■IPLE COPX. 
VOL. IV. 
KANSAS CITY. KANSAS, DECEMBER. 1889. 
NO. .5. 
for THE Naturalist. 
Antiquity of the Mounds. 
Of late j'ears there seems to be a grow- 
ing tendency on the pnrt of '-otiiciar sci- 
entists to discountenance ! he view that the 
pre-historic earthworlvs. scattered so pro- 
fusely over the Great Basin, are the re- 
mains of an ancient and extinct people^ 
who preceded, at some past epoch, the 
a-ed-lmllan, in this part of the New World. 
This skepticism i* not altogether new; 
but its bearing on Archa'oiogical studies 
in America has only become of import- 
ance since tli« savants connected with 
the Smithsonian Institution have become 
its propagandists. Even though no 
other authority should concur with our 
new Doctors of the Sorbomie, yet so ad- 
vantageous is their position, so easily, 
widely and inexpensively (to themselves) 
;ire their doctrines disseminated, that no 
mere private doctrinaire can pi- Tend to 
compete with them. In iruih the gov- 
ernment gives its sanction toiheir views; 
and the same Congress that orders the 
l>i inting of the nation's municipal laws. 
;ilso authorizes the printing of the de- 
terminations of our scientirtc law-mak- 
ers. Thiw is not said by way of censure, 
for it is proper that government should 
take acttive interest in all enquiries look- 
ing to the enlargement or the detinition 
of human knowledge; but at the present 
stage, it mui-t be said th;it the publica. 
tions of the Institution never contain 
papers which antagonize the offlcial 
views of its responsible dominators. 
Among those whose enquiries into .Amer- 
ican jii'chreology and ethnology, 'have 
given lusti'e to the Institution in late 
years, is Prof. (Jyrus 'rhomas. A fevv 
years ago he w;;s known pi-incipally for 
his ingenious attempts to decipher the 
Maya hieroglyphs, which resulted, it 
?eems. in his connection with the VV'ash- 
ngton scientists. Since then he has en- 
tered the tield of exploitation; and the 
special i)urpose of his woik is to prove 
from the mounds themselves that they 
are the work ot the modern red-man. 
It seems to a causual enquirer into these 
mysteries, that a preconceived theory 
foi-med by the explorer would largely 
destroy the usefulness of his results; for 
so long as men are not gifted with a di- 
vine impartiality, when their own opin- 
ions and projects are in the balance, just 
so long will facts be perverted, manufac- 
tured or concealed to suit the occasion. 
It is not the purpose of this brief note 
to attempt any review of the pamphlet of 
Prof. Thomas, issued by the government, 
on "Work in Moinul Explorations of the 
Bureau of Eethnology;" but as this is 
the avant courier of a large work on the 
subject soon to be issued by the bureau, 
consisting of "two quarto volumes ot 
about .500 pages each," it will be of ser- 
vice to coiisidei- a few of the thirteen 
propositions or laws it lavs down which 
must hereafter govern us in considering 
this subject. 
