Why Was It So Difficult for Europeans During the Early

Multiple Choice

Why was it so difficult for Europeans during the early 19th century to accept the fact that Native Americans had built the mounds?

A) Believing that a superior race had built the mounds fit nicely into the social and political context of the times, helping to justify colonialism.
B) Archaeological and historical evidence to suggest that Native Americans had built the mounds was completely lacking.
C) It was a conscious effort on the part of racist archaeologists to steal Native American land; everyone really knew that the Native Americans had built the mounds.
D) Westward expansion had not yet begun; European colonists were therefore unfamiliar with how similar the mounds really were to the mounds actively being constructed by living Native Americans.