290 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Most of the objects above described are in the New York State 

 Museum collections, though Mr John F. White has most of the 

 Mount Morris material. Unfortunately the finding of the skeletons 

 in mounds and on mound sites in New York is usually done by 

 those who fail to observe the relation of the specimens to the skeleton. 

 At other times the skeleton is far too greatly decayed to permit 

 any knowledge of the relative position of the object, and therefore 

 a proper conjecture as to the use of the so-called problematical forms. 



We are able to state, however, that some of these burials would 

 be considered ordinary in Ohio. The pottery resembles Ohio mound 

 pottery, though no complete vessels have been found. The culture 

 is plainly derived from the Ohio region and southward. Numerous 

 sites along the central Finger Lakes and along the Seneca river have 

 yielded an abundance of polished slates similar to Ohio, Indiana, 

 Michigan and other sections in the mound area. The region about 

 Oneida lake is especially rich. One site near Brewerton has yielded 

 more than twenty copper objects, many gorgets and several banner 

 stones. Mr Bigelow, who had a collection embracing more than 

 ten thousand articles (now in the State Museum), had numerous 

 polished slates from this vicinity. 



If we are to trace the route taken by the people of the mound 

 culture we should follow both the lake shore of Erie and the valley 

 of the Alleghany. Perhaps the north shore of Lake Erie was also 

 a route for we find abundance of polished slates in the sites upon 

 which the Huron and the Neutrals and the Iroquois later intruded. 

 The southernmost division in New York, we would say, dwelt about 

 the Chautauqua lake and the valley of the Alleghany, with its 

 tributaries. We thus find true mounds in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus 

 and Erie counties. The southern bands along the Alleghany and 

 the Cattaraugus perhaps found a portage or a short overland trail 

 to the upper waters of the Genesee, and the more northerly along 

 the Tonawanda creek to the lower Genesee. The Genesee valley 

 throughout most of its length is rich in artifacts of this culture, 

 and the routes we have pointed out pass over and through sites 

 where such objects have been found. 



Apparently the presence of mounds and the artifacts of the mound 

 culture represent the expansion of the parent culture beyond the 

 limits of its home. Whether this was due to simple migratory 

 movements, to exploring bands, to expatriated tribesmen or the 

 pressure of warring enemies it is difficult to state. Perhaps all 

 these factors contributed to the expansion of the mound culture. 



