Journalist and doctor who made a study of the prehistoric mounds of the eastern US, "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (1848) the first scientific publication of the Smithsonian Institution. The book contained detailed description and classification of the mounds but concluded that they were constructed by a lost race of moundbuilders who had migrated away from the area (perhaps to Mexico) rather than by the ancestors of the surviving Native Americans of the area. Squier also worked in central America Peru and Bolivia.