Comparing The Lost Race Theory And The Theory Of Native Americans

There has been a long and fierce debate on the origins of “mound-builder” of North

America, which reached a climax during the 1ate eighteenth- and for much of the nineteenth

centuries. The early hypotheses can be mainly divided into two categories: the “lost race” theory

and the theory of Native Americans. The former one speculated the mounds were erected by a

civilized ancient people that had been exterminated sometime during ancient period. The latter

one proposed that those monuments were the work of the ancestors of Native Americans.

At early time, most speculations are far more scientific and general public believed in the

“lost race” theory. The “lost race” theory at that time has a variety of proponents and a wide

range of different

peoples such as Egyptians, Phoenicians. Canaanites, Hebrews, Toltecs, Hindus,

Vikings, Celts, and Romans seemed to have erected the great earth works. The chief people are

Benjamin Smith Barton, Caleb Atwater and Josiah Priest who thought Danes, Hindus and a

white warrior race had built the mounds respectively. At the same time, a few individuals

proposed the ancestors of Native Americans were mound-builder such as Dr James H.

McCulloh.

In the following period, a wide range of well-researched work was done before speculations

were postulated. The classical person at his time in favor of the “lost race” theory is Ephraim

Squier and Edwin Davis who claimed that the Native Americans had no capacity to build the

mounds while Samue1 F. Haven proposed the Native Americans has erected the monuments

through reasoned argument.

However, despite Haven’s tenable argument, the “lost race” theory still rage during the 19 th

century. For instance, Ignatius Donnelly proposed an implausible idea that the mounds were

accomplishment of Atlanteans.

The debate on the Mound-builder origins was finally resolved by the careful and detailed

work of Cyrus Thomas, who is an excellent scientist at Ethnology Bureau.

Through detailed and careful survey, mapping and excavation, Thomas in 1894, reached a

conclusion definitively that the immediate ancestors of Indian tribes had built the mounds and

evidences were numerous and tenable that “archaeo1ogists are justified in accepting the theory

that they are one and the same peop1e”. The Mound-builder myth has been known at this time.

In addition, some ethnographies by earlier travelers and explorers also testified the mounds

were the work of Native Americans.

Nowadays, there is little controversy about the origin of the mounds. Few people believe a

civilized race built them. Tenable and powerful evidence gathered since 1894 has demonstrated

their links with Native Americans. What’s more, three major Mound-building cultures are

identified from the archaeological mounds.