The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-25
GIVES DATAON
 INDIAN TRIBES Special Study of the Famous
 Natchez REPORT JUST MADE Bulletin of Smithsonian Institution Goes Into Detail Regarding Tribes of the Lower Mis-
 sissippi Valley

dian tribes of the lower Mississippi val ley and adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico are graphically described In bull
 etin 4s Just issued by the bureau Of American ethnology of the Smithsonian
 Institution The bulletin was compiled and edited by Dr. John R. Swanton, a careful. panstaking investigator, with special attention to detail and research work.
 It is one of the most exhaustive studies of the central southern Indians and will become one. of the text books on the American Indians of that section of the country and an invaluable addition to the existing lore of the aborigines. | Details of the story of the years gone | by are told in the bulletin, as well as y he conditions prevailing in the remnant
 of the once great rtibes in existence to- ,day The work is generously illustrated
 with modern photographs, sketches made l in the times of the earliest explorers, and with idealized drawings by artists from descriptions taken from the writ | ings of old French explorers.
 | All authorities treating on the life and habits customs and practices of the Indians of the district covered have been carefully collated by Dr. Swanton, Clarle- voix, Dumont, du Pratz and others being | freely quoted.
 | The work is a classic on the Natchez | tribe. More than two-thirds of the book | is devoted to this trbe This, however, | is but natural In view of the fact that +, Mississippi, but 1t has commanded at l tention the more because of it's highly
 centralized form of government, the sanguinary mortuary rites of its ruling class, and finally the massacre perpe-i trated by the tribe upon the French set | tlers
 | The region with which the bulletin has | to do is one of the most interesting both
 to the ethnologist and the archeologjst;
 to the former because of it's exceptional
 linguistic complexty, in which the terri | tory north of Mexico is exceeded only
 by the Pacific coast, and to the arche- | ologist for the reason that the lower Mis- | sissippi valley is one of the richest fields | for exploration in the United States. |
 ence of Natchez, tribe so highly or
 ganized socially that it is often pointed
 out as a remnant of that culture to
 which the ''mound builders are sup
 posed to have belonged.
 One thing to which special attention Is ! caRed is the fact that babel of | tongues is found in the low rolling coun-
 try similar to that which has hereto fore been accredited to mountainous re-
 gions and produced by mountain ranges l forming separate communities, with far
 less interchange or intercourse 1 On the basis of language the writer di-
 vides the tribes of this section into five
 family groups-N Natchez, Muskhogean,
 Tunican, Chitimachan and Atakapan, the
 first two of these being also related to
 each other.
 l The tribes, now almost extinct, former
 ly occupied the banks of the Father of
 Waters and it's tributaries from near the
 northern boundary of the present state 1 of Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico and l the shores of the gulf for some distance
 east and west. to present gulf coast re-
 sorts on the cast and to Galveston bay
 and Trinity river on the west The Natchez villages were scattered
 along St. Catherines creek east of the
 present city of Natchez. Like many other tribes of American Indians the Natchez
 impressed travellers as tall, strong, TO-
 bust and possessed of naturally proud
 air" They were agreeablM favored In
 the matter of voice, not having the | strong, throaty, gruff voices so common
 to the Indians of the Northern sections. | The women of the tribe were painstaK
 ing in the matter of personal appearance
 and in the work that fell to their lot. | The Natchez cut their hair so as to leave a crown after the style affected by the Capuchns with only enough long
 hairs to permit the making of twisted
 tress that hung like an ornament over the left ear. In the middle of this crown | they left about two dozen hairs for the attachment of feathers.
 l Although head hattening is mentioned | by all writers. Dr. Swanton points out | that the only good description of the
 method by which it is brought about in
 this particular region is the following
 from Luxembourg memior:
 | "They have the head pointed and almost
 of the shape of a mitre. They were not
 born so; it Is a charm which is given
 them in early years. What mother
 does to the head of an infant in order
 to force it's tender bones to assume this shape is almost beyond belief. She lays | the infant on the end of board on | which is spread the skin of an animal. One extremity of this board has hole where the head Is placed and it is lower | than the rest The infant being laid down
 naked she pushes back its head into this hole and applies to it on the forehead and under the head mass of clay. which she binds with all her strength be- tween the two little boards. The infant cries. turns completely black, and the lstrain it is made to suffer Is such that white fluid is seen to come from it's nose | and earns at the time when the mother | nresses on it's forehead. It sleeps this
 way every. night until it's skull has taken
 on the shape which custom wishes it 10 | receive
 ] The Natchez made their knives ordi- l nar,lv of A rather small variety of cane. | This was split into four pieces. each of | which formed a knife that cut very well l for little while I H3ear. deer and bison were the prn- | cipal animals hunted for food. The In-
 dians fed willingly on the flesh of the bear. but for that purpose it had to be | lean In any other condition only the | feet were eaten.
 l Feather work was one of the things In (which the Natchez attained high de- gree of perfection With the thread op- ] tained from the bark of the bass tree | they made for themselves a kind Of man- l tie which they covered with the hnest | swan feathers, fastened on the cioth one by one, long piece of work in truth, | but they accounted their pains and time
 ns nothing when they wanted to satisfy | themselves.
 .l np1x l-t m