n forests, grasslands, or deserts, is the primary
source of human sustenance. Without it man would perish miserably; and
where it is deficient, he cannot rise to great heights in the scale of
civilization. Yet strangely enough the scantiness of the vegetation of
the deserts was a great help in the ascent of man. Only in dry regions
could primitive man compete with nature in fostering the right kind
of vegetation. In such regions arose the nations which first practised
agriculture. There man became comparatively civilized while his
contemporaries were still nomadic hunters in the grasslands and the
forests.

CHAPTER V. THE RED MAN IN AMERICA

When the white man first explored America, the parts of the continent
that had made most progress were by no means those that are most
advanced today. * None of the inhabitants, to be sure, had risen above
barbarism. Yet certain nations or tribes had advanced much higher
than others. There was a great contrast, for example, between the
well-organized barbarians of Peru and the almost completely unorganized
Athapascan savages near Hudson Bay.

* In the present chapter most of the facts as to the Indians
north of Mexico are taken from the admirable "Handbook of American
Indians North of Mexico," edited by F. W. Hodge, Smithsonian
Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Washington, 1907, two
volumes. In summing up the character and achievements of the Indians
I have drawn also on other sources, but have everywhere taken pains
to make no statements which are not abundantly supported by this
authoritative publication. In some cases I have not hesitated to
paraphrase considerable portions of its articles.

In the northern continent aboriginal America reached its highest
development in three typical environments. The first of these regions
centered in the valley of Mexico where dwelt the Aztecs, but it extended
as far north as the Pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico. The special
feature of the environment was the relatively dry, warm climate with the
chief rainfall in summer. The Indians living in this environment
were notable for their comparatively high social organization and for
religious ceremonials whose elaborateness has rarely been surpassed.
On the whole, the people of this summer rain or Mexican type were not
warlike and offered little resistance to European conquest. Some tribes,
to be sure, fought fiercely at first, but yielded within a few years;
the rest