That a family likeness should be traceable among the native races of the Americas is not remarkable and as yet there has been no suffi ciency of evidence to lead us to the conclusion that the so-called "Indians" are referable to diverse origins. The cranial differences are of degree only, and when a number of skulls are brought together, the extremes are united by a series of gradations that stamp them all as one in anatomical essentials. Yet, viewing the vast territory as a whole, we find wide dif ferences among these people, differences which may be explained, however, by the wholly dissimilar environment; this not including the strictly boreal people, though their variations from the typical Indian are not, perhaps, so great as has been asserted. The marked fea ture of the handiwork of Arctic man is skill in carving ivory and very strikingly etching it in such a manner that frequently the fauna of the region and mode of life of inhabitants are plainly depicted. But considering that bone and ivory take the place of stone so largely and that there is so much enforced idleness during the long Arctic winter, this artistic taste has been most naturally developed. There must of necessity be some occupation, and the artistic instinct is common to all mankind. Whether or not it flourishes — is a vigorous or a stunted growth--is, again, a matter of environment only. The comparatively few stone imple ments found in the far North are not notice ably well-fashioned, and the majority of their patterns are to be duplicated in the one-time Indian village sites of the temperate regions.
The purported Indian etchings on slate are not as artistic in any instance as those on ivory made within or near the Arctic circle, and it is possible that all or nearly all of them should be ruled out of court. They usually tell too much, when they pass from a series of °tally marks" or merely ornamental zigzag lines, which may or may not have had a sig nificance beyond the fabricator's idea of decora tion. The tablets from Iowan mounds and the remarkable Lenape stone (q.v.) from eastern Pennsylvania stand out so prominently among the Indian relics of their respective neighbor hoods, and especially the latter, that an un qualified acceptance cannot be accorded them. If they were the culmination of artistic effort on the part of the Indians of the central West and Atlantic seaboard respectively, the ques tion arises where are the pictured tablets of lesser degree of merit. There is too great a difference between the notches, straight or zig zag lines and the thrilling scene of battling with a mastodon that finally is stricken by lightning. If all this ever occurred we have no evidence that any Indian of that day had the skill to tell the story in this manner. The same is true of the Iowan tablets. That the Indian had not knowledge of the mastodon we do not claim, for there is every reason to be lieve that it became extinct in comparatively recent times; probably not more than 25 cen turies ago. The conditions under which its bones have been found and the instances of association of human and elephantine bones show that before this country's "autochthonic hunter, Behemoth melted away.* As ethnologic importance continues to be claimed by its sole protagonist, of this "Lenitpe stone," it may be well to state that it has recently been examined by one well qualified for the task and the decision reached was•that, if genuine, its fabricator was familiar with all the folk-lore of North America from Hudson Bay to Florida. This • at once shows the object's fraudulent origin. Consult Keane, 'Ethnology,' p. 343.
What the Indian was at the time of the Columbian discovery has a distinct bearing on the archaeology of the country he occupied, inasmuch as an agriculturist he was in posses sion of maize and grew it extensively. This
plant had become during that time a product of artificially or cultivated growth, so modified that but for man's care it would have been lost. Whatever the plant from which it came there is no resemblance to it now. To effect such a change calls for an immense lapse of time. Other products of agricultural skill were as carefully grown and the impression that the results of the chase were the main food supply is not a correct one. The researches of Carr on this subject' show how methodical these people were as tillers of the soil and that great suffering followed when their crops failed. The Indians did not come to America as agri culturists; of that we can be very sure, and to pass from the hunter-stage of life to that of cultivator of the ground is not conceivable as a sudden transition; but is intelligible as a slow evolutionary process. This development, in no mean stage as finally reached, shows the up ward tendency of the Indians in given areas over what is now the United States, and how much beyond the status gained they would have progressed had not European invasion checked their career is conjectural. Herbert Spencer believes they had reached the full limit of their capabilities, but among such a people as these Indians in the 15th century it is conceivable that superior intellects might appear occasionally and such men would have their following. If such men are philosophers and not fanatics, a distinct gain is the result. When it is considered that people with merely a novel view and usually an absurd one be come prominent for a day and have a host of applauders, it is not unreasonable to sup pose that among the Algonkins or Iroquois there might have risen those who saw the folly of war and set forth convincingly the manifold blessings of peace; who realized the advantages of agriculture over the difficulties attending hunting and so brought into existence a train of thought that would influence the people who gave them a hearing. Attracted first by the novelty of the suggestion, they would later see the logic of the argument, if such existed, and a distinct gain be made. That their growth toward our civilization would ever have been equal to our own is quite improbable, as these people have been as long upon the earth as any other race and America offers opportunities for intellectual growth equal to Asia or Europe. What does appear is that the upward growth was in ex istence when the blight of European contact fell upon them. Certainly the savage of 10,000 years ago was far lower in skill, in handicraft and culture generally than the men who witnessed the landing of the Norsemen. Then, or about that time, a fatal scourge seems to have raged along the Atlantic sea board and the natives suffered a serious check, the result of which appears to have lowered their status, as smallpox and syphilis, intro duced by Europeans later, largely decimated their numbers. The Indians for a time were driven to the dire necessity of daily struggle for bare existence, and many of the better things of which they were capable fell into disuse. So, at least, it seems most rational to explain the fact that these people, when Euro pean contact became permanent, were not what they had been. They had not been able wholly to recover from one disaster before another overtook them; the last, Spanish, French and English invasion, proving as destructive as fire upon the dry prairie..