Before referring to these, however, a 
few obseiv:itions will not be out of 
plac(>. It i< useless in the pi-esent state 
of our kwow ledge co discuss the origin of 
the aborigines du elling in this country 
\\ lien first discovered ; but the conclusion 
must be irresistably reached by every 
student of the subjeet. th-it they must 
liave dw elt h<'re foi- iii;niy ceMturie>; prim- 
to discovery. Were iliey i>i-eceeded by 
others? or were these I'ed men the earli- 
est comers to AuiericaV There ai-e two 
facts known to us which may helptoelu- 
<'idaie this question. (1) These aborigi- 
nes were either savaues. jiuie and simple 
or were just emerging from this state (of 
course reference is made to the Indians 
noi th nf tlie Rio (irande). (i) These sav- 
ages were imiversallv possessed of at 
least one plant in a siate of cultivation of 
whieli no repiesriifati\e in a wild state 
is known to exisi . Is ti.eie another in- 
sfjuice in the w or d. of such a coinci- 
dence? It is granted that there are other 
satages in other l,-iii(ls.ii-ing similar plants 
but in every case the introduction of the 
plants resulted fiom contact with civil- 
ized peoples. If the Vmerican savage did 
not inhei-it the knowledge of the cultiva- 
tion ;!n use of Indian corn from some 
old and vanished an(" moi-e enlightened 
race, he either di^eovered it himself or 
received it from Mexico. 'I'he latter 
may seem probable, but if the peculiari- 
ties of savage life are i-ecalled. and the 
\ ast distances bet ween Mexico and the 
Mi ssi ssi ppi , great d i Iticn 1 ties arise agai nst 
t he acceptance of 1 his view. Besides it 
was known e(pially to the Indians of 
Vii-ginia, Canada, Peru ami to the na- 
tiivesot the West Indies. How came it 
among the latter from Mexico, whose 
cominei-ce was carried in canoes? Cuba 
is separateil from Mexico by wide and 
tempestious waters and was totally un- 
known to the dwellers on the continent 
— as much so to those of Florida as to 
those of Yucatan. — Again the inhabit- 
ants oi each distinct region where maize 
was cultivated, had only the grossest 
myths to account for its origin. This 
fact alone would throw its introduction 
back many centuries: while the rise of 
Aztec power in Mexico is consid- 
ered to have occurred within two centu- 
ries i)rior to the Spanish invasion, and 
the followers of Morgan even contend 
that they were nothing but savages. So 
here is the anomaly of a plant totally ex- 
tinct in the wild state and yet cuhivated 
by savages, all over a vast continent, in- 
cluding both N orth and .South America 
as well as the Islands contiguous to both ; 
an anomaly all the greater, when we 
recall that these savages as known to us 
in the north, were migratory hunters. 
It is simply incredible that maize and to- 
bacco should have become so universaly 
used in aborigin.il America, without the 
l>re-existaiice of some dominating and 
. nligbtened race; especially so, asthere 
<xist<Ml in various parts of this vast region 
many ai tich-s of food and utility, totally 
iniknow n oulside of the region of their 
use. por example, v/e are told byHnni- 
bolilt thai the potato (certainly as valua- 
ble a food as corn) was cultivated only 
from Chili to New Granada at the time 
of the conipiest, not being know n even in 
.Mexico. 
Tliesc considei-ations certainly point 
to a prehistoric race in this country 
much further advanced in peaceful arts 
than the red-man — a race, too. that 
must have preceded trie Aztec- uid Pe- 
ruvians for the.se latter, though far ad- 
vanced in some respects and belli using 
maize were entirely ignorant of each 
otlic rs existance. It is curious also, that 
the plants useil universaly in the north 
were also used throughout the L-ontiuent, 
w hile iho'Se of the south, especially, the 
p.i.iio. bad not become known further 
noi 1 b t ban New Granada. Would not 
Ibis indicate that the supposed forermi- 
i;ers ihigi-ati'd Irom the north, carrying 
Ibrir di.-coveries with them, and making 
iirw ones on 1 he way ? 
Now a few words as to two of the 
tlii I teen theses <d official science: llie 
ihird of iliese i- thai --nothing trustwi.u- 
tliy has been di.-co\-<i-ed to justify the the- 
ory that the^Iound Builders belonged to a 
highly civilized race, or that they w ere a 
people who had attained a higher culture 
status than the Indians. " There is some 
(.lisingenuousness in this. No one, not 
even the wildest vi si onai-y. has ever claim- 
ed 1 hat I be ^louiel Builders were '-a highly 
civilized ra(.-e." so this may be passed. 
It is elainied, bow ever, that they were "'a 
people who had attained a higher culture 
than 1 he Indians."" by every investigator 
that ijxi'V examine<l the subject, and com- 
mittetl his i-etlectioiis to w riting, prior to 
theriscofthe official opinion now proija- 
gated. Vvoi. Thomas, with a modesty 
that must commen. i him to the discerning 
states that "the splendid fabric'"which has 
been built upon the facts adduced by 
all previous investigators, is a w oi k of 
the imagination, and will fade from 
