Basis of American history, 1500-1900 by Farrand Livingston 1867-

Author:Farrand, Livingston, 1867- [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Indians of North America. [from old catalog], Physical geography
Publisher: New York, London, Harper & brothers
Published: 1904-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

214 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [1500

a necessity. The pressure on the food supply brought about a system of organized plunder from tribes which had been conquered and were held in subjugation by the efficiency of the confederation. The collection of this tribute and its equable distribution demanded an executive, and it was provided by increased dignity and authority vested in the war-chief, who was gradually assuming civil as well as military functions. Coincident with this growth of the chief executive, which must be considered the most significant phase of the Aztec government, came an increase in the number of subordinate civil officers and consequent differentiation in their fimctions. It is not tmlikely that with time the two war - chief ships of the Iroquois,* created for special military operations, would have been consolidated and a more permanent executive with civil functions have been developed. In other words, the Iroquois were probably following the very course of civil evolution through which the Aztec had already passed, though the progress was necessarily slower, by reason of the local dispersion of the former as compared with the compact village communities of the latter.

* See above, chap. x.

CHAPTER XIV

INDIAN HOUSES, HOUSE LIFE, AND POOD

QUEST

(1500-1900)

TWO facts stand out clearly from the earliest authentic information regarding the Indians: the first is that the continent was sparsely settled in pre-Columbian times; the second that the inhabitants were sedentary rather than nomadic in manner of life. The fact that Indians were everywhere encountered by the early settlers means nothing, except that the same natural features which attracted the white attracted the Indian as well. Practically everywhere the natives were gathered together in villages, the sites of which were determined by natural advantages. These villages were almost invariably small, seldom with more than a few hundred inhabitants, and usually with less. With the inevitable growth and extension of these groups new villages were formed, the inhabitants of which naturally retained dialectic and cultural affiliations, and thus afforded an opportunity for the confederations which were brought about by common interests. Language

2i6 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [1500

and geographical proximity were the pre-eminent factors in binding together the tribes and confederacies, t-

Furthermore, these villages were almost always permanent, although the seasonal changes of residence brought about by the necessities of the food quest often gave to the early observers the impression of an unstable and nomadic habit. Scattered at intervals along the coasts of both oceans, and on the waterways of the continent and about the shores of the lakes of the interior, it is not strange that the white inunigrants encotmtered these villages at every turn and supposed that the vast intervening territories were as thickly peopled as the natural routes of travel which they happened to be following; whereas, as a matter of fact, large areas were nearly as destitute of Indian as of white inhabitants.

For this and other reasons, gross misconceptions have arisen regarding the number of Indians at the discovery; and with them equally erroneous ideas as to the rapid decrease and inevitable extinction of the race.

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