Fourteen years ago I compiled an archæologic map for the State of Ohio; the last entry being made in 1897. At that time there were 3292 various monuments and village-sites recorded. Since then Professor Mills has continued the work and added to the total. Constant travel over the State of Ohio in the past years leads me to believe that there were in ancient times at least twenty thousand monuments great and small in that state.
All considered, the population in North America in pre-Columbian times must have been considerable during two or three thousand years, if not for a longer period.
THE STONE AGE IN HISTORIC TIMES
It is unfortunate that Coronado, De Soto, Captain Smith, Hennepin, Marquette, and the Pilgrim Fathers did not give us more detail about stone-age times. When these explorers, or adventurers, or colonists came here, many of the Indians were still in the stone age. One of the best references that I have seen is that by Coronado’s historian, who states that in the mountain region along the Colorado River there lived many wild tribes who were barbarous; “eat human flesh, worship painted and sculptured stones, and are much given to witchcraft and sorcery.” These men represented savage and not barbaric stone-age times. They appear to have been exceedingly fleet of foot, great hunters, very courageous, and quite different from later Indians. The historian, speaking of one of these tribes, says:
“The third language is that of the Acaxes, who are in possession of a large part of the hilly country and all of the mountains. They go hunting for men just as they hunt animals. They all eat human flesh, and he who has the most human bones and skulls hung up around his house is most feared and respected. They live in settlements and in very rough country, avoiding the plains. In passing from one settlement to another, there is always a ravine in the way which they cannot cross, although they can talk together across it. At the slightest call five hundred men collect, and on any pretext kill and eat one another. Thus it has been very hard to subdue these people, on account of the roughness of the country, which is very great.”
It has been known for many years that the Seri Indians living on an island in the Gulf of California are still in the stone age. Professor W J McGee, of the Bureau of Ethnology, visited these Indians and wrote a long report concerning them.[[32]] This book should be read by students, as it gives an insight into what prehistoric times must have been. McGee states a number of interesting facts which I repeat, with some changes, in condensed form.
The Seris are bitterly opposed to foreigners, and he considers “their race sense is perhaps the strongest ever known.” This is due to their living alone and apart on this small island away from other tribes. They had bitter experiences with the cruel Spaniards nearly three centuries ago, which was a contributing factor in bringing about this condition. They use shells, with which the sea-front abounds, for knives, cups, dishes, dippers, and other utensils.
The natural, water-worn pebbles need no chipping or fashioning to make of them hammers and crushers. Occasionally some of these implements exhibit a little work to bring them into better shape. The seacoast abounded in thousands of water-worn stone objects, of such forms as made them convenient for use by the Seri Indians.
Practically no chipped implements occurred. McGee searched patiently but found only two, both of which were arrow-points. The water-worn stones were used in the hand and not hafted, the aim serving as the handle. “The Seri are wonderfully quick in using these stones”—the motions being faster than if one held the end of the handle in which the stone was fashioned. The social organization of these people is very peculiar. The oldest women are matrons who seem to dominate each community. In the case of the best-looking young woman of the tribe, who would not be photographed, the matron commanded that she permit a picture to be taken, and she, who had strenuously objected, at once consented. When any of these people marry with aliens, they are outlawed or driven away from the other Seri.
The graves of the Seri are simple pits in which the body is placed with accompaniment of objects belonging to the deceased in life. If such burials—near the surface—were made in very ancient times in more moist or humid climates, it is certain that all bone and other perishable objects would have disappeared and only the stone things remained. We would then be unable to determine that a grave once there existed, and it is possible—I do not say probable—that such graves may have been made in times of extreme antiquity in the North or South, and that all of the softer substances and bones have disappeared. In that event, these graves of an early culture would not appear to us as graves, but as a small cache of rude implements.