File:Image from page 97 of "Bulletin" (1901).jpg

English: Title: Bulletin

Identifier: bulletin3011907smit Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Subjects: Ethnology Publisher: Washington : G. P. O. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image: 80 AKCHITECTURE [b. a. e. W ^*"-™ - ~ 5f»«-w,r V.-. 4^ -Jf*S"STHa^ -,-^ BJ^ ^_ •3I1W! J'l^riflHIIitMiai.i.^.., T^I^^Bi 1^^"^' •I'T'tK--,.^ "'^^^'^ _j|g| fe--* liililllll^^P 1^^ #^Sfife..; ...». _.a-A*J ^ CAHOKIA MOUND, ILLINOIS. vironment, between the buildings of the N. W. coast and those of tlie Pueblo re- gion is most striking. With greater abil- ity, perhaps, than the Pueblos, the north- ern peoples labored under the disadvan- tage of employing materials that rapidly decay, while with the Puelilos the results of the skill and effort of one genera- tion were sup- plemented by those of the next, and the cumulative re- sult was the great pueblo. The lot of the Pueblo tribes fell in the midst of a vast region of cliffs and plateaus, where the means of subsistence admitted of thegrowth of large communities and where the ready-quar- ried stone, with scarcity of wood, led inevi- tably to the I )uilding of houses of masonry. The defensive motive being present, it di- rected the genius of the people toward con- tinued and united effort, and the dwelling group became a great stronghold. Cunui- lative results encouraged cumulative effort; stronger and stronger walls were built, and story grew on story. The art of the stone mason was mastered, the stones were hewn and laid in diversified courses for effect, door and window openings were accurately and symmetrically framed with cut stone and spanned with lintels of stone and wood, and towers of picturesijue outline in picturesque situa- tions, now often in ruins, offer suggestions of the feudal castles of the Old World. (See Clitf'-du'ellings, Piwhlos.) Standing quite alone among the build- ing achievements of the tribes n. of Mex- ico are the works of the ancient mound- building Indians of the Mississippi valley and the Southern states. Earthworks, grand in proportions and varied in char- acter, remain as a partial and imperfect index of the extent and nature of the architeccure of these people. The great embankments probably inclosed thriv- ing villages, and the truncated jiyramids must have supported temples or other important structures. But these, built no doubt of wood or bark, have wholly dis- appeared. The nearest approach to per- manent house construction observed in e. United States is found in the clay-covered wattle-work walls of the more southerly tribes (Thomas; Adair). The people had acquired only partial mastery of the build- ing materials within their environment. Earth, sand, and clay, indestructible and always at hand, were utilized for the sub- structures and embankments, and the cunuilative growth gave massive and en- during results, but the superstructures were of materials difficult to utilize in an effective manner by a stone-age people and, being sul)ject to rapid decay, were not cumulative. Had the envi- ronment fur- nished to this group of vigor- ous and talented tribes the mate- rials for adobe cement or plen- tiful deposits of readily quarried stone, the re- sults might have been very differ- ent: themound- Iniilders' culture and the mound-building people might have been no mean factor in the Ameri- can nation to-day. The primitive habitations of the Pa- cific slope from the Straits of Fuca to the Gulf of California afford a most instruct- ive lesson. In the N. the vigorous tribes had risen to the task of utilizing the vast forests, but in the S. the improvident and enervated natives were little short of homeless wanderers. In the N. the roomy communal dwellings of the Co- lumbia valley, described by Lewis and Clark, were found, while to the S. one passes through varied environments where timl)erand earth, rocks and caves, rnslies, l)ark, izrass. and Imisli in turn Terraced Pyramid iiGH, Restored FT. LONG,

Text Appearing After Image: played their i)art in the very primitive house-making achievements of the strangely diversified tribesmen. In the highlands of the Great Divide and in the vast inland basins of the N. the building arts did not flourish, and houses of bark, grass, reeds, the skins of animals, and rough timbers covered with earth gave only necessary shelter from winter blasts. In the whole expanse of the forest-covered E. the palisaded for-

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