.FROM VOL. II, OF THE .MEMOIRS OF THE KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. N. S. SHALES, Director. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. By LUCIEN CARR, ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOOY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Huntington Free Library Native American Collection CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY J J The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104076934 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. By LUCIEN CARR, ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION 3 THE INDIAN AS AN AGRICULTURIST 7 THE INDIAN AS A WORSHIPER OF THE SUN 35 THE INDIAN AS A MOUND-BUILDER 57 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. Isr a paper upon the Prehistoric Remains of Kentucky, published in the first volume of these Memoirs, I have expressed the opinion that it was impossible to distinguish between a series of stone implements taken from the mounds in the Mississippi Valley, and a similar series made and used by the modern Indians. In fact, so alike are these objects in conception and execution, that any attempt to distinguish them, based upon form or finish, must be but the merest guesswork. From the rude knife to the carved and polished "gorget, ""they may, one and all, have been taken from the inmost recesses of a mound, or picked up on the surface amid the debris of a recent Indian village; and the most experienced archaeologist, if called upon to decide as to their origin, would have to acknowledge himself at fault.(') Nor does this similarity stop with objects made of stone. On the contrary, it is believed to extend to all the articles, of every kind whatso- ever, that have thus far been taken from the mounds. Indeed, I might even go farther, and as the result of some years of work, as well in the field as in the library, venture the assertion that not only has there not, as yet, been anything taken from the mounds indicating a higher stage of develop- ment than the red Indian of the United States is known to have reached, but that even the mounds themselves, and under this head are included all the earth-works of the Mississippi Valley, were quite within the limits of his efforts. This conclusion, together with its corollary as to the origin of these structures, is neither new nor original ; and yet, in spite of the simple ex- planation it gives of the mound question, or, perhaps, it might be more correct to say on account of this very simplicity, it has made its way but slowly. It seems difficult to account for this fact except on the ground that those who have written upon this subject, and who have, to a certain extent, (1.) Compare Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. IV, p. 141. Brinton, Floridian Pen : nsula, p. 176: Philadelphia, 1S59. M. F. Force, Some Considerations on the Mound-builders, p. 72: Cincinn tti, 1873. S. F. Haven in vol. VIII of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, p. 158, Lapham in vol. VII of same, p. 30. 4 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. moulded public opinion, have approached it from one side only. They have, usually, belonged to the class of practical explorers, and have brought to the investigation a certain number of facts, chiefly cumulative in character; but they have not, as a rule, been possessed of that measure of historical information which is necessary to a correct interpretation of these facts. Being thus, as it were, but half prepared for the work, they have, not unfrequently, given too much play to the imagination, and carried their theories much farther than the facts would warrant. Impressed with the size and character of these remains, or led astray by certain resemblances, fancied or real, to similar objects elsewhere, they have used them as a basis for reconstructing a phase of civilization to which, in point of religious, artistic, and political development, they declare the Indian to have been unequal. From these extreme views there has always been more or less dissent.( 2 ) Even Mr. Squier, who, in his famous work— "The Ancient Mon- uments of the Mississippi Valley" — makes no distinction in these remains, but speaks of the Mound-builders as an "extinct race,"( 3 ) and contrasts their progress in the arts with the low condition of the modern Indians,( 4 ) is obliged, in a subsequent publication, to modify his views and draw a line of demarkation between the earth-works of Western New York and those found in Southern Ohio, especially those which he styles religious or "sacred inclosures." The former of these, he thinks, were erected by the recent Indians, and he supports this view by a chain of reasoning that is believed (2.) "They" (the earthworks) "differ less in kind than in degree from other remains respecting which history has not been entirely silent:" Haven in vol. VIII of the Smithsonian Contributions, p. 158. "There is nothing, indeed, in the magnitude and structure of our Western mounds which a senii-hunter and semi-agricultural population, like that which may be ascribed to the ancestors or Indian predecessors of the existing race, could not have executed: " Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. I, p. 62. "All these earthworks — and I am inclined to assert the same of the whole of those in the Atlantic States and the majority in the Mississippi valley — were the production not of some mythical tribe of high civilization in remote antiquity, but of the identical nations found by the whites residing in these regions:" Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, p. 176: Philadelphia, 1859. "No doubt that they were erected by the forefathers of the present Indians, as places of refuge against the incursions of their enemies, and of security for their women and children when they were compelled to leave them for the duties of the chase:" Oenl. Lewis Cass, in North American Review for January, 1826. "Nothing in them which may not have been performed by a savage people:" Gallatin, in Arclueologia Americana, vol. II, p. 149. "The old idea that the Mound-builders were peoples distinct from and other than the Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and their progenitors, appears unfounded in fact, and fanciful : " C. C. Jones, in North American Review for January, 1874, p. 80. "Mound-builders were tribes of American Indians of the same race with the tribes now living:" M. F. Force at the Congres International des Aiwricaiiislcs: Luxembourg, 1*77. "The progress of discovery seems constantly to diminish the distinc- tion between the ancient and modern races; and it may not be very wide of the truth to assert that they were the same people:" Lapham, in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. VII, p. 29. (3.) Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 1, p. oOO: Washington, 1848. (4.) I.e., pp. IKS and 2-12. THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 5 io be unanswerable. In it, he institutes a comparison between the " relics of art and traces of occupancy " found within them, and those which mark the sites of towns and forts that are known to have been occupied by the Indians, and pronounces them to be identical. To this powerful argument, drawn from 'what may, not inaptly, be termed the facts of the mound, he adds very copious notes as to the origin and use of such structures among the people of all ages and countries, though, of course, with special refer- ence to those that are known to have been erected by the American In- dians. In this historical retrospect he permits the facts to speak for- them- selves with most commendable impartiality, even though, as he frankly admits, they led to the conclusion little anticipated when he started on the trip of exploration " that the earth-works of Western New York were erected by the Iroquois or their western neighbors, and do not possess an antiquity going far back of the discovery." ( 5 ) To this conclusion, so far as it goes, I certainly do not object. Unfor- tunately, however, it stops short of the mark; and this is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as it- is believed that the line of argument by which Mr. Squier convinced himself that the defensive works of Western JSTew York were erected by the modern Indians would, if it had been applied to the earth-works of the Mississippi Valley of every kind whatsoever, — to the so-called sacred inclosures not less than to the hill forts— have led him to precisely the same conclusion. The two propositions rest upon essen- tially the same foundation, and, as we shall see later on, must stand or fall together. Before beginning this task, however, it may be well to premise that it is not intended, in the course of this investigation, to assert that the mounds were built by any particular tribe or tribes of Indians, or at any particular time; neither is it claimed that each and every tribe living within the Mississippi Valley erected such structures. So far as my present purpose is concerned, they may have been built by any tribe that can be shown to have occupied the regions where they are -found, and at anytime during the period of such occupancy. All that I intend to assert is, that, admit- ting everything that, can be reasonably claimed by the most enthusiastic advocate of the superior civilization of the Mound-builders, there is no reason why the red Indians of the Mississippi Valley, judging from what (5.) Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. II, p. 83: Washington, 1851. 6 THE MOULDS OP* THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. we know, historically, of their development, could not have thrown up these works. This proposition is not as complete as could be desired, and yet it probably embodies all that can ever be proven on this subject. Ability and performance do not always go hand in hand, and the fact that a people could have executed a piece of work does not, by any means, authorize the conclusion that they did do so. Between the two there is, logically speaking, a wide gulf which can only be successfully passed by a resort to what is known as the law of probabilities. This is unfortu- nate, but under the circumstances it is unavoidable; and although it will, unquestionably, cause our conclusion to lack somewhat of the force of a scientific demonstration, yet it is believed that after making all due allow- ance, there will remain such a volume of evidence in favor of our propo- sition as to justify a favorable decision. In all human probability it will never be known who built these mounds in the same sense in which it is known who built Westminster Abbey ; but if it can be demonstrated that the people who erected them were in the same — neolithic — stage of civiliza- tion that the Indians are known to have attained, and if, further, it can be shown on undoubted historic authority that these Indians built both mounds and earth-works, which differ in degree but not in kind from similar structures that are assumed to have been the work of an extinct people, whom we have called the Mound-builders, then it must be acknowl- edged that a strong argument is made out in favor of the identity of the origin of the two systems of works. To reject this conclusion without some positive evidence to the contrary would involve as great an absurdity as it would be to maintain, supposing all record of the fact to be lost, that Westminster Abbey was built by a people belonging to a different race from that which is known, formerly, to have lived in London, and for no better reason than because the English of to-day have ceased to build such abbeys. This much being premised, we are now ready to take up the thread of our investigation; and by way of beginning, let us examine into the accounts, given by the early writers, of the mode of life and the civil and religious polity of the Indians in order to find out whether there is any- thing that would lead us to conclude, a priori, that it was impossible for them to have erected these works. On the part of those who hold affirma- tive views on this point, it is contended that a system of works of the size, Bay of 'those in the Scioto Valley, would have required the united labor THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ^ of many persons for a long period of time, and that as the Indians were hunters — not agriculturists — and averse to labor, they could not have carried it on, for the reason that, owing to their wandering and precarious mode of life, the means of subsistence would have failed them, even if there had been some central authority, or some controlling motive strong enough to impel them to the undertaking. ( 6 ) This is believed to be a fair statement of the argument, and if well founded, it would be decisive of the matter. Upon examination, however, it will be seen that it is based upon the assumption that the Mound-builders were an agricultural people, and lived under a strongly centralized form of government, no matter whether that government was one of force, or of opinion founded upon policy or religion. This assumption is, probably, not far from the truth; but to have any weight in this discussion, it must carry with it, as a correlative, the further admission that the Indian was not an agriculturist, and was not subject to any such central authority, or controlled by any such impelling motive. This, of course, is not admitted, and it is precisely upon these points that the issue is to be joined. SECTION I. The Indian- as an Agriculturist. Taking up, in their order, the requirements that are admitted to have been possessed by the builders of these mounds, and which are popularly supposed to have been wanting in the Indian, we are met, first of all, with the statement, made either directly or by implication, that he was not an agriculturist, but depended almost entirely upon the chase for the means of subsistence.^) True, there exists a. vague notion that succotash and hominy were not unknown in the aboriginal cuisine, and there may be those of us who are 'sufficiently skilled in culinary matters to say that these succulent dishes are made of Indian corn ; but of the substantial truth of the above statement there is little or no doubt, even among those who have taken the trouble to write on the subject, Exactly why this is so, when all the (6.) Squier, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 45 and 301 et seq. : Washington, 1848. Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 346: Chicago, 1873. Baldwin, Ancient America, p. 34: New York, 1872. McLean, Mound-builders, pp. 124 and 5: Cincinnati, 1879. (7.) Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 45. Baldwin, Ancient America, p. 34. Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 300. Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. VI p. 183. Gookin in vol. I of the first series of the Massachusetts Historical Collections, p. 149. Colden's History of the Five Nations, p. 13: London, 1767. 8- THL iJOUXJJ.s o* jiiJ, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. records tell us that the early colonists in New England, Virginia, and else- where throughout the eastern portion of the United States owed their lives, on more than one occasion, to the timely supplies of corn begged, bought, or stolen from the natives, ( 8 ) is something of a mystery, though perhaps it is not more inexplicable than it is to account for the efforts, at this late day, of earnest and intelligent men to have the Indian shown how to raise corn, and this in face of the fact that he has cultivated that most useful cereal for hundreds of years, and actually taught our ancestors the process. ( 9 ) These are but samples of the loose way of thinking that prevails upon this and kindred topics, and it must be our excuse, if any be needed, for going into the matter somewhat in detail. Fortunately, the material for this purpose is quite abundant; and the testimony so uniform that of the main fact — the cultivation of corn in greater or less quantities by all the tribes living east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes — there cannot be a shadow of doubt.('°) All the early writers are agreed upon the point, and there is no room for a difference of opinion, except, perhaps, in regard to the amount grown. Upon this point, too, the (8.) Plusieurs nations sauvages o'etablirent sur le Mississippi assez pres de la Nouvelle Orleans et comme la plupart de ces Peuples sont dans 1' usage de cultiver la terre, ils defricherent des grands terreins, ce qui fut une resource pour cette ville a laquelle ils out souvent fourni des vivres daus le besom: " Char- levoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vol. IV, p. 198: Paris, 1744. "I was safely conducted to James- towne, where I found about eight and thirtie poore and sicke creatures; * * * such was the weakness of this poore -commonwealthe as, had the salvages not fed us we directlie had starved. And this relyfe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought by this lady Pocahontas ; * * * during the time of two or three yeares, shee next, under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from death, famine and utter confusion:" Capt. Smith, Eelation to Queene Anne in History of Virginia, p. 121: London, 1632. "By selling them corn, when pinched with famine, they" (the Indians) "relieved their distresses and prevented them from perishing in a strange land and uncultivated wilderness: " Trumbull, Connecti- cut, vol. I, p. 47: Hartford, 1797. "They got in this vioage, in one place and other, about 2G or 28 hogsheads of come and beanes:" Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. Ill, fourth series, p. 129. "Others fell to plaine stealing, both night and day, from ye Indeans, of which they greevously complained. * *' * Yea, in ye end they were faine to hange one of their men, whom they could not reclaime from stealing:" Ibid., p. 130. "Sometimes these savages" (the Hurons and Ouattawacs at Missilmakinac) "sell their corn very dear:" La Hontan, Voyages, vol. I, p. 90: London, 1703. .See also Geo. Percy, Virginia, in Purchas Pilgrims, book 9, chap. 2 ; and Window, Good Newes from New England in same, book 10, chap. 5: London, 1625. (9.) "Afterwards they (as many as were able) began to plant the come, in which servise Squanto stood them in great stead, showing them both ye manner how to set it, and after how to dress and tend it" Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation in Publications Mass. Hist. Soc, vol. Ill of 4th series, p. 100. "Instructed them in the manner of planting and dressing the Indian corn." Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. I, p. 40, Hartford, 1797. (10.) "All the tribes east of the Mississippi were more or less agricultural. They all raised corn, beans, squashes and melons." Force, Some Considerations on the Mound-builders, p. 70. " Le mais ainsi que Je viens de le dire est la nourriture commune de tous les sauvages sedentaires depins le fond du Bresil Jusques aux extremitez du Canada." Lafltau, Moeurs des Sauvages Amerlquains, vol. II, p. 64: Paris, 1724. "The whole of the tribes situated in the Mississippi Valley, in Ohio and the Lakes reaching on both sides of the Alleghanies, quite to Massachusetts and other parts of New England, cultivated THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 9 evidence is explicit. Instead of cultivating it in small patches as a summer luxury, it can be shown, on undoubted authority, that everywhere, within the limits named, the Indian looked upon it as a staple article of food, both in summer and winter; that he cultivated it in large fields, and understood and appreciated the benefits arising from the use of fertilizers. (") Indeed, such was his proficiency and industry, that even with the rude and imperfect implements at his disposal,( 12 ) he not only raised corn enough for his own use, but, as a rule, had some to spare to his needy neighbors, both red and Avhite.(' 3 ) Under ordinary circumstances it would only be necessary to establish this fact in order to prove, beyond cavil, that the red Indian was an agriculturist in the very highest acceptation of that term, and that in this respect, at least, he stood upon the same footing as the Mound-builders. In the present instance, however, this is not the case. Not only is it not sufficient to prove that the Indians were husbandmen in order to raise them to this level, but we are called upon to show that among them the men labored in the fields as well as the women. Indeed, we are told by a writer, from whom I differ with many misgivings, that, in this respect, there was Indian corn. It was the staple product." Schoolcraft, vol. I, p. 80. "All the nations I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far as the Illinois, and even farther, which is a space of about 1,500 miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they make their principal subsistence." Du Pratz, His- tory of Louisiana, vol. II, p. 239: London, 1763. "The territory over which cultivation had extended, is that which is bounded on the east by the Atlantic, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west generally by the Mississippi, or, perhaps more properly, by the prairies, on the north, it may be said, by the nature of the climate." Archasologia Americana (Gallatin), vol. II, p. 149. "It was found in cultivation from the southern extremity of Chili to the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, beyond which limits the low temperature renders it an uncertain crop." Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 23: New York, 1876. See also Relation, A. D. 1626, p. 2: Quebec, 1858. (11.) "Also he tould them excepte they gott fish and set with it (in the old grounds) it would come to nothing." Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, in vol. Ill, of 4th series of Mass. Hist. Coll., p. 100. The Iroquois "manure a great deal of ground for sowing their Indian corn." Hennepin, a New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, &c, vol. I, p. 18: London, 1698. "Tous ces peuples" (Armou- chiquois, Virginiens, &c.) "engraissent leurs champs de coquillages de poissons." Lescarbot, vol. II, p. 834: Paris, 1612. "They never dung their land, only when they would sow." Laudonniere. First Attempt of the French to Colonize Florida, in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, new series, p. 174: New York, 1869. (12.) "Use wooden howes." Williams' Key, p. 130. "Spades made of hard wood used in agricul- ture." Bossu, Travels Through Louisiana, p. 224: London, 1771. "Florida Indians dig their ground with an instrument of wood which is fashioned like a broad mattock." Laudonniere in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, new series, p. 174: New York, 1869. "lis ont un instrument de bojs fort dur, faict en facon d'une besche." Champlain, vol. I, p. 9i: Paris, 1830. "II leur suffit d'un morceau de bois recourbe de trois doigts de largeur, attache a un long manche qui leur sert a sarcler la terre et a la rermuer legere- ment." Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. II, p. 76. "Use hoes made of shoulder blade of animals fixed on staves." Romans, East and West Florida, p. 119. "Use shoulder blade of a deer or a tortoise shell, sharpened upon a stone and fastened to a stick instead of a hoe." Loskiel, Missions in North America, p. 67: London, 1794. See also Joutel in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part I, p. 149, &c, &c. (13.) Relation de la Nouvelle France en 1' annee 1641, p. 81: Quebec, 1858. Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, pp. 125, 134: Paris, 1632. Capt. John Smith, Description of New England in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. VI, of 3d series, p. 120. La Hontan, Voyages, vol. I, p. 105: London, 1703. Charlevoix, Letters, p. 175: London, 1763. 10 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. a very great difference between the Mound-builders and the recent Indians; and although the difference is said not to be absolute, yet it is gravely as- serted that among the former "the men must have labored, whilst among the latter labor is left to the squaws. "(' 4 ) Statements like these, unsupported by evidence, do not carry much weight ; and if this investigation were intended to be a mere trial of dialectical skill, and not an earnest search after the truth, it would be sufficient to pass them by with a simple denial— all the reply that they are logically entitled to. But this mode of procedure would not answer the purposes of this inquiry, and hence I am induced to accord them a more respectful consideration ; and I do this the more willingly inasmuch as it agrees with my general plan of admitting everything that can be reasonably claimed in behalf of the Mound-builders, whilst at the same time it affords an opportunity of examining into the correctness of the usually received opinion " that the Indian considered labor as derog- atory, and left it to the women."( 15 ) Before beginning this branch of the inquiry, however, it is necessary to come to some understanding as to the meaning to be given to the word "labor," otherwise we shall be at cross-purposes throughout the whole of the investigation. Used in its broadest sense, the term includes hunting and fishing — occupations which undoubtedly belonged to the men, and which, when followed, not as a pastime, but for the purpose of gaining a subsistence, involved labor of the very hardest kind.( 16 ) If to this it be added that the Indian warrior was expected to do all the fighting, it will be seen that, at a very moderate estimate, he had work enough on his hands to keep him reasonably busy. As an evidence of the absorbing nature of these occupations, it may be said that, to-day, in some countries of Conti- nental Europe in which a state of war is the exception and not the rule, as it was among the Indians, the performance of the one duty of military service alone, is considered to be a sufficient reason for withdrawing all (14.) Some considerations on the Mound-builders by M. F. Force, pamphlet, p. 72: Cincinnati, ]S73. (15.) Archseologui Americana, vol. II, p. 151. Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana, p. 411: Philadelphia, 1812. Colden, Five Nations, vol. I, p. 13: London, 17 17. Filter, Prchi-: ■r:c ecs of t'uc United Mates. p. 30'): Chicago, 1.S73. Charlevoix, Letters, vol. II, p. 11211: London, i7,-.'' Heck- wolder, Historical Account of the Indian Nations, p. 146. "Their manner uf raiabling thiou^li the woods to kill deer is a very laborious exercise, as they frequently walk twenty-live or thirty miles through rough and smooth grounds, and fasting before they return back to camp loaded." Adair, His- tory of the American Indians, p. 402: London, 177"). "Indian affects not to feel the weight of dragging a deer 100@150 lbs. weight through a considerable tract of forest." Loskiel, Missions hi America, p. 107: London, 1794. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ll able-bodied males, within certain ages, from every kind of productive labor during the term of such service, even though the whole of it be passed in a time of profound peace. Among these nations, and they are some of the most highly civilized in Europe, it is no exaggeration to say that labor, using that word in its broadest sense, is left to the women far more completely than it ever was among the Indians; for the Indian, when not actually en- gaged in warfare, did hunt and fish, and contribute to this extent, at least, to the general welfare, whilst his European counterpart is not allowed to engage in productive labor of any kind whatsoever during his term of mili- tary service. But there is another and a narrower sense, in which the word is taken to mean simply field work, or work necessary to the growth and production of corn ; and it is this signification that is usually given to it by writers on this subject, and it is in this sense that it will be, hereafter, used in the course of this investigation. Substituting, then, the more specialized form of expression for the general term, and the sentence will read as^hl- lows : Among the Indians field work was considered derogatory, and left to" the women. In this restricted shape the statement is not so objectionable; and yet, even in this form, it is believed to be altogether too sweeping. That in some particular years this work may, from some cause, have been left to the women, is, of course, very probable— the necessities of war or the chase might, at any time, render this unavoidable in any tribe ; and it may also be true that in the division of labor between the sexes, made necessary by the duty of providing for the family, this share, among certain tribes, fell to her lot; but that it was either onerous,(' 7 ) or compulsory, ( l8 ) or that (17.) "Labor in the fields employ women six weeks in 12 months, while the labor of the husband to maintain his family- last throughout the year." Heckwelder, Historical Account of the Indian Nations, p. 142. "The work of the women is not hard or difficult. * * * The tilling of the grouud at home * * * is frequently done by female parties, much in the manner of those husking, quilting, and other frolics. s * * The labor is thus quickly and easily performed; when it is over, and sometimes in intervals, they sit down to enjoy themselves by feasting on some good victuals prepared for them by the person or family for whom they work, &c." Ibhl., pp. 144, 145. Consult also Williams' Key to the Indian Language, in Collections of the Rhode Island Hist. Soc, p. 92. Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, p. 130: Paris, 1632. Joutel, Journal in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, p. 149. Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. II, p. 77: Paris, 1724. (18.) "Elles trauaillent ordinairement plus que les hommes, encore qu'elles n'y soient point forcees n'y contraintes:" Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, p. 130: Paris, 1G32. "Not only voluntarily, but cheerfully performed: " Heckwelder, p. 142. " In the spring the corn-field is planted by her and the youngsters in a vein of gaiety and frolic. It is done in a few hours, and taken care of in the same spirit. It is perfectly voluntary labor, and she would not be scolded for omitting it; for all labor with Indians is voluntary." Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. II, p. 64. " Au reste ce travail n'est pas penible: " Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. Ill, p. 23. See also Life of Mary Jemison, a captive among the Iro- quois, who says, pp. 69, 70, that the "lot of the Indian women is not harder than that of white women: " New York, 1856. 12 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. the custom, if such it can be called, was general, or that it was adhered, to very strictly, even among the tribes in which it can be said to have pre- vailed, is not, for a moment, admitted. Take, for example, the Iroquois or Six Nations, the only people among whom, so far as I know, it cannot be shown that the warriors did take some part either in clearing the ground or in cultivating the crop, and we find that even among them the work was not left exclusively to the women, but that it was shared by the children and the old men, as well as the slaves, of whom they seem to have had a goodly number.(' 9 ) Singularly enough, too, the reason given by the old chronicler why the men took no part in the labor, i. e., because "they were always at war or hunting," is the same that is to-day made to do duty in justifying the existence of a similar condition of affairs among people who boast not a little of their civilization. Among most of the other tribes north of the Ohio and south of the St. Lawrence, Huron as well as Algonquin, the men not only habitually cleared the ground( 2 °) — no small undertaking, be it understood, in a heavily timbered region — but they frequently took part in what is technically known as "work- ing" the crop, and also aided in the labors of the harvest field. This may not have been a part of their duty, but we have the authority of Charlevoix for saying that when asked to aid in gathering the crop "they did not scorn to lend a helping hand."(") On this point, however, it is necessary to make haste slowly, as our guides not only contradict each other, but are very often at odds with themselves, and it requires some judgment to pick our way amid the conflicting statements. As an instance of some of the least of the difficulties that beset our path at this stage of the inquiry, let us take the younger Bartram, whose account of his travels among the Indians of the Glulf States is one of the most trustworthy that has come down to us. (19.) "If any of> his children be killed or taken by the enemy, he is presently furnished with as many slaves as he hath occasion for:" La Hontan, vol. II, p. 7: London, 1703. "Women slaves are employed to sow and reap the Indian corn; and the Men slaves have for their business the Hunting and Shooting when there is any fatigue, tho' their Masters will very often help them:" Ibid., p. 18. "Therefore the plantation work," among the Iroquois, "is left for the women and slaves to look after: " Lawson, Carolina, p. 188: London, 1718. See also Lafitau, vol. II, p. :)0S: Paris, 1724. Charlevoix, Letters, p. 162: London, 1763. Hennepin, A New Discovery of a Vast Country, Ac, vol. I, pp. 43, 21,"i, and 234: London, 1098. John Partram, p. 79: London, 1751. By almost all of the old chroniclers "captive'' and "slave" are used as convertible terms. (20.) "Ce sont les hommes par toute 1 ' Amerique qui sont charges de marquer les champs et d'en abattre les gros arbres. Ce sont eux aussi, qui en tout temps sont obliges de cnuper le gros bids," &c.: Lafitau, Moeure des Smivages Ameriquains, vol. II, p. 10!): Paris, 1724. "The qualifications of man * * * to build cottages to fell trees," Ac. : La I luntan, Voyages, vol. II, p. 9: London, 1703. Compare La Potherie, vol. Ill, p. 18: Paris, 1753. (21.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 237: Nondon, 17(i."> THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 13 Time and again, in the course of his narrative, he speaks of the part taken by the men in the work of raising corn,( 22 ) and yet, on page 513, he tells us that they " perform nothing except erecting their mean habitations, forming their canoes, stone pipes, tambour, eagle's tail, or standard, and some other trifling matters, for war and hunting are their principal employments." In Vander Donck's New Netherlands there is an instance even more to the point, though it is by no means an extreme case. On one page he tells us~ that the Indians "subsist by hunting and fishing throughout the year," having apparently forgotten that in a previous chapter he had said that " mush or sapaen" was their common food, and that they rarely pass a day without it unless they are on a journey or hunting. ( 23 ) Strictly speaking, the statements in the first of these instances are not contradictory, for our author is speaking of manufactures when he says the men do "nothing, &c. ;" and it is possible, in that latitude, for a man to raise a crop of corn and work it well, too, and yet spend the most of his time hunting and fight- ing. To admit, this, however, is to credit the old chronicler with a degree of refinement in the use of language to which he is believed to have been an utter stranger. In the second instance, there is no room for any such compromise. The two statements conflict, and cannot be reconciled by any amount of verbal hair-splitting. In neither case, be it observed, do the facts justify the inference that the field work was left, exclusively, to the women, as that conclusion is manifestly impossible, so long as it is admitted that the men took any part in the labor, be it ever so small, at any stage of the process ; and yet it is precisely upon -these and similar statements that this conclusion is based. Without stopping now to inquire into the rationale of these contradictions, sometimes only apparent, but often very real, it will be sufficient to say that they have not sprung from any wish to mislead, but have rather grown out of the fact that when these old writers began to generalize, they fell into the common error of failing to make due allowance for the many exceptions to the rule they were laying down. In all such cases the true way out of the difficulty is not to accept one statement to the exclusion of the other; neither will it aid us to offset one by the other, and so reject both, but rather we ought to qualify the general conclusion by the exceptions, and thus bring it within the bounds (22.) Travels through North and Sjuth Carolina, Georgia, East and AVest Florida, &c, pp. 194, 512, 517: Philadelphia, 1791. (23.) Vander Donck's New Netherlands, in Collections New York Hist. Soc, vol. I, of new series, pp. 193 and 197. 