judge by, it is probable we should be forced to the conclusion, as
held by some writers, that the former inhabitants of that portion
of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains pertained to one
nation, unless possibly the prevalence of certain types in
particular sections should afford some data for tribal
districting.

This strong similarity of the stone articles of the Atlantic coast
to those of the mound area was noticed as early as 1820 by Caleb
Atwater, who, knowing that the former were Indian manufactures,
attributed the latter also to the same people although he held
that the mounds were the work of the ancestors of the civilized
nations of Mexico and Central America.

Mound and Indian Pottery.--The pottery of the mound-builders has
often been referred to as proof of a higher culture status, and of
an advance in art beyond that reached by the Indians. The vase
with a bird figure found by Squier and Davis in an Ohio mound is
presented in most works on American archaeology as an evidence of
the advanced stage of the ceramic art among the mound-builders;
but Dr. Rau, who examined the collection of these authors, says:

Having seen the best specimens of "mound" pottery obtained during
the survey of Messrs. Squier and Davis, I do not hesitate to
assert that the clay vessels fabricated at the Cahokia Creek were
in every respect equal to those exhumed from the mounds of the
Mississippi Valley, and Dr. Davis himself, who examined my
specimens from the first-named locality, expressed the same
opinion. [Footnote: Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 349.]