58 
toner's address. 
sippi Valley. It is possible that the Mound-Builders 
migrated and disappeared in this direction.* 
The Iroquois of New York State were village In- 
dians, building long wooden houses, and lived in a 
sort of communal way, though they respected the fam- 
ily by giving to each a separate fire. They also cul- 
tivated the soil, growing corn, root vegetables, and 
fruits, among which is said to have been the apple. 
The Virginia Indians also lived in villages, around 
some of which were erected stockade defenses like 
those of a fort. They were, as already stated, provi- 
dent in their habits, laying up stores of dried meats, 
fish, corn, beans, and fruits for future use. 
Village life and agricultural pursuits seem to be the 
path that leads to civilization, and tribes that adopted 
them have also led in the arts of making pottery, 
weaving, etc. A number might be named that have 
advanced toward civilization within historic times. 
The Cherokees, once a powerful southern Indian 
tribe, have now nearly the complete civil control of 
the Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi, to which 
■5^Capt. A. R. Johnston, in his Journal of an Expedition from Santa 
to Mexico in 1846, p. 598, after describing the ruins of a consid- 
erable city near the Gila River, notices a mound of which he gives 
the following detailed description : "About two hundred yards from 
this building was a mound, in a circle a hundred yards around. The 
center was hollow, 25 yards in diameter, with two vamps or slopes 
going down to its bottom. It was probably a well now partly filled 
up. A similar one was seen near Mount Dallas. A few yards farther 
in the same direction northward was a terrace 100 by 70, about 5 
feet high. Upon this was a pyramid about 8 feet high, and 25 yards 
square at the top. From this, sitting on my horse, I could overlook 
the vast plain lying N. E. and W. on the left bank of the Gila. The 
ground in view was about 15 miles, all of which, it would seem, had 
been irrigated by the waters of the Gila." 
