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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 92. 



Carolina, extending as far west as the 

 Alleghanies and nortli to the Maryland 

 line, and controlling the headwaters of the 

 streams flowing westward. They were in 

 constant warfare with their Algonquian 

 and Iroquoian neighbors, and were exter- 

 minated as tribes within the historic period. 

 The majority of the Siouan Indians were 

 already beyond the Mississippi, where they 

 were met by early explorers, and where they 

 now dwell. We find the purport of their 

 traditions to be that they were slowly driven 

 from their eastern home by implacable ene- 

 mies, and that once beyond the Mississippi, 

 they spread to the northern tributaries of 

 the Missouri, westward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and south to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 where recent investigations have brought 

 to light a remnant of the Biloxi. 



Contact with Algonquian, Iroquoian, 

 Muskhogean, Caddoan and Kioan stocks, 

 during the period of progress over this vast 

 tract of country, has left its traces in the 

 Siouan rites and customs ; but the uncer- 

 tainty that still clouds the past history of 

 this people makes it difficult to determine 

 when certain rites were adopted, or to gauge 

 with accuracy the modifying influences of 

 other stocks upon native usages and beliefs. 

 From the scant records left by early trav- 

 ellers, with the fragmentary nature of the 

 information still obtainable from the few 

 scattered survivors of the eastern and south- 

 ern tribes, a full reconstruction of their so- 

 cial and religious customs is impossible; but 

 enough can be discerned to indicate that the 

 eastern, southern and western tribes were 

 all under the influence of cults which seem 

 to have been fundamentally the same. 



In this paper is offered a slight contribu- 

 tion to the early history of social and relig- 

 ious development, inasmuch as in tracing 

 the emblematic use of the tree in the Siouan 

 linguistic group we follow a people from a 

 comparatively primitive condition, living 

 in isolated bands, independently of each 



other, to their organization within the tribal 

 structure, compacted by the force of com- 

 mon religious beliefs. 



That ideas are the ruling force and ' the 

 constructive center ' of human society is 

 readily conceded as applicable to our own 

 race. It is equally true of the Indian ; but 

 in according this power to ideas the modi- 

 fying influence of environment is not to be- 

 overlooked. One cannot conceive of man 

 apart from environment; his contact with it 

 is the very condition of being. As Herbert 

 Spencer has phrased it, life is ' the continu- 

 ous adjustment of inner relations to outer 

 relations.' 



This ' adjustment ' of man to his environ- 

 ment is the work solely of ideas, and the 

 process, as evinced in this group of Indians, 

 goes to show that those ideas which have 

 formed ' the constructive center ' of the tribe 

 are religious ideas. 



Indian religions seem to have been sub- 

 ject to the same laws that have governed 

 the development and growth of religions on 

 the eastern continent. There, we know the 

 several systems to have been begun with 

 the simple utterances of a seer, which, as 

 they were passed from mouth to mouth, 

 became more and more clouded with inter- 

 pretations, gradually expanded in detail, 

 and finally formulated into ceremonials 

 with attendant explanatory and dramatic 

 rites. As time rolled into centuries, these 

 ceremonies, with their accessory priests,, 

 came to be regarded as of supernatural ori- 

 gin, endowed with superhuman power, and 

 authorized to exercise control over the af- 

 fairs of the tribe or nation ; but the one liv- 

 ing germ within the ponderous incrustation 

 of doctrine and ceremony, that had accu- 

 mulated throughout ages, was still the sur- 

 viving, vitalizing thought of the seer. 



Turning to America, to the group of In- 

 dians of our especial study, we find traces 

 of a similar history ; for, penetrating be- 

 neath the varied forms of their religious 



