Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-14
INHABITANTS Or AMERICA
Miss Welch Lectures on Early Races and
Their Civilization.
The Indian and His Different Stages
of Progress and Development
The Mound Builders.

At Joint meeting of the Anthropological
Society of Washington and the Womens
Anthropological Society, held last night at
the Cosmos Club, Miss Jane Meade WEIGH
delivered an instructive and interesting lee
ture on early Americans
Miss Welch, who has been heard in Wash
ington during the past week on various
historical subjects, and who is well known
to the scientific circles here. where she is
staying under the patronage Of Mrs. Cleve-
land, Mrs. Carlisle, Mrs. BisSell and ether
ladies of prominence, is Buffalo woman,
who has spent much of her time studying
the history of the American indian.
Prof. Otis T. Mason, with Miss Alice c.
Fletcher the president of the Women's An
thropological Society, on his right, presid-
ed, and in a few graceful and appropriate
remarks presented Miss Welch.
In her introduction Miss WEIGH pointed
out the mounds of Ohio. the ruins of Yucca
tan and various other relics of ancient art,
as Indicative of a prehistoric race in
America, worthy of study and perpetual
ton in history.
She first treated of the EsquimauX, the
"Phoenicians of the north" whom she call
ed the connecting links between the old
and the new WORLDS being related TO the
former in language and to the latter In
habits and mode of life.
The Indians of the sacramento valley ana
Puget sound, and that region south of the
ESquimauX, she said, constituted what was
known as the region of sayaSery, their
wigwams being of the crudest, rouShest
wOrkmansh ship, and their temperaments or
an uneasy, prowling nature, while the in
habitants of the territory between the Mis-
sissippi and the Pacific, adjacent to them,
were much more skillful in their modes Of
architecture. The Acknowledgements were the
ablest warriors among the tribes. They
lived in ''long houses" which we're divided
into stalls and occupied by many families.
The Indians of the tablelan,ls Of New
Mexico were described as being in still
a greater state of advancement, while
those of Yucatan, she said were the most
highly cultured of them all, having a pho
South American Indian had not as yet
been thoroughly studied, and admitted Of
little description.
Various Stages.
Miss Welch then went on to describe the
many different clues which had been given
to the existence of the habitations of the
mound builders before they were investi-
gated, and stated that every scientist now
had little doubt as to their being the pro-
auctions of American Indians.
She then classified the Indians into two
stages, that of sayagery and that of bar
barism, each of which she subdvided into
lower, middle and upper class. From the
lower stage of savagery, when language
was unknown, and when the tribes lived on
fruits and nuts, the Indian passed into the
middle stage, after he had learned to fish
and to build a fire to cook his food. While
in the upper stage of saVagery, she eX-
planned, he learned to make his weapons
and to hunt the animals of the land, pass
ing into the lower stage of barbarism when
the manufacture of pottery had been &C
quired ard agriculture was in its earliest
development.
When brick and stone became the ma
terials for building, and tillage with irriga-
ton was in vogue, the middle stage OF
barbarism was reached but the upper
stage, bordering civilization, seemed to
be the limit of development.
Miss WEIGH then expressed her opinion
that the redskins are Indigenous to Ameri-
ca, although many anthrOpoloGiSts believe
them to be ScandnaVians, Asiatics, the de-
posed TroJans, and from many other ra-
tons. She gave her reasons also, for be-
lieving that America had been long inhabit-
sd, back INTO the ages of infinity, with the
ether countries of the world
In conclusion, Miss Welch expressed her
great satisfaction that, If history should re-
peat itself. and if America should go back
into a state. of barbarism, or even savagery
our age VIII have seen the highest notch 70
which our country has been raised