Arizona silver belt., 1890-01-18
Prehisserfc Man in America.

buteS paper to the January Forum
 magazine on 'Prehistoric Mau in
 America, in which he expresses the
 opinion that the red Indian was the
 highest type of man that had been
 produced in what is now the United
 States. up to the discovery of the
 Western Hemisphere by Columbus.
 "Man has dwelt Tn the United States,
 Major Powell Says, ''So far as we yet
 know, only during the latter halt oi
 the Pleistocene time. There are no
 races of people occupying the country
 anterior to the Indian tribes. Pre-
 ColEmbIa culture was indigenous; It
 began at the lowest stage of savagery
 and developed to the highest, and was
 in many places passing into barbar-
 ism when ttle good queen sold her jewels. If this theory be accepted
 the civilization of the mound builders is myth. and the ciff-dwellers, who of late have been invested with such an air of romantici$m, are resolved in- to ordinary saFages, such as can be
 found on any reservation to-day. It cannot Le denied that Major Powell is competent to treat this subject. His characte~ as scientist has met with conspicuous recognition. Twenty-one years ago he explored the Canyon ot the Colorado with such striking re- suits that Congress established the Typographical and Geological Survey and placed him at its head. He. sus- tainS his contention that the prehisto- TIC American was only savage with strong argument and logical deduc- tion. The presence of man in the United States, he afiirms. can be traced back nearly to the middle of the Gla- cial epoch. From The earliest time there has heeh a gradual develophen, of the arts. Nowhere Is any great . break found, nowhere is higher cul- ture interpolated, and nowhere do we find evidence of peoples other than the North Aiherican Indians and their ancestors" The moand-buiiders arts are tound to be identical and Major Powell claims that relics winch have been secured which seemed to reveal a higher civilization than the North American Indians possessed were the products of white laen-for Eis gener- i ai ritopesiii1n is shat soSe of :ho mounds ave been conStrnc;ed i'll bis- torical times-since 1492-while ear Her explorers and settlers found many actually used by tribes of North Ame- rican Indians. To cultivate. thelr business and make greater profits, white men tladIng with aborigines ingeniOuSly manufactured with civil ized appliances those things held in .ifEst value by the Indians. "rhay offered stone pipes more beautifully carved than the art of the Indian could compass, and stone tomahawEs, stone knives, and shell beads; and these were traded to the Indians for the pei tries they brought from the forest and ! the prairie. '' These implements have been found scattered in mounds con- structed in historical times, so it chan ces that unskilled arche95iogists are collecting many beautiful things h copper, stone, and shell which were | made by white men and traded to the Indians. As ruthlessly as he demol- tshes the theory of the civilization of the mound builders. does Major Powell address himself to the task oF proving that the rliff-dwellers were kindred m culture and no better advanced in the arts and sciences than were the h. dian tribes discovered ny White men near the coast. In fact the more an cient Of the cliff dwellers' ruIns are so rude when compared with others. that It iS evident the culture of the race reached its highest deyelopmtnt about the time Of the discovery of America Tbe sum and substance of Major Pow ell'a paper k that tho highest tyre of life on the Western Hemisphere of which history furnishes record was furnished hy the tribes found by the Spaniard>.-Albany Press.
 Since the unprecedented rains, ex-