14 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. marked out by'the facts. Believing this to be the true method of pursuing this investigation, it will be incumbent on me to examine into the history of each tribe or group of tribes separately, in order to find out whether the men, i. e., the warriors, took any part in the field work, and if so, to what extent. If, in the course of the inquiry, it should be shown that, in any tribe, at any time, the men did take some part in this work, no matter how insignificant it may have been, then it is evident that at that time, in that particular tribe, the field work was not left exclusively to the women, what- ever may be said to the contrary by the author who tells the story. It must not, however, be forgotten that, although this statement as to the actual condition of a large majority of the tribes living east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence is believed to be true, yet it is not denied that there were many instances in which this labor was, practically, left to the women, owing to the fact that the men were away from home hunting or fighting. This fact was, unfortunately, of frequent recurrence ; but as it was the result of an accidental and not of a permanent condition of affairs, it would hardly be fair to ascribe it to the existence of any custom or to any belief in the derogatory character of the work. Beginning with the Hurons, of Canada, we find that in A. D. 1535 a band of the Iroquois branch of that family was living in the stockaded village of Hochelaga, now Montreal. According to Cartier ( 24 ) "they had. good and large fields full of corn, * * * which they preserved in garrets at the top of their houses." He also tells us that they are "given to hus- bandrie, * * * but are no men of great labor; and that they digge their ground with certain pieces of wood as big as halfe a sword, on which ground groweth their corne." The women are said "to work more than the men * * * in tilling and husbanding .the ground." Champlain,( 25 ) A. D. 1610; speaking of this same family of tribes, especially of those living north of the St. Lawrence, and in the peninsula lying between Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, repeats, substantially, what is said about their houses and fortified villages,( 26 ) and adds that most of them cultivated corn, which was their principal article of food, and which they also exchanged for skins with (24.) Cartier in Haklnyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, pp. 271, et setj. : London, 1810. (25.) Voyages de Champlain, Livre Quntrieine, chapter VIII: Paris, 1(532. (26.) Compare Relation de la Nouvelle France en l'annee, 1020, p. 2: Quebec, 1858. Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. II, pp. 3, ct seq. : Paris, 1724. La Hontan, Voyages, vol. II, p. 6: London, 1703. Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 240-241 ; London, 1703. Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, pp. 115-117: Paris. +03.2, THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 15 the hunter tribes living to the north. They stored it in the tops of their houses, and cultivated it in quantities, so that they might have on hand a supply large enough to last three or four years, in case of the failure of the crop in some bad season.( 27 ) The women are said to have cultivated the ground and planted corn, whilst the men hunted, fished, went to war, and built their cabins. When this was done, they went off on trading expedi- tions among other tribes, sometimes extending their trips to the distance of four or five hundred leagues. All this is confirmed by Sagard,( 28 ) who adds some interesting details as to the tenure of lands (* 9 ) and the method of cul- tivating the corn. He also tells us that the men cleared the ground, and that this was done with great difficulty, as they had no suitable implements with which to work. This process was the same among all the Indian tribes, and as it is practically in use to-day by the white settlers on our frontiers, his account of it is translated in full. "The Indians," he says, "belt (cou- pent) the trees about two or three feet from the ground, then they trim off all the branches and burn them at the foot of the tree in order to kill it, and afterwards they take away the roots. This being clone, the women carefully clean up the ground between the trees, and at every step they dig a round hole, in which they sow nine or ten grains of maiz, which they have first carefully selected and soaked for some days in water." ( 3 °) Among the Iroquois or Six Nations, after they took up their residence (27.) Voyages de Champlain, p. 301 : Paris, 1632. " Cultivent des champs dout ils tirent a suffisance pour leur nourriture de toute 1' Annee:" Relation de la Nouvelle France en 1' annee, 1636, p. 118. See also Relation en 1' annee, 1626, p. 2: Quebec, 1858. "The Hurons, more laborious, of more foresight, and more used to cultivate the earth, act with greater prudence, and by their labor are in a condition not only to subsist without any help, but also to feed others ; but this, indeed, they will not do without some recom- pense : " Charlevoix, Letters, p. 175 : London, 1763. " Evidences of their agricultural habits may still be traced in the large spaces which were cultivated, and which are yet conspicuous:" Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. VI, p. 201. " Et continuent ainsi, jusques a ce qu ' ils en ayent pour deux on trois ans de provision, soit pour la crainte qu ' il ne leur succede quelque mauvaise annee, ou bien pour 1' aller traicter en d' autres Nations pour des pelleteries ou autres choses qui leur font besoin: " Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, p. 134: Paris, 1632. (28.) Voyage des Hurons: Paris, 1632. (29.) " Leur continue est, que chaque mesnage vit de ce qu ' il pesche, chasse et seme ayans autant de terre comme il leur est necessaire ; car toutes les forets, prairies et terres non defrischees sont en commun, et est permis a, un chacun d ' en defrischer et ensemencer autant qu ' il veut, qu ' il peut et qu ' il luy est necessaire ; et cette terre ainsi defrischee demeure a la perspnne autant d ' annees qu ' il continue de la cultiver et s'en servir, et estant entitlement abandounee du maistre s' en sert par apres qui veut et non antrement:" Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, p. 133: Paris, 1632. The Hurons agree among themselves "to allot each Family a certain compass of ground, so that when they arrive at the place they divide them- selves into Tribes. Each Hunter fixes his house in the center of that Ground which is his district: " La Hontan, vol. II, p. 59: London, 1703. (30.) Voyage des Hurons, p. 134: Paris, 1632. Compare Adair, History of the North American Indians, p. 405: London, 1775. Smith, Virginia in Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1696: London, 1625. Voyages de Champlain, pp. 73, 86: Paris, 1632. 16 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. in Western New York, our accounts are not less full and explicit. Those grim warriors, thanks to the ill-advised interference of Champlain (A. D. 1609-10), in their quarrel with the Adirondacks, lived in a chronic state of hostility to the French, whose pathway to the Ohio they effect- ually barred.( 3 ') Expeditions were repeatedly fitted out against them, but always with the same barren results. A few villages were burned, some- times by the savages themselves, to prevent their falling into the hands of the whites, and the adjacent corn-fields were destroyed;' but the power of the confederacy remained unbroken. Champlain began this system of destructive inroads at an early period; in 1687 Denonville improved upon his teaching, and later on, in A. D. 1779, the Americans took up the work and showed themselves to be apt scholars. In this year General Sullivan, at the head of an American army, invaded their country, and is said to have destroyed 160,000 bushels of corn, and to have cut down in one orchard alone fifteen hundred apple trees. ( 32 ) Large as was the amount of property destroyed at this time, it was but a fraction of the destruction wrought by the French under Denonville in 1687. In the course of that one invasion four villages of the Senecas were burned, and, including the corn in cache and what was standing in the fields, 400,000 minots or twelve hundred thousand bushels of grain were destroy ed.( 33 ) This amount is doubtlessly much exaggerated, but that it was very large is evident from the statements of Tonti( 34 ) and La Hontan,( M ) both of whom took part in the expedition. According to the former, they were for seven days engaged in cutting up the corn belonging to the four vil- lages. The latter author puts the time consumed in this work at five or six days, and by way of showing the uselessness of such destruction, he makes one of their Indian allies remark rather cynically that "the Tson- nontonans did not matter the spoiling of the corn, for that the other Iroquois nations were able to supply them." These extracts will give some idea of (31.) La Hon tan, vol. I, p. 24: London, 1703. Loskiel, Mission in America, p. 137: London, 1794. Among the expeditions sent against them, besides those mentioned in the text, note particularly those in 1665 under Courcelles, in 1666 under do Tracy, in 1684 under de la Biirre, and in 1692 and 1696 under Frontenae. (32.) History of New York during I lie Revolutionary War, vol. II, p. 334: New York, 1879. See, also, Stone's Life of Brant, vol. 11, chap. I : Albany, lSiio, for an account of the immense amount of corn, &c, destroyed at this time. (33.) Charlevoix, Histoiiv de la Nmivclle France, vol. II, p. 355: Paris, 1744. Doc. Hist, of New York, first series, p. 23S: Albany, I S 10. (34.) Narrative in llisdirical Collections or Louisiana, part I, p. 70. (35.) I.a Hontiln, Voyages, vol. I, p. 77: London, 1703. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 17 the extent to which corn was grown among these tribes, ( 36 ) and will justify the use of much stronger language than Mr. Morgan employs when he declares that "it cannot be affirmed with correctness that the Indian sub- sisted principally by the chase."( 37 ) As to the manner of preserving or storing this grain for winter use, we are not loft in the dark. In addition to the garrets or tops of their houses and cribs, ( j8 ) they were in the habit of "burying their surplus corn and also their charred green corn in caches, in which the former would preserve uninjured through the year, and the latter for a much longer period. They excavated a pit, made a bark bottom and sides, and having deposited the corn within it, a bark roof, water-tight, was constructed over it, and the whole covered up with earth. "( 39 ) In regard to the field-work, the weight of evidence inclines to the conclu- sion that, ever since the arrival of the whites, it has been in the hands of the women and slaves, and that the warriors took no part in it, neither working the crop, nor clearing the land, as their congeners in Canada were in the habit of doing. Colclen( 4 °) and others( 41 ) assert this positively, and General Ely S. Parker, himself an educated Iroquois, confirms the statement in an interesting letter, which I take the liberty of publishing entire: "I do not think that the Iroquois men, at the time to which you refer, ever aided in any agricultural operations whatever. Among all the Indian tribes, especially the more powerful ones, the principle that a man should not demean himself or mar his dignity by cultivating the soil or gathering its (36.) Iroquois "reap ordinarily in one Harvest as much as serves 'em for two years:" Hennepin, A new Discovery of a Vast Country in America, vol. I, p. 18: London, 1698. " Cultivated 100 acres: " Ibid., p. 19. " Corn plenty among different tribes of Jhe Iroquois: " Greenhalgh (A. D. 1667), in Doc. Hist, of New York, vol. I, p. 15. " Corn has ever been the staple article of consumption among the Iroquois. They cultivated this plant, and also the bean and the squash, before the formation of the league. * * * Eaised sufficient quantities of each to supply their utmost wants: " Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 199 : Eochester, 1851. " Village field consisting oftentimes of several hundred acres of cultivated land:" Ibid., p. 314. (37.) League of the Iroquois, p. 199: Eochester, 1851. (38.) Lafitau, vol. II, p. 80: Paris, 1724. (39.) League of the Iroquois, p. 319. Mr. Morgan adds that "pits of charred corn are still found near their ancient settlements. Cured venison and other meats were buried in the same manner, except that the bark repository was lined with deer-skins." As to caches see, also, Hennepin, I. c, vol. I, p. 18 : Lon- don, 1693. Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages, vol. II, p. 79 : Paris, 1724. Loskiel, Mission in America, p. 68: London, 1794. (40.) "The Indian women perform all the Drudgery about their houses; they plant the corn, and labor it in every respect till it is brought to the table: " History of the Five Nations, p. 13: London, 1747. (41.) " Women never plant corn among us as they do among the Iroquois: " Lawson, Carolina, p. 188: London, 1718. " The wife must do all the work in the house and field: " Loskiel, Mission in America, p. 60: London, 1794. See also League of the Iroquois, p. 329: Eochester, 1851, Mem. — vol. n. — 2 18 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. product was most strongly inculcated and enforced. It was taught that a man's province was war, hunting, and fishing. While the pursuit of agriculture, in any of its branches, was by no means prohibited, yet, /when any man, excepting the cripples, old men, and those disabled in war or hunting, chose to till the earth, he was at once ostracised from men's society, classed as a woman or squaw, and was disqualified from sitting or speaking in the councils of his people until he had redeemed himself by becoming a skillful warrior or a successful hunter. At the present day, even, some of the western tribes require that one shall also prove himself an expert thief or robber to entitle him to respect and consideration. It is within my recollection that a very large proportion of the Iroquois men did no manual labor whatsoever, because, as they argued, it was menial and beneath their dignity. It is only quite recently that agricultural work by men has become general among this people, and not yet are women driven altogether from the field. "It was an Iroquois custom to use captives to assist their women in the labors of the field, in carrying burdens, and in doing general menial labor; but when a captive proved himself possessed of what, in their judgment, constituted manly qualities, then he was fully adopted and admitted to all the privileges of an Iroquois. "You may possibly call to mind that Brant, the elder, a great Iroquois warrior, and Red Jacket, the Iroquois orator, were not good friends. One was renowned both in war and council, and his voice was ever for war; while the other was famous only in council ; his voice was always for peace, and in no sense was he a warrior. In a general council of the magnates of the Six Nations, held at the time of the Miami difficulties in the North- west, Brant, in a controversy with Red Jacket, in which, perhaps, he was being worsted, taunted him with being a coward and a squaw, showing how strong had been his early education respecting the qualities essential to a representative Iroquois. "I think you will also find accounts in Colden's History of the Five Nations, where tribes of Indians were, or had been, subjugated by the Iroquois, and reduced to the condition of women, and were formally pro- hibited from engaging in any warlike enterprises, and were enjoined to spend their time and energies in 'tilling the earth, and the Iroquois were accustomed to express themselves respecting such subjugated tribes like this: 'We have put petticoats upon them,' which meant that thereafter THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 19 they were -required to do only servile work. This, in my opinion, was another evidence, that, anciently, the Iroquois men did not do any agricul- tural labor." Per contra Charlevoix( 42 ) speaks of a tradition current among them, to the effect that, formerly — before their arrival in New York — they were almost exclusively occupied in husbandry, and were bound to furnish a part of their harvest to the Algonquins, who, in their turn, agreed to supply them with a certain share of the products of the chase, and to defend them against all enemies whatsoever. He adds that this arrangement was very advantageous to both parties, but that in the estimation of the Indians it caused the Algonquins to rank higher than the Iroquois, for the reason that among them a successful hunter is on a level with a great warrior, and inferentially both take precedence of a husbandman. This, however, is but tradition, and is given for what it is worth, though it is proper to say that Charlevoix introduces it with the remark that it is the only part of Iroquois history that has come clown to us clothed with any appearance of probability, and that both Colden( 43 ) and Morgan( 44 ) give place to the story. Without stopping now to inquire into its truth or falsity, we may be very sure that during the whole of the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries, the Iroquois warrior had but little time to devote to agriculture. What with fighting the French and Hurons on the North; the Miamis and Illinois on the West ; the Cherokees, Catawbas, and Shawnees on the South, to say nothing of his immediate neighbors in New England on the East, it would seem as if his hands were so full as to leave but little time for hunting, much less for raising corn ; and that under the circumstances (42.) Charlevoix Letters, pp. 124, etseq.: London, 1763. La Potherie tells the same story, but gives it as a fact. See Historie de 1 ' Arnerique, vol. I, pp. 188, et seq. : Paris, 1753. The same author, vol. Ill, p. 18, asserts that the men did clear the ground, fence in the fields, and prepare the hunches of corn for drying. He also adds that when husband and wife are much attached to each other, they do not sepa- rate their work, though ordinarily they do not concern themselves about each other's duties. Lafitau, vol. II, p. 78, says that the men braided the corn into bunches, and adds that it is the only occasion on which the women call on the men for help. (43.) "The Adirondacks * * * employed themselves wholly in Hunting, and the Five Nations made planting of Corn their Business. By this means they became useful to each other by exchanging Corn for Venison. The Adirondacks, however, valued themselves as delighting in a more manly employ- ment, and despised the 'Five Nations in following Business which they thought only fit for Women:" History of the Five Nations, p. 22: London, 1747. (44.) " Tradition informs us that, prior to their occupation of New York, they resided in the vicinity of Montreal, upon the northern bank of the St. Laurence, where they lived in subjection to the Adiron- dacks, a branch of the Algonquin race:'' League of the Iroquois, p. 5: Rochester, 1851. Compare this with the following statement of Father Le Jeune in Relation de la Nouvelle France en l'annee, 1636, p. 46 ; " Les sauvages m ' ont monstr6 quelques endroits oil les Hiroquoig ont autrefois cultive' la terre," 20 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. "the plantation work," as the old chronicler has it, must have been "left to the women and slaves" as a matter of necessity. ( 4S ) As might have been expected in a people who had developed such capacity for the management of military and political affairs, we find that the ideas of property had taken definite shape, and that the rights of individuals were duly respected. In fact, some of their regulations, notably those in relation to the property of married women, ( 4 and showed it to Gov. Keith : Hist, of Shawnees, p. 32. Parkman, in Conspiracy of Pontiac, II, p. 229, says : " They had parchment copies of treaties with Penn." (70.) Penn's Letter quoted in Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians, p. 14 : Cincinnati, 1855. (71.) Loskiel, Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North America, p. 66: London, 1794. (72.) Ibid., p. 59. (73.) Ibid., p. 68. (74.) Ibid., p. 51. Compare Kalm, Travels H, p. 42. 24 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. their lands on sufferance. In the figurative language of the Indians, the Iroquois had put petticoats on them. Whether this was a rhetorical flour- ish, and merely meant that they had been conquered, or whether it was intended to signify that the Delaware warriors had been forbidden to take part in manly pursuits, and were restricted to the occupations usually fol- lowed by the women, I am not prepared to say, That they were forbidden to dispose of the land they occupied is clear from the speech of Canassa- tego, an Iroquois sachem, at the treaty of Lancaster, A. D. 1744 ;( 75 ) but, on the other hand, it is equally evident that the Delaware warrior did not hesitate to go upon the war-path whenever it suited his pleasure to do so.( 76 ) Probably the true explanation of this seeming inconsistency is to be found in the fact that whilst the Delawares, as a tribe, were prohibited from exercising any of the rights of an independent people, yet the indi- vidual warrior, in the enjoyment of that wide personal liberty to which every Indian east of the Mississippi seems to have been born, consulted his own convenience as to when or with whom he should fight, and when or how, if at all, he should aid the women in the work of cultivating the fields. In Virginia, among the tribes composing the Powhatanic confederacy and the adjoining nations, corn was raised in great abundance, though there were times when, owing to improvidence or a failure of the crops, the Indians suffered more or less from want. Capt. Smith, in the course of one of the many expeditions made in order to supply the starving colonists with food, says that he could have loaded a ship with it;( 77 ) and in his letter to the Queen on the occasion of the visit of the "Lady" Pocahontas to Eng- land, after acknowledging his personal obligations to that "tender virgin," he tells us that for two or three years "shee next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from deathe, famine, and utter confu- (75.) "We conquered you; we made women of you; you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women:'' Colden, History of the Five Nations, vol. II, p. 80: London, 1767. See also Speech of John Hudson, the Cayuga Chief, A. D. 1758, at a conference held at Burlington, in Archseologia Americana, vol. II, p. 48. In this connection, and as showing the similarity of customs among the Indians, it is of interest to note that the Creeks claimed to have put petticoats upon the Cherokees, and at the treaty of Augusta, in reply to the statement of the Georgians "that they ha.d bought a certain piece of land from the Cherokees," a Creek Chief started to his feet, "and, with an agitated and terrific counte- nance, frowning menaces and disdain, fixed his eyes on the Cherokee Chiefs and asked them what right they had to give away their lands, calling them old women, and saying that they had long ago obliged them to wear the petticoat: " Bartram, Travels through Florida, p. 486: Philadelphia, 1791. (76.) Heckwelder, Historical Account of the Indian Nations, including the Introduction, where this subject is discussed at length from the point of view of the Delawares. (77.) Oapt. Smith, News from Virginia, p. 20 of the re-print by Charles Dean, Esq. ; Cambridge, 1866. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 25 sion."( 78 ) We are also told that they had stockaded forts, ( 79 ) and that their houses were built in the midst of their fields or gardens, "which are small plots of ground," ranging from twenty to two hundred acres. C") Each household is said "to know their own lands and gardens, and must live of their own labors ;"( 8 ') and the limits within which each might "fish, fowle, or hunt" seem to have been not less accurately determined. ( 82 ) As to the part taken by the men in the field work, our authorities are not agreed. According to Capt. Smith, who is not very clear upon this point, the women plant and gather the corn, ( 83 ) though elsewhere he speaks of the "King (Powhatan) himself making his own robes, shoes, bowes, arrowes, pots, planting, also hunting, and doing offices no less than the rest." His account of the manner of making a "clearing" is also somewhat obscure, and may be interpreted to mean that this part of the labor was performed by the men. Be this as it may, however, other writers are more explicit. Hariot and Beverly confirm what is said as to the supply of corn; and the former asserts directly, and the latter by implication, that the men did take part in the field work.( 84 ) They also did, more or less, trade among themselves, exchanging, among other things, their "countrie corne" for copper, beads, and such like.( 85 ) Slavery may also be confidently said, to have existed among them; for, although the evidence on this point is not as full and clear as it might be, yet the fact is plainly deducible from the (78.) Smith, Virginia, p. 121: London, 1632. "It pleased God, after awhile, to send these people * * * to relieve us with victuals, as Bread, Oorne, Fish, and Flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men, otherwise we all had perished. Also we were frequented by divers Kings in the Countrie, bringing us store of provision to our great comfort: " Master Geo. Percy, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1690: London, 1625. (79.) Capt. Smith, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, pp. 1693-4: London, 1625. Beverly, Virginia, book III, p. 12: London, 1705. Hariot in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 329: London, 1810. (80.) Smith, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1698: London, 1625. (81.) Ibid., p. 1698. (82.) Ibid., p. 1703. (83.) Ibid., pp. 1698, 1709 (vol. IV). (84.) "All the aforesaid commodities" (corn, beans, peaze, &c.) "for victual are set or sowed some time in grounds apart and severally by themselves, but for the most part mixtly. * * * A few days before they sowe or set, the men with, wooden instruments, made almost in form of mattocks, or hoes with long handles; the women with short pjckers or parers, because they use them sitting, of a foot long, and about five inches in breadth, doe only break the upper part of the ground to raise up the weeds, grasse, and old stubs of corn-stalks with their roots:" Hariot in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 329: London, 1810. "Indian corn was the staff of Food upon which the Indians did ever depend. • * * It was the fami- lies dependance, and the support of their women and children:" Beverly, Virginia, part II, p. 29: London, 1705. At their corn feast they boast in their song3 "that their corne being now gathered, they have store enough for their women and children; and have nothing to do but go to war, travel, and seek out new adventures:" Ibid., part III, p. 43. (85.) Capt. Smith, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol IV, p. 1701 : London, 1625. 26 the mounds of the Mississippi valley. statement that "they made war, not for lands or goods, but for women and children, whom they put not to death," but kept as captives, in which capacity they were made "to do service."( 86 ) The Carolinas were held by a number of tribes belonging to different linguistic families, though with but little or no difference in their manners and customs. The Tuscaroras, a Huron tribe, occupied the country adja- cent to the Chowan river and its tributaries, in the western part of North Carolina, until about the year 1713-15, when, owing to their defeat by the whites, and the destruction of their fort, they fled to the north, and took refuge among the Iroquois, forming the sixth nation in that confederacy. (* 7 ) In the western part of South Carolina lived the Catawbas, who are chiefly known on account of the long and relentless war which they waged against the Iroquois. They were extensively engaged in growing corn, as Adair speaks of one of their old fields that was seven miles in extent, and argues that the tribe must have been very populous to cultivate so much land with their dull stone axes.( 88 ) In the interior, and along the coast of these two States, there dwelt a number of small tribes, whose names have scarcely come down to us. In 1700-1 Lawson traveled through this region, and much that we know of the people who then lived here is derived from his narrative. ' From it, we learn that they cultivated many kinds of pulse, part of which they ate green in summer, keeping great quantities for their winter supply^ 89 ) This they stored in cribs or granaries, which were sometimes built on eight feet or posts, about seven feet high, well daubed within and without with loam.( 9 °) The young men worked the fields, as did the slaves, who, we are told, were not overworked.( 91 ) The women never planted corn as they did among the Iroquois. ( 92 ) There were no fences to divide the fields, but "every man knew his own; and it scarce ever happens that they rob one another of so much as an ear of corn, which if any one is found to do, he is sentenced by the elders to work and plant for him that was robbed till he is recompensed for all the damage he has suffered in his corn-field ; (86.) Ibid., I. c, pp. 1699, 1700. "The werowance, women and children, became his prisoners, and doe him service:" Ibid., p. 1704. (87.) Archseologia Americana, vol. II, p. 80 et seq. (88.) Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 225: London, 1775. (89.) Lawson, Carolina, p. 207 : London, 1718. (90.) Ibid., pp. 17 and 177. (91.) Ibid., pp. 179, 232, 198. (92.) Lawson, Carolina, p. 188: London, 1718. THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 27 and this is punctually performed, and the thief held in disgrace that steals from any of his country-folks. "( 93 ) In the case of a woman without a hus- band, and with a great many children to maintain, the young men were obliged to plant and reap and do every thing that she was not capable of doing herself. They do not allow any one to be idle, but all must employ themselves in some work or other. ( 94 ) They bartered pipes, wooden bowls and ladles with neighboring tribes for raw skins. ( 9S ) We are also told that the poorer sort of white planters often got them to plant, by hiring them for that season, or for so much work.( 96 ) Of the tribes that inhabited Florida, including under that title Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and all the Gulf States except Texas, our accounts are very full and explicit. From the time of De Soto, A. D. 1539, and even earlier, ( 97 ) corn was grown everywhere in great abundance. Indeed, but for the quantities seized by that adventurer during the three or four years he passed in rambling, to and fro, over the vast region traversed by him on both sides of the Mississippi, he could not have subsisted his horde of ruthless followers, with their attendant trains of captives and domestic animals. ( 98 ) La Vega, Biedma, and above all the Knight of Elvas, bear witness to this fact on almost every page of their narratives. (") We are also told that, on both sides of the river, the natives lived in walled (93.) Ibid., p. 179. (94.) Ibid., p. 179. (95.) Ibid., pp. 58, 176, 208. (96.) Ibid., p. 86. (97.) Cabepa de Vaca, in Buckingham Smith's translation, pp. 41-47 : New York, 1871. HerreTa, His- tory of America, vol. VI, pp. 30, 31 : London, 1740. (98.) "We landed six hundred and twenty men and two hundred and twenty-three horses." Narrative of Biedma, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 97. This is the smallest number given by either one of the chroniclers of this expedition, and it is accepted for this reason. It will be seen that no mention is made of the drove of hogs, though it must have been large, as we are told, I. c, p. 104, that in the attack made by the Indians on the Spaniards when in winter quarters at Ohicaca, they destroyed " three hundred hogs," besides fifty-seven horses. The Gentleman of Elvas says " fifty horses and four hundred hogs." (99.) "In the barns and in the fields great store of maize. * * * Many sown fields which reached from one (town) to the other," p. 152. " In the town was great store of old maize, and great quantities of new in the fields," p. 172. * * * "The maize that was in the other town was brought hither; and in all it was esteemed to be six thousand harnegs or bushels," p. 203. * * * As soon as they came to Cale the Governor commanded them to gather all the maize that was ripe in the fields, which was suffi- cient for three months," p. 130: Narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto, by a Gentleman of Elvas, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II. "De Soto did not kill any of his hogs, because they found plenty of provisions:" Herrera, vol. V, p. 312: London, 1740. "Caciquess" of Cofachiqui "had 2,000 bushels of maiz in one of her towns:" Ibid., p. 317. 2$ THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. towns, ( IO °) and that they gathered every man his own crop, ( ICI ) which they stored in barbacoas( 102 ) or granaries, made somewhat like those in Carolina. Passing oyer an interval of a hundred and fifty or two hundred years, and coming down to the eighteenth century, we find the condition of affairs in all that region practically unchanged. The same tribes, with scarcely an exception, that held the country east of the Mississippi in the time of De Soto still possessed it, and lived substantially within the same boundaries that they did when first visited. In the meantime, the Mississippi had been explored from the Falls of St. Anthony to its mouth, the French and Eng- lish had pushed their trading posts everywhere throughout the valley, and were contending for the possession of all that vast domain; but the Indians, save when brought into immediate contact with the whites, still pursued the even tenor of their way, and hunted and fought, danced and worshiped, much as their ancestors had done some two. hundred years before. They built their houses and fortified their villages in much the same manner, ( I03 ) and cultivated their fields and gardens with the same rude and unsatisfac- tory implements. ( ,04 ) In all this they did not differ from their neighbors to the North; in fact, so similar were their forms of government, their cus- toms, and their religious beliefs, that, mutatis mutandis, the accounts given of the Hurons and Algonquins might, with but little change, be applied to the tribes living south of the Ohio.