webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 379 



(9) Cherokee never at any time built rectangular town houses. All 

 such structures appearing on sites occupied by Cherokee in historic 

 times are to be regarded as the work of an earlier people. 



Who, then, if not Cherokee, were these earlier people ? If the de- 

 ductions in the chapter on Conclusions is correct, we have to account 

 for two different peoples, the large-log town-house peoples and the 

 small-log town-house peoples. 



One naturally asks if either could have been any of the Muskhogean 

 tribes. The answer to such a question in our present state of knowl- 

 edge is. only a guess, but the author is inclined to consider it well 

 within the bounds of possibility that the large-log town-house people 

 were of Muskhogean stock. There is some evidence which appears 

 to be growing in importance and which seems to show that the Creeks 

 lived on the Tennessee Eiver, and that their range of occupancy was 

 much farther to the north in the valley of the Tennessee River than 

 their homes in early historic times would indicate. Haywood 13 states 

 that the Cherokee had a tradition of finding Creeks living near the 

 mouth of Hiwassee River when they first came into that region. 



Recent excavations in Madison County, Ala., in connection with the 

 archaeological survey of the Wheeler Basin conducted by the author, 

 seem to indicate occupancy on the Tennessee River by some branch of 

 the Muskhogean people closely associated with the builders of the 

 Etowah mounds. It is possible that these were some of the Upper 

 Creek tribes. The burial at Sites Nos. 10 and 19 of bodies in a sitting- 

 posture has been discussed in the reports on these sites. Also the use 

 of bark and strips of wood for covering graves has been found at 

 Site No. 19. This trait was also very prominently shown at Dan- 

 dridge. Attention was called to the close resemblance of these cus- 

 toms with burial customs of the Creeks, as reported by several white 

 observers about 1790. 



While these facts all seem to point in the same direction, certainly 

 no one could draw from the information at hand any definite con- 

 clusion as to the identity of the builders of "large-log" town houses. 

 While relationship with the Creeks is yet unproven, it would not be 

 astonishing if future excavation should develop a very definite 

 connection. 



In attempting to "speculate" as to the identity of the "small-log 

 town-house" people there is even less basis for conjecture than in the 

 case of the large-log people. However, there is a line of suggestion, 

 very weak from lack of proof, but representing an interesting 

 possibility. 



It has been obvious that the two people of Norris Basin occupied 

 generally the same territory, i. e., the sites were mingled. On Site No. 



"Haywood, 1823, p. 234. 



