On skirting the
shores of the Lake of the Woods into which Rainy River runs, at the
present time, you are struck by the fact that there are no Canadian
farmers there, and likewise that there are no mounds to be seen, while
along the banks of Rainy River both the agriculturist is found
cultivating the soil and the mounds abound. It would seem to justify
us in concluding that the farmer and the mound builder avoided the one
locality because of its barren rocky character, and took to the other
because of its fertility. Moreover the continual occurrence of pottery
in the mounds shows that the mound builders were potters as well,
while none of the tribes inhabiting the district have any knowledge of
the art of pottery. The making of pottery is the occupation peculiarly
of a sedentary race, and hence of a race likely to be agriculturists.
As it requires the building faculty to originate the mounds, so it
requires the constructive faculty to make pottery. In constructive
ability our Indians are singularly deficient, just as it is with
greatest difficulty that they can be induced even on a small scale to
practice agriculture. It has been objected to this conclusion that the
Indians can make a canoe, which is a marvel in its way. But there is a
great difference in the two cases. In the canoe all the materials
remain the same. The approximation to a chemical process makes the
pottery manufacture a much more complicated matter.
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