( IOS ) In one or two particulars, however, there seems to have been some improvement, notably in their organized system of relief for the poor and needy, which seems to have existed from the earliest period, ( Io6 ) and in the provision, made at harvest time, for the exercise of tribal hospitality, and for defraying, what may be justly termed, (100.) Gentleman of Elvas and Biedma, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part. II, pp. 103, 104 160, 172: Philadelphia, 1850. Garcilasso de la Vega, seconde partie, pp. 19-37: Paris, 1709. (101.) A brief note, * * * taken out of the 44th chapter of the Discovery of the Inland of Florida on the backside of Virginia, begun by Fernando de Soto, A. D. 1539, in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. YIH, third series, p. 115. (102.) Gentleman of Elvas, I. c, p. 137. (103.) Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. II, p. 251 : London, 17(13. Dumont, Memoir in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part V, p. 108 : New York, 1853. (104.) See note 12, p 9. (105.) Lafltau, Moeurs des Sauvages Amoriquains, vol. I, p. 530: Paris, 1724. (106.) "Caciquess of Cofachiqui had two store-houses for the relief of the needy:" Herrera, vol. V, p. 316: London, 1740. Timbcrlake, who visited the Clierokees, A. D. 17(41 , and accompanied a delega- tion of them to England, describes their method of relieving the poor, which resembles, in some respects, the "begging dance" of the Indians of the Plains: Memoirs, p. 68: London, 1705. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 29 public expenditures. ('° 7 ) In their method, too, of preventing, or, rather, punishing laziness, which they did by fine,('° 8 ) they showed an advance in social science that is. worthy of all commendation. Among them corn was the staple article of food,( 109 ) and was cultivated in great quantities, their fields not unfrequently being measured by miles instead of by acres. ("°) The work was done in common, though the fields were divided by proper marks, and the harvest was gathered by each family separately. ( 1IZ ) The men are said to have aided in the field work. Indeed, so general was this custom, that I do not know of a single prominent tribe living east of the Mississippi and within the limits named, in which this cannot be shown to have been the case.(" 2 ) The Choctaws, as we have seen, were a nation of farmers, and helped their wives in the labors of the field, and in many other kinds of work;( 113 ) the Muscogees rarely went to war until they had helped the women to plant a sufficient plenty of provisions,(' 14 ) and Hawkins tells us that to constitute a legal marriage among them, a man must, among other things, "build a house, make his crop, and gather, it in, then make his hunt, and bring home the meat;" and that when all this was put in possession of the wife, the ceremony was ended, or, as the (107.) " Previous to their carrying off their crops from the field, there is a large crib or granary, erected in the plantation, which is called the King's crib ; and to this each family carries and deposits a certain quantity, according to his ability or inclination, or none at all if he so chooses; this in appearance seems a tribute or revenue to the mico, but in fact is designed for another purpose, i. e., that of a public treas- ury, supplied by a few. and voluntary contributions, and to which every citizen has the right of free and equal access, when his own private stores are consumed, to serve as a surplus to fly to for succor, to assist neighboring towns, whose crops may have failed, accommodate strangers or travellers, afford provisions or supplies when they go forth on hostile expeditions, and for all other exigencies of the State: J ' Bartram, Travels through Florida, p. 512: London, 1791. The Huron-Iroquois also had a public treasury, which contained wampum, Indian corn, slaves, fresh and dried meat, and, in fact, anything else that might serve to defray the public expenses: See Lafitau, vol. I, p. 508, and vol. II, p. 273. (108.) "The delinquent is assessed more or less, according to his neglect, by proper officers appointed to collect those assessments, which they strictly fulfill without the least interruption or exemption of any able person:" Adair, History of American Indians, p. 430: London, 1763. Compare Lawson, Carolina, p. 179: London, 1718. (109.) "Chief produce and main dependance:" Adair, p. 407. "Principal subsistence:" Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. II, p. 239: London, 1763. "Common food of the Creeks is Indian corn:" Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 264. "They sow their maize twice a year: " Laudonniere, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part p. 174. (110.) Adair, pp. 225, 353, 411: London, 1763. Bartram, Travels through Florida, pp. 54, 332, 350, 352, 354: Philadelphia, 1791. Narrative of Joutel, in Margry, vol. Ill, p. 462: Paris. (111.) Bartram, p. 512. Adair, p. 430. Romans, East and West Florida, p. 87. (112. Laudonniere, I c, p. 174. Bartram, pp. 194, 226, 512. Adair, pp. 407-430. Eomans,. p. 85. Memoir of Tonti, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, vol. I, p. 63. Le Moyne, plate XXI: Frankfort ad Moenum, 1591. (113.) Bernard Romans, East and West Florida, pp. 71, 83, 85: London. (114.) Adair, History of American Indians, p. 255: London, 1775,, 30 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Indians express it, "the woman was bound, and not till then."(" 5 ) Among the Natchez and kindred tribes, the men not only cleared the fields and worked the crops, (" 6 ) but in one field, that in which was raised the corn destined for use in the feast of the "Busk" or First Fruits, the ground was prepared and cultivated by the warriors alone, and the women were not allowed to take any part in the work at any stage. (" 7 ) Slavery was com- mon among all these nations from the earliest times, as it was also among tribes belonging to the Huron and Algonquin families of the North, that being the usual lot of the captives, especially of the women and children. In the time of De Soto we are told that some of these tribes had many "foreign Indian slaves, taken in war, whom they put to tilling the ground and other sorts of labor; and that they might not run away, they used to cut their heels, or some sinews in their legs, so that they were all lame."(" s ) At a later time, the custom of enslaving captives still existed, (" 9 ) though I do not find that they were mutilated in order to prevent their escape. It • is quite probable, however, that this was still sometimes done, as Lawson speaks of an Indian captive who had been thus treated by the Senecas, but who had, nevertheless, managed to escape and find his way back to North Carolina in that crippled condition. ( ,2 °) These nations excelled in manufactures, such as pipes, pottery, and wicker-work, ( ,21 ) and seem always to have had more or less traffic among themselves.(" 2 ) Indeed, Herrera speaks of "merchants that traveled up the country," and the experience of Cabeca de Vaca among the Indians of Texas, as a dealer in flint and other articles, which he brought from the interior and bartered with the (115.) Sketch of the Creek Country, in collections Georgia Hist. Soc, p. 42. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the U. S., vol. V, p. 267. (116.) Du Pratz, Hist, of Louisiana, vol. II, pp. 168-189: London, 1763. Among the Tonicas on west side of the Mississippi," the men do what peasants do in France; they cultivate and dig the earth, plant and harvest the crops, cut the wood and bring it to the cabin," &c. : Father Gravier in Shea's Early Voy- ages, p. 134: Albany, 1861. Compare St. Cosme in same, p. 81. (117.) Du Pratz, vol. II, p. 189. (118.) Herrera, History of America, vol. V, p. 320: London, 1740. (119.) M. Penicaut, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, new series, pp. 123, 124: New York, 1869. Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, p. 141: Philadelphia, 1859. Bartram, Travels through Florida, pp. 186, 213,507. Narrative of La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi by Father Membr(5, in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 171 : New York, 1852. Du Pratz, Louisiana, vol. II, p. 249. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 260. Timberlake, Memoirs relating to the Cherokees, p. 90: London, 1765. Herrera, vol. VI, p. 260: London, 1740, (120.) Laweon, Carolina, p. 53: London, 1718. (121.) Adair, p. 423: London, 1775. Du Pratz, Louisiana, book IV, chap. Ill, sec. 5: London, 1763. (122.) Herrera, vol. V, p. 310: London, 1740. Laudonniere in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 369: Lon- don, 1810, Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol, V, p. 692. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 31 Indians of the coast, would seem to be decisive as to the existence among them of a class of pedlers.( 123 ) Of the tribes that lived on the west bank of the Mississippi, our accounts are not so full; but from what we do know of them, it is safe to say that, in their manner of life, they did not differ materially from their neighbors on the other side of the great river. In the time of La Salle, A. D. 1682, they lived in 'fixed villages ("sedentaires"), ( I24 ) as they had done some hundred and fifty years before, when De Soto swept through that country like a tornado, and they still cultivated corn in great abundance. ( I25 ) Peach, plum, and apple trees were found among the tribe's living near the mouth of the Arkansas ;( 126 ) and these same tribes are said to have had great quantities of domestic fowls, including flocks of turkeys ;( 127 ) in short, to have been " half-civilized. "( I2S ) As Joutel tells us that there was but little difference in the religion, manners, clothing, and houses of the nations inhabiting this region, ( I29 ) it seems fair to conclude that the others were not behind the favored few in all that contributed to the physical comfort and well-being of a people. Their men cleared the ground, and aided in the work of the fields ; ( ,3 °) and among the Tensas, they had so far anticipated modern methods that, in one "clearing," called by them "the field of the spirit," they are said to have worked to the music of the (123.) " With my merchandise and trade I went into the interior as far as I pleased, and traveled along the coast forty or fifty leagues. The principal wares were cones and other pieces of sea snail, conches used for cutting, and fruit like a bean, of the highest value among them, which they use • as a medicine, and employ in their dances and festivities. Among other matters were sea beads. Such were what I carried into the interior; and in barter I got and brought back skins, ochre, with which they rub and color the face, hard canes of which to make arrows, sinews, cement and flint for the heads, and tassels of the hair of deer, that by dyeing they make red. This occupation suited me well ; for the travel allowed me liberty to go where I wished. I was not obliged to work, and was not treated as a slave. Wherever I went I received fair treatment, and the Indians gave me to eat out of regard to my commodities." Relation of Cabeca de Vaca, translated by Buckingham Smith, pp. 85 et seq.: New York, 1871. (124.) Memoir of the Sieur de Tonti, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, p. 64. (125.) Narratives of Fathers Marquette and Membr£, in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, pp. 48, 169, 177. Memoir of Tonti, and Joutel's Journal, both in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, pp. 63, 65, 151, 153, 163, &c. The latter author in Margry, vol. Ill, p. 462, Paris, tells us that the Kappas had a field a league in length by one and a half in width. (126.) Tonti, I c, p. 61. (127.) Narrative of Father Membre, I. c, p. 169. (128.) Ibid., p. 172. "Nothing barbarous but the name.'' Narrative of Father Douay, in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 203. (129.) Joutel, Journal, I. c, pp. 151, 152. Tonti, I. c, pp. 62, 63. (130.) Tonti and Joutel, I. c, pp. 63-149. Father Gravier, in Shea's Early Voyages, p. 134: Albany, J861. "Men among Tonicas employed solely on their fields : " St. Cosme, I. c, p. 81. 32 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. drum.( 131 ) The labor of the fields was done in common, though each family had its own particular plot of ground.( 132 ) The harvest was gathered sep- arately by' each family, and was stored in magazines, or in large baskets made of cane, or in gourds as large as half barrels. ( I33 ) In other respects, too, . individual rights seem to have been respected.( 134 ) Slavery existed among the Tensas and other tribes who are said to have had the same customs.( I3S ) They had more or less traffic with other tribes, especially in bows, in the manufacture of which the Caddoes are said to have ex- celled^' 36 ). Ascending the Mississippi, we find among the Algonquin tribes of the Northwest a condition of affairs very similar to that which has been described as existing among their kindred and neighbors to the eastward. At the date of the arrival of the French, say in the beginning of the last quarter of the 17th century, the Miamis, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, Outag- amis or Foxes, and other tribes, were living in Wisconsin and the northern part of Illinois, ( <37 ) whilst all south of that, extending as far as the mouth of the Ohio, was held by the Illinois and their allies, among whom were a few villages of Shawnees. These latter came later, having established themselves here upon the invitation of La Salle, ( Ij8 ) though the home of their tribe is said to have been, at this time, some thirty days' journey to the east-southeast, in what is now known as the State of Kentucky, ( I39 ) where they seem to have taken refuge after their expulsion from the region south of the lakes by the Iroquois. ( I4 °) Among all these nations corn was (131.) Tonti, I. c, p. 62. Adair, I. c, p. 407, speaking of the Creeks, says that sometimes, when at work in the fields, "one of their orators cheers them with jests and humorous old tales, and sings several of their most agreeable wild tunes, beating also with a stick in his right hand on the top of an earthern pot cov- ered with a wet and well stretched deer skin." Compare also Lawson, Carolina, p. 175: London, 1718. (132.) Joutel, Journal, I. c, p. 1-19. Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. Ill, pp. 21, 22. (133.) Memoir of the Sieur de Tonti, I. c, p. 61. Narrative of Father Marquette, p. 48. (134.) In their cottages "they have nothing in common besides the fire." Joutel, p. 148. (135.) Narrative of Father Membre, pp. 171-182. In his Memoir, Tonti, p. 61, speaks of the "maitre d' hotel" to the chief of the Tensas. See also Joutel, Journal, p. 160, and La Harpe in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III, p. 68. (130.) Tonti, p. 73. (137.) Narrative of Father Marquette, pp. 13-22. (138.) Memoir of Tonti, p. 66. Narrative of Father Membre\ !. c, p. 163. (139.) Life of Father Marquette, p. 5G, and also p. 41 of his Narrative, both in Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. In the old maps, the Cumberland is put down as the river of the Chaou- anons. » (140.) Colden (Five Nations, pp. 23 and 25: London, 1767) says the Shawnees, or, as he calls them, the Satanas, formerly lived on the banks of the lakes, and that they wore the first people against whom the Five Nations turned their arms, after their defeat and expulsion from the region near Montreal by the Adirondacks. There is reason to believe that this took place in the latter part of the sixteenth century. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 33 cultivated in quantities, and was preserved in caches.( 141 ) The field work seems to have been left to the women ( r42 ) and slaves. There was also a class of boys or men who were employed only in women's . work, and who did not take part either in war or hunting. It is possible that they were simply captives or slaves, though upon this point the evidence is conflict- ing.(' 43 ) It is certain, however, that slavery was very common among them, that being the usual fate of captives "taken from distant nations in the south and west, where the Illinois go to carry off slaves, whom they make an article of trade, selling them at a high price to other nations for goods."( 144 ) These tribes lived in villages, some of which were very large, and they also had forts or strongholds for defense in case of necessity. ( I45 ) (141.) "The soil is good, producing much corn,"p. 14. * * * "They live * * * on Indian corn of which they always gather a good crop, so that they have never suffered by -famine," p. 33 of Narrative of Marquette. "They live on Indian corn and other fruits of the earth, which they cultivate on the prairies like other Indians:" Narr.ative of Father Allouez, p. 75. "The richness of their country gives them fields everywhere : " Narrative of Father Membre, p. 151. All these are published in the Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi by John Gilmary Shea: New York, 1852. "This is a place of great trade for skins and Indian corn which these savages sell to the Coureurs de Bois :" La Hontan, Voyages, I, p. 105: London, 1703. See also Memoir of Tonti, I. c, p. 54. (142.) Joutel, p. 187. Kips, Missions, p. 38. Father Marest in note to p. 25 of Shea's Discovery- and Exploration of the Mississippi. There is room, however, for doubt on this point, as Charlevoix (Letters, p. 293: London, 1763) speaks of the Illinois as cultivating the land after their fashion and as being very laborious; and in Hawkins' Sketch of the Creek Country, p. 34, we are told that "the Shawnees," some of whom, at that time, lived among the Creeks, "were very industrious, worked with the women, and made plenty of corn." (143.) Father Membre, p. 151. Marquette, p. 34, says: "Through what superstition I know not, some Illinois as well as some Nadouessi, while yet young, assume the female dress, and keep it all their life. There is some mystery about it, for they never marry, and glory in debasing themselves to do all that is done by women : yet they go to war, though allowed to use only a club, and not the bow and arrow, the peculiar arm of the men; they are present at all juggleries and solemn dances in honor of the calumet; they are permitted to sing, but not to dance ; they attend the councils, and nothing can be decided with- out their advice; finally, by the profession of an extraordinary life, they pass for manitous (that is, for genii) or persons of consequence." Compare Lafitau, vol. I, pp. 52 and 53, and Lawson's Carolina, p. 208. Father Membre, I. c, Hennepin, and La Hontan tell us that these men were reserved for an unnat- ural purpose, which, according to Charlevoix (Letters, p. 213) and Long (Expedition to the Eocky Mountains, vol. I, page 129: Philadelphia, 1823), may have been a religious rite or the result of a dream. We are told that the custom existed among the Choctaws, Delawares, and also among the Indians of Florida, though it is denied by Lawson as far as the tribes of the Carolinas are concerned. It is said to prevail as a religious rite among some of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico ; and Miss Alice C. Fletcher ir/or us me that during her residence among the tribes of the Upper Missouri she saw one instance of a man so clothed, and this was caused by a dream. (144.) Narrative of Father Marquette, p. 32. Memoir of the Sieur de Tonti, I. c, pp. 56-69-71. "The Saukie warriors generally employed every summer in making incursions into the territories of the Illi- nois and Pawnee nations, from whence they return with a great number of slaves. But those people frequently retaliate : " Carver, Travels, p. 47. See also Ibid., pp. 344 and 345 : London, 1781, and Rela- tion de la Nouvelle France en l'annee, 1670, pp. 91 and 97: Quebec, 1858. (145.) Relation en 1 ' annee, 1670, pp. 98, 99. Carver, Travels, p. 36. Father Marest, in note on p. 31 of Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. Narrative of Father Allouez in same, p. 74, with note. Charlevoix, Letters, p. 281: London, 1763. Per contra, Father Membre, p. 152, asserts that "Tonti taught the Illinois how to defend themselves by palisades," though he himself makes no such claim, The statement is improbable, Mem. — vol. n. — 3 34 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Passing over an interval of sixty or seventy years, and coming down to the middle of the eighteenth century, we find the Shawnees and Miamis again established in Ohio and Indiana, in company with the Wyandots, Delawares, Pottawatamies, and other tribes. Just about this time, too, the white settlers began to push their way across the Alleghany Mountains into the valley of the Ohio, and this brought on that long and bloody struggle between the two races, which only ended with the expulsion of the Indians from all that territory, and their establishment on reservations west of the Mississippi. Time and again they "dug up the hatchet," in order to stay the tide of immigration, and though, for a while, they spread terror all along the frontier, yet, in the end, they were always obliged to yield to the superior force and military skill and discipline of the whites. After every such outbreak they found themselves weaker than before. In retaliation for the outrages which they undoubtedly committed, their coun- try was invaded, ( I46 ) their villages burned, their crops destroyed, ( I47 ) and as the price of each succeeding peace, they were obliged to yield more or less of the territory that remained to them. This is a sad chapter in our national history, and yet, perhaps, more than any other, it justifies the, statement that the Indian had made great advance in the scale of civ- ilization. Instead of being the wandering barbarian that he is painted, without fixed home, or any means of subsistence save that furnished by the chase, it presents him to us in the light of a successful farmer — a worthy rival, in this respect, to his white neighbor — fighting desperately a losing battle in defense of all he held most dear. Upon this point Gen'l Wayne is certainly competent authority. "Writing from Grand Grlaize, A. D. 1794, just after the battle of. the Maumee, and before the work of destruction had been begun, he uses the following emphatic language: "The margins of these beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the Lake and the Au Glaize, appear like one continued village for a number of miles, both above (146.) "Bowman's Expedition to Mad River in 1779, Clark's in 1780 and '82, Logan's in 1786 to the head waters of the Big Miami, and Todd's in 1788 into the Scioto valley, were chiefly directed against the Shawanees:" Drake, Life of Tecuniseh, p. 27. Besides these, there were other ftnd more formidable invasions, some of which, like that of St. Clair, A. D. 1791, resulted disastrously to the whites; whilst those of Wayne, 1794, and Harrison, 1811, were among the most successful, inasmuch as in them, not only were the corn-fields and villages of the Indians destroyed, but their power was hopelessly shattered by defeat. (147.) "In 1780, two hundred acres of corn wore destroyed at I'iqua: Life of Tecumseh, p. 29. In 1790, several villager and 20,000 bushels of corn destroyed at the Miami villages on the head waters of the Maumee:" Our Indian Wards by Goo. W. Manypenny: Cincinnati, 1SS0. In 1791, "four to five hundred acres of corn, chiefly in the milk," destroyed on the Wabash: Butler, Kentucky, p. 198: Louisville, 1834, THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. • 35 and below this place; nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida."( 148 ) This brings us. around to the point from which we started, and, geograph- ically speaking, completes the circuit. In the course of the investigation, it will be observed that I have taken nothing for granted, but have endeav- ored to substantiate every assertion by a reference to undoubted sources, retaining, as far. as possible, the very language of the authors. These cita- tions might .have been multiplied indefinitely, but it is believed that enough have been given to show: 1st. That the red Indians of the Mississippi Valley lived in fixed vil- lages, which they were in the habit of fortifying by palisades. 2d. That they raised corn in large quantities, and stored it in caches and granaries for winter use. 3d. That whilst, as a fact, the women, children, old men, and slaves always cultivated the fields, yet the warriors cleared the ground, and, when not engaged in war or hunting, aided in working and harvesting the crop, though the amount of such assistance varied, being greater among the tribes south of the Ohio, and less among the Iroquois or Six Nations. A further examination of these same authorities will show that slavery was more or less common among all the tribes east of the Mississippi; that the rights of property were duly recognized and respected, and that there existed among them a system of inter-tribal traffic, in which, among other things, corn and slaves were bartered for skins and such other articles as were needed. SECTION II. The Indian as a Woeshipee op the Sun. The question of subsistence being thus disposed of, let us now examine into the form of government and the religious belief of the modern Indians, in order to see whether, in these particulars, there were any such differences between the state of affairs that can be shown to have prevailed among them, and that which is assumed to have existed among the mound-build- ers, as would warrant the inference that they could not have erected these works. On the part of those who hold that- there were such fundamental differences, it is contended that there are certain types of earth-works that (148.) Quoted in Qur Indian Wards, p. 84: Cincinnati, 1880. 36 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. were evidently designed for a religious purpose. They are variously termed "temple" mounds and "sacred enclosures, "( I49 ) are found sometimes singly and sometimes united in a more or less complicated system, and are sup- posed to indicate that the people who built them were devoted to the wor- ship of the sun.( I5 °) It is, also, asserted that the erection of these works involved a species and an amount of labor to which the Indian would not have submitted, ( ISI ) and that hence he did not build then . This is believed to be a fair statement of the argument, which, upon examination, will be found to be fatally defective in so far as it assumes the very point in dispute. To assert that the Indian would not have sub- mitted to the labor requisite for the construction of these mounds, is vir- tually to beg the whole question. So far is this from being true, that there is, probably, no fact in American archaeology better authenticated than that the red Indian has, within the historic epoch, voluntarily built both mounds and earth-works. This, of itself, is a sufficient answer to the state- ment as to what he would or would not have submitted to in the way of work, and, at the same time, it effectually disposes of the theory that only despotic governments could have controlled the amount of labor necessary to the erection of these works, since the form of government existing every- where throughout the valley of the Mississippi at the date of the arrival of the whites, except, perhaps, among the Natchez Indians,( 152 ) was as far removed as possible from any thing that savored of despotism. Of course it is not asserted that these works were as large or complicated as the famous system on the Scioto ; nor is it essential to my argument that they should have been intended for the same purpose ; but that the two were identical (149.) Squier, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, chapters III and VII : Washington, 1848. (150.) Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 182: Chicago, 1873. Short, North Americans of Antiquity, p. 100: New York, 1880. Conant, Footprints of Vanished Races, pp. 38 and 60: St. Louis, 1879. McLean, The Mound-builders, p. 126: Cincinnati, 1879. Squier, I c, p. 49. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. V, pp. 29 and 61. C. C. Jones, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 22: New York, 1873. (151.) Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 349: Chicago, 1873. (152.) In the early accounts, the Bashaba of New England, the Werowance of Virginia, the Para- conssi of Florida, not less than the Great Sun of the Natchez, are all represented as absolute rulers though, to any one who will take the trouble to read between the lines, it is evident that these were simply other names for the office of chief or sachem, and that the authority of these rulers did not extend any farther than their power to persuade. Even Du Pratz (whose account of the civil polity of the Natchez is most highly colored) virtually admits, vol. II, book IV, section 7, that the war-making power in that nation was vested in u, council of old men, and that when war was once declared, the war chief and not the Great Sun led the party, which was composed entirely of volunteers. Under different names we have here the Micco and Tus-tun-nug-ul-gee of the Creeks and the sachem and war chief of the Iroquois, with no more despotism or monarchy in one ease than in either of the others. THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 37 in kind is believed to be beyond dispute, as is also the additional fact that among those known to have been erected by the modern Indians there are those that are on such a scale of magnitude as to prove, beyond doubt, that when the motive was sufficient the Indian did not hesitate to perform, voluntarily and for an indefinite length of time, the same sort of manual labor as that which was necessary for the construction of the more compli- cated series of works. Upon this point the evidence is very clear; and as there was, practically, no limit to the time within which these works must have been finished, it follows that their erection by a people living under the same conditions as the Indians must simply have resolved itself into a question of the power and permanence of the motive that impelled them to the undertaking. Clearly, if a regard for the dead, or the necessity for self- protection, could lead the people of a single village to erect, in one case a burial mound and in the other a breastwork or fort, there can be no reason why a motive that affected a whole tribe, and continued to influence suc- cessive generations, might not have led to works as much greater than these as the one motive is more general and permanent than the other. Cologne cathedral is, to some extent, a case in point. That building was begun some five hundred years ago, at a time when the religious feeling of the people of that country was wont to manifest itself in such outward marks of devotion, and though the work has dragged as the ages rolled on and opinions changed, yet the very same motive or motives that led to its com- mencement, acting upon succeeding generations, have resulted at last in the completion of that superb structure. This being admitted, and I do not see how it can well be denied, there only remains for me to prove the existence of some adequate motive among the Indians in order to justify -the conclusion that they could have built these works, even those of the largest size and most complicated pattern. Under ordinary circumstances this is a task that I should hardly venture to undertake. To attempt to point out the motive that led the people of a village or a tribe to execute a certain piece of work, requiring the united labor of a large number of persons for an indefinite time, especially when the purpose or end for which that work was .intended is, itself, a matter of grave doubt, seems like a hopeless undertaking; and yet, with all due def- erence be it spoken, this is precisely what the advocates of the mound- builder theory have done, and in so doing they have marked out the course that this investigation must follow. 38 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI TALLER Reasoning from analogy — an uncertain guide, at best, in matters scien- tific — they not only tell us that a certain class of these works were designed for a religious purpose, but they assert that they were built by a people who worshiped the sun ; and they even go so far as to use this as an argu- ment why they could not have been erected by the red Indian. That some of these works were, in some way, connected with this cult is extremely probable; at all events, in view of the plausible explanation it gives of their origin, the statement is admitted to be true ; but to assume that this furnishes a sound basis for the next step in the argument, and authorizes the inference that the red Indian could not have built them, is without warrant, either in fact or logic. Indeed, so far is it from being an argu- ment in favor of this theory, that it is believed to tell, with disastrous effect, against it, since it can be shown, on undoubted authority, that every- where in the valley east of the Mississippi the Indian was a Sun wor- shiper,^ 53 ) and thus, of course, he and the mound-builder must have had the same religious cult, even according to the admissions of those who hold that the two belonged to different races and represented different phases of civilization. This being the case, and it being further admitted that it was this cult that led the mound-builders to erect works like the so-called sacred inclosures of Southern Ohio, it must follow that there can be no reason why the same cult should not have produced, among the Indians, precisely similar results. To the argument when stated in this fashion, the only answer logically possible is a denial that the Indians were Sun worsnipers, all others being barred by the terms of the statement; and as this is the course that the discussion must inevitably take, it behooves me to strengthen this point as much as possible. To this end, an appeal to the early records again becomes necessary, and though it seems like a waste of time thus to "thresh old straw," yet the fact that recent writers on this subject have either entirely ignored the existence of Sun worship among the modern Indians, or else have limited it to a few tribes, ( ,54 ) is (153.) "The tribes of the New World chose the sun as the object of their adoration : " Brinton, Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, p. 126 : Philadelphia, 1859. " With almost all the aborigines there is proof * * * of the former worship of the sun: " Bradford, American Antiquities, p. 181 : New York, 1841. "The United States Indians regarded the sun as the symbol of light, life, power, and intelligence, and deemed it the impersonation of the Great Spirit. They sang hymns to the sun and made genuflec- tions to it;" Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 407, and vol. Ill, pp. 60 and 64. "The religions or superstitions of the American Nations * * * are only modifications of that primitive system, which has been denominated Sun or Fire worship: " Squier, Serpent Symbol in America, p. Ill : New York, 1851. See also Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. II, pp. 287 et seq.: Boston reprint 1874. Nuttall, Travels in Arkansas, p. 277: Philadelphia, 1821. (154.) Footprints of Vanished Races, p. 61; St. Louis, 1879. tfHE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 39 proof positive of the necessity for repeating the evidence which has led me to a contrary conclusion. In doing this, however, the order followed in investigating the question of subsistence will be reversed. Instead of beginning with the Huron and Algonquin families, as was done in that case, the tribes south of the Ohio, called by Schoolcraft the Appalachians (though they do not all belong to the same stock or family), will be first considered. This change is deemed advisable for the reason that the relig- ious rites and observances of these tribes are better known than are those of any other nation in the Mississippi Valley, and because, further, it is only by the light of this knowledge that it is possible to interpret customs once prevalent elsewhere, but which have either wholly died out or lost much of their significance. As an instance of this, take the institution for keeping up a perpetual fire,( 155 ) which seems, at one time, to have been very general among the tribes north of the Ohio, but which disappeared soon after the arrival of the whites, though we are told that its rites and duties were still fresh in the recollection of the Indians. Of itself, the fact that this institution had once prevailed extensively among tribes both of the Huron and Algonquin families might not be considered as settling defin- itely their form of religion ; but if it be taken in connection with the very prominent part this rite, held in the religious observances of the sun- wor- shiping tribes of the Gulf States, it will be seen that it forms an important link in the chain of evidence that points to the existence of one and the same form of worship among these different nations. Other instances of a similar character will doubtlessly occur in the course of this investigation; and my object in calling attention, at this time, to the sudden disappear- ance, over such a wide area, of what must have been an important relig- ious rite, is not so much to mark the identity that once existed in the ritual of these widely separated nations, as it is to indicate the method that it is proposed to adopt in the treatment of this and similar cases. This mode of reasoning is believed to be perfectly fair and legitimate, though of course (155.) General Lewis Cass in Notes to Sanillac, a poem by Henry Whitney: Boston, 1831. Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 150: New York, 1876. Schoolcraft, Address before N. Y. Historical Society, 1846, quoted in Serpent Symbol in America, p. 129. " The general council of the Five Nations wac held at Onondaga, where there has, from the beginning, been kept a fire continually burning, made of two great logs, whose flames were never extinguished:" Colden, Five Nations, vol. I, p. 167: London, 1747. This language may be metaphorical, and the "fire" spoken of may mean a "Council fire," and I am per- fectly willing to admit that it does, though Lafitau, vol. I, pp. 340 and 341, speaking of the Iroquois, tells us that "Les Sauvages ont encore plus perdu de leurs contumes depuis ce temps-la; ils le reconnoissent eux-mfimes, et y ont regret; car dans les malheurs qui leur arrivent, ils discut qu ' ils ne doivent pas s'en plaindre, et que c'est une punition pour avoir abandonne' 1' usage de leurs retraites, et de leurs jeunes." 40' THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. its efficacy will depend upon the establishment of the truth of the prop- osition that the southern Indians were Sun worshipers. Fortunately this is a matter about which there cannot be much doubt. La Vega,(' 56 ) Laudonniere,(' 57 ) and others, ( I5S ) some of whom wrote in the latter part of the sixteenth century, bear witness to the fact in the most unmistakable language) and their statements are confirmed by all the later writers.(' 59 ) To enumerate these latter would be simply to call the roll of all who have written upon the subject, and however interesting this might be to the special student in a bibliographical point of view, it would soon become monotonous and "caviare to the general." For this reason, I shall confine myself to a rapid survey of some of the religious customs that prevailed among these tribes, and will only make such use of authorities as may be necessary to establish the truth of the propositions advanced. Speaking in a general way, then, it may be said of these nations that among some of them "the sun was regarded as one of the great deities; by others it was looked upon as the symbol or representative of the chief deity, and yet again by others it was considered as the supreme deity himself."( l6 °) As part and parcel of this worship, there were certain rites and ceremonies, among which that of keeping up a perpetual fire was one of the most striking. This fire was kept burning in honor of the (156.) "Les peuples de la Floride tiennent le Soleil et la Lune pour des Divinites : " Histoire de la conquete de la Floride, p. 11 : Paris, 1709. According to the Gentleman of Elvas, De Soto, in order to ingratiate himself with the tribes through whose dominions he was passing, represented himself as being a child of the Sun. " Dry up the river," answered the Cacique of Quigalta, " and he would believe him :" Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 187. (157.) "They sing praises to the Sun, ascribing unto him the honor of the victory. They have no knowledge of God, nor of any religion, saving that which they see, as the Sun and the Moon : '' History of the first attempt of the French to colonize Florida, A. D. 1562, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, new series, pp. 171-252 and 253: New York, 1869. (158.) Le Moyne, plate XXXV and explanation, Franckforto ad Moenum, 1591. See also plate in preface to vol. VI, of Herrera's History of America, in which the Indians of Florida are represented as "sacrificing their first born to the Sun:" London, 1740. "Les Apalachites adoraient le soleil de meme que la plupart des plus celebres peuples de 1' Amerique:" Rochefort Histoire des Antilles, p. 412: Rot- terdam, 1665. Confirmed by Herrera, pp. 328-355 of vol. V, and p. 24 of vol. VI: London, 1740. "Le Soleil est eu quelque facon 1' unique Divinity des Floridiens, tous leurs Temples lui ont consacrees:" Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. I, p. 41. (159.) Consult Jones, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, chapters I and XIX: New York, 1873. Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, chapter III, section 3: Philadelphia, 1859. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. II, p. 287 etteq.: Boston reprint, 1874. Squier, Serpent Symbol in America, chap. IV: New York, 1851. Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 123: Washington, 1848. (160.) This is the classification made by Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. II, p. 287, of the beliefs of "the ruder tribes" of the northern continent. It seems to me that it is equally applicable to the tribes living on the lower Mississippi and along the Gulf coast, and I have adopted it, even though those nations are sometimes considered, on what are believed to be insufficient grounds, as occupying a somewhat higher pfaao In the scale of civilization than their neighbors north of the Ohio. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 4± sun,( l6 ') and was regarded as being too sacred to be used for ordinary pur- poses. It was fed with sticks or billets of wood without the bark, placed so as to radiate from a common center, somewhat like the spokes of a wheel, the fire occupying the center or hub. It was kept in buildings or temples erected for the purpose, in which were also preserved the bones of the dead chieftains, neatly done up in cane baskets. Priests or guard- ians were appointed to watch over this fire, and see that it never died out, as its extinguishment was thought to forebode dire evil to the tribe.(' 62 ) In case such a thing did happen, either by accident or through careless- ness, the fire could only be rekindled by brands taken from that kept burn- ing in the temple of the Maubiliens.( l63 ) First among the Priests or guardians of the temple and fire among the Natchez was the chief of the tribe, or, as he was called, the Great Sun.( l64 ) Every morning at sunrise he appeared at the door of his cabin, and turning toward the east "he'howled three times," bowing down to the earth. Then a calumet, used only for this purpose, was brought him, and he smoked, blowing the smoke of the tobacco first towards the sun and then towards the other three quarters of the world. ( l6s ) He acknowledged no superior but the sun, from which he pretended to derive his origin.( l66 ) These temples did not differ materially from each other, nor from the other cabins, especially those of the Indian chiefs. The description which (161.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 313: London, 1763. (162.) Charlevoix Letter No. XXIX, pp. 308 et seq-: London, 1763. Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. II, chapter 3, sections 2 and 4: London, 1763. Memoir of Tonti in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, p. 61. Father Le Petit in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III, note to p. 140 et seq. La Vega, Conqufite de la Floride, vol. I, p. 266 et seq. : Paris, 1709. Gentleman of Elvas in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 123. Letter of Father Gravier in same, second series, pp. 79 et seq.: 1875. (163.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 323: London, 1763. (164.) Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. II, p. 212: London, 1763. (165.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 315. Father Le Petit in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part III, note to p. 142. Father Douay's Narrative of La Salle's attempt to ascend the Mississippi in 1687 ; published in Shea's Discovery and Exploration of that river, p. 228. It was in this expedition that La Salle was murdered, and the good father's account relates to the tribes that were then living in what are now the States of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. He says: "The Sun is their divinity, and they offer it in sacrifice, the best of their chase in the chief's cabin. They pray for half an hour, especially at sunrise; they send him the first whiff of their pipes, and then send one to each of the four cardinal points." As late as the beginning of the present century, Nuttall tells us that, according to the testimony of a Quapaw chief, the "Osages smoked to God or the Sun, and accompanied it by a short apostrophe: " Travels into the Arkan- sas Territory, p. 95: Philadelphia, 1821. (166.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 315. This belief was not confined to the Natchez, as the Hurons and also the tribes of the Floridian Peninsula asserted the same thing of their chiefs. See Charlevoix, Letters, p. 314, for the former, and Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. I, pp. 181 and 456 for the latter. Bartram, Travels through Florida, p. 496, says that, among the Creeks, "the Micco seems the representa- tive of the Great Spirit." 42 The mounds of the Mississippi valley. the Sieur de Tonti has left us of the one among the Tensas, visited by him during the course of his trip down the Mississippi with La Salle, A. D. 1682, will, with but few changes, apply equally well to all of them. After premising that these tribes "have a form of worship, and adore the sun,"( 167 ) he goes on to say that the temple is very like the cabin of the chief, which stands opposite, except that on top of it there were the figures of three eagles which looked towards the rising sun. It was about forty feet square, and the walls, ten feet high and one thick, were made of earth and straw mixed. The roof was dome-shaped, and about fifteen feet high. Around this temple were strong mud walls, in which are fixed spikes, and on these are placed the heads of their enemies, whom they sacrificed to the sun. Within it there is an altar, and at the foot of this altar three logs of wood are placed on end, and a fire is kept up day and night by two old Priests, who are the directors of their worship. ( l68 ) We are also told that, at one time, these temples were quite common throughout all the vast region then known as Florida, a majority of the tribes and even many of the villages having their own, and keeping up in them perpetual fires. ( l69 ) Geographically speaking, they are found all the way from Arkansas to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Flor- ida; and in point of time they cover the one hundred and eighty years embraced between the expedition of De Soto and the visit of Charlevoix in A. D. 1721. ( I7 °) About this time they seem to have gone somewhat out of fashion, as we are told that the one among the Natchez was the only one left; and although that is said to have been held in great veneration "by all the savages which inhabited this vast continent," and the eternal fire was still kept up, yet it is evident from the neglected and unguarded (167.) Memoir of Tonti in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, pp. 61 and 64. (168.) Memoir of Tonti in Hist Coll. of Louisiana, part I, pp. 61 et seq. Narrative of La Salle's voy- age down the Mississippi by Father Membr6, p. 171. Speaking of the Indians of the lower Mississippi, the worthy father says: " We remarked a particular veneration they had for the Sun, which they recog- nize as him who made and preserves all." Compare this description of the temple of the Tensas with that of similar buildings among other tribes as given in Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 312 et seq., and in La Nouvelle France, vol. Ill, p. 381 ; Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. II, chap. 3, sections 2 and 4; La Vega, premitire partie, pp. 206 et seq.; Gentleman of Elvas in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, p. 123, and Father Le Petit in the same, part III, note to pp. 141 et seq. This latter author says of the Natchez : " The Sun is the principal object of veneration to these people ; as they cannot conceive of anything which can be above this heavenly body, nothing else appears to them more worthy of their homage." (169.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 323. Du Pratz, vol. II, pp. 210 and 11. Father Le Petit, I. c, note on p. 144. ■ (170.)' La Vega, Conquete de la Floride, premiere partie, pp. 264 ct seq. Ibid., seconde partie, p. 89; Paris, 1709. Gentleman of Elvas, I. c, p. 123. Charlevoix Letter, No. XXIX: London, 1763. Du Pratz, vol. II, p. 211 : London, 1703. JliE MOtJNi)S 6E' THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 43 condition in which Charlevoix found it( 17 ') that it had lost much of its sacred and distinctive character. Indeed, he tacitly admits as much, and probably assigns the true cause when he ascribes it to the fear lest the French should violate these last resting places of the dead,( 172 ) as they had done with the temple of the Oumas ('") a few years before. Some twenty-five years later, in the time of Adair, who lived and traded among the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Choctaws for many years subsequent to 1735, the change was even more perceptible. It is true that the tribes constituting the Creek or Muscogee confederacy kept up many of the pecu- liar usages of the Natchez, and continued to venerate the sun, as they cer- tainly did down to a comparatively recent period ;( 174 ) and in describing their religious ceremonies, Adair still speaks of a "sacred fire," "holy places," "synhedria," &c. ;( 175 ) but it is evident that in so doing, he has been betrayed by his wild notions as to the identity of the American Indians with the lost tribes of Israel, into the adoption of a terminology that is not warranted by the facts. Temples such as the one described among the Tensas, and which, as we have seen, were once common among all the Floridian tribes, no longer existed, and in their stead we find the state- house, rotunda, hot-house, or simple council chamber, such as it was known to the Creeks and Cherokees. In connection with the disappearance of the temples proper among these nations, there seems to have been a corres- ponding decrease in the number and purity of their religious rites and ceremonies. Du Pratz(' 76 ) mentions the fact, ascribing it to the decrease in population, whilst Adair, ( I77 ) mourning over what he is pleased to con- sider the religious degeneracy of the times, complains that "their primitive rites are so corrupted within the space of the last thirty years that, at the same rate of declension, there will not be long a possibility of tracing their origin but by their dialects and war customs." Especially is this said to be true of the Cherokees, whom he stigmatizes as a nest of apostate hornets.( 178 ) (171.) Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 313 and 323. (172.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 313: London, 1763. (173.) Lafltau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. I, p. 168 : Paris, 1724. (174.) Nuttall, Travels into the Arkansa Territory, p. 277: Philadelphia, 1821. (175.) Adair, History of the North American Indians, pp. 30 and 98 et seq. : London, 1775. (176.) History of Lo.uisiania, vol. II, p. 210 : London, 1763. (177.) History of North American Indians, pp. 81 and 98. (178.) North American Indians, p. 81. 44 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEf. A few years later, say during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and the change is complete. A temple is no longer even spoken of, though the Council House, which seems to hare taken its place as the scene of their religious rites and festivities, inherited something of its sacred char- acter. It was still placed upon an artificial mound, ( m ) as it had been among the Quapaws of Arkansas, ( ,8 °) the Natchez of Louisiana, ( ,Sl ) and other southern tribes ; and here the old men of the village were accustomed to meet every evening to talk over public affairs; and here also took place many of their feasts and dances when the weather precluded the use of the open square in front. ( l8s ) Women were no longer shut out from its sacred precincts, but were permitted, under certain conditions, to take a subordinate part in the ceremonies, except, perhaps, among the Creeks, among whom, according to Bartram, it was still deemed an offense worthy of death for a woman to enter this Rotunda.(' 83 ) He also tells us that it was within this building that the new fire was kindled on the occasion of the feast of first fruits, and it was here that, under guard of the Priests, "they seem to keep up the eternal fire."( lS4 ) This, however, had lost its original form, and was now spiral in shape.( l85 ) Its sacred character, too, was gone, for the houseless pauper could now bask in its warmth undis- turbed by priest or prophet; and when the evening dance or the council (179.) Bartram, Travels through Florida, p. 367 et seq.. Philadelphia, 1791. See also MSS. of the same author quoted by Squier in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. II, pp. 136 et seq., and Adair, North American Indians, p. 421. (180.) La Vega, Conquete de la Floride, seconde partie, p. 89: Paris, 1709. (181.) Du Prate, vol. II, p. 211: London, 1763. Father Le Petit, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III, note to p. 140. (182.) Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, p. 72. Adair, p. 18. Bartram, Travels through Florida, pp. 369 and 516. Schoolcraft, vol. V, p. 265. Timherlake, Memoirs relating to the Cherokees, p. 32. (183.) Bartram, MSS. quoted in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. II, p. 138: Washington, 1851. (184.) Ibid., p. 138. " Muscogulges pay a kind of homage to the Sun, Moon, and Planets : " Bartram, MSS. quoted in Serpent Symbol, p, 69: New York, 1851. "Cherokees adore Sun and Moon:" Payne, MSS. quoted in same, p. 68. Indians of Southern States appear to have been " originally worshipers of the Sun. The Chahta, when he has greatly misbehaved, utters these ejaculations: when the Sun forsakes a man he will do things he never thought to do. The Sun is turned against me, therefore have I come to this : " Pitchlynn, quoted by Buckingham Smith in Notes to his Translation of the Relation of Cabeea de Vaca, p. 171: New York, 1871. (185.) Bartram MSS., I c, p. 138. Hawkins, p. 71. The latter author says: " In the center of the room, on a small rise, the fire is made of dry cane or old pine slabs, split fine, and laid in a spiral circle." See also Lawson, Carolina, p. 38: London, 1718. In this connection it is interesting to note that the Abena- quis, of New England, were in the habit of practicing divination by the manner in which the fire would "run" in a carefully prepared powder made from cedar. Lafitau, vol. I, p. 387, gives an account of it, also the argument by which an Indian woman justified the practice. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 45 was over, he might find a night's lodging within the precincts of the temple itself. C 86 ) Another very interesting rite was that of annually putting out all the fires of the tribe, and kindling them anew from sacred fire produced by friction. This ceremony took place at the Feast of the Busk or offering of first fruits, which seems to have been very general throughout this region. ( ,8? ) Indeed, Schoolcraft tells us that it also prevailed among the Huron and Algonquin families north of the Ohio, and that it extended to the tribes west of the Mississippi.^ 88 ) He also adds, that in every case it was attended with many ceremonies, though it does not seem to have been celebrated anywhere north of the Ohio with the same solemnity that it was among the nations that formerly inhabited the Gulf States, ( l8s ) or, at all events, our accounts of such celebrations are not so full and explicit. Adair, who lived among these people for many years, and who, aside from his notions about the identity of the Indians with the Israelites, is usually trustworthy, describes this festival at great length, as does Bartram, Haw- kins, and others. (" 9 °) From their accounts I have made up the following summary, which may not be uninteresting: when the time for holding this festival was fixed, the people of the village put their town in order, pre- pared new clothes for themselves, and then, having partaken of the "black drink, "( I91 ) they entered upon a rigorous fast of two days, during which they abstained from the gratification of every sensual appetite. On the morning of the third day a supply of old food was brought to the square, all vestiges of which were removed before noon. As the sun began to decline, the fires were extinguished in every hut, and universal silence reigned. The chief priest then took a piece of dry poplar, willow, or white oak, and having cut a hole "so as not to reach through it, he sharpened (186.) Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, p. 72. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. V, p. 265. (187.) Joutel, Journal in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, p. 151. Father Le Petit in same, part III, note on p. 144. Nuttall, Travels in the Arkansa Territory, p. 96. Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 150 : New York, 1876. Du Pratz, Louisiana, vol. II, p. 189. Timberlake, Memoirs relating to the Cherokees, p. 65: London, 1765. (188.) Notes on the Iroquois, p. 85 et seq.. New York, 1846. Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. Ill p. 227. Catlin, North American Indians, vol. I, p. 189: London, 1848. (189.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. V, p. 104. (190.) Adair, History of North American Indians, Argument VIII. Bartram, Travels Through Flor- ida, pp. 509 and 510. Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 75, 78. See also note 187, (191.) Made from the Ilex Cassine L, called Cassena or Youpon. 46 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. another piece, and placing that within the hole, he drilled it briskly for several minutes, till it began to smoke ; or by rubbing two pieces together for about a quarter of an hour, by friction, he collected the hidden fire." It was then brought out of the temple in an earthern dish and placed upon an altar that had been previously prepared in the square. Its appearance brought joy to the hearts of the people, as it was supposed to atone for all past crimes, except murder. A general amnesty was proclaimed, except for this one crime, and all malefactors might now return to their villages in safety. A basket of new fruits was then brought, and the fire-maker took some of each kind, and covering them with bear's grease, he offered them up as a sacrifice to the holy spirit of Fire. He likewise consecrated the plants from which the "black drink" was prepared, by pouring some of the decoction into the holy fire. The women ranged themselves around the square, when each received a portion of the new and pure flame, with which they kindled anew the household fires. Then they prepared, in the best manner, the new corn and fruits, and brought them to 'the square, where the people were assembled, appareled in their new clothes and dec- orations. "The men having regaled themselves, the remainder was carried off and distributed among the families of the village. The women and children solaced themselves in their separate families, and in the evening repaired to the public square, where they danced, sung, and rejpiced during the whole night, observing a proper and exemplary decorum; this they continued three days, and on the four following days they received visits and rejoiced with their friends from neighboring towns, who had all puri- fied and prepared themselves." There were other rites and ceremonies connected with the Avorship of these tribes that might be studied to advantage ; but those reported above were the most important, and will give a very good idea of the ritual as developed among these people. As has been said, the religious cult seems to have reached a higher level here than it attained elsewhere in the Mis- sissippi Valley ;( 192 ) and hence, in comparing, as we shall now do, their rites and customs with those of the tribes that lived north of the Ohio, and belonged to the Huron and Algonquin families, we must expect. to find among the latter a falling off in the forms and ceremonies, rude as they undoubtedly were, that characterized the religious observances of the tribes with which we have been dealing. (192.) Tylor, Primitive Culture, p. 288 : Boston reprint, 1874. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 47 Beginning with the tribes along the south Atlantic coast, we find that temples existed as far north as Virginia, and that the same religious cus- toms obtained as did among the sun-worshiping nations of the lower Mis- sissippi.^ 93 ) Lawson, Capt. Smith, and Beverly speak of these temples, or quioccosan, as they are called, as being very sacred, none but the king, conjurer, and a few old men being permitted to enter them.(' 94 ) The last named writer gained access to one during the temporary absence of the guardians, and from the account he has left of it, there cannot have been much difference between it and similar buildings among the tribes living further to the southward. He tells us that it was used as a receptacle for the bones of the deceased chieftains, which were done up in much the same manner as they were in the temple of the Natchez. It also contained a human figure or idol, which was variously termed Okee, Quioccos, or Kiwasa; and I mention this fact particularly, as it is one of the very few -instances indicating the existence of idolatry among the Indians of the United States that is entitled to any weight, though there are reasons why even this statement should be taken with many grains of allowance. Round about the house, at some distance from it, were set up posts with faces carved on them and painted. ( I9S ) According to Strachey, the priests who had the care of these temples "mainteyne a continuall fier in the same upon a hearth somewhat neere the east end." Hariot( 196 ) speaks of "sacred fires," in which tobacco was offered as a sacrifice; and in the plate (193.) After describing the temple and the religious customs of the Natchez, Lafitau, vol. I, p. 168: Paris, 1724, says : " Quelques peuples de la Virginie et de la Floride ont aussi des Temples et a peu pres les memes devoirs de Religion." "Sunne, Moone, and Starre as pettie Gods:." Hariot in Hakluyt's Voy- ages, vol. Ill, p. 336: London, 1810. "Adore Fire, Water, Lightning:" Capt. Smith, Virginia, p. 34: London, 1632. "Their religion consists of adoration of the Sun and Moon:" Carolina by Thomas Ash, p. 36: London, 1682. " In the morning by break of day, before they eat or drink, both men and women, and children that be above ten years of age, run into the water, there wash themselves a good while, till the Sun riseth, then offer sacrifice to it, strewing tobacco on the water or land, honoring the Sun as their God; likewise they do at the setting of the Sun:" Observations in Virginia by George Percy, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1690. " It is a generall rule of these people when they swere by their God which is the Sunne, no Christian will keepe their Oath better upon this promise. These people have a great rever- ence to the Sunne above all other things at the rising and setting of the same, they sit downe lifting up their hands and eyes to the Sunne making a round circle on the ground with dried Tobacco, then they begin to pray making many Devilish gestures with a Hellish noise, foming at the mouth," &c: Ibid., p. 1690: London, 1625. "They give great reverence to the Sun:" Strachey, Historie of Trayaile into Vir- ginia, in publication of the Hakluyt Society, p. 93: London, 1849. (194.)- Beverly, History of Virginia, part III, p. 28: London, 1705. Lawson, Carolina, p. 211: London, 1718. Capt. Smith, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1701 : London, 1625. (195.) Compare La Vega, Histoire de la Floride, premiere partie, p. 267 et seq. : Paris, 1709. Charle- voix Letter, No. XXIX: London, 1763. Du Pratz, Louisiana, vol. II, p. 211: London, 1763. Father Le Petit, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III, note to p. 141. (196.) Virginia, I. c, p. 9Q. Hariot, in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 330: London, 1810, 48 THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. which De Bry( 197 ) gives of this temple a fire is represented as burning on the floor. We are also told that these tribes "annually present their first fruits of every season and kind, namely, of Birds, Beasts, Fish, Fruits, Plants, Roots, and of all other things which they esteem either of profit or pleasure to themselves; and that they repeat these offerings as fre- quently as they have great successes in their wars, or their fishing, fowling, or hunting. It was also their custom to offer sacrifice upon almost every occasion. When they travel or begin a long journey, they burn tobacco instead of incense to bribe the Sun to send them fair weather and a pros- perous voyage. Likewise, when they return from war, from hunting, from fresh journeys, or the like, they offer some proportion of the spoils of their chiefest tobacco, furs, and paint, as also the fat and choice bits of their game,"( 198 ) in which latter respect they did not differ from the Creeks and Chickasaws.( 199 ) As we go towards the Forth the temples disappear, although traces of the rites that were associated with them remain. We are still among tribes belonging to the Algonquin family, and their religious belief is said to have resembled that of "cognate tribes of other stocks and lineage, "( 20 °) what- ever that may mean. Amid a host of supernatural beings or Manitous, big and little, good and bad, they seem to have recognized Michabou or Atahocan, the great hare, as the chief.( 2C ") According to Schoolcraft, they (197.) Admiranda Narratio, plate XXII, Franckforti ad Moenum, 1590. Beverly, Virginia, plates XI and XII: London, 1705. (198.) Beverly, Virginia, book III, pp. 42 and 43. Capt. Smith, in Purehas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1702. (199.) Adair, History of the North American Indians, pp. 117-118. He adds : " Formerly every hunter observed the same religious economy ; but now it is practiced only by those who are most retentive of their old religious mysteries." (200.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 402. Hariot, A. D. 1586, speaking of the Virginia Indians, says: "They believe in many Gods and in one chief God, who is eternal and the creator of the world. After this he created an order of inferior Gods to carry out his government, among whom were the Sun Moon, and Stars. The waters were then made, out of which by the Gods came all living creatures. He next created a woman, who, by the 'working' of one of the Gods, brought forth children, and 'in such sort they had their beginning.' They thought the Gods were all of human shape, and so represented them in their temples where they 'worship, sing, pray, and make many times offering unto them. They believed in the immortality of the soul, which was destined to future happiness in heaven, or to inhabit Popogusso, a pit or place of torment:'" Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 336: London, 1810. This account is so evidently colored by Christian ideas that it is almost worthless for purposes of comparison, and the same may be said of Du Pratz's statement of the religious belief of the Natchez, in which the interpola- tions are even more marked. For obvious reasons, the study of the religious beliefs of the aborigines is attended with many difficulties, though I am inclined to think that Parkman is not far wrong when he asserts that "the primitive Indian yielding his untutored homage to One All-pervading and Omnipotent Spirit is a dream of poets, rhetoricians, and sentimentalists: " Jesuits in North America, p, lxxxix of the, preface: Boston, 1867. (201.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 248. La Potherie, Histoire de 1' Amerique, vol. II, p. 3: Paris, 1753. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 49 '.'located him in the Sun or Moon, or indefinite skies. In their pictorial scrolls they painted the Sun as a man's head surrounded with rays, and appeared to confound the symbol with the substance. They attributed light and life, vitality and intelligence, the world over, alike to Monedo and to Grezis, the Sun/'C") Of the religious rites of these tribes, our accounts, though not so full and explicit as might be desired, are still sufficiently so to indicate most clearly the existence of the same form of worship as that which prevailed among the tribes of Virginia and Florida. "The Chip- pewas,( 2 ° 3 ) as we have seen, kept up the eternal fire until comparatively recent times. They said they had received the institution from the Shaw- nees, and this is probable, as that tribe, although belonging, linguistically, to the Algonquin family, was more or less closely connected with the Creeks, Natchez, and other Sun- worshipping tribes of the South, ( 2 ° 4 ) and must per- force have been familiar with, if not a sharer in, their religious observances. Indeed, the "ceremony of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the earth," as -observed among the Shawnees, attended as it was by a general amnesty for all crimes except murder, and, also, the custom of " suspending the head, horns, and entrails of the animals killed for the sacrifice on a large white pole, with a forked top, which extends over the house, "( 2 ° s ) are so similar to the same rites as practiced respectively among the. Creeks( 2 ° 6 ) and the Indians of the Floridian Peninsula ( 2 ° 7 ) as to leave no doubt upon this point, even if we had not positive assurances from other quarters that they looked upon the Sun as the Great Spirit, for the reason that he " animates every- thing, arid is, therefore, clearly the master of life."( 2 ° 8 ) The Delawares were closely connected with the Shawnees, and appear to have had many of the same religious ceremonies. They offered sacrifices of tobacco to the (202.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 402. (203.) See above note 155 on p. 39. " Vestiges of the former prevalence of fire worship exist over immense spaces, arid its rites are found to lie at the foundation of the aboriginal religion throughout the geographical area of the United States. In one of the Indian traditions, the preservation of a sacred fire is carried to the banks of Lake Superior: " Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 64. (204.) Archseologia Americana, vol. I, p. 273. Adair, Hist. North American Indians, p. 410. Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 16-38. Lawson, Carolina, p. 171. Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. I, p. 40: Paris, 1744. Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, new series, p. 126: New York, 1869. Milfort, Memoirs sur le Creek, p. 283: Paris, 1802. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 260. (205.) Archseologia Americana, vol. I, p. 286. (206.) See above note 190, and Lafltau, vol. I, p. 180. (207.) Le Moyne, in De Bry, plate XXXV: Franckforti ad Moenum, 1591. (208.) Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, vol. II, p. 237: New York, 1845. Mem. — vol. ii. — 4 50 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Sun,( 209 ) and had a festival in honor of fire, which (Lieut. Whipple, in vol. Ill, p. 20, of the Explorations of a Railroad to the Pacific) "they renew once a year." They also, according to Van der Donck, swore by the Sun, saying: "that he sees all. They regarded him and the Moon as being better than all the Christian Gods, for they warm the earth and cause the fruits to grow."( 2I °) Among the New England Indians the same form of worship prevailed. Roger Williams and others tell us that they worshiped the Sun for a God,( 211 ) and had a festival at harvest time.( 212 ) This is confirmed by Cot- ton Mather so far as relates to the worship of the Sun and Moon, and he adds that they believe that every remarkable creature has a peculiar God within it or about it.( 2 ' 3 ) In the famous Dighton rock inscription which stands in the country once held by the Wampanoags the symbol of the Sun was discovered by Chingwauk, the Algonquin Meda;( 214 ) and in this same region lived the Narragansetts, who, according to Winslow, "had a great spatious house, wherein only some few (that are as we may term them Priests) come ; thither at certain known times resort all their people, and offer all the riches they have to their Gods, as Kettles, Skins, Hatch- ets, Beads, Knives, &c, all which are cast by the priests into a great fire that they make in the midst of the house, and there consumed to ashes. To this offering every man brought freely, and the more he is known to bring, hath the better esteem of all men. This the other Indians about us approve of as good, and with their Sachems would appoint the like." ( 2I5 ) (209.) Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North America, pp. 41 and 43: London, 1794. (210.) In collections New York Hist. Soc, new series, vol. I, pp. 213-14. Compare Doc. Hist, of New York, vol. Ill, p. 22. (211.) Williams' Key, pp. 39-79-110. "Some for their God adore the sun:" Gookin, in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, first series, vol. I, p. 154. " Devotion to the principles of Sun worship * * » spread to the prominent peaks of the Monadnock and to the waters of the Narragansett : " Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 104. "lis croyent un Dieu, ce disent ils; mais il ne scauent le nommer que du nom du Soleil, * * * quand ils etoient eu necessity, il prenoit sa robe sacree, et se tournant vers 1' Orient dlsait: Nostre Soleil, ou nostre Dieu donne-nous » manger:" Relation des Jesuites A. D. 1611-1622, vol. I, p. 20: Que- bec, 1858. Indians of Martha's Vineyard "begged of the Sun and Moon * * * to send them the desired favor:" Mass. Hist. Coll., first series, vol. I, p. 140. (212.) Williams' Key, p. 111. (213.) Magnalia, vol. I, p. 505: Hartford, 1820. (214.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 64. (215.) Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1868: London, 1625. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 51 Farther to the east, the Souriquois, as we are told by Father Sagard, ( 2lS ) had the same form of worship. In the Northwest, the sua and thunder were the Gods of the tribes that lived around Green Bay, and in all that region out of which were subse- quently formed the States of Wisconsin and Illinois.( a7 ) When the Illinois came to meet Marquette on the occasion of his voyage — the first ever made by a' white man --down that portion of the Mississippi, they marched slowly, lifting their pipes to the Sun, as if offering them to him to smoke. They also make a similar offering to him when they wish to obtain calm, or rain, or fair weather.( 2 ' 8 ) Among the Ottawas, of Michigan, prayers were offered to the Sun, and tobacco was burned as a sacrifice .to the same deity. ( 2I9 ) Indeed, the use of tobacco as an offering seems to have been universal among the American Indians. Charlevoix ( 22 °) and Lafitau( 221 ) both speak of the practice as being general, and their statements are con- (216.) Voyages des Hurons, p. 226: Paris, 1632. " Soleil qui ils ont adore et qui a tonjours £te 1 ' object constant de leur culte, de leurs hommages et de leur adoration:" Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie, p. 166; Paris, 1691. " Ils appellent le Soleil, Jesus, f * • De la vient que quand nous faisons nos priere il leur semble que comme eux nous addressons nos priere au Soleil: " Eelation de la Nouvelle France en 1 ' annee 1626, p. 4 : Quebec, 1858. (217.) Father Marquette, in Eelation, 1670, p. 90. Charlevoix, Letters, p. 210: London, 1763. "Some of the savages will confess * * * that the Sun is God :" Hennepin, Voyage into a Newly Discovered Country, p. 65: London, 1698. Father Marquette, in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. XIV. (218.) Relation of Father Marquette (A. D. 1678), J. c, pp. 21-22-35: New York, 1852. The Sioux, though belonging to a different linguistic family, and living on the other side of the Mississippi, had similar customs. According to Hennepin, who is not always good authority, but who may, I think, be followed in this instance, " they offer also to the Sun the best Part of the Beast they kill ; * * * also the first Smoak of their Calumets, :l * * which makes me believe they have a religious veneration for the Sun:'' New Discovered Country, &c, vol. I, p. 140: London, 1698. Compare on this point School- craft, Indian Tribes, vol. Ill, p. 226-7, and Nuttall, Arkansa Territory, p. 276 : Philadelphia, 1821. (219.) Un viellard des plus considerables de la Bourgade fait fonction de Pretre; il commence par une Harangue 6tudiee qu' il addresse au Soleil ; * * * il declare tout haut qu ' il fait ses remerciemens a eet astre, de ce qu'il l'a eclaire pour tuer heureusement quelque bete: il le prie et l'exhorte par ce festin a lui continuer les soins charitables qu' il a de sa famille. Pendant cette invocation, tous les con- vies mangent Jusqu' au dernier morceau : apres quoi un homme destinS a cela preud un pain de Petun, le rompt eu deux et le jette daus le feu. Tout le monde crie pendant que le petun se consume, et que la fumee monte eu haut: et avec ces clameurs termine. le sacrifice:" Lafitau, vol. II, p. 134. "Sacrifice to the Sun:" La Hontan, vol. II, p. 32. Relation en 1' annee 1667, pp. 7, 11 : Quebec, 1858. (220.) "They make to all these Spirits different sorts of offerings, which you may call, if you please, sacrifices. They throw into the Rivers and the lakes Petun, Tobacco, or birds that have had their throats cut, to render the God of the waters propitious to them. In honor of the Sun, and sometimes also of the Inferior Spirits, they throw into the Fire Part of every Thing they use, and which they acknowledge to hold from them. It is sometimes out of Gratitude, but oftener through Interest:" Letters, p. 252. (221.) "II est certain que le Tabac est en Amerique une herbe consacre a plusieurs exercices, et a plu- sieurs usages de la Religion:" Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. II, p. 133 et seq., also vol. I, p. 179. Schoolcraft, vol. VI, note to p. 109, says : "The Nicotiana was smoked and offered as incense to the. Great Spirit by all the northern tribes," 52 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. firmed by writers who have left us accounts of the rites and ceremonies as practiced by the different tribes. Thus Hariot, who wrote in the latter part of the sixteenth century, tells us that this plant was held in such esteem, by the Indians of Virginia that they imagined that their Gods were pleased when it was offered to them. It was for this reason that, from time to time, they built sacred fires, on which they burnt this plant as a sacrifice. He also adds, that when they are surprised by a tempest they scatter it upon the water, or throw it up in the air; and they also put it in their new nets in order to insure success in nshing.(" 2 ) There was also something of a religious character in the practice common among all the Indian tribes of the United States of smoking the calumet as a preliminary to any treaty, or bargain, or agreement of any kind. According to Charle- voix, the Indians claimed to have "received the calumet from the Panis, to whom it had been given by the Sun, and they held it so sacred that there was probably no instance of an agreement made "in this manner that was ever violated. They believed that the Great Spirit would not leave such a breach of faith unpunished. * * * In trade, when an exchange has been agreed upon, a calumet is smoked in order to bind the bargain, and this makes it in some manner sacred. * * * There is no reason to doubt that the Indians, in making those smoke the calumet with whom they wish to trade or treat, intend to call upon the Sun as a witness and in some fashion as a guarantee of their treaties, for they never fail," so the old chronicler tells us, "to blow the smoke toward that star."( 223 ) If, now, we turn to the tribes of the Huron-Iroquois stock, we shall find that the sun was not less an object of worship. In the Relation of 1648 we are told that they invoked him as a judge of their sincerity, who saw into the depth of all hearts, and who would punish the perfidy of those who broke their faith, or failed to keep their word. Lafitau states posi- tively that Areskoui and Agreskoue (the difference is said to be linguistic), the war God of the Hurons and the Iroquois, was but another name for (222.) Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 330: London, 1810. Compare Champlain, p. 208: Paris 1632 ??ff?' Voyage des Hurons > voL I. P- 161 = Paris, 1865. Bartram, p. 497. Relation en l'annee 1637, pp.' 108-144. (223.) Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 133 cl seq.: London, 1763. Bartram, in his MSS. quoted in Serpent Symbol, p. 69: New York, 1851, says of the Creeks: "They pay a kind of homage to the Sun, Moon and Planets. * * * They seem particularly to reverence the Sun as the symbol of the Power and Benefi- cence of the Great Spirit, and as his minister. Tims at treaties they first puff or blow the smoke from the great pipe or calumet towards that luminary; and they look up to it with great reverence and ear- nestness when they confirm their talks or speeches in council as a witness of their contracts." "Owes Bmoked to God or the Sun:" Nuttall, Arkansa Territory, p. 95: Philadelphia 1821 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 53 the Sun, "who was their Divinity as he was that of all the Americans. "( 224 ) La Hontan confirms the fact of their worship of this luminary, and says that, when "asked why they adore God in the sun rather than in a tree or mountain," their answer is that they choose to admire the Deity in public, pointing to the most glorious thing that nature affords. ( 225 ) According to Lafltau ( 226 ) they had no temples, and did not keep up a perpetual fire; at least there was not a vestige left of any such building in his time, and no mention of any such institution in any of the "Relations" of the Jesuit Fathers. This, however, can hardly be considered decisive of the point, since we are given to understand that these tribes had lost many of their religious customs ; ( 227 ) and in this very connection are assured that the fire on their hearths took the place of an altar, and that, as was the case among the Creeks and Cherokees, their "council houses served them as temples. "( 228 ) Bearing upon this point, and as an evidence of the identity of the religious rites and ceremonies everywhere prevalent, we may note that, once a year, they were accustomed to put out all the fires of the tribe, and to rekindle them with fire supplied by the priests, ( 229 ) as was the case among the Southern tribes. Morgan, it is true, does not mention this custom in his account of the Iroquois festivals, but he describes the practice of "stirring the ashes on the hearth," which took place at their New Year's Jubilee, ( 23 °) and it is possible that there may have been some connection between the two. Among their sacrifices there were some that seem to have been peculiar to the Northern nations. Thus, for instance, although the dog was a favor- ite article of food among the tribes, both north and south of the Ohio, and was not unfrequently offered as a sacrifice, yet I do not find that anywhere • else they "hung him up alive on a tree by the hind feet, and let him die there raving mad."( 231 ) They were in the habit of exposing, on the tops (224.) Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. I, p. 132-206: Paris, 1724. (225.) La Hontan, Voyages, vol. II, pp. 22 and 33: London, 1703. (226.) Lafltau, vol. I, p. 166. (227.) Ibid., vol. I, pp. 282-341. | (228.) Ibid., vol. I, p. 167. (229.) Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 85: New York, 1846. (230.) Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p, 207 et seq. : Rochester. (231.) Lafltau, vol. I, p. 180, says that this custom prevailed among the Montagnais and other Algon- quin tribes to the North, but Charlevoix makes no such distinction. He asserts it of all the Indians of Canada. See Letter, p. 252. Compare League of the Iroquois, pp. 207 et seq., and McKenzie, History of Fur Trade, quoted in p. 121 of Serpent Symbol. 54 THE MOUXDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. of their cabins, strings and necklaces of beads, bunches of corn, and even animals, which they consecrated to the Sun..( 232 ) They also made burnt offerings to the same Divinity of corn, of animals taken in the chase, and of tobacco or other plants that served them in its place, ( 233 ) in much the same manner as was clone among the tribes belonging to the Algonquin and Appalachian families. In their war sacrifices, the Iroquois take "the leg of a deer or bear, or some other wild beast, rub it with fat, and then throw it On the fire, praying the Sun to accept the offering, to light their paths, to lead them and give them the victory over their enemies, to make the corn of their fields to grow, to give them a successful hunt or fish."( 234 ) They also had their annual festivals, among which that of the Green Corn was one of the most important. It was celebrated when the corn became fit for use, usually lasted several days, and was the counterpart of the feast of the Busk, as observed among the Indians of the Gulf States. Morgan paints, with a loving hand, the simple ceremonies with which the Iroquois of later times were wont, annually, at this festival, to return thanks to the Great Spirit for his bounty, and to solicit a continuance of his favor and protection. It was at this time that they offered a sacrifice of tobacco, believing that they could communicate with him through its incense ;( 235 ) and in their prayers they returned thanks "to our mother, the earth, which sustains us ; * * * to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and the squashes, which give us life; * * * to the sun, that he looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye, and lastly to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children. "( 236 ) Thus far we have been considering the religious rites and customs of the different tribes of Indians that occupied the eastern portion of the Missis- sippi Valley, and we have seen that there was a general sameness pervad- ing them, and that all grew out of, or were connected with, the worship of the sun. If now we turn from this theme and examine into their myths, we shall find that, though the path be different, yet it leads to the same result. (232.) Charlevoix, Letters, p. 252. Lafitau, vol. I, p. 180. (233.) Lafitau, vol. I, p. 179. (234.) Ibid., vol. I, pp. 208-9: Paris, 1724. (235.) League of the Iroquois, pp. 198 and 217: Kochester, 1851. (236.) Ibid., p. 203-4. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 55 Accepting the Natchez as a type of the group of Southern tribes, we are told that, ages ago, a child of the Sun, who saw and pitied their disor- ganized condition, came down with his wife for the purpose of establishing order and instituting religious rites and ceremonies among them. He gave them certain precepts — political as well as religious — for their better gov- ernment; and, having conducted them into a better land, he became at last, after much solicitation, their sovereign. It was through him that the Natchez claimed their descent from the Sun, and from him they took the official title of their chief. This is the myth as told by Du Pratz,(* 37 ) and though unfortunately the religious precepts which are said to have been inculcated bear a most suspicious, and, under the circumstances, absurd likeness to the Ten Commandments, yet it is possible that the rest of the story may be genuine. Among the Algonquin tribes we are on firmer ground. Here we have the old story of "the conflict between light and darkness, in which the former, personified under the name of Michabo, is the conqueror. He is the giver of light and life, the creator and preserver, * * * and in origin and deeds he is the not unworthy personification of the purest con- ception they possessed of the Father of All. To Him, at early dawn, the Indian stretched forth his hands in prayer; and to the sky or the Sun as his home"( 238 ) or, it may be added, as his representative, or as this deity himself, he offered the first whiff of his morning pipe. Among the Huron-Iroquois we find this same myth, though under differ- ent names. With them the contest was between Ioskeha and Tawiscara, names which, according to Brinton, signify, in the Oneida dialect, the White one and the Dark one. "They were twins, born of a virgin mother, who died in giving them life. Their grandmother was the moon, called by the Hurons Ataensic. * * * The brothers quarrelled, and finally came to blows, the former using the horns of a stag and the latter the wild rose. He of the weaker weapon was very naturally discomfited and sorely wounded. Fleeing for his life, the blood gushed from him at every step, and turned into flint stones. The victor returned to his grandmother, and established his lodge in the far east, on the borders of the great ocean (237.) History of Louisiana, vol. II, pp. 175 et seq. and 202: London, 1763. (238.) Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 183: New York, 1876. Compare Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, pp. 402-417. Eelation de la Nouvelle France en l'annee 1633-1634, pp. 16 and 13 respectively: Quebec, 1858. Lafitau, vol. I, pp. 126-145: Paris, 1724. La Potherie, vol. II, chapter I: Paris, 1753. 56 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. whence the sun comes. In time he became the father of mankind, and the special guardian of the Iroquois. The earth was, at first, arid and sterile, but he destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed the waters, and guided the torrents into smooth streams and lakes. The woods he stocked with game ; and having learned from the tortoise how to make fire, he taught his children, the Indians, this indispensable art."( 239 ) "With- out his aid," says Father Breboeuf, "they did not think their pots could boil, * * * He it was who gave them the corn which they ate, and who made it grow and ripen ; if their fields were green in the springtime, if they gathered plentiful harvests, and their cabins overflowed with grain, they owed thanks to no one save Ioskeha,"( 24 °) the Sun.( 241 ) This completes our brief examination into the religious belief and cus- toms of the American Indians living east of the Mississippi and south of the great lakes. In it we have glanced rapidly at their myths and their beliefs, and the rites and ceremonies to which these gave rise, and we have found that each line of investigation led to one and the same result. In view, then, of this uniformity, and of the overwhelming array of direct evidence that has been offered on the point, I do not think it is overstep- ping the bounds of moderation to claim, with the old chronicler, that within the limits named, "the American Indians, so far as known, without the exception of a single tribe, worshiped the sun."( 242 ) (239.) Thus far I have copied Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 183, who has followed Father Breboeuf, Relation de la Nouvelle France en l'annee, 1636, seconde partie, chap. I: Quebec, 1858. In what follows I prefer to stick to the text of the old Father. (240.) "lis tiennent aussi que sans Iouskeha leur chandiere ne pourroit bouillir, * * * a les enten- dre, o'est Iouskeha qui leur donne le bled qu'ils mangent, c'estluy qui le fait croistre et le conduit a maturity; s'ils voyent leurs campagnes verdoyantes au Printemps, s'ils recueillent de belles et planture- uses moissons, et si leurs cabanes regorgent d' espies, ils n'en ont 1 ' obligati6n qu'a Iouskeha:" Rela- tion de la Nouvelle France en l'annee 1636, p. 103: Quebec, 1858. (241.) " Mais pour retourner a Aataentsic et Iougkelia, ils tiennent que Iouskeha est le Soleil, et Aataentsie la Lune, et toute-fois leur cabahe est situe6 au bout de la terre:'' Relation, 1636, p. 102: Quebec, 185S. (242.) "Le Soleil est la Divinity des Peuples de l'Amerique, sans en exceptor aucun de ceux qui nous sont connus:" Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. I, p. 130: Paris, 1724. SECTION III. The Indians as Mound-builders. Thus far, in the course of this investigation, my position has been rather a negative one. It is true that an effort has been made to show, and it is believed with some measure of success, that the red Indian of historic times was both an agriculturist and a worshiper of the sun, and that hence, even according to the admission of those who hold a contrary opinion, there are no reasons, a priori, why he could not have erected these works. This is, unquestionably, a step in the right direction; and with this point gained, I might well afford to rest the argument. It would not, however, be by any means decisive of the question as to the origin of these struct- ures, since the fact that an Indian might have built them does not justify us in concluding that he actually did do so. To fill up, as far as possible, the gap that separates the ability to do a certain piece of work from its actual performance, it will be necessary, in this case, to abandon the seem- ingly negative position hitherto occupied, and to inquire whether there is any evidence that the Indian has, at any time, constructed works of the same character, though perhaps not of the same size, as the largest of those found in the Ohio Valley. If it can be shown that he has done so, it is believed that it will justify us in ascribing all these structures to his agency, for the reason that these mound centres, with scarcely a single exception, can be proven to have been, at some time, the seats of mound- building Indians, and because, never, so far as we know, have they been held, even temporarily, by any other race of people previous to the arrival of the whites. In pursuing this branch of our inquiry, the only method open to us is to proceed by comparison. For obvious reasons, we can never know the particular individuals by whom these works were erected, nor can we, except in a few cases, even hope to do more than approximate the time when they were built. All that can be accomplished in the present state of our knowledge is to show, by a comparison of these remains with simi- lar works that are known to have been erected by the modern Indians, that there are no such differences between them as would authorize the. 58 'THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. inference that they were built by different peoples, or by the same people 1 in different stages of civilization. To institute a comparison of this character seems like a very simple matter, and it would be so if there were any way of establishing a hard and fast line of demarkation between the works of the Indians and those of the so-called mound-builders. Unfortunately, however, or perhaps it might be more correct for me to say fortunately, nothing of the kind can be clone; for though, as a matter of fact, the mounds and earth-works of the Mississippi Valley do vary indefinitely in size, shape, location, grouping, and possibly in many other respects, yet these are all differences of degree and not of kind ; and however great the distance between the extremes in any one of these particulars, it is not of such a radical character as to indicate a difference in the civilization of the people who constructed the works. Given time and an indefinite supply of laborers, and there is no reason why the people who built one might not have built any and all of them. The simple manual labor necessary to their construction was essen- tially the same in every case, the only question being as to the amount. That this is so is evident from the fact that, when considered solely with reference to the kind and amount of this labor, these works are found to grade into each other by such imperceptible stages that, admitting them to have been erected by different peoples, it is impossible to say where the work of one ended and that of the other began. This statement has, I know, met with more or less opposition, and it is quite likely that in the future, as in the past, we shall be told of the existence of some line of demarkation between them, though it is possible that the attempt to fix and define it will not meet with any better success than has crowned former efforts in the same direction. Size, shape, and probable use have, at differ- ent times, been thought to furnish a key to the mystery ; and either singly or together they are still, occasionally, made to do duty in this capacity; but with all due deference to those who so pertinaciously seek for differ- ences where none exist, it may be said, without fear of successful contra- diction, that, thus far, not one of these so-called distinguishing features has been able to stand the test of intelligent criticism; and that to-day it looks very much as if it would be necessary to fall back upon what a recent writer terms "indefinable marks" and "resemblances that cannot be described," in order to find a foundation for the theory of a difference in the character of these works, and, consequently, in the civilization of THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 59 the people who built them. Indeed, the advocates of this theory do not agree among themselves as to where this line should be drawn; and from the very nature of the case it may well be doubted whether it is possible for them ever to attain any very great degree of harmony. The Mound- builders are, at best, a mythical people, who owe even their imaginary existence to the necessity of accounting for a state of affairs that is, in great part, assumed; and of course any standard by which to judge the works they are supposed to have executed must vary with the fancy of the writer or the exigencies of the argument. But even if this were not the case, and there were no subjective obstacles in the way of uniformity of opinion upon this vital point, it would still be impossible to establish any test or standard, for the reason that, except in the fact that a large majority of the mounds and embankments "are made of earth simply heaped up, with little or no care in the choice of material, and none at all in the order, of deposit, "(') there are no two of them that are alike; and without the presence of some conformation that is, at least, constant, it is, of course, idle to speak of a type or standard. To make this point clearer, let us glance at these remains as they have come down to us, and putting aside, as far as possible, all theories and speculations as to their origin and use, let us question them as to the civ- ilization of which they are the silent witnesses. To this end, it will be advisable to discard, as far as may be consistent with clearness, the descrip- tive nomenclature that has been used in the classification of these works,, and to adopt one that will be less productive of false and erroneous ideas as to the object or purpose for which many of them were intended. As an instance of the errors arising from this source, take the term "sacred enclosure," which has been applied to a class of works that is usually found upon the broad and level river terraces, and is composed of mounds and embankments or inclosures, sometimes standing alone, but more frequently grouped together in a more or less complicated manner. This term has been long in use, and by a sort of prescriptive right is sometimes regarded as describing accurately the character of the works to which it has been applied, when, in point of fact, it does nothing of the kind. A few of these inclosures may, possibly, owe their origin to a religious sentiment, but of the large majority of them it may be safely s,aid, in view of recent investigations, that they were simply fortified villages. Self-protection was (1.) Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. IV, p. 766: New York, 1875. #6 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. the primary object of the people who lived behind these walls, and except in the single fact that some of the truncated mounds occasionally found associated with them may have been the sites of rude mud temples, there is not a particle of evidence to show that they had anything to do with any religious rite or custom whatsoever. Indeed, if it be admitted that the Mound-builder belonged to a race separate and distinct from the Indian, it cannot be conclusively shown that he had any religion at all. What little evidence there is bearing upon the point is drawn from analogy, and singu- larly enough is based upon the fact that the Indians of the Southern States, from Florida to Missouri, erected just such mounds as sites for their tem- ples.( 2 ) Unfortunately, however, for the analogy, these same Indians were in the habit of placing the cabins of their chiefs upon precisely similar- mounds, which were also built especially for the purpose. ( 3 ) This fact alone is sufficient to invalidate any conclusion as to the religious character of these structures ; and, of course, any inference as to - the object or pur- pose of the inclosures in which they are sometimes found, based upon this conclusion, must fall with it. But even if these works were all that is claimed for them, it is difficult to understand how this fact could be con- strued into an argument in favor of the theory that these truncated mounds, which are everywhere identical in form and in the probable uses for which they were intended, could have been the work of two different peoples, or of the same people in different stages of civilization, though its importance as a link in the chain of evidence that points to the identity of the South- ern Indians with the Mound-builders is at once apparent. Returning from this long digression, and bearing in mind the caution as to the misleading character of the terms used in these investigations, let us resume the thread of our inquiry, and divesting these remains of the glamour that attaches to them as the work of an extinct people, let us endeavor to see them as they are, and to interpret, as far as may be, the story they have to tell. Speaking in a general way, the Mississippi Valley system of earth-works may be said to embrace all that region that lies between the great lakes on the north and the Ghilf of Mexico on the south, and to be bounded on the (2.) See above note 170 on p. 42. (3.) Biedma and Knight of Elvas, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, pp. 10."> and 123: La Veca Con- quete de la Floride, pp. 136 and 291: A la Hayc, 1735. Herrera, vol. VI, pp. 5 and 6: London,' 1740. La Harpe and Le Petit, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III, pp. 106 and note to p. 142. Du Prate, His^ tory of Louisiana, vol. II, p. 188: London, 1763. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 61 west by the tier of States that lines the western bank of the Mississippi, and on the east by a line drawn through the middle of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and extending southwardly so as to include the greater part of the two Carolinas and the whole of Georgia and Flor- ida. It is true that similar works are found outside of these limits, but for my present purposes it will not be necessary, except in one or two instances, to travel beyond the bounds here prescribed. Throughout the whole of this region these remains are more or less abundant, though different forms of mounds and earth-works seem to prevail in different sections, as, for instance, the animal mounds in "Wisconsin, the inclosures in Ohio, and the truncated mounds in the States farther, to the south. All kinds, however, are represented in the Ohio Valley, and it is probably safe to say that, within that basin, they are more numerous, of larger size, and more complicated patterns than can be found elsewhere in the United States. Taken as a whole, they may be roughly divided into two grand divis- ions — mounds and embankments — and these can again be subdivided into numerous groups. Beginning with the embankments or inclosures, we find that they are generally of earth — rarely of stone— and that they are situated on the level river terraces, or else occupy the tops of hills or other naturally strong positions. According to their situation, they have been divided into works of defense and sacred inclosures, or, as I prefer to call them, hill-forts and fortified villages. The former of these almost always followed the outlines of the hill, and are hence more or less irregular in shape. In some of them the whole top of the hill is inclosed by a wall, whilst in others only the more exposed points are so defended. The forti- fied villages are usually found on a level plain — one of the river benches or terraces being genei-ally selected. They are of various sizes and shapes, though the square and circle predominate, and are often found united in a seemingly arbitrary manner. The height of the wall around the incis- ure, measured from the bottom of the ditch that usually accompanies it, varies from a few feet up to thirty. In many instances it is now, and must always have been, too insignificant to offer any serious obstacle to an attacking force; and this has given rise to the suggestion that these embankments were formerly surmounted by stockades, as was the case with the villages of the recent Indians. Without stopping now to inquire into the probability of this explanation, it is sufficient to say that there 62 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. cannot be the slightest doubt as to its truth in regard to some of them. Brackenridge ( 4 ) states the fact positively, and Atwater tells us that half way up, on the outside of the inner wall that surrounded the circle, or, as he calls it, the "round fort," which formed a part of the large and compli- cated series of works that once occupied the site of the present town of Circle ville, Ohio, "there is a place distinctly to be seen where a row of pickets once stood, and where it was placed when this work of defense was originally erected. "( 5 ) I n point of size these works varied greatly. Some of the smaller circles — probably the ruins of mud lodges or temples similar to those described as having existed among the Southern Indians, ( 6 ) and which may still be seen among some of the tribes of the Upper Missouri( 7 ) — are not more than fifty feet in diameter, whilst the groups, or series of works in which the different forms are united, not unfrequently covered hundreds of acres, or, as was the case with the works at Newark, Ohio, were scattered about over an area of two miles square. ( 8 ) The situation of the ditch with reference to the wall was a matter in which there was but little, if any, uniformity, it being sometimes on one side of the wall and sometimes on the other. At one time this feature was thought to furnish a criterion by which to judge the character of the work, (4.) Views of Louisiana, pp. 21 and 182-3: Pittsburg, 1814. (5.) Archaeologia Americana, vol. I, p. 145: Worcester, Mass., 1820. As these works will be referred to hereafter, I add a description from the same book, pp. 141-2: "There are two forts which are joined together, one being an exact circle, the other an exact square. The former is surrounded by two walls, with a deep ditch between tliern. The latter is encompassed with one wall, without any ditch. The former was 69 rods in diameter, measuring from outside to outside of the circular outer wall ; the latter is exactly 55 rods square measuring the same way. The walls of the circular fort were at least 20 feet in height, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, before the town, of Circleville was built The inner wall was of clay, taken up probably in the northern part of the fort where was a low place, and is still considerably lower than any other part of the work. The outside wall was taken from the ditch which is between ihese walls, and is alluvial, consisting of pebbles worn smooth in water, and sand, to a very considerable depth, more than 50 feet at least. The outside of the walls is about five or six feet in height now ; on the inside, the ditch is, at present, generally not more than fifteen feet. They are disap- pearing before us daily, and will soon be gone. The walls of the square fort are, at this lime, where left standing, about 10 feet in height. There are eight gateways or openings leading into the square fort, and only one into the circular fort. Before each of these openings was a mound of earth perhaps four feet high, 40 feet perhaps in diameter at the base, and 20 or upwards at the summit. These mounds for two rods or more are exactly in front of the gateways, and were intended for the defense of these openings." (6.) Joutel, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, p. 148. Among the Alachua (Floridian) Indians, we are told by Bartram that "their dwellings stand near the middle of a square yard, encompassed by a low- bank, formed with the earth taken out of the yard, which is always carefully swept:" Travels through Florida, p. 192. (7.) Catlin, North American Indians, vol. I, p. 81: London, 1848. In the Peabody Museum of Ameri- can Archeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, Mass., there is a model of one of these mud lodges, such as is now in use among the Omahas. (8.) Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 67. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 63 and Mr. Squier quotes approvingly English authorities to the effect "that the circumstance of the ditch being within the vallum is a distinguishing mark between religious and military works."( 9 ) This position, however, does not hold good with regard to earth-works in the United States, since it is matter of record that in some of the stockaded forts of the recent Indians the ditch was on the inside of the wall, whilst in others there was a ditch on each side.( IQ ) Indeed, when we consider the nature of the posi- tion to be. defended, and bear in mind the effective use of rifle pits in modern warfare, it may well be doubted whether the inside is not, under certain conditions, the proper place for it. In the material of which they were made these embankments- varied but little. As has been well said by H. H. Bancroft^ 11 ) "they are of earth, stones, or a mixture of the two, in their natural condition, thrown up from the material which is nearest at hand. There is no instance of walls built of stone that has been hewn or otherwise artificially prepared, of the use of mortar, of even rough stones laid with regularity, of adobes or earth otherwise prepared, or of material brought from any great distance. The material was taken from a ditch that often accompanies the embankment, from excavations or pits in the immediate vicinity, or is scraped up from the surface of the surrounding soil. ' There is nothing in the present ap-' pearance of these works to indicate any difference in their original form from that naturally given to earth-works thrown up from a ditch, with sides as nearly perpendicular as the nature of the material will permit. Of course .any attempt on the part of the builders to give a symmetrical superficial contour to the works would have been long since obliterated by the action of the elements; but nothing now remains to show that they attached any importance whatever to either material or contour. Stone embankments are rarely found, and only in localities where the abundance of that material would naturally suggest its use. In a few instances clay has been obtained at a little distance, or dug from beneath the surface." (9.) Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley, note to p. 47. (10.) Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vol. IV, p. 156: Paris, 1744. Schoolcraft, Travels in the Mississippi Valley, p. 129. Catlin, North American Indiana, vol. I, p. 81: London, 1848. In the town of Medford, Mass., near Mystic pond, there was a "Fort built by their deceased King, in manner thus: There were pools some tbirtie or fortie foote long, stucke in the ground as thicke as they could be set one by another, and with these they enclosed a ring some forty or fifty foote over. A trench breast high was digged on each side; one way there was to goe into it with a bridge; in the midst of this Pallizadp stood the frame of a house wherein being dead he lay buried. A myle from bence we came to such another," &c: Mourt's Kelation, p. 126: Boston, 1865. (11.) Native Paces of the Pacific States, vol. IV, p. 753, 64 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Turning now to our second grand division — the mounds — we find them composed of earth and stone, and varying in location, size, shape, and contents. Divided according to their form, they may be classed as — 1st. "Temple" or truncated mounds, which, as their name indicates, are truncated cones, usually with graded ways to their tops, and in some instances with terraced sides. Their bases are of different forms, being indifferently either round, oval, square, or oblong; but whatever may have been their differences in" these respects, they were all alike in having flat or level tops, which were no doubt used as sites for their rude temples, or the cabins of their chiefs. In size, they varied from a height of five feet to ninety, and from a base of forty feet in diameter to one covering an area of twelve acres. ( I2 ) Like the embankments, they are simply heaps of earth, some of them, it is true, of immense size, but all of them thrown up without much "care in the choice of material, and none at all in the order of deposit." 2d. The next class is composed of the "animal mounds," or mounds in which the ground plan is more or less irregular, and is thought to resemble animals, birds, and even human beings, though it is admitted that this resemblance is often imaginary, and that there is no evidence that the. build- ers of these works intended to copy any such forms. Indeed, Lapham, ( I3 ) to whom we are indebted for the most satisfactory account of these mounds that we possess, finds it necessary, on more than one occasion, to caution his readers against blindly accepting these resemblances, and frankly says that in some cases appellations, like that of "Lizard Mound," were given for the sake of convenience, and without pretending that they were actually intended to represent that animal. ( M ) According to the same author, as summarized by Bancroft, these mounds vary in height from one to six feet, and their dimensions on the ground are quite large. Thus "rude effigies of human form are in some instances over one hundred feet long; quadrupeds have bodies and tails each from fifty to two hundred feet long; birds have wings of a hundred feet ; lizard mounds are two and even four hundred feet in length; straight and curved lines of embankments reach over a thousand feet, and serpents are equally extensive." Mounds of this (12.) See the account of the Cahokia Mound in 12th Annual Report of the Peabody Museum. (13,) Antiquities of Wisconsin in vol. VII of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, pp. 14, 24, 130, &c. See also, Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley, p. 130, in which Mr. Squier speaks of a mound that "may have been intended to represent a bird, a bow and arrow, or the human figure." (14.) I. c, note to p. 9, THE MOUNDS OE THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 65 class are common in Wisconsin, and are also found in Ohio and Georgia They are not burial mounds, though they are not ^infrequently grouped with conical mounds that inclose human remains, as they are, also, with embankments and inclosures — the grouping being always without any apparent order. They are usually constructed of earth, stones being but rarely used, except perhaps in Georgia, where the two bird-shaped mounds described by Col. C. C. Jones are built entirely of that material. (") 3d. The third and last class of mounds consists of the simple conical tumuli that are scattered about over this whole area, and are far more numerous than all the others combined. So far as outward appearance is concerned, they are generally round or oval, though other forms are not unfrequent. They vary in height from a few inches to seventy feet,( 16 ) and in diameter from three or four feet to three hundred. It is probable, how- ever, that a height of from three to thirty feet, and a diameter ranging at the base from fifteen to fifty feet, would include a large proportion of them. Although so alike in- form, these mounds differ widely in location, and, as we shall see later on, in their contents. They are found on the tops of the highest hills and in the lowest river valleys; they stand alone or in groups, or in connection with hill-forts or fortified villages, of which they evidently formed component parts. In the material of which they are built, as well as in the manner of their construction, they do not differ from the embankments and from other mounds. A large majority of them are simply heaps of earth, though stone mounds or cairns are quite com- mon, and in Florida they are sometimes composed almost entirely of shells. As a rule, they are homogeneous in structure, though occasionally in the Ohio Valley, and especially along the Scioto river, there are a few that were regularly and intentionally stratified. This is believed to be a fair statement of all that is known of the mounds, considered simply as mounds, and without any regard to their contents, or to what is known of them historically. It is taken almost literally from Bancroft, ( I7 ) whom I have chosen to follow for the reason that his summary of the results of the explorations of Squier, Lapham, and others, is just and comprehensive, and because, in a matter of this importance, it seemed (15.) Smithsonian Report for 1877, p. 278. (16.) Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley, pp. 5 and 168. (17.) Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. IV, chap. XIII. Mem. — vol. n — 5, 66 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. to me desirable to distrust my own judgment, and to accept the statement of one who cannot be accused of sharing in the conclusions to which I have been most unexpectedly driven. As a result of this rapid glance at the story of these remains, when told by themselves, it will be seen that, although they differ widely in form, size, and the evident use for which they were intended, yet they are, pri- marily, nothing but heaps of earth, stones, or a mixture of the two, thrown up into the form of mounds and embankments. A child at play on a pile of sand performs on a small scale, and for his amusement, the very same kind of labor as that involved in their erection; and the beaver and the white ant, in building their dams and nests, show a degree of development — a faculty of adapting means to an end — but little, if any, inferior to that displayed by the Mound-builder, when judged by the same standard. Indeed, we are told that the beaver dams and washes of Wisconsin some- times bear a very close resemblance to the so-called serpent mounds, and to the excavations made by the Indians in search of lead and other ores;(' 8 ) whilst, as a matter of fact, the ant hills of Africa, in point of relative size,( 19 ) and in the architectural knowledge and engineering skill displayed in their construction, are quite equal to any earth-work in the Ohio Yalley. In saying this, it must not be supposed that there is any intention of disparaging the works of the Mound-builders. Unquestionably some of them are of great size, and exhibit an immense amount of patient toil and perseverance; but beyond this they tell us little or nothing. Nowhere, either in laying them out, or in the manner in which the dead were some- times buried in them, can be found any such adherence to the principle of orientation as would authorize the inference that the people who built and buried in them had advanced beyond the merest rudiments of astro- nomical knowledge; and as for the. mathematical skill displayed in the construction of their squares and circles, any one who has ever aided in fencing a western farm knows that it is a comparatively simple matter to "run" a straight line, especially if it be as broad as most of these embank- ments; and that, consequently, squares as large and with angles as "per- fect" as any of those in the Ohio Valley, can be constructed with the aid of three straight sticks and a moderately good eye. The circles might (18.) Antiquities of Wisconsin, I. c, note to p. 11. (19.) Some of the hills of the so-called white ants of Africa are 25 feet high, and honeycombed with galleries, THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 67 perhaps give a little more trouble; but even they are not beyond the compass of a boy with a string. Mr. Squier himself admits that it is possible to construct them of considerable size without the aid of instru- ments, though one over a mile in circumference would, he thinks, offer serious obstacles.( 2 °) In a word, the labor involved in the erection of these works was purely manual, and perfectly homogeneous. It did not even necessarily imply the use of mechanical aids of any kind, though it is probable that the rude stone hoe or spade and a basket — one to loosen the earth, and the other to transport it — were both employed ; and these, be it remembered, were within reach of every Indian family east of the Missis- sippi and south of the great lakes. The fact, then, as to the character of this labor being as stated, it would seem to follow that a people who could have erected one of these works, be it a mound or an embankment, might have built any and all of them; and of course if it can be shown that the red Indian has, within the historic epoch, thrown up mounds five or ten feet high, and of proportionate size, there can be no reason why, given time, of which he had an unlimited sup- ply, or an increased number of workmen, he could not have made them ten times as large had he been so inclined. To deny this involves the necessity of showing that there existed, in mound-building, some point beyond which the efforts of the Indian could not go — some limit to the number of baskets full of earth he might bring — and this will scarcely be undertaken by the hardiest advocate of the theory of the two civilizations. Indeed, it is only necessary to put the matter in this broad light, to ask where it is proposed to run this line of demarkation, and how it was found, in order to show the absurdity of any attempt to set up a standard that will enable us to say, definitively, whether any given earth-work was built by the recent Indians or by the so-called Mound-builders. With this fact clearly understood, Ave are now ready to take up the evidence that points to the red Indian of modern times as the builder of these works ; and by way of beginning, let us look into the truth of the oft-repeated statement that he had no tradition as to their origin, and the purposes for which they were erected. So far as my immediate argument is concerned, this is, to some extent, a work of supererogation. Tradition (20.) Anc. Mon., p. 61. Bearing upon this point is the statement of Miss A. C. Fletcher, that the Ogaklla Sioux, when marking out the ground for the Sun dance, raise up a pole in the center, and then, with a raw-hide cord as a radius, draw a. circle of the required size, say from two to three hundred feet in diameter, 68 THE MOULDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. is, at best, but an unsafe guide, and even if it were not, the fact that the Indians could not give any account of these structures would carry but little, if any, weight, for the reason that it is negative evidence, pure and simple ; and as such must give way to the well-authenticated instances of mound-building among the Natchez and other historic tribes. Upon this point there can be no difference of opinion, and though it clearly shows the worthlessness of tradition as the basis for an argument in the present dis- cussion, yet the statement as to the absence of all accounts of the origin of these works is so often repeated, and with such seeming confidence, that the investigation would be incomplete without some inquiry into its truth. Especially is this so in view of the fact that, like all wholesale generaliza- tions, it has a certain foundation in truth, though this is believed to be entirely too slight to justify us in accepting the statement in the shape in which it has come down to us. That certain Indians — the number is immaterial — were without any tradition upon the subject of these mounds is extremely probable; and if the early writers had confined themselves to a statement of this fact, there would have been no question as to its acceptance. But when, generalizing (as was too often their wont) from the few instances that came under their observation, they tell us that "the Indians," or that "certain tribes" were equally ignorant, then it is time to call a halt, and inquire into the validity of the evidence upon which the statement rests. To do this thoroughly involves no little labor. Trust- worthy authorities must be examined — the more the better — and if they fail to bear out the general conclusion, as will almost always be found to be the case, there is no alternative but to so modify this conclusion as to bring it in accord with the newly-discovered evidence. As an instance of the good results that sometimes follow this method of interpreting the old chroniclers, take the assertion of the younger Bartram that " the Cherokees are as ignorant as we are, by what people or for what purpose these artifi- cial hills were raised. "( 2I ) He is speaking of the mound upon which stood the council house in their town of Cowe,( 22 ) and it is, of course, very prob- able that the Indians of whom he made the inquiry did not know who (21.) Bartram's Travels, p. 367: Philadelphia, 1791. He adds: "But they have a tradition common with the other nations of Indians, that they found them in much the same condition as they now appear when their forefathers arrived from the West and possessed themselves of the country after vanquishing the nations of red men who then inhabited it, who themselves found these mounts when they took pos- session of the country, the former possessors delivering the same story concerning them.'' (22.) This distinction must be kept in mind, as I. c, p. 348, he speaks of "'vast heaps of stones" that were " Indian graves undoubtedly." THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 69 built this particular mound ; at least there can be no doubt that they told him so, and that he believed them. Now, Bartram's visit to the Cherokees was a hurried one; he saw but few of their towns, and could not possibly have conversed with but a small portion of their people, and yet his state- ment is couched in the broadest terms possible, and includes all the mem- bers of the tribe of every age, size, sex, and condition. Obviously,, his assertion is not warranted by the facts, nor is it borne out by the testimony of concurrent writers. So far from being without any tradition on this sub- ject, this people can be shown to have had several, or, at all events, they so reported. Thus, about the year 1782, Oconostoto, who had been for sixty years one of their chiefs, being asked by Gov. Sevier, ( 23 ) of Ten- nessee, who built the' earth- works in their country, and particularly "the remarkable fortification," as it is called, on the Hiawassee river, answered that "it was handed down by their forefathers, that these works were made by the white people who had formerly inhabited the country." Gen'l Geo. Rogers Clark, ( 24 ) who probably knew as much of Indian character as any one who has ever written on the subject, says positively that there was a tradition among the Cherokees to the effect that the works in their country were built by their ancestors ; and this statement is borne out by the chron- iclers of De Soto's expedition, ( 25 ) as well as by the testimony of Adair, ( 26 ) who seems to have had no doubt by whom these mounds were built, or for (23.) See letter of Gov. Sevier in Stoddard's Sketches of Louisiana, p. 483: Philadelphia, 1812. Being questioned as to who these white people were, the old chief replied: "That he had heard his grandfather and other old people say that they were a people called the Welsh," &c, &c. For a summary of what has been written ahout a Welsh Nation in America, consult chapter XVII of the above work, and also Priest's American Antiquities, pp. 229 et seq. .- Albany, 1838, and Burder's Welch Colony, a pamphlet pub- lished in London in 1797. (24.) "I think the world is to blame to express such great anxiety to know who it was that built those numerous and formidable works, and what hath become of that people. They will find them in the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Kahokias (now extinct), Piankeshaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and such old nations, who say they grew out of the ground where they now live, and that they were formerly as numerous as the trees in the woods; but affronting the Great Spirit, he made war among the nations, and they destroyed each other. This is their tradition, and I can see no good reason why it should not be received as good history — at least as good as a great part of ours:" MSS. of Gen'l Geo. K. Clark, in vol. IV, Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, p. 135. (25.) In the 10th Annual Report of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, pp. 75 et seq., I have given some of the reasons for believing that the Cherokees built mounds and earth-works. (26.) "We frequently meet with great mounds of earth, either of a circular or oblong form, having a "strong breastwork at a distance around them, made of the clay which had been dug up in forming the ditch on the inner side of the inclosed ground, and these were their forts of security against an enemy. Three or four of them are, in some places, raised so near to each other as evidently for the garrison to take any enemy that passed between them. They were mostly built in low lands; and some are over- spread with large trees, beyond the reach of Indian tradition:" History of the American Indians,. p, 377: London, 1775. 70 THE MOUNTS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. what purpose, though, he admits that some of them were beyond the reach of tradition. Here, then, in this one tribe, we have several accounts of these works. They cannot all be true, and it is possible that neither one of them may be; and yet either one of them is a sufficient answer to the statement that the Indians had no tradition as to the origin of these structures, or the purpose for which they were built. Nor must it be supposed that the Cherokees were alone in this respect; neither were these stories confined to any one stock or family of tribes. They are found on both sides of the Ohio, and were as current (and for that matter as varied and often quite as contra- dictory) among nations of the Huron and Algonquin families as they were among the Cherokees. In fact, it is believed to be the exception to find a single prominent tribe living within the region of the mounds in which some tradition on the subject of their origin was not more or less common. Whether these traditions were true or false, or whether the event that was purported to be handed clown was fact or fable, are points which it is not necessary to discuss. All that I am called upon to show is, that the Indians had traditions, no matter what their character, upon this subject; and in doing this, I shall limit myself to a representative tribe from each family, and by way of making the tradition as definite as possible, will pick out typical works or groups, situated in different portions of the country, so that there can be no doubt as to the particular tribe, or the precise kind of earth-work that is meant. ]?irst of all, let us take up the mounds and incfoswres of Western New York, and see what the Iroquois had to say as to their origin. Accord- ing to one account, the country " about the lakes was thickly inhabited by a race of civil, enterprising, and industrious people, who were totallv destroyed, and whose improvements were taken possession of by the Sen- ecas."( 27 ) The Rev. Mr. Kirkland, while on a missionary tour to this tribe, A. D. 1788, visited several of these "old forts," one of which, situ- ated in Genesee county, near Batavia (Squier), and known to the Indians as the "double-fortified town, or a town with a fort at each end," is thus described: The first of these forts "contained about four acres of ground. The other, distant from this about two miles, and situated at the other extremity of the ancient town, inclosed twice that quantity of ground. * The ditch around the former was about five or six feet deep. A small stream (^7.) Yates and Moulton, History of New York, vol. I, p. 40: New York, 1824. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 71 of water and a high, bank circumscribed nearly one third of the inclosed ground. There were the traces of six gates or avenues round the ditch, and near the center a way was dug to the water. * * * A considerable number of large thrifty oaks had grown up within the inclosed ground, both in and upon the ditch; some of them appear to be at least two hun- dred years old or more. * * * Near the northern fortification, which was situated on high ground, he found the remains of a funeral pile. * * The earth was raised about six feet above the common surface, and betwixt twenty and thirty feet diameter. The bones appeared on the whole sur- face of the raised earth, and stuck out in many places on the sides. "( 28 ) According to the same author, Indian tradition says "these works were raised, and this battle was fought betwixt the Senecas and Western In- dians. * * * In this great battle the Senacas affirmed that their ancestors won the victory. Some say their ancestors had told them there were eight hundred of their enemies slain; others include the killed on both sides in that number. Be this as it may, all their historians agree that the battle was fought where this heap of slain are buried, before the arrival of the Europeans, some say three, some four, others five lives or ages, reckoning a life or age one hundred winters or colds. "( 29 ) Another tradition represents that these works were erected by the ancestors of the Iroquois in their wars with other tribes( 3 °) and with the French. ( 3 ') (28.) MSS. of Eev. Mr. Kirkland, in Moulton's New York, vol. I, p. 16. (29.) MSS. of Eev. Mr. Kirkland, I. c, p. 39. It will be seen that this account leaves it uncertain whether these Works were erected by the Senecag or the Western Indians. So far as my purpose is con- cerned, it is immaterial which of these tribes built them. The following extract from Gov. DeWitt Clinton will, however, clear up the difficulty: "Some of the Senecas told Mr. Kirkland, the missionary, that those in their territory were raised by their ancestors in their wars with the Western Indians:" Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc, vol. II, p. 92. Compare Cusick's History of the Iroquois, part II, published in School- craft's Indian Tribes, vol. V, pp. 632 et seq. (30.) Notes on the Iroquois p. 442. (31.) Farmers Brother told Dr. King that the mounds were thrown up against the incursions of the French. This was about 1810, at which time he was 94 years old: Drake's Indians of North America, fifteenth edition, p. 604. There is another tradition given by Gov. DeWitt Clinton in the Collections of the N. Y. Hist. Soc, vol. II, p. 92, to the effect that " these works were thrown up by an army of Span- iards,'' &c. I do not think it necessary to give it in the text, as it is probable that the tradition is as false as the event to which it relates is improbable. However, it may be well to add that Brant, the famous Mohawk Chief, in vol. II, p. 484 of his life, speaks of a tradition that "prevailed among the different nations of Indians throughout that whole extensive range of country, and had been handed down time immemorial, that in an age long gone by there came white men from a foreign country, and, by consent of the Indians, established trading-houses and settlements where these tumuli are found. A friendly intercourse was continued for several years; many of the white men brought their wives, and had chil- dren born to them. • » * These circumstances at length gave rise to jealousies," and the colony was ultimately destroyed. Brant expressed no opinion as to the truth of the tale, but added : " that from the vessels and tools which had been dug up in those mounds, or found in their vicinity, it was evident that the people who had used them were French." i2 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Assuming that these two traditions refer to different periods in the national life of the Six Nations, they do not conflict. In fact, they fit in together very closely, and as Mr. Squier has shown that these remains are but the abandoned village sites of the recent Indians, ( 32 ) they may be said to be sustained by the traditions of the Iroquois as to their expulsion from the region near Montreal, and their seizure and occupation of Central and Western New York.( 33 ) Proceeding towards the southwest, we come next to the Ohio system of works, and here, again, we have several traditions as to their origin. One of these, handed down among the Lenni Lenape — an Algonquin tribe — is to the effect that when they had reached the Mississippi in their migration eastward, they found the country east of that river inhabited by a powerful nation, called the Allegewi, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. At first they gave the Lenni Lenape or Delawares, as we call them, leave to pass through their country, and seek a settlement farther to the east; but for some reason they attacked them whilst crossing the river, and inflicted great loss upon them. The Lenni Lenape then formed an alliance with the Mengwe or Iroquois, who were also on their way to the east in search of a home, and together they made war upon the Allegewi, stormed their towns and fortifications, and finally expelled them from the country. Heck welder, ( 34 ) to whom we are indebted for the story, says that he had seen many of their fortifications, one of which, situated on the Huron river, east of the Sandusky, about six or eight miles from Lake Erie, he describes as consisting of "walls or banks of earth regularly thrown up, with a deep ditch on the outside. * * * Outside of the gateway were a number of large flat mounds, in which, the Indian pilot said, were buried hundreds of the slain Allegewi." In another account ( 35 ) we are told that it was a tradition of the Kaskaskias, Pianke- shaws, and other tribes, that these "fortified towns," "entrenched encamp- (32.) Aboriginal Monuments of New York, in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. II, chap. VI. (33.) Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 5. Bartram (John) Observations, &c, p. 23: London, 1751. Golden, Five Nations, p. 23. DeWitt Clinton, I. c, p. 92. Relation en 1' annee 1660, p. 6. (34.) Historical account of the Indian Nations, pp. 29 et set?.: Philadelphia, 1819. See also that curious mixture of fact and fable, Cusick's History of the Six Nations. John Norton, a Mohawk Chief (in vol. II of Life of Joseph Brant, note on p. 486: Albany, 1865), says: "There was a tradition in his tribe that they were constructed by a people who, in ancient times, occupied a great extent of country, but who had been extirpated ; that there had been long and bloody wars between this people and the Five Nations, in which the latter had been finally victorious." (35.) MSS. of Gen'l Geo. ttogers Clark in vol. IV of Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, pp. 134 and 135. See also Notes on the Iroquois, p. 162, and Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 185: Pittsburgh, 1814. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 73 ments," or "garrisoned forts, many of them with towers of earth of con- siderable height to defend the walls with arrows and other missile weapons, * * * were the works of their forefathers," who were as numerous as the trees in the wood; but that, having affronted the Great Spirit, he made them kill one another. Speaking of the collection of moUnds in the river bottom opposite St. Louis, just below the old French village of Cahokia, one of the largest mound centres in the United States, Baptist Ducoign, a Kaskaskia chief, told Gen'I Geo. Rogers Clark that it was "the palaace of his forefathers, whon they covered the whole (country) and had large towns ; that all those _ works we saw there were the fortifications round the town, which must have been very considerable; that the smaller works we (saw) so far within the larger, comprehended the real palaace; that the little mountain we there saw flung up with a basin on top, was a tower that contained part of the guard belonging to the prince, as from the top of that height they could defend the King's house with their arrows," &c.