The different cultures in America would appear to be evidence of the antiquity of man. One cannot imagine that the Cliff-Dwellers and mound-building tribes, that the stone-grave people, or the cave people in the Ozarks, or the shell-heap people of Florida, or the Plains tribes, and finally, the woods and mountain Indians, who never made any monuments of any description—that all these cultures developed in a few hundred years. They are so totally different, and are so influenced and modified by climate and local conditions, that it would appear plausible that several thousand years must have elapsed before these sharp lines of distinction developed. Again, while all Indians have skins more or less red, the variation in physical appearance among our aborigines is surprising. No one could fail to distinguish an Ojibwa from an Iroquois, or a Sioux from an Apache, or an Osage from a Seminole, even if one had no knowledge of Indian language or customs. Environment and habitat must have influenced these tribes and affected their stature and physical conditions.
ADAPTATION TO CONDITIONS
Among our American aborigines one trait stands out prominently, and that is the art of adapting themselves to existing and local conditions and environments. Perhaps no race so readily appreciated that it must depend entirely upon its own resources. We find, therefore, that it is immaterial whether the native Americans live in Maine or in Florida, in North Dakota, or Texas; they selected the most available materials. If the stone was easily chipped or of such consistency that it could be made use of, they adopted that stone for certain implements. If the stone was refractory and not easily chipped or worked, they did the best that they could with it. Therefore it is not always a criterion of poor workmanship nor does it indicate low degree of culture if the implements are crude and roughly and imperfectly made. It even means that there is no good material at hand and that the Indians selected the best they were able to secure and worked it out as well as they were able. Again, in certain sections implements made of good material are to be found, also of poor, coarse, local materials. Frequently the good material was transported from a distance. It may have come through trade or by means of conquest. That is immaterial. The point is that the natives naturally preferred materials more easily worked, but that they were not always able to obtain them. It is quite likely that few of the tribes were friendly in prehistoric times. The natives of a given river valley may have desired the better material to be found two or three hundred miles distant from their habitat, but because of the hostility of the nation living in that section where better material could be obtained, they were unable by either trade or conquest to obtain it, and had to be content with such unsatisfactory chert or other stone as occurred in their immediate locality. I think that this factor entered largely into prehistoric life.
But if no suitable stone could be obtained, the Indians made use of bone or other substances. In several references to the Mandan village-sites in this work, the point was made that the Mandans used the large bones of the buffalo for a multitude of purposes. This was because suitable stone was scarce, and for the further reason that the bones were more easily worked and shaped than stone. In certain sections of the Mississippi Valley where materials of all kinds were in abundance many varieties of stone, shell, etc., were employed.
The readiness with which the native adapted himself to conditions is shown in the house structure of the Indians. Those of cold climates lived in very different structures from those of the South. And the Plains Indians employed skin coverings, whereas the woods Indians made use of bark or of logs, and the Pacific Coast Indians used quantities of hewn boards.
This is an interesting subject, and could be followed at considerable length did space permit.
ART IN ANCIENT TIMES AND MODERN ART
Too much has been made of the presence of stone and bone tools among modern tribes. While there have been numerous instances of such clinging to old forms, yet students of modern Indian life, by their constant reference to these recurrences, have given a wrong impression to the world.
It is generally known and accepted that art passes through periods of transition. As an example one might cite the Renaissance. No student of art would confuse the Renaissance with an earlier or later period. Examples of earlier art still persisting during the early Renaissance are in evidence. But as the influence of the Renaissance broadened, all art of that period was affected, or leavened by it, and presently practically all art was Renaissance.
This is precisely true of Indian art. We search diligently to find an old, really old Navajo blanket to-day, and we pay a fabulous price for it. Likewise we search—but in vain—for old wooden bowls, painted buffalo robes, and feather mantles. The utmost corners of remote South America are visited by explorers from Harvard, the American Museum, and Berlin and London museums. Why? To discover primitive man untouched by civilization in order to record his arts and folk-lore, religion, and daily life, undefiled by contact with our civilization. Is it found? Scarcely an example remains—all is tinged and influenced even as the Renaissance changed the preRenaissance. If one will reflect a moment, one will agree that this is all true.