SwANTONj INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 11 



marginal and seem to have come within its sphere at a very recent 

 period. The same was also true of the Biloxi and Ofo, but we know 

 too little regardiiij^ '^hem to make an independent category for them 

 advisable, though Voegelin has shown that they formed one dialectic 

 group with the Tutelo (not indicated in table 1). 



POPULATION 

 (See map 3) 



The most careful attempt to date to prepare a detailed estimate of 

 the Indian population north of Mexico is by the late James Mooney, 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, though useful modifications 

 have been suggested by Kroeber. This gives us a total population 

 from the Chesapeake to Texas, including the Caddo and Shawnee 

 and excluding the Atakapa, of 171,900. The Atakapa and their 

 relatives are placed at about 2,000. While this figure is protested by 

 Spinden as inadequate to account for the earthworks of the region, 

 I believe it to be rather too high than too low for the years to which 

 it is supposed to apply, 1600-1650. At an earlier period, however, 

 there are evidences of a great expansion of population. My own inde- 

 pendent estimates for part of the region yield substantially the same 

 results as Mooney reached except that I should be inclined to reduce 

 the figures for the Creeks and Chickasaw somewhat. The figures 

 for Florida I should also be inclined to scale down and most of those 

 for the Siouan tribes of the east. Nevertheless, the relative strength 

 of the tribes enumerated, I think, would be altered little if we had ab- 

 solutely trustworthy figures, and those we have will give us a very 

 good idea of the distribution of population. 



It is something surprising to find that the Cherokee, the only 

 distinctly mountain tribe in the whole area, with the possible ex- 

 ception of the Yuchi, were also the most numerous, the only one 

 exceeding 20,000. Next come the Creeks of the Tallapoosa, Coosa, 

 and Chattahoochee Valleys, and the Choctaw of southern Mississippi. 

 If we regard density of population, we should probably find the 

 Choctaw leading both Creeks and Cherokee. It will be noticed that 

 these are all great corn-raising tribes and still constitute the great- 

 est part of the remaining southern Indians. They are followed by 

 the Powhatan Indians of Virginia, the Timucua and the Apalachee 

 of Florida, the Chickasaw of northern Mississippi, the Catawba of 

 the Piedmont region of South Carolina, and the Tuscarora of the 

 Piedmont escarpment in North Carolina. Most of these are again 

 corn-raising tribes of the interior, but Virginia and Florida now 

 supply us with tribes which combined that industry with fishing 

 in an eminent degree. Fourth in position, of between 2,500 and 

 6,000 population, come the Natchez and Quapaw, at different points 

 along the Mississippi River ; the Potano of Florida, who were inland 



