SwANTON] INDIANS OP THE aOXJTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 495 



native copper, and these are sufficient to account for the few occur- 

 rences of this metal in pre-Columbian deposits, such as the silver 

 reported in the Turner Group, Hamilton County, Ohio, some silver 

 nuggets in a mound in Pickaway County in the same state, and an 

 occurrence in Warren County, Pa. (Hodge, 1910, art. Silver). Flo- 

 ridian silver may safely be attributed to the same region as Floridian 

 gold. Besides the silver objects noted, mention may be made of 

 "girdles of silver-colored balls, some round and some oblong," spoken 

 of by Le Moyne, and silver chains worn by chiefs. (Le Moyne, 

 1875, pp. 2, 14; French, 1869, p. 350; Swanton, 1922, p. 350.) Hariot 

 seems to supply us with one account of a silver ornament of purely 

 native origin, and the whole paragraph in which it occurs is of spe- 

 cial interest : 



A hundred and fiftie miles into the maine in two townes wee founde with 

 the inhabitaunts diuerse small plates of copper, that had beene made as wee 

 vnderstood, by the inhabitantes that dwell farther into the couutrey: where 

 as they say are mountaines and riuers that yeelde also whyte graynes of 

 Mettall, which is to bee deemed Siluer. For confirmation whereof at the time 

 of our first arriual, in the Countrey, I sawe with some others with mee, two 

 small pieces of siluer grosly breaten about the weight of a Testrone, hangyng 

 in the eares of a Wiroans or chiefe Lorde that dwelt about fourescore myles 

 from vs; of whom thorowe enquiry, by the number of dayes and the way, I 

 learned that it had come to his handes from the same place or neere, where I 

 after vnderstood the copper was made and the white graynes of Mettall founde. 

 The aforesaide copper wee also found by triall to holde siluer. (Hariot, 1893, 

 pp. 17-18.) 



This at once suggests that the original of this silver was a bit of 

 native metal in association with native copper from Superior. 



The avidity shown by our Indians for silver as soon as it began 

 to reach them testifies to the slight access they had had to it. Inci- 

 dentally this seems to dispose pretty effectually of the idea that there 

 might have been any considerable trade with Middle America. 



In historic times the use of silver replaced that of copper so com- 

 pletely that my oldest informants in the Southeast could not remem- 

 ber of hearing that copper ever had been employed in ornaments. 

 Gold was worked to some extent but it was hard to obtain, gold coins 

 not having been much in circulation in this region in early days, while 

 it was, of course, costly. Practically all silver was from the coins 

 of European and American countries, but, although the material itself 

 changed, it is probable that old methods of treatment continued, being 

 modified only by the introduction of iron and steel working tools. 

 Silver was worked by most of the Southeastern tribes in the proto- 

 historic period, including the Creeks, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, 

 and Choctaw. The following notes were obtained from the Alabama 

 Indians, who are rather closely connected by language with the Choc- 

 taw, but constituted a part of the Creek Confederation. 



