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Report on the mound explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology (Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology)

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This is the work done by Cuyrus Thomas in the early 1890's after getting a grant from congres. The issue was to settle once and for all who had built the mounds. Cyrus, one who could not attribute the mounds to Amerindians, concluded that in fact it was the Amerindians who had built the mounds. This was and in some circles still is a hotly debated issue. This work is still the largest catalog of mounds in exsistance. That alone makes it worth it's weight in gold. However, just as important is the vast use of primary sources in the latter portion of the book that many archaeologists today have not bothered to read. If this work were better studied there would be a great step forward in regaining much American Indian heritage.