More than any other modern nation, the United States is an amalgam of people from all over the world. Its "main stream" flows from Europe with its myriad cultures which traditionally have fed into and been nourished by Western civilization. As European populations came to occupy the New World, they discovered another segment of their own species long in possession of the land. This group, really hundreds of tribes called American Indians, was removed by thousands of years from the Western tradition. For some scholars, notably anthropologists, the recognition of this separateness raised a series of questions which could only be answered by intensive field research. This field work produced some great collections of the material culture of many American Indian tribes along with innumerable volumes of published works on the non-material aspects of these cultures. The great museums with their imaginative displays of American Indian life are testimony to the dogged scholarship of generations of dedicated field workers.