SWANTONJ INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 17 



At the close of the seventeenth century, the most important 

 Mississippi River tribes were located upon the bluffs at the edge of 

 its flood plain, like the Natchez, Tunica, and Houma, but when De 

 Soto and his followers passed through the country in 1541-43, a 

 number of them were on the flood plain itself. The Chitimacha, 

 though living on alluvial soils laid down by the river, owed their 

 prominence and permanence to the natural inland harbor furnished 

 by Grand Lake, the food to be obtained from it and from the numer- 

 ous bayous about it, and the ready access which they had to the 

 Gulf. The Hasinai and Caddo confederations were composed of 

 Indians who depended mainly upon their crops for sustenance, and 

 they occupied a position west of the Mississippi similar to that of the 

 Chickasaw and Choctaw east of it. West of the Caddo, climatic con- 

 ditions prevented the same dependence on corn as was possible far- 

 ther east and the cultural advantage of the interior suddenly 

 disappears, but there continues a distinction between the coast and in- 

 terior people, owing partly to the fact that the former depended mainly 

 on fish and shellfish and the latter upon hunting, and partly to the, 

 probably accidental, fact that they differed in language, those on 

 the coast belonging to the Atakapa and Karankawa groups and those 

 inland to the Tonkawa. Beyond San Antonio River the latter factor 

 ceases to hold, and though the sea probably operated to a limited 

 extent to bring about a change in the economic lives of the people, 

 the culture both on the coast and inland was on an almost equally 

 low level, and such it continued to be to the southern part of the 

 present State of Tamaulipas in Mexico. 



From the facts brought out in the foregoing discussion, and evidence 

 drawn from other parts of the continent of North America, it seems 

 probable that, before horticulture was introduced into the Gulf region, 

 the most dense population was primarily along the ocean shores and 

 secondarily along the rivers and about fresh water lakes. The shift 

 to a farming life probably advanced the culture of all the inhabitants 

 of our Southeast, but it evidently made more proportionate advance 

 possible to the river and lake dwellers whose fields could lie nearer 

 their fisheries. Along much of the Gulf, even to the present day, corn 

 does not grow as well as farther north and the difference was probably 

 greater in prehistoric times, before the breeder of special strains had 

 begun his work. It is, at least, a fair inference that the population 

 of the inland peoples increased relatively faster than the increase of 

 those on the coast although coastal populations, as has been shown, 

 continued large almost down to the historic period. Another note- 

 worthy point is the effect of farming upon the growth of states. 

 Peoples depending mainly upon fishing and hunting tend to remain 

 divided into a great number of bands, each maintaining a high degree 



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