The Tribes and the States

by William James Sidis

Apparently the removal of the continent of Atlantis, the central source of the empire's power, weakened it somewhat; but still the Mound-Builder empire held its own against the Algonquin peoples who were pressing on their borders from the coast-lands to the north and northeast. This pressure was resisted as long as the Mound-Builders were able to maintain themselves united; but, after a time, for some reason, this empire deteriorated. Algonquin tradition explains it by the priestcraft among the Mound-Builders' gaining such despotic control that they were able to institute extensive sacrifices similar to those which were introduced widely into Mexico about the same time. This made most of the Mound-Builder people feel, with ample justification, that their lives would be quite as safe with the enemy as at home; so that city after city surrendered to the invading Algonquins, who finally occupied the whole northern prairie district. But, in that region, the infusion of a strain accustomed to the tyrannical institutions of the Mound-Builders' empire prevented the prairie tribes from feeling or carrying out the full spirit of freedom that was so strong among their Penacook cousins who stayed behind on the Atlantic coast.