26 Xl^W YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the eastern south lands, occupying most of Mississippi, most of 

 Alabama, most of Georgia, northern Florida, and, to the north, 

 they extended like a wedge through western Tennessee into Ken- 

 tucky, along the south bank of the Ohio. The Algonkian stock 

 lay to the north. The Muskhogean people were a stock of consider- 

 able intellect and a well-defined material culture. The important 

 place they have occupied in the cultural development of the tribes to 

 the north is perhaps underestimated. 



The Iroquoian stock, which includes the Cherokee, the WAandot- 

 Huron, the confederated Five Nations, the Erie, the Neutral, 

 the Tuscarora, and a number of smaller tribes, drove itself 

 like a wedge into the very heart of the eastern Algonkians. On the 

 north they held the St Lawrence valley, the shores north of Ontario 

 and Erie, the southern tip of Huron, pressed into a corner of 

 Indiana, all of northern Ohio, all of New York except the triangle 

 running from Lake George to the Delaware, and all of Pennsylvania 

 except a small strip on the eastern border. Then there was a hi^itus, 

 but again there was a long strip, like a wTist laid through western 

 Virginia, broadening into the shape of a gloved hand grasping 

 eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and reaching over into 

 northern Alabama and Georgia. A thumblike extension pressing 

 southeastward into South Carolina held a small band of the Algonkin 

 and the Uchean stock (if it was a stock) against the Aluskhogeans. 

 An isolated division of the Iroquois lived in eastern North Carolina 

 and southern Virginia, where the eastern Sioux cut them off from 

 their kinsmen over the mountains to the west. 



There are other small but important stocks but these need not be 

 specially mentioned except when they shed light on the question of 

 distribution. In a general treatise they w^ould need detailed attention. 



A second great division of the American race is the Eskimoan. The 

 Eskimo were and still are a circumpolar people occupying the Arctic 

 shores wherever a foothold is provided by nature. They extend 

 from the Aleutian islands and the very tip of Cape Prince of Wales 

 clear across the continental expanse, holding the shores of Hudson's 

 Bay, except a small strip held by the Cree, but still cling to the east 

 side of the bay from the Nottaway river back to the Hudson strait 

 and then fringe the coast of Labrador, circling it to a point about 

 ()])])osite the western end of Anticosti island. They occupy many of 

 the frigid wastes of the Arctic circle, including much of the coast 

 of Greenland. The Eskimo show a close cultural affinity to other 

 boreal ])eo])le and are a distinct di\ision of the American race. So 



