822 ] BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



these people is probably traceable to the north. Somewhat similar 

 differences for an analogous reason seem to have existed among the 

 Chitimacha and their allies about the mouth of the Mississippi. 



Our Southeastern province proper, therefore, includes the tribes of 

 Florida, the Creek Confederation with its absorbed tribes, the Chicka- 

 saw, the Choctaw, the Natchez, the Tunica, the Chitimacha, and the 

 Caddo and the smaller tribes affiliated with them. There were also two 

 Siouan tribes, the Biloxi and Ofo, but it is believed that they entered 

 the country at a very late date. All that we know of them, however, 

 aligns them with the other tribes of the Southeast. 



Between all of these tribes or tribal groups last enumerated there 

 were minor differences. As has just been intimated, the people of 

 northern and southern Florida did not possess throughout the same 

 cultural characters, and each w^as unlike, in many characters, the tribes 

 farther north and west. The Creeks and Choctaw, although clearly 

 related by language, showed striking contrasts in other particulars, 

 the one being aggressive, having taken in many formerly independent 

 groups, having totemic clans as well as rather weakly developed 

 moieties, and complicated social and ceremonial systems, while the 

 latter were relatively peaceful, given to agricultural pursuits, with- 

 out totemic divisions but with strongly marked moieties, weak social 

 and ceremonial structures, and giving way rapidly to the new ideas 

 introduced by the whites. The Chickasaw had borrowed almost every- 

 thing from the Creeks or Choctaw. The Natchez and their allies with 

 their theocratic system, theocratic aristocracy, and complicated temple 

 rituals were differentiated from both. The Caddo seem to have resem- 

 bled the Natchez in their rituals but differed in their social organiza- 

 tion. The Tunica must have represented something distinct from 

 and probably more primitive than both. Finally, the Chitimacha 

 combined a pure caste system with funeral rites reminiscent of the 

 Choctaw. The points in which these several groups differed were 

 mainly linguistic, or connected with the social organization or cere- 

 monial life. Differences in material culture are often found asso- 

 ciated with differences in environment, or with importations from 

 some specific quarter. Had the information been preserved, we should 

 doubtless be able to trace even matters concerning the material culture 

 of the people to psychological differences or prejudices, and the w^eight- 

 ing to be allowed to the several sets of factors must be determined by 

 a study of some better preserved cultural province. 



It is not my purpose to intrude upon the field that properly belongs 

 to the archeologist, but I would merely add that the remains seem to 

 point to the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf coast as the terri- 

 tories which gave birth to the culture which later overspread the 

 Southeast. 



