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Show CHAPTER XIV INDIAN HOUSES, HOUSE LIFE, AND FOOD^ QUEST ( i500- 1900) TWO facts, stand out clearly/ from the earliest authentic information regaraing the Indians: the first is that the continent was sparsely settled in pre- Columbian times; the second that the inhabitants were sedentary rather than nomadic in manner of life. The fact that Indians were everywhere encountered by the early settlers means nothing, except that the same natural features which attracted the white attracted the Indian as well. Practically everywhere the natives were gathered together in villages, the sites of which were determined by natural advantages. \ These villages were almost invariably small, seldom with more than a few hundred inhabitants, and usually with less. With the inevitable growth and extension of these groups new villages were formed, the inhabitants of which naturally retained dialectic and cultural affiliations, and thus afforded an opportunity for the confederations which wpre brought about by common interests. \ Language 21S |