( 36 ) If, now, we cross the Ohio, and inquire of the Creeks or Muscogees as to the origin of the works that are scattered throughout their country, we shall find that they, too, ascribed them to their ancestors, though they dif- fered as to the purposes for which some of them were erected. According to one account a certain class of "conic mounds of earth" were thrown up as places of refuge against high water; whilst a more probable tradition speaks of them as tombs of the dead, or parts of "an ancient Indian town,"( 37 ) possibly the sites of the cabins of their chiefs' and of their coun- cil houses or temples. In 1847 Se-ko-pe-chi,( 38 ) one of the oldest Creeks then living, speaking of the former condition of his tribe, said that they erected breastworks of a circular shape for the protection of their families, (36.) MSS. of Gen'I Clark, I. c, p. 135. He adds: "I had somewhere seen some ancient account of the town of Kaskaskia, formerly containing ten thousand persons. There is not one of that nation at present known by that name. r ' * * I one day set out to see whether we could discover signs, of such a popu- lation. We easily and evidently traced the town for upwards of five miles in the beautiful plain below the present town of Kahokia. There could be no deoeption here, because the remains of ancient works were- thick — the whole were mounds, &c. * * * Fronting nearly the center of this town, on the heights, is a pinnacle called the Sugar (Loaf), from its figure. * * * I at once saw that it was a hill, shaped by a small brook breaking through the (larger) hill till it had formed a very narrow ridge. This had been cut across, and the point shaped in the form of a sugar-loaf, perhaps to place an idol or a temple on, as it could not be more conspicuous. It is of very considerable height, and you are obliged to wind round it to ascend on horse-back." (37,) Hawkins, Sketch of Creek Country, p. 38. Schoolcraft (vol. IV, p. 127), quoting a MSS. copy of the "Sketch," says: " they were also designed to entomb the remains of their distinguished dead.'" Bar- tram (Travels, p. 522) says that the Indians have a tradition that.the vast four-square terraces, chunk yards, &e.-,-at Apalachucla/old town, were " the ruins of an ancient Indian town and fortress." (38.) Schoolcraft Indian Tribes, I, p. 267. ^4 the Mounds of the Mississippi valiey. and that the mounds had no existence previous to their arrival. Adair ( 39 ) tells us that "they had a special name for their old round earthern forts;" and Bartram,( 4 °) speaking of "the artificial mounts or terraces, squares and banks encircling considerable areas" — the monuments or traces of an ancient town that once stood on the east bank of the Ocmulgee, near the old trading road, adds: "If we are to give credit to the accounts the Creeks give of themselves, this place is remarkable for being the first town or settlement where they sat down (as they term it) or established themselves after their emigration from the West, beydnd the Mississippi, their original native country. On this long journey they suffered great ^nd innumerable difficulties, encountering and vanquishing numerous and valiant tribes of Indians, who opposed and retarded their march. Having crossed the river, still pushing eastward, they were obliged to make a stand and fortify them- selves in this place as their only remaining hope, being to the last degree persecuted and weakened by their surrounding foes. Having formed for themselves this retreat, and driven off the inhabitants by degrees, they recovered their spirits, and again faced their enemies, when they came off victorious in a memorable and decisive battle. They afterwards gradually subdued their surrounding enemies, strengthening themselves by taking into confederacy the vanquished tribes. "( 4I ) These are a few of the tra- ditions that have come down to us as to the origin of these works, and although, when considered by themselves, they are not, perhaps, of much historical importance, yet, inasmuch as the question is not as to their truth, but as to their existence, they answer my purpose as well as if each one of them were founded on fact, and had been handed down from generation to generation without a break or a blemish. (39.) History of North American Indians, p. 67. (40.) "On the east banks of the Ocmulgee this trading road runs nearly two miles through ancient Indian fields, which are called the Ocmulgee fields; they are the rich low lands of the river. On the heights of these low grounds are yet visible monuments or traces of an ancient town, such as artificial mounts or terraces, squares, and banks, encircling considerable areas. Their old fields and planting land extend up and down the river, fifteen or twenty miles from this site:" Travels through Florida, p. 54: Philadelphia, 1791. (41.) And yet on p. 520, he tells us that the region between the Savanna and Ocmulgee rivers, "was last possessed by the Cherokees, since the arrival of the Europeans, but they were afterwards dispossessed by the Muscogulges ; and all that country was probably, many ages preceding the Cherokee invasion, inhab- ited by one nation or confederacy who were ruled by the same system of laws, customs, and language; bat so ancient that the Cherokees, Creeks, or the nation they conquered, could render no account for what purpose these monuments were raised." On p. 456 the same statement is made in regard to a post or column of pine, forty feet high, that stood in the town of Autassee ,"on a low circular artificial hill-" and as this pole could not have been standing for very many generations, it is evident that the Indian's account of what his ancestors did or did not know must be taken with a great deal of allowance. TtiE MOUNDS! OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ^5 In regard to the credibility of these different accounts, a few words may not be out of place. As has been said before, they cannot all be true, though there is no reason why some of them may not rest upon a basis of fact. Take, for instance, the tradition, found in some shape among almost all tribes, that these works were built by their ancestors, and test it as we may, it will be seen that, so far from being impossible, it is rendered more than probable by the fact that some of the most elaborate of these remains can be shown to have been erected since the arrival of the whites. The evidence of this is furnished by the mounds themselves, or rather by their contents, and consists of articles of European manufacture that were buried with the body over which the mound was originally erected. As an in- stance of this, take the series of works at Circle ville, Ohio, to which a reference has been made on a preceding page.( 42 ) It is composed of a circle, square, and mounds, all of which are so joined together that they must have formed parts of one connected whole. Near the centre of the circle, or, as it is called, "the round fort," which, as we have seen, had once been inclosed by palisades, was a tumulus of earth, about ten feet in height, and several rods in diameter at its base. On its eastern side, and extending six rods from it, was a semi-circular pavement, com- posed of pebbles, such as are now formed in the bed of the Scioto river, from .whence they appear to have been brought. The summit of this tumulus was level, nearly thirty feet in diameter, and there was a raised way to it, leading from the east, like a modern turnpike. ( 43 ) The earth composing this mound was entirely removed in presence of Mr. Atwater, and there were found lying on the original surface of the ground, and about twenty feet apart, the remains of two human skeletons that had evidently been burned. With one of these skeletons there was "the handle either of a small swoVd or a large knife, made of an elk's horn ; around the end where the blade had been inserted was a ferule of silver, which, though black, was not much injured by time. Though the handle showed the hole where the blade had been inserted, yet no iron was found, but an oxide remained of similar shape and size." With the other skeleton "there was a large mirrour, about three feet in length, one foot and a half in breadth, and one inch and a half in thickness. This mirrour was of isinglass (mica (42.) See above Note 5. (43.) Archaeology Americana, vol. I, pp. 177 et seg. See also Squier, Abor. Mon. of New York, p. 107; Stone, Life of Brant, vol. II, p. 485, and Schoolcraft, Lead Mines of Missouri, p. 274, for notices of other mounds that have been built in the State of Ohio within comparatively recent times. 76 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. membranacea), and on it (was) a plate of iron, which had become" an oxide; but before it was disturbed by the spade resembled a plate of cast iron." A quantity of - arrow-heads and spear-points were found with one of the skeletons ; but of these it is unnecessary to speak, as they probably did not differ from those that lie scattered about everywhere in the Ohio Valley, and they cannot, therefore, except indirectly, throw any light upon the origin of these works. Not so, however, with the articles of iron and sil- ver. These do tell a story; and whilst they do not indicate the precise period of time when this mound was erected, yet they enable us to say r with some degree of certainty, that it must have been subsequent to the arrival of the whites, for the reason that the nations that held the Mis- sissippi Valley previous to that event, whether Mound-builder or recent Indian, may, in a general way, be said to have been unacquainted with any metal except native copper; and this they simply hammered into shape, or, possibly, "having melted it," they "spread it into sheets," as Champlain (Voyages, vol. II, page 236: Boston, 1878) tells us they sometimes did, before submitting it to the process of malleation. Of the manufacture of iron they appear to have ; been ignorant; and though the recent Indians were, unquestionably, acquainted with silver, beat it into ornaments, and in all probability sometimes overlaid copper with it,( 43 ") yet the evidence of its use is relatively so slight as scarcely to merit recognition. Upon these points all archaeologists are agreed ; and when, therefore, we are told, upon authority that has never been questioned, that (43a.) " One of them had hanging about his neck a round plate of red copper, well polished, with a Smaller one of silver hung in the middle of it; and on his ears a small plate of copper, with which they wipe the sweat away from their bodies:" Ribault (1562), in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, p. 178: New York, 1875. Both Ribault and Laudonniere make repeated mention of silver and even gold, but the latter writer (Hakluyt, vol. Ill, p. 369) tells us that it is "gotten out of the shippes that are lost upon the coast, as I have understood, by the sauages themselues." Hariot (Hakluyt, vol. Ill, p. 327: London, 1810), speaks of " two small pieces of siluer grosly beaten * * * hanging in the eares of a Wiroans ; * * * of whom, through inquiry, * * * I learned that it had come to his hands from the same place or neere, where I after understood the copper was made, and the white grainesof metall found: The afore- sayd Copper we also found by tryall to holde siluer." In this connection the copper " bosses overlaid with a thick plate of silver," found by Dr. Hildreth in a mound at Marietta, Ohio, become of interest. Judge Force, to whom I have so often had occasion to refer, examined one of' these specimens, and tells us (To what Race did the Mound-builders Belong, p. 49), that "it is native copper hammered into shape." He also adds that "in the Lake Superior mines silver is found in connection with the copper, and the miners there now, taking advantage of good specimens, hammer them into rings, with the silver on the exterior surface making copper rings, silver-plated by nature, precisely as the Mound-builder artisan did who made the boss at Marietta," and we may add, as the Florida Indian did, who made the ornament spoken of by Ribault. In another mound at Marietta, half a mile east of the earth-works, was found a silver cup, evidently not of Indian workmanship, which Schoolcraft (Lead Mines of Missouri, p. 274 : New York, 1819) describes. It belonged to a Mr. Hill, of Cahokia, and, according to that, gentleman, had been brought to light by the gradual washing away of the mound by a s:uali .stream vhich ran at its base. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 77 implements of iron and silver were found with the charred bones of a per- son, over whose remains a most elaborate mound had been erected, it is proof positive of the recent origin of this particular mound, and, inferen- tially, of the group of works of which it formed a component part. There is no escaping this conclusion except upon the theory that the people who erected these works, supposing them to have belonged to .a different race from the Indians, were acquainted with the use of iron and silver; and to admit this is virtually to re-write the archaeology of the Mississippi Valley. Nor is this the only instance in which objects of European manufacture have been found under such circumstances as to indicate that they were used by the people who found shelter behind these earthen walls. In Ten- nessee, near Murfreesboro,( 44 ) similar discoveries have been made, whilst in New York( 45 ) and Florida these "finds," as they are commonly called, have been so frequent as to make it unnecessary to refer to them in detail, and I content myself with the following extract from the fourteenth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, ( 46 ) which, it is needless to say, is heartily indorsed. Speaking of some discoveries made by Dr. David Mack, jr., in the course of his explorations in Orange county, Florida, Mr. Putnam holds the following emphatic language: "One group of mounds was enclosed by an embankment, and was very likely the site of an Indian village. In a burial mound in this group a number of ornaments made of silver, copper, and brass were found, also glass beads and iron implements, which were associated with pottery and stone implements of native make. This furn- ishes conclusive evidence that the Indians of Florida continued to build mounds over their dead after European contact; for the care with which the exploration was made, and the depth at which the skeletons and their associated objects were found, are conclusive as to the burials being the (44.) Dans Tangle nord-ouest du comix? de Franklin, au confluent de deux branches les plus meridi- onales du Duck, on voit les mines d ' un vieux fort indien, nomme Stone-Fort, qui couvre une etendue de trente deux acres. * * * A la distance d' un demi-mille environ au nord et au nord-ouest, 1' on ren- contre deux tertres, dont 1' un a cent pieds de longeur et vingt-cinq de hauteur sur vingt de largeur, et l'autre soixante pieds de longeur et vingt de hauteur sur dix-huit de largeur. On voit croitre sur les murs, comme sur les tertres, des arbres aussi grands que ceux des forets voisines. On a decouvert r£cem- ment dans un de ces tertres un sabre de deux pieds de long, qui differe par la forme de toutes les armes de cette espece dont on se soit servi depuis 1' arrivee des Europeans. Des debris de vaisselle et plusieurs briques entiSres de neuf pouces carres et de trois pouces d'epaisseur ont ete trouves au meme lieu:" Warden, Antiquites de 1' Amerique Septentrionale, p. 51 : Paris, 1827. (45.) For an account of these works, see Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, Clark's Onondaga, and Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of New York, in vol. II, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. (46.) Page 17, Cambridge, 1881. See also Eeport Smithsonian Institution for 1877, pp. 298 and 305; Jones, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 131, and Twelfth Annual Eeport of the Peabody Museum, in vol. II, p. 468. 78 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. original ones, and not those of an intrusive people." It is unnecessary, however, to pursue this branch of the subject any farther. The instances quoted above, admitting them to be true (and I do not see how it can be doubted), prove very clearly the recent origin of the particular mounds and works to which they refer. To increase the number of such extracts is simply to accumulate evidence upon a point about which there cannot be two opinions. Having; thus cleared our minds of some of the illusions in which this subject has been enveloped, let us now turn to the early chroniclers, and see what they really do tell us of the origin of these works. In examin- ing into this evidence, the division heretofore made of these remains, into mounds and embankments or inclosures, will be adhered to, though the order in which they are to be taken up will be reversed, and the mounds will be first considered. These will be treated under the heads of — 1st. Stone heaps or cairns ; 2d. Conical mounds of earth or burial mounds ; and 3d. Truncated or temple mounds. There are, of course, other divisions, but for my purpose these are believed to be sufficient, as, with the excep- tion of the animal mounds, about which nothing definite is known, ( 47 ) all the rest, so far as size and mode of construction are concerned, may be brought under one or the other of these heads, though it is not intended thereby to assert anything as to the object or purpose for which they were erected, except in so far as it is made known to us by the authorities to whom a reference may be necessary. 1st. Beginning with the stone heaps or cairns, we are informed that they were either intended to commemorate some notable event, as a treaty of peace, ( 48 ) a victory, the settlement of a village, the passage of a war party, ( 49 ) or else they were thrown up as landmarks, or as memorials over (47.) Unless the explanation given in that curious hook, "The Traditions of Decoodah,'' should be accepted as authority, and this is scarcely advisable in the present state of our knowledge. The only statement that I find in any of the early chroniclers which can possibly be construed into a reference to these mounds is in Charlevoix (Travels, vol. II, p. 48), and even in this case it can only be so construed by supposing that by "the great beaver" is meant the "beaver" gens of some tribe. Charlevoix there speaks of a mountain, near Lake Nipissing, in the shape of a beaver, and says: "The Indians maintain that it was the great beaver who gave this form to the mountain after he had made choice of it for his burial place. They never pass * * * without offering him the smoke of their tobacco." (48.) Beverly, Virginia, hook III, p. 27: "They use formal embassies for treating, and very ceremoni- ous ways in concluding of Peace, or else some other memorable Action, such as burying a Tomahawk, and raising an heap of Stones thereon.'' Brinton, in Amer. Antiquarian for October, 1881, quoting Blomes, says of the tribes south of the Savannah river, "that they erected piles or pyramids of stones on the occasion of a successful conflict, or when they founded a new village." (49.) " We observed a pile of stones, * * * which I was informed had been thrown up as a monu- ment by the Osages when they were going to war, each warrior casting a stone upon the pile:" Nuttall, THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 79 the dead.( so ) They seem to have been very widely distributed throughout the area of the United States, as they are to be found as far to the eastward as New England ;( SI ) they are more or less numerous in New York,( 52 ) throughout the Ohio Valley, ( 53 ) and the States still further to the south, ( S4 ) whilst in the West they are known to have been erected, within the present generation, by "tribes living in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne- vadas."( 55 ) In point of size there is a wide difference among them. A large majority consists of not more than "two or three cart-loads of stone," though Squier speaks of one situated near the Indian trail that led from the Shaw- nee village at Chillicothe to the mouth of the Scioto river as being rectan- gular in shape, and originally quite symmetrical in outline, and measuring 106 feet long by 60 broad, and from three to four feet high.( 56 ) Where intended as memorials of the dead, they a : re sometimes piled up over a single corpse, or they may serve to mark the site of one or more of those general interments, when the dead of an entire village or a clan, for a num- Arkansa Territory, p. 149: Philadelphia, 1821. This may have been merely a "land-mark: " Our Wild Indians, by Col. Dodge, p. 557 -. Hartford, 1882. (50.) " To perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warriors killed in the woods, I must here observe, that every Indian traveler as he passes that way throws a stone on the place, according as he likes or dis- likes the occasion, or manner of the death of the deceased: " Adair, p. 184. ■ (51.) Mountain Monument, in Berkshire county, Mass., is so called from the fact that at its south- ern extremity is, or was a few years since, a pile of small stones, erected, occording to tradition, in mem- ory of a woman of the Stockbridge tribe, who killed herself by leaping from the precipice:" W. C. Bryant, Notes to Poems: Philadelphia, 1849. According to the Amer. Journal of Science, vol. VII, p. 159, mention is made in Dr. Dwight's Travels in Connecticut, &c, "of two of these stone tumuli, which appear to have been erected over offenders against the law." See also Aboriginal Mon. of New York, p. 160, for an account, taken from Hopkins' Memoir of the Housatonic Indians, of the erection of " a large heap of stones, * * * probably ten cart loads, in the way to Wanhtukook, which the Indians have thrown together as they passed by the place; for it used to be their custom, every time one passed by, to throw a stone upon it," &c. I must confess that I don't know where this cairn was situated or when it was built, and it does not much matter, as from the name of the tribe it is evident they were of New England origin. See also Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 185: Philadelphia, 1881, and Haven, in vol VIII of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, pp. 31 el seq. (52.) A pile of stones. * * * Indian tradition says that a Mohawk murdered a brother (or two of them) on the spot, and that this tumulus was erected to commemorate the event. • * * They all cast a stone upon the pile:" Howe, Historical Collections of New York, p. 278: New York, 1842. (53.) Archreologia Americana, vol. I, pp. 131-184. Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley, p. 184. See also a note to p. 362, vol. II, Reports of the Peabody Museum: Cambridge, 1880. (540 "Seven heaps of stones being monuments of seven Indians slain by the Sinnegars:" Lawson, Carolina, p. 44. See also Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, p. 191, and Jones, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 127, for an account of such cairns in Virginia and Georgia. (55 ) Yarrow Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians, p. 48: Washington, 1880. See also United States Geographical Surveys, west of the 100th Meridian, vol. VII, pp. 392 and 4. One of these cairns was twenty-five feet long, twenty broad, and ten feet high, and covered the body of a warrior called by the Mormons Nabbynunck. See also Eeconnoissance of Northwestern Wyoming, by Capt. Jones, U. S. A., p. 276, where we are told that among the Shoshonies "the dead are usually buried in shallow graves, and covered with a low mound of loose stones." (56.) Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley, p, 184. 80 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ber of years, were collected together and buried in one common grave. ( S7 ) This latter form of burial was not confined to any one family or stock of tribes, but seems to have been common to all, and was always attended with great ceremony. The Jesuit Fathers Breboeuf( 5S ) and Lallemant ( S9 ) give us very full and interesting accounts of the manner in which these funerals were conducted among the Huron and Algonquin tribes of the. North; and the frequent mention made of the custom of#the Indians south of the Ohio of preserving the bones of the deadC 50 ) leaves no doubt as to the prevalence of this form of interment throughout all that region, from the time of De Soto ( 6l ) down to a comparatively recent period, even if there were not other and positive evidence of the fact. It is worthy of note, however, that neither one of the Jesuit Fathers named makes any mention of the erection of a mound or cairn upon the occasion of one of these gen- eral burials, or, in fact, at any other time, though Morgan, speaking of the funeral customs of the Iroquois, is of the opinion that the "barrows and bone mounds, which ha.ve been found in such numbers in various parts of the country," are to be ascribed to the practice of disposing of their dead in this fashion, and this is confirmed by De Vries.( 62 ) Be this as it may, there seems to be good ground for the assertion that some of the tribes belonging to the Huron-Iroquois family were, at one time and under cer- tain conditions, in the habit of erecting stone heaps over the single graves (57.) Col. 0. W. Jenckes, superintendent of the Corundum mines in Western North Carolina, says: " We have Indiana all about us, with traditions extending back for 500 years. In this time they have buried their dead under huge piles of stones. AVe have at one point the remains of 600 warriors under one pile:" Foster, Prehistoric Paces, p. 149: Chicago, 1873. As the Cherokees had held the region where this cairn was situated from time immemorial, this was probably one of their graves. That they did bury their dead in this fashion may be inferred from a statement of Adair, who tells us, in a note to p. 185, that " the Cheerake do not now collect the bones of their dead, yet they continue to raise and mul- tiply heaps of stones as monuments of their dead." See also Anc. Mon. of the Miss. Valley, p. 184, for an account of a similar interment in Pickaway county, Ohio. (58.) Relation en l'annee 1636, chap. VIII and IX: Quebec, 1858. (59.) Relation, A. D. 1642, pp. 94 el seq. (60.) Bartram, Travels, p. 514. Adair, p. 183. Lawson, p. 182. Du Pratz, vol. II, p. 214. Beverly, book III, p. 29. Bossu, Travels through Louisiana, vol. I, p. 298: London, 1771. Bernard, Romans, pp. 89, 90. (61.) Knight of Elvas, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 125. La Vega, Histoire de la Floride, Premiere Partie, pp. 264 el seq., and Seconde Partie, pp. 39 et seq.: Paris, 1709. (62.) League of the Iroquois, p. 173. "I have seen at the North (Fort Orange) great multitudes of Indians assembled, who had collected together the bones of their ancestors, cleaned them, and bound them up in small bundles. They dig a square grave, the size and length of a person. * * * They then bury the bones in the grave, with a parcel of Zeewan, and with arrows, Kettles, Knives, paper, and other Knick-Knacks, which are held in great esteem by them, and cover them with earth, and place pali- sades around them as before mentioned." The "as before mentioned" refers to a grave that was "seven, or eight feet in the shape of a Sugar-loaf:" De Vries, Voyages, p. 164: New York, 1853, THE MOUNDS OF. THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 81 in which their dead were temporarily deposited. Lafitau( 63 ) states the fact positively, and Adair ( 6 <) tells us, on the authority of "a gentleman of dis- tinguished character," that the Mohawks— one of the Six Nations— were accustomed thus to honor their dead. From other sources we learn that the Onondagas, another member of the same confederacy, whenever they lost a friend away from home, buried him with great solemnity, and ever after when they passed that way, visited the spot, usually singing a mourn- ful song, and casting stones upon it."( 65 ) Among the tribes of the Algonquin family, as well as among those inhab- iting the Gulf States, and which, for the sake of convenience, we have called the Appalachians, the custom of erecting these stone heaps or cairns seems to have been more or less prevalent. Van der Donck tells us that the Indians of New Netherlands buried in graves, above which "they placed a large pile of wood, stone, or earth," and around this "they placed palisades resembling a small dwelling."( 6S ) In Virginia, according to Cap- tain Smith, the Powhatanic tribes had certain altar stones which stand "apart from, their temples, some by their houses;' and others in the woods and wildernesses; where they have had any extraordinary accident or encounter. As you travel by them they will tell you the cause of the erection, wherein they instruct their children; so that they are in stead of records and memorials of their antiquities. "( 67 ) In Lawson's account of his journey through the Carolinas, he speaks of a "sort of tomb; as where (63.) "Leurs fosses sout de petites loges creus^es en rond comme des puits; * * « on les natte en dedans de tous cot& avec des 6corces; et aprfis y avoir log6 le cadavre, on y fait une voute presque an niveau du sol avec des £corces semblables, et des pieux qu' on charge de terre et de pierres a une certaine hauteur, qui fit aussi donner a, ces tombeaux les noms d' Agger et de Tumulus : " Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. II, p. 416. (64.) "Many of these heaps are to be seen in all parts of the continent of North America. * * * * Although the Mohawk Indians may be reasonably expected to have lost their primitive customs, by rea- son of their great intercourse with foreigners, yet I was told by a gentleman of distinguished character that they observe the aforesaid sepulchral custom to this day: " North American Indians, Note to p. 185. (65.) J. V. H. Clark, Onondaga, vol. I, p. 52: Syracuse, 1849. Mr. Clark seems to have derived his information as to the former customs of the Onondagas from the account furnished by La Fort (so he wrote his own name), principal chief of the Onondagas, and "keeper of the council fire of the Six Nations," who died October 5th, 1848. Macauley, New York, vol. II, p. 239, says: "Sometimes they raised heaps of stones over the bodies of distinguished chiefs," but he does not give his authority for th£ statement. (66.) New York Hist. Coll., new series, vol. I, p. 202. These Indians were Lenni Lenape, or, as we call them, Delawares, and their congeners. Except that sand was used instead of stones or earth, the Indians of Plymouth, Mass., probably buried in much the same manner. See Purchas Pilgrims, vol. TV, p. 1847, where the same comparison— "of the grave to an Indian house"— is used. (67.) Purchas Pilgrims, vol. TV, p. 1702, Mem. — vol. ii— 6, 82 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. an Indian is slain, in that very place they make a heap of stones (or sticks, where stones are not to be found) ; to this memorial, every Indian that passes by adds a stone to augment the heap, in respect to the deceased hero."( 68 ) The Cherokees, as we have seen above, also buried their dead in this same manner ;( 69 ) and among the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and tribes belonging to the Creek confederacy, with whom Adair lived and traded for so many years, it was not unusual, in the woods, "to see innumerable heaps of small stones in those places, where, according to tradition, some of their distinguished people were either killed or buried till their bones could be gathered: there they add Pelion to Ossa, still increasing each heap, as a lasting monument and honor to them, and an incentive to great actions."( 7 °) Among some of the tribes, living to the west of the Mississippi, especially those inhabiting portions of the region now known as the States of Mis- souri, Kansas, and Arkansas, this same custom is said to have obtained. The Osages, as is elsewhere stated, erected, on one occasion, a pile of stones, as a monument, when they were going to war; and if we may credit the account given by Hunter of the manners and customs of this and some other Western tribes, ( 7I ) they sometimes, "at or soon after burial, cover the grave with stones, and for years after occasionally resort to it, and (68.) History of Carolina, p. 22: London, 1718. (69.) Bartram, Travels, p. 348. Adair, note to p. 185. . (70.) Hist, of North American Indians, p. 184. (71.) " What remains to be said of the Indians relates more particularly to the Osages, although it will apply with almost as much propriety to the Kansas, Mahas, and Ottawas. In fact, if we except the roving bands, the circumstances of the Indians settled immediately to the west of the Missouri and Mississippi, are so very similar that the delineation of any particular nation or tribe will answer for them all," &c.: Hunter's Captivity, p. 213: London, 1823. Exactly what amount of credence is to be placed in these "Memoirs" is a point about which opinions differ. Gen'l Cass, in the North American Review for Janu- ary, 1826, makes a savage attack upon the book, and introduces letters from John Dunn (whose name Hunter took, and who had "treated him like a brother or son"), Gen'l Wm. Clark, and others, to the effect that they never knew any such person, and that it was not possible for the events of which he speaks to have happened without their knowledge. This is to some extent negative evidence, and does not amount to much ; but even if it were true, and Hunter was a myth, and the work that bears his name was a compilation, it would only invalidate so much of the narrative as refers to his personal experiences whilst a prisoner. All the rest, including that portion devoted to a description of the "Manners and Customs of some of the Western Indians," would then become simply a question of fact, and as such would have to be decided, as all such matters are, by a comparison of authorities in order to see how far the statements are corroborated. Applying this rule of evidence, it will be found that the reviewer, and not the compiler, will suffer. To go no farther than the instances quoted in the text, we find undoubted evidence that the Osages have, within the present century, built both stone heaps and burial mounds; and that if they did not bury in stone graves, the Delawares, Kkkapoos, and Shawnees did, and these tribes can be shown to have lived within the region and inside of the time covered by Hunter's narrative. If, now, there were no such individual as Hunter, as the reviewer plainly intimates, then the compiler of the volume that bears his name must have manufactured the story out of the whole cloth, which is not probable, or else he must have obtained his information from some person who was cognizant of the existence at some time of this form of burial among the Indians. If, on the other hand, Hunter was a THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 83 mourn over or recount the merits and virtues of its silent tenant."( 7 *) This was not, however, the only form of interment practiced among them, as we are told that "this ceremony was performed differently, not only by differ- ent tribes, but by the individuals of the same tribe, * * * the body being sometimes placed on the surface of the ground, between flat stones set edge upwards, and then covered over, first by similar stones, and then with earth brought a short distance."(") To judge from this description, these grave* do not differ from the so-called "stone graves" of Tennessee, and it need not surprise us, therefore, to hear that, although these "Indians do not pretend to any correct knowledge of the tumuli or mounds that are occasionally met with in their country," yet "there are other elevations dif- fering materially from the mounds * * * which were formerly, and are at present, exclusively devoted to burying their dead," and which "are composed of stones and earth, placed in such a manner as to cover and separate one dead body from another,"( 74 ) precisely as was the case in the stone grave mounds of the Cumberland Valley. ( 7S ) Nor is this the only kind of mound that the Osages are said to have erected within the historic period, nor are they the only people of the Dah- cotah stock who have been accustomed thus to bury their dead. Feather- stonhaugh tells us that upon the unexpected death of one of their chiefs called by the French Jean Defoe, which took place whilst all the men of the tribe were hunting in a distant country, "his friends buried him in the usual manner, with his weapons, his earthern pot, and the usual accompani- ments, and raised a small mound over his remains. When the nation returned from the hunt, this mound was enlarged at intervals, every man assisting to carry materials, and thus the accumulation of earth went on for a long period, until it reached its present height, when they dressed it off at the top in a conical form. The old Chief further said that he had real personage, and the book is a genuine record of his experiences, then the statement must be accepted as true, for the reason that it is not only antecedently very probable in itself, but because the account he has given of the customs of the tribes among whom he claims to have been a prisoner, has not, as yet, been successfully impugned. (72.) Captivity, p. 309. (73.) Page 355. See this and succeeding pages for a description of other modes of disposing of their dead temporarily as well as permanently. Similar stone graves have been found at Augusta, Kentucky, and, according to Squier (Abor. Mon. New York, p. 129), glass beads and iron rings were found in some of them. (74.) I. c, pp. 307 and 308. (75.) For an account of these graves and mounds, see the Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology, &c, vol. II, pp. 305 and 361 et seq.: Cambridge, 1880. 