Chapter XCII: Eastern Indian Crania: Cranial Index

----------------------------+-----------------+-----------------
| Males | Females
+---------+-------+---------+-------
|Number of| Index |Number of| Index
|specimens| |specimens|
----------------------------+---------+-------+---------+-------
Long Island | (7) | 70.7 | (5) | 74.3
Manhattan Island | (2) | 71.7 | (1) | 71.8
Staten Island | (4) | 71.7 | (3) | 75.4
Connecticut | (4) | 72.4 | (4) | 74.6
Maine | (6) | 72.7 | (6) | 74.7
Massachusetts | (14) | 72.8 | (25) | 74.7
Southeastern Canada | (14) | 73.4 | (5) | 76.9
New York State | (19) | 73.5 | (15) | 74.8
Maryland | (4) | 73.6 | (4) | 74.0
Rhode Island | (6) | 73.7 | (5) | 75.6
New Jersey (Heye collection)| (4) | 73.9 | (5) | 75.8
New Jersey (earlier) | (6) | 74.6 | (19) | 75.1
Virginia | (27) | 75.5 | (28) | 76.3
----------------------------+---------+-------+---------+-------

There is remarkable similarity in the average index of the crania of all the more northerly states as far as New Jersey. The Indians of both sexes from Maine and Massachusetts are particularly close in this respect, and, as will be seen later, these two groups, while not entirely homogeneous, show many other close similarities.

The most important result is that shown by the crania from southeastern Canada, which are almost entirely Huron or Iroquois; and by the specimens from New York State, which also are largely of Iroquois derivation. The Iroquois, as is well known, are regarded as a linguistic stock distinct from the Algonquian, though there are some lexical resemblances in the two languages. But the measurements of the skulls of representatives of the two stocks show no such distinction. In fact, the Iroquois occupy, with reference to nearly all important cranial features, more or less of a median position among the Algonquian groups, and there is no basis on which they can legitimately be segregated as belonging to any different physical group of Indians. It is quite possible that some of the Iroquois tribes may have been derived, in smaller or larger part, from other peoples of the westward or the southwestward, or that in course of time they became mixed with such; but the greater proportion of the Iroquois can henceforth be no more separated in physical anthropology from the Algonquians than can any of the subgroups of the latter.

Another important result of these studies relates to the Lenape. The Munsee and other Delaware Indian skulls, while nearing (and in the case of females slightly surpassing) the upper limits of dolichocephaly, are nevertheless sufficiently closely related to the crania from the neighboring states to show that the Munsee, and the Lenape as a whole, were in all probability only subdivisions of the eastern Algonquians. Resemblances in other important features of the skull, as well as of the skeleton, make this conclusion quite definite, thus eliminating the theory of the migration of the Lenape from beyond the Mississippi, for if such were the case, they could scarcely fit so precisely into the anthropological position they occupy between the neighboring tribes. Yet, as previously mentioned, there is some evidence, especially that afforded by the Munsee, that the Lenape had some connection, probably earlier as well as recent, with tribes living southwestward from the Appalachian mountains.

From the limited Pennsylvania material it appears that the eastern lowlands were occupied by Indians of the Algonquian or Lenape type, while in the more westerly parts brachycephaly was frequent if not common.

As to the Virginia Algonquians, they show the highest cranial indexes of all the groups here considered, and had doubtless considerable foreign blood, derived from the west or the south. It would be interesting to compare the Virginia Indians with the Siouan tribes, to which they seem to bear close affinity.

HEIGHT OF SKULL

Next to the cranial index, the most important feature of the vault of the skull is its height, and the Eastern crania, as already stated, are characterized by good to pronounced development in this direction. The averages of the measurements, and those of the ordinary height-length and height-breadth indexes, will be found in the final tables, but none of these are very satisfactory for showing the true value of this dimension, which on the one hand is proportionate to the size of the skull, and on the other stands in a more or less compensatory relation with both the length and breadth of the vault. It has long been felt by the writer that some expression of the real relative value of the height measurement was required, and this need led him ultimately to compare it not with the very variable length or breadth of the skull, but with the mean of these two measurements. The resultant index, which may be called simply the height index of the vault, gives us a new means of comparison and classification of the skull and promises to prove much more satisfactory than the two older indexes. In the Eastern crania here described, it ranges from 83 to almost 90, and the arrangement of the various tribes on its basis is harmonious and of considerable interest. The main points brought out by the index are as follow:

In the northernmost tribes the height of the skull is on the whole relatively lower than in those farther south. The Munsee and other Lenape crania agree with those of the more northerly groups, but differ somewhat from each other, the skulls in the Heye collection being in both sexes perceptibly lower than those of the other Lenape. The Staten Island, Manhattan Island, and Long Island skulls are again grouped, so far as the more important male skulls are concerned, and are all high. Of the Virginia collections, the first series, from various eastern localities, shows a medium height or slightly above; but the Valentine collection, from a more westerly part of the state,[122] gives in both sexes the highest index of all the groups, showing the greatest relative height and indicating that this group had been subjected to influences which did not affect equally the Indian population of other parts of the state.

[122] For details concerning this collection, see Report of the Exploration of the Hayes Creek Mound, Rockbridge County, Virginia, _Publ. Valentine Museum_, Richmond (_ca._ 1892).