Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 



VOL. VI. SEPTEMBER, 1882. NO. 5 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



WHO WERE THE MOUND-BUILDERS? 



F. F, HILDER. 



The March number of the Kansas City Review contains an article by Dr. 

 J. F. Snyder, under the above head, which commences with the following para- 

 graph : 



"The conviction is daily gaining strength that the race of Indians found in 

 occupancy of this country when it was discovered by Europeans were the people, 

 or the immediate descendants of the people, who built the mounds; and students 

 of American Archaeology now agree that mound-building was practiced by some 

 of the tribes down to a comparatively recent date." 



This statement is very indefinite, so much so, that as a student of archaeology 

 I cannot accept it without considerable qualification. The ancient people or 

 tribes who for want of a better name have been styled the mound-builders, have 

 left traces of their occupation on a vast expanse of territory, extending from 

 Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Alleghany Mountains to the 

 country west of the Mississippi. Webster gives the definition of the word 

 Race, "A family, tribe, people, or nation believed or presumed to belong to the 



same stock." 



And in a foot note says, "The American or red race containing the Indians 

 of North and South America." This all-embracing definition is probably the 



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