Page:The American Indian.djvu/272

222 and herb formulas for treating the sick, but some shamanistic traits, as the juggler's lodge.

When we come to the eastern group we find agriculture more intensive (except in the extreme north) and pottery more highly developed. Woven feather cloaks seem to have been common, a southern trait. Work in stone also seems a little more complex; a special development of steatite work. More use was made of edible roots. The decorative art was less geometric and ritualism weaker than in the typical group.

The Iroquoian tribes were even more intensive agriculturists and potters; they made some use of the blowgun; developed cornhusk weaving; carved elaborate masks from wood; lived in rectangular long houses of peculiar pattern; built fortifications; and were superior in bone work; maintained a series of masked secret societies, a corn harvest festival, and, above all, a highly developed political organization or "League of the Six Nations," which made systematic conquests.

8. Southeastern Area. The Southeastern area is conveniently divided by the Mississippi River, the typical culture occurring in the east. As we have noted, the Powhattan group and perhaps the Shawnee are intermediate. These eliminated, we have the Muskhogean and Iroquoian tribes (Cherokee and Tuscarora), as the chief groups, also the Yuchi, Eastern Siouan, Tunican, and Quapaw. The Chitimacha and Attacapa differ from the others chiefly in the greater use of aquatic foods. The Caddoan tribes had a different type of shelter and were otherwise slightly deflected toward the Plains culture. We have little data for the Tonkawa, Karankawa, and Carrizo, but they seem not to have been agriculturists and some of them seem to have lived in tipis like the Lipan, being almost true buffalo Indians. These thus stand as intermediate and may belong with the Plains or the Southwestern area. The Biloxi of the east, the extinct Timuqua, and the Florida Seminole are also variants from the type. They were far less dependent upon agriculture and made considerable use of aquatic food. The Timuqua lived in circular houses and, as did the Seminole, used bread made of coonti roots (Zamia