The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-21
SEEK EVIDENCE
OF INDIAN LIFE
NEAR DAM SITE
Traces of YuChi Habitation
May Be Discovered
in Tennessee.

PV Science Serrice
WASHINGTON. Oct. 2O.-Arche-
ologists are expressing concern
over an important job to be done in
Tennessee before engineers begin re-
arranging the waters and the land
according to the Tennessee Valley
Authority plans.
The important Job is to rescue re-
mains of ancient Indian occupation
in the area that will be flooded or
torn up by excavations. Almost
nothing is known about the kind Of
Indians who lived in the valley re-
gion before Columbus. If American
Psychologists do not work quickly.
the evidence of what happened
there in prehistoric times will be
wiped out beyond all power of
science to reconstruct it.
Finances Are Sought
Efforts are being made by several
scientific organizations to finance
the rescue of this threatened his
toric material. The plan is to send
a competent archeologist to the re-
gion to spend about six months
finding out what he can about the
earliest inhabitants of the Tennessee
valley.
The land to be covered by water
when Cove creek dam is constructed,
one of the first projects anticipated,
will be surveyed by this archeologist
for traces of mounds. villages and
burying grounds Road building
and grading work already have been
started and the archeologist will
make point OF examining anything
that the steam shovelS turn up that
seems significant in Tennessee's an
cient history.
Most of the Astrological digging
in this region was done some years
ago, when there was more interest
in gathering collections of arrow
heads and pottery than in learning
who the ancient inhabitants were
and all about them.
Trace Mysterious Yuchis
The mysterious Yuchi Indians,
who still are little more than
myth and name. may come to
light as real people in the Tennessee
valley
Early narratives mention the
Yuchis as living in this part of the
country and credit them with being
a people of superior intelligence
says Neil M Judd, curator of arch
eology at the United States National
Museum. But no Yuchi site.
where the people had their homes
or graveyards, ever has been ex-
plored archeOlogically.
We know that there was a Yuchi
village site at Wilson dam. above
Muscle Shoals, but when the dam
was constructed the site was flooded
and whatever material the ground
contained is gone"
The Yuchi may have been related
to mound building Indians in their
manner of living, Mr.. Judd ex-
plains.
May Find Other Tubes
Traces of other Indian comings
ana golngS may be hidden in the
valley soil. The Cherokee are
known to have pushed down into
southeastern Tennessee, but pre-
Sumably in rather recent times,
says Mr.. Judd In the northern
part of Tennessee there were Chick
asaw Indians
And it is known that Siouxan peo-
pies spread in that direction from
southern Ohio. The ground that
is to be dissected for roads or buried
under tons of water may contain
evidence that the expert can read
into coherent story of Indian wars
and wanderings and tribal friend
ships.
There is even possibility of find
ing older traces Of habitation. Lime
stone caves in Tennessee may have
been taken for shelters by wander
ing hunters who seem to have pre-
coded the various forms of culture
that are known as Indian. These
ancestral, more primitive people are
known today only through their
stone dart points found with re-