region of this continent. Nor 

 can one rightfully speak of " the Eskimo 

 quartz-workers of Minnesota" (p. 18). That 

 the Algonkian stock preceded the Siouan in 

 the occupation of Minnesota (p. 76) is an 

 opinion here associated with the belief that 

 " the Algonquian area in Colorado, shown on 

 Powell's map of linguistic stocks, is perhaps 

 a very ancient home of that stock," but this 

 view is hardly to be approved. The Catawban 

 area on the Atlantic (Carolinian) seaboard is 

 taken as the " post-Glacial starting-point of 

 the Siouan stock." 



The recognition of " pre-Dakotan " mound- 

 builders in Minnesota must be considered 

 doubtful, but it is quite right to state (p. 408) 

 that " there has been found in Minnesota 

 nothing that would warrant the assignment 

 of the mounds and eifigies to any people en- 

 joying superior culture or higher intellectual 

 rank than the Indians who inhabited the 

 state at the coming of the whites." More- 

 over, " in Minnesota there has not yet been 

 discovered any evidence that the earthworks 

 were designed for sacrificial purposes, nor for 

 any religious ceremonies, nor primarily for 

 points of observation," and, with the exception 

 of the effigies, " there is nothing symbolic in 

 their shapes or in their distribution." 



Among the pictographs figured are a num- 

 ber from sandstone caves in Houston and 

 Winona counties. The pictographs, attribu- 

 table to the Dakota rather than to other 

 Indian peoples, " belong in one grand cate- 

 gory " and exhibit " a uniformity of style 

 which points to but one people." The chief 

 Algonkian inhabitants of Minnesota were the 

 Ojibwa, but, according to the authors (p. 581), 



