figure out. he found several complex layers of barrels and concluded that the mound was the work of indian ancestors. jefferson began to ponder this. he believed that the indians possibly came in his words from egypt or asia. he looked at some of the ancient writings, he compared them. he was fascinated with language. he compared egyptian and indian. he started to say, you know what? they're not as primitive as everybody thinks. jefferson in many circles toward the late part in 1700s was attacked for the belief. called a howling atheist because of some of them. john adams was not one of them. john adams and -- john adams had dispute with thenate iver americans. but they weren't savages. in correspondence from later years they talked about the native americans and discussed