The American Race, The American race includes those peoples occupying the western continent at the time of its discovery by white men. For the purpose of study they may be divided into seven groups: Arctic, North At lantic, North Pacific, Mexican, Inter-Isthmian, South Atlantic, South Pacific.
The Arctic groups include the Eskimo and Aleutian peoples. They occupy the shores of the oceans in Arctic America and extend from Labrador to Greenland. In the North Atlantic group are some Indians of wide range. The Athabascans extend from the valleys of the Yukon and lower Mackenzie to Arizona; while farther to the southward, reaching into Mexico, the warlike Apaches are of this group. The Algonkins ranged from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and from the Churchill River Valley and Hudson Bay southward throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to the Ten nessee River. These included most of the Indians encountered by the early settlers. Their names are more or less familiar to us from history. The intelligent Iroquois, the formi dable Dakotas (Sioux), the southern Indians, some of whom built mounds within historic times, and the tribes of the interior plains also group includes a number of tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, many of which are small and represent distinct linguistic stocks. Several of these tribes have the head artificially deformed. These include the Flatheads and Nez Perces (Pierced Noses). The Cliff-dwellers and Pueblo tribes of the arid regions of the south western United States are placed here. The Mexican group is notable because of the state of civilization attained by the Aztecs, its best known tribe. The organization developed, gov
ernment established, education acquired, build ings constructed and arts pursued were un equaled by any tribe of the American race. The Mayas were the most important tribe of the Inter-Isthmian group. They were builders of note, elaborate decorators of stone and mural artists. The South Atlantic group occupied the Atlantic coast of South America. They were chiefly wandering tribes without settled habita tions. The Quichuas of Peru are the best known tribe of the South Pacific group. They attained higher civilization than any other South American tribe. They developed agri culture, domesticated animals, constructed large buildings of stone, were expert workers in metals and devised a method of record keeping by means of strings and knots called quippus. See ANTHROPOLOGY; ETHNOLOGY; MAN, CHRIS TIAN ANTHROPOLOGY ; MAN, PREHISTORIC RACES OP; EMBRYOLOGY, HUMAN.
Bibliography.— Boas, F., 'The Mind of Primitive Man' (New York 1911) ; Brinton, 'Races and Peoples' ; id., 'The American Race' ; Deniker, J., 'The Races of Man' (London 1900) ; Gerland, 'Ethnography' ; Keane, A. H., 'Ethnology> (2d ed., New York 1906) ; id., 'Man Past and Present' (ib. 1900) ; Morgan, L. H., 'Ancient Society' (1878) ; Ratzel, F., 'History of Mankind' (3 vols., ib. 1904) ; Thomas, W. I., 'Source Book for Social Origins> (Chicago 1909), with an extensive bibliography; and Tylor, E. B., 'Anthropology' ; id., 'Primitive Culture' (2 vols., New York 1891).
Amos W. BUTLER, Zoologist and Anthropologist, Indianapolis.