In subsequent monographs the author will endeavor to thank such persons as have assisted him in their preparation. For the work already completed and for that yet to be done I am especially indebted to Mr. Arthur H. Clark, for encouragement and assistance; to the Hon. Rodney Metcalf Stimson, for the freedom of his splendid collection of Americana lately presented to Marietta College; and to the patient, devoted assistance and collaboration of my wife.
The latest explorations of the mounds erected by those first Americans, known best as the mound-building Indians, have revolutionized our conceptions of the earliest race of which we know in America. Very many notions, founded upon the authority of the earlier archæologists, seem now to be either partly or wholly incorrect. Many assumptions as to the population of this country during the mound-building era, the degree of the civilization, and the perfection of the arts, have not been substantiated by the more accurate studies which have been made in the past decade.
The most important reason why so little progress has been made in unraveling the mystery of the mounds that abound in central North America is that "the authors who have written upon the subject of American archæology have proceeded upon certain assumptions which virtually closed the door against a free and unbiased investigation."[1] Of these assumptions, the one most detrimental to the advance of the study of archæology is that which has affirmed that "mound-builders" and American Indians were two distinct races; thus all conclusions reached concerning the "mound-builders" which were founded upon the earliest knowledge we have of the American Indian were denied to archæology. But the evidence of latest explorations and investigations makes it positive that the "mound-builders" were not a race distinct and apart from the race we know as American Indians: "The links directly connecting the Indians and mound-builders are so numerous and well established that archæologists are justified in accepting the theory that they are one and the same people."[2]
This fact having been placed beyond the realm of speculation, a great mass of testimony furnished by the study of the American Indians is to be admitted in settlement of the question raised concerning the history of the mound-builders in America.