84 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. been informed and believed that all the mounds had a similar origin."(' 6 ) According to Lewis and Clark, the Omahas, about the beginning of this century, erected a mound twelve feet in diameter and six feet high over the body of their Chief, Blackbird, (") and Catlin tells us that at the Red Pipe Stone Quarry can be seen "a mound of a conical form of ten feet height," which had been thrown up over the body of a distinguished young Sioux, who had been accidentally killed whilst on a visit to that famous spot.( 78 ) Crossing the Mississippi, we are told that the Chippewas, an Algonquin tribe, having been successful in a battle with the Sioux, their women and children, "in celebrating the achievement, erected a mound from the adja- cent surface, about five feet in height, and in diameter eight or ten feet, upon the summit of which a pole ten or twelve feet in length was planted, and to this pole tufts of grass, indicating the number of scalps and other trophies achieved, were tied; around this mound the warriors, with their usual ceremonies, indulged in mirth and exultations over the scalps of their fallen foes."( 79 ) This, it will be noted, is not a burial mound, but seems to have been thrown up to commemorate a victory, and I mention it particu- larly, as it may serve to shed some light upon the object or purpose for which the so-called anomalous mounds of Mr. Squier were constructed. That some of the Algonquin tribes were, however, in the habit of erecting mounds over their dead does not admit of a doubt. De Vries (1642 — Voy- ages, page 163: New York, 1853) tells us that the Indians about Fort (76.) Excursion through the Slave States, pp. 70-71. The old chief further said that "the tradition had been steadily transmitted down from their ancestors, that the Whahsash (Osages) had originally emigrated from the East in great numbers, the population being too dense for their hunting-grounds; he described the forks of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, and the falls of the Ohio, where they had dwelt some time, and where large bands had separated from them, and distributed themselves in the surround- ing country." This mound is probably the same one which Beck (Gazetteer of Missouri, p. 308) describes as being "one of the largest mounds in this country, thrown up on this stream within thirty or forty years, by the Osages, near the great Osage village, in honor of one of their deceased chiefs.'' (77.) Lewis & Clarke, vol. I, p. 43: Philadelphia, 1814. Catlin, vol. II, p. 5, visited this mound about 1832, and brought away the skull of the Omaha chief. See his work for an account of how the mound was built. In Science for March 16th, 1883, Mr. Frank La Fleche, in a letter to Mr. Putnam, of the Pea- body Museum, says : " I made inquiries about the mound made by the Omahas, in which Big Elk was buried, and was told that it was about as high as the shoulders of a tall man standing up, and that he was buried with great ceremonies. His favorite horse was strangled to death by his grave, and most of his horses and household goods were given to the poor." This was about 1825-'30. (78.) North American Indians, vol. II, p. 170: London, 1876. He adds that the story was related to him by the father of the young man, a Sioux Chief, who was "visiting the Red Pipe Stone Quarry, with thirty others of his tribe, when we were there, and cried over the grave as he related the story.!' (79.) S. Taylor, in Amer. Jour, of Science, vol. 44, p. 22. T#E MOtTNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 85 Amsterdam (New York) "form the grave, seven or eight feet, in the shape of a sugar loaf, and place palisades around it;" and in the Jesuit Relations for the year 1611, it is said that the tribes in Maine and farther to the east- ward "build a sort of pyramid" over their distinguished dead. According to McKenney, a former superintendent of Indian affairs, the two mounds on Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, known as Le Grand and Le Petit Butte des Morts, were erected over the bodies of a number of Fox warriors who had been killed in a battle that took place near that spot between that tribe and the Iroquois. (»«) Van der Donck, too, as we have seen, is equally positive as to the erection of burial mounds by certain tribes of this family, and the same fact may be inferred from the account given by Mr. JefFer- son( 8 °) of the opening of a mound that formerly stood on the low grounds of the Rivanna river, and which evidently covered a number of those com- munal interments of which we have already spoken. This mound was sur- rounded by a ditch, was about 40 feet in diameter, and had been about twelve feet high, before its height was reduced by cultivation. Trees were growing upon it that measured twelve inches in diameter. It is true that nothing is here said as to the time when, or the people by whom, this mound was built; but the circumstances under which it was revisited by a band of Indians in Mr. Jefferson's time,( 81 ) taken in connection with the size of the trees, the condition of the bones, and the fact that the mound was in close proximity, or "just opposite to some hills on which had stood an Indian town," affords strong evidence that some of the later interments found here must have taken place after the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. (79a.) From aged Indians "I learned that a long time ago a battle was fought, first upon the spot upon which isLe Petit Butte de Morts, and the grounds adjacent, and continued upon that and the surround- ing country, upon which is found Le Grand Butte de Morts, between the Iroquois and Fox Indians, in which the Iroquois were victorious, killing an immense number of the Foxes at Le Petit Butte de Morts; when, being beaten, the Foxes retreated, but rallied at Le Grand Butte de Morts, and fought until they were nearly all slain. * * * In those two mounds, it is said, repose the remains of those slain at those two battles:" McKenney, Memoirs, &c, p. 84: New York, 1846. Other accounts represent this battle as having been fought between the Foxes on one side and the French and Menominees on the other. It is immaterial to me who were the parties engaged against the Foxes. (80.) Notes on Virginia, pp. 186 a. seq.: Philadelphia, 1801. '. (81.) This visit took place about 1750, and is thus described: "On whatever occasion they," the mounds, "may have been made, they are of considerable notoriety among the Indians; for a party passing, about thirty years ago, through the part of the country where this barrow is, went through the woods directly to it, without any instructions or inquiry; and having staid about it some time, with expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, they returned to the high-road, which they had left about .half a dozen miles to pay this visit, and pursued their journey:'' lb., p. 191. $6 THE MOtJNi)S OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. In regard to the practice of the Huron-Iroquois in this respect, our accounts differ. Gren'l Parker, in answer to the question whether the Six- Nations, after the arrival of the whites, ever erected mounds of earth or stone over single graves, or at their general interments, says positively that he had never, heard of the existence of any such custom among them, but that, on the contrary, they had always asserted that the bone mounds Were built by a race of people who had preceded them in the occupancy of the land. He also says that the reasons assigned for the erection of these tumuli, as well as the methods by which they grew to their present size, were always given with great uniformity. This is very high authority, and yet, in the present instance, it can hardly be regarded as decisive, for the reason that it is negative evidence, and must give way to the posi- tive testimony we have of the fact. Thus, for instance, Colden, speaking of their single interments, tells us that the Iroquois deposit the body in a large round hole, and raise the earth in a round hill over it,( 82 ) and in this he confirms the statements previously quoted of Lafitau and De Vries,. the latter of whom (1. c. page 154), describing the funeral ceremonies of the tribes living near the mouth of the Hudson, tells us that "their manner of living is for the most part like that of those at Fort Orange; who, how-, ever, are a braver and a more martial nation of Indians — by name the Maquas — as before mentioned, and who hold most of the others along the river to Fort Amsterdam under tribute." Of the bone mounds, or those which mark the site of one or more com- munal interments, our accounts, though somewhat meager, are not less explicit. According to La Fort, the Onondaga Chief, different forms of burial existed among the Iroquois at different times, and he might also have added at the same time when the conditions were different. Thus, in addition to the mode of interment already noticed, we are told that when numbers were slain in battle they "were gathered and laid in tiers one above another, and a high mound raised over them."( 83 ) In partial con- firmation of this, we have the statement of the Modern Senecas that the mound on Tonawanda Island was the burial place of the Neuters, ( 84 ) a kindred tribe, who were destroyed by the Iroquois about the middle of the seventeenth century ; and there is also the mound visited by the Rev. Mr. (82.) Five Nations, Introduction, p, 16. (83.) J. V. H. Clark, Onondaga, vol. I, p. 51. (84.) Marshall, Historical Sketches of the Niagara Frontier, p. 8. THE MOITNLS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 87. Kirkland in 1788, and though the condition of "the bones upon its surface, and sticking out in many places on its sides," is totally incompatible with any such antiquity as is claimed for it, yet there can be no reason why the account given by the Senecas of the circumstances under which it was built may not be literally true. Especially is this so, in view of the fact that we have undoubted evidence that at a council, held in 1743, between the Onondagas and the Anticoque Indians, the latter "gave broad belts of wampum, 3 arm belts and 5 strings; one was to wipe clean all the blood they had spilt of the five nations, another to raise a tumulus over their graves, and to pick out the sticks, roots, or stones, and make it smooth on the top."( 8s ) This is believed to be decisive of the matter, for construe the statement as we may, there can be no doubt that the Iroquois, or the. people with whom they fought, were in the habit of building mounds over their dead; and, so far as my argument is concerned, it is perfectly immaterial which of them did so, as the question is not what particular tribe con- structed these mounds, but were they built, by the red Indians of historic times ? South of the Ohio, in the States along the Atlantic coast, certain tribes are said to have had the same custom. Lawson, describing the manner of interment among the Santees, one of the Carolina tribes, says: "A Mole or Pyramid of earth is rais'd, the Mould thereof being work'd very smooth and even, sometimes higher or lower according to the Dignity of the Per- son whose Monument it is. On the Top thereof is an umbrella, made Ridge-ways, like the Roof of an House; this is supported by nine Stakes,. or small Posts, the Grave being about six or eight Foot in Length and four Foot in Breadth."( 86 ) In Florida proper, we are told that, upon the death of a king, he was buried with great solemnity, and the shell from which he usually drank was placed on the tumulus, around which many arrows were stuck up. Le Moyne( 87 ) gives a picture of one of these graves — shell, arrows, and all — but either the drawing is most abominably foreshortened, or else the tumulus is too insignificant to come within the scope of our inquiry. However, both this and the preceding interment belong to the class called single, and this may perhaps account for the size of the mounds erected over them. In each of the localities referred to, the communal (85.) John Bartram, Observations, &c, p. 62 : London, 1751. (86.) History of Carolina, p. 21. (87.) De Bry, plate XL. .._ ^. _. 88 THE MOtJNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. form of burial was also practiced; and in some cases, especially on the peninsula, mounds covering interments of this character have been found, which are not only of large size,( 88 ) but which, from the nature of their contents, must have been thrown up after the arrival of the whites. That the tribes inhabiting the G-ulf States, including under this head the Chick- asaws, Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Muscogees and their allies, were at one time in the habit of erecting mounds over their dead does not admit of a doubt, though it is probable that the custom, like many others connected with their funeral rites, died out at an early day. Adair tells us that "many of these heaps are to be seen in all parts of North America; where stones could not be had they raised large hillocks or mounds of earth, wherein they carefully deposited the bones of their dead, which were placed either in earthen vessels or in a simple kind of ark or chests."( 8 ') Accord- ing to De Brahm, a large conical mound near Savannah was pointed out to G-en'l Oglethorpe as being the tomb of the Yamacraw Chief, who had, many years before, entertained a great white man with a red beard ^'C ) and the evidence of the younger (William) Bartram, to which we have so often had occasion to refer, is even more definite. Describing the burial customs of the Choctaws, that writer says: "As soon as a person is. dead they erect a scaffold eighteen or twenty feet high in a grove adjacent to. the town, where they lay the corps, lightly covered with a mantle; here it is suffered to remain, visited and protected by the friends and relatives, until the flesh becomes putrid, so as easily to part from the bones, then underr takers, who make it their business, carefully strip the flesh from the bones, wash and cleanse them, and when dry and purified by the air, having pro- vided a curiously-wrought chest or coffin, fabricated of bones and splints, they place all the bones therein, which is deposited in the bone-house, a building erected for that purpose in every town. And when this house is full, a general solemn funeral takes place. When the nearest kindred or friends of the deceased, on a day appointed, repair to the bone-house, and take up the respective coffins, and following one another in order of seniority, the nearest relations attending their respective corps, and the multitude following after them, all as one family, with alternate voice of Allelujah and lamentation slowly proceeding on to the place of general (88.) Narrative of Osceola, quoted by Dr. Brinton in the Amer. Antiquarian for Ootober, 1881. (89.) Hist, of Amer. Indians, note to p. 185. (90.) Quoted in Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 131. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, 8$ interment, where they place the coffins in order, forming a pyramid; and lastly, cover all over with earth, which raises a conical hill or mount. "( 9 ') The third and last class of mounds that we shall consider are the trun- cated, or, as they are sometimes called, temple mounds, with graded ways to their tops. They are comparatively numerous south of the Ohio, and are also found, though less frequently, as far north as the middle of the tier of States that lie along the northern bank of that river; but beyond this point, they are believed to be unknown. Of their origin and use in the Southern States, and especially along the line of De Soto's march, there is abundant proof. The chroniclers of that enterprise are in full accord upon these points; and though it is not possible to make out the itinerary of that expedition, yet there is but little hazard in asserting that he was on both sides of the Mississippi, and visited not only the Muscogees and Choc- taws of the G-ulf States, but also the Cherokees (" Achalaque ") and Chick- asaws of Tennessee, and the Quapaws (Capahas-Kappas) of Northeastern Arkansas. Among all these tribes there was a general uniformity in the methods of building the cabins of their chiefs, and in laying out and forti- fying their villages. La Vega( 92 ) tells us that the town and house of the Cacique Ossachile were like those of all the other Caciques in Florida, and assigns this as the reason why, instead of describing this particular town and house, it was better to give one general account that would answer for all. He then goes on to say that the Indians always endeavor to place their villages on elevated sites, but as such situations, with the conveniences for building, are not always to be found in Florida, "they themselves throw up elevations in this manner. They choose a spot to which they bring a quantity of earth, and this they pile up in the shape of a platform, two or three pike's length in height, and large enough on top to hold ten or twelve, fifteen or twenty houses, in which are lodged the Cacique and his attend- ants. At the foot of this mound they lay out a square proportioned to the size of the intended town, and around this the principal men of the village build their cabins. The common people are housed in the same manner, and thus they surround the dwelling of their chief." To ascend this eleva- (91.) Travels through. Florida, p. 516. On p. 139 he speaks of " sepulchres or tumuli of the Yamasees, who were here slain by the Creeks in the last decisive battle, the Creeks having driven them to this point, between the doubling of the river, where few of them escaped the fury of the conquerors. These graves occupied the whole grove, consisting of two or three acres of ground; there were nearly thirty of these cemeteries of the dead, nearly of an equal size and form, they were oblong, twenty feet in length, ten or twelve feet in width and three or four feet high, now overgrown with Orange trees, live oaks," &c, &c. (92.) Histoire de la Floride Premiere Partie/livre 2de, chap. XXVII: Paris, 1709. 00 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. tion they have a graded way frorn top to bottom, in which the slope is so gradual that a horseman can ride up without any difficulty. Excepting at this one place, all the other sides are made so steep as to be difficult of ascent. Elsewhere, in the town «f G-uachoule, on the head-waters of the. Coosa river, ( 93 ) and near the country of the "Achalaque," the dwelling of the chief is said to stand on a "mound with a terrace around it wide enough for six men to walk abreast. "( 94 ) West of the Mississippi, among the Capahas and their neighbors, it was the custom of the Caciques to raise, "near their dwellings very high hills, on which they sometimes build their huts;"( 9S ) and the Gentleman of Elvas tells us that in the town of Ucita, near which De Soto landed, and which is supposed to have been situated on the west coast of Florida, "the lord's house stood upon a very high mount, made by hand for strength. "( 96 ) A few years later, in Lau- donniere's account of the ill-fated attempt of the Huguenots to plant a colony on the northeastern coast of this same Floridian peninsula, we have repeated allusions to " alleys, "( 97 ) which are none other than the "grand avenues" or Indian highways, mentioned by Bartram as leading in a straight line from "a pompous Indian mount, or conical pyramid of- earth, that stood on the site of an ancient town, through a magnificent grove of magnolias, live oaks, palms, and orange trees, to the verge of a large green level savanna. "( 9S ) Passing over an interval of one hundred and fifty years, we find that, among many of these same tribes, the custom still existed of erecting mounds as sites for their habitations. The cabins of the Yazous, Courois, Ossagoulas, and Ouspie tribes, living on the Lower Mississippi, are said to have been "dispersed over the country upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, from which it is inferred that these nations are very ancient, and were formerly very numerous, although at the present time they hardly number two hundred and fifty persons."(") According to Du Pratz, the temple of the Natchez was about thirty feet square, and was (93.) Picket, History of Alabama, vol. I, p. 8: Charleston, 1851. (94.) La Vega, Seconde Partie, p. 2. (95.) Biedma, Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part II, p. 105. (96.) Gentleman of Elvas, I. c, p. 123. (97.) Hakluyt, vol. Ill, pp. 407 and 415. (98.) Travels through Florida, pp. 103 and 521. (99.) La Harpe, in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part III, p. 106. THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. §\ situated by the side of a small river, on an artificial mound, which was about eight feet high, and sloped insensibly from the main front on the north, but was somewhat steeper on the other sides." The same author also tells us that the cabin of their chief, or Great Sun, as he was called was placed upon a mound of about the same height, though it was some- what larger, "being sixty feet over on the surface. "('») When a chief died, these people demolished the cabin in which he had lived, and raised a new mound, upon which they placed the dwelling of his successor, as- it was not customary for a chief to lodge in a house that had been previously occupied. ( io1 ) Whether the Natchez erected the immense works found on the Wachita river, near the outlet of Lake Catahoula, is a point about which opinions may well differ. That they took refuge in the immediate neighborhood of these works, if not on their very site, after the destruction of their village on the Mississippi, and "built a fort," according to Du Pratz, or "fortified themselves," as Charlevoix states, is beyond question; but Judge Force,("») who has examined into the matter very thoroughly, is of the opinion that they were not permitted to hold this position long enough to have con- structed works of the size of those found here. In this he is believed to be correct, though of course it would all depend upon the number of those who had sought refuge on this spot, and the earnestness with which they worked. As some indication of the time necessary to the erection of works of this character, the following fact, for which I am indebted to Lieut. Com- mander A. R. McNair, U. S. N., will be of interest. According to that gentleman, upon one occasion, in 1863, when coaling at the island of St. Thomas, a hundred and fifty negro laborers easily brought on board the Powhatan, in twelve hours, a hundred tons of coal, using only baskets for that purpose. Allowing forty cubic feet to the ton, this would give a cube of coal, measuring 20 X 20 X 10 feet, moved in one day by a hundred and (100.) History of Louisiana, vol. II, pp. 211 and 188. (101.) Father Le Petit, quoted in note to p. 142, Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part III. (102.) Some Considerations on the Mound-builders, p. 77, and note B: Pamphlet, 1873. Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana, p. 350, speaking of the size of these works, says: "Not less than five remarkable mounts are situated near the junction of the Washita, Acatahoula, and Tenza, in an alluvial soil. They are all inclosed in an embankment or wall of earth, at this time ten feet high, which contains about two hundred acres of land. Pour of these mounts are nearly of equal dimensions, about twenty feet high, one hundred broad, and three hundred long. The fifth seems to have been designed for a tower or turret; the base of it covers an acre of ground ; it rises by two stages or steps ; its circumference gradually dimin- ishes as it ascends ; its summit is crowned by a flattened cone. By admeasurement, the height of this tower is found to be eighty feet." §& THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLM. fifty men ; and with this as the basis for a calculation, it will be seen that the length of time absolutely necessary to the construction of these works is not so great as might be supposed. ( IC>3 ) However, this is a point upon which it is needless to insist, as the evidence is quite sufficient to show that the Natchez did build both mounds and earth-works. Du Pratz states the fact positively, ( I03<1 ) and although it cannot be proved that they threw up the embankment and other works on the Wachita, yet there is unques- tionable authority for the statement that a short time after the destruction of their stronghold here by the French under Perier, a band of them, which had managed to escape the general ruin, made an attack upon the Post of Natchitoches, during the course of which they were driven back, and obliged to "dig a kind of entrenchment on the plain."( 104 } Among the Creeks and their allies, even as late as 1773-5, we are told that almost every town had a "chunk yard," surrounded by one or two low embankments or terraces, in the center of which, on a low circular mound or eminence, stood a four-square pole or pillar, thirty or forty feet high, to the top of which was fastened some object that served as a mark to shoot at, with arrows or the rifle, at certain appointed times." At one end of this yard, which was usually from six to nine hundred feet in length, and of proportionate breadth, was a square terrace or eminence, nine or ten feet high, "upon which stood the Public Square," and at the other extrem- ity was a circular mound of about the same height, which served as a site (103.) Strongly confirmatory of this view is the following extract from Isaac McCoy, History of the Baptist Indian Missions, &c, p. 27 : "A little reflection will show that the amount of lahor required in their erection did not surpass the common industry of the savages. Suppose a mound to be forty feet in diameter at its base, and to rise by steps, one foot in height and a foot and a half in depth, to the height of thirteen feet, with a level surface on the summit four feet in diameter. It would contain about six thousand two hundred and thirty-three cubic feet of earth, or a fraction less than two hundred and thirty- one cubic yards. To deposite on the mound one cubic yard of earth would be a moderate day's labour for one man. Therefore the erection of the mound under consideration would employ two hundred and thirty-one persons one day only. Among the Indians, the women would perform as much of this kind of work as the men, or perhaps more, and more than twice this number of persons able to labour are fre- quently at one village or one encampment. * * * Within the Indian Territory we have ninety-four thousand inhabitants; one fifth of these, or more, are competent to labour. This gives eighteen thousand eight hundred labourers; if each of these would, in the course of twelve months, bestow only as much labour on the erection of mounds as would amount to one day, eighty-one mounds would be built in one year:" Washington and New York, 1840. (103a.) Besides the statements quoted in the text, he says: "Le pied des pieux est appuye - en dedans par une banquette de trois pleds de large, & autant de haut, laquelle est elle-mfime appuy^e de piquets frettes de braneages verds, pour retenir la terre qui est dans cette banquette :" Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. II p 435: Paris, 1758. (104.) Dtimont, Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane, Tome II, p. 200, says: "Creuserent dans la plaine une espSce de retranchement oil ils se fortifierent." Charlevoix (Nouvelle France, vol. IV, p. 293) uses the word "retranches." THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 93 for their Rotunda or Winter Council Housed) The Cherokees, too, as we have seen, utilized this class of mounds in much the same manner, the Council House in their town of Cowe, according to the same author, occu- pying the summit of one that was said to have been twenty feet high. If, now, we compare the method of laying out these towns, and building the temples and council houses of these later Indians with that described by La Vega as having been followed by their ancestors, a century and a half earlier, it will be seen that the resemblance is very great; and although we are sometimes assured that the modern Creeks and Cherokees could give no account of the origin or purpose of these earthern structures, yet there can be no doubt that, in Bartram's time, these tribes lived much as their fathers had done before them; and if they did not build the mounds and chunk yards found in their midst, they at least used them for the same purposes for which they were originally erected. ( ,o6 ) Inclosures.— Of the manner in which the nations east of the Missis- sippi fortified their villages, our accounts are full and explicit. Palisades, as has been shown, were employed everywhere; but as this term, alone, fails to give an adequate idea of the methods by which the Indians were accus- tomed to defend their more exposed villages, it may be well to go into the matter somewhat in detail. To this end it will be necessary again to resort to the early chroniclers; and although this may prove tedious, yet it is unavoidable, as it is only by a study of the manner of fortification prac- ticed by the recent Indians that a clue can be found to the mystery that surrounds- the Ohio system of earth- works,, to which we now must refer. Of the origin of these, we are without any written record whatever, unless the traditions of the Delawares, Iroquois, and Natchez, as related by Heckwelder, Rafinesque, Cusick, and Du Pratz,( Io6a ) should be accepted (105.) Bartram, MSS. published in Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley, p. 121. Adair, I. c, p. 421, tells us that "every town has a large edifice, which with propriety may be called the mountain house. * * • It is usually built on the top of a hill ; and in that separate and imperial state house the old beloved men and head warriors meet on material business, or to divert themselves, and feast and dance with the rest of the people." (106.) Bartram, Travels, Ac, p. 520. (106a.) For the traditions of the Delawares consult chap. V of The American Nations, by Prof. C. S. Rafinesque: Philadelphia, 1836. Du Prate, vol. II, p. 146 (London, 1763), speaking of the Natchez, says: " To give an idea of their power, I shall only mention that formerly they extended from the river Manchac or Iberville, which is about 50 leagues from the sea, to the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about 460 leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes. From these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly has been ; but the pride of their Great Suns or sovereigns, and like- wise of their inferior Suns, joined to the prejudices of the people, has made greater havoc among them, arid contributed more to their destruction, than long and bloody wars would have, done." In the above extract he refers to the practice of human sacrifices upon the occasion of the death of any of the Suns or Chiefs. 94 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. as such. This is, of course, rather a serious obstacle to be met with at the outset of an investigation ; but fortunately, in the present instance, we have not far to go in order to discover a reason for the seeming omission. It may be found in the fact that after the destruction of the Eries, say about the middle of the seventeenth century, the whole of that region now known as the States of Ohio and Indiana was virtually deserted, and so remained for upwards of fifty years. Iroquois war parties swept undis- turbed from the Niagara river to the Illinois, and whilst there may have been villages of the Twightwees (Miamis) and their allies scattered about here and there, yet, practically, that whole section of country was a soli- tude, unvisited by the trader, the soldier, and the no less venturesome mis- sionary, the only persons who could, in those early days, have given us an account of what they saw and heard. Of the tribes that may possibly once have lived here, the Shawnees ( IO? ) were now a broken and a scattered people, and the Miamis had been forced back until we find them seeking shelter under the guns of the French fort on the Illinois. ( Io8 ) Such, then, being the condition of affairs throughout this portion of the Ohio Valley during the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, there was nothing to tempt the trader, or attract the missionary ; and hence the absence of all mention of this region, save in the occasional notices of an Iroquois foray, or of the spasmodic attempts of their enemies at retaliation. Later on, about the middle of the last century, the above mentioned tribes are found once more established within this region, having apparently retraced their steps. The Miamis are in Western Ohio and Northern Indiana, and the Shawnees of the Delaware, having been driven across the mountains, re-unite with (107.) "The countries and rivers of Ohio and Wabasche and circumjacent territory were inhabited by our Indians, theChaouanous, Miamis, and Illinois : " Memoir sent by the King to Mr. Denonville, Gov. Gen. of New France, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, new series, 1875, p. 137. " Formerly, divers nations dwelt on this river" — Hohio — "as the Chawanoes (Shawanees), a mighty and very populous people, who had above fifty towns, * * ' who were totally destroyed or driven out of their country by the Irocois, this river being their usual road when they make war upon the nations who lie to the South or to the West :" Coxe's Carolana, in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part II, p. 229. For an account of all that is known histori- cally of the wanderings of the Shawnees, see Judge M. F. Force, Some Early Notices pf the Indians of Ohio: Pamphlet, Cincinnati, 1879. (108.) Tonti, in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part I, p. 66. "The Iroquois, after expelling the Hurons and exterminating the Eries, who inhabited the country bordering on the great Lakes, which now bear their names, events which happened about the years 1650 to 1660, took possession of their vast Territory, and retained it for more than a century after. Their hunting country, which they once occupied, is now embraced in the State of Ohio, and while in their possession was called Carrahague:" Appendix to Morse's Report, p. 60. At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, they sold all that region of country now known as the State of Kentucky, claiming it by right of conquest : See Butler's Kentucky, p. 378 : Lou- isville, 1834, THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 95 their kindred from Georgia, and are settled in the valley of the Scioto, where, singularly enough, their villages are in the immediate neighborhood, if they do not occupy the very sites, of the famous mound centers of Chilli- cothe and Portsmouth. ( ,0 ») Indeed, we are told that about A. D. 1750, at this latter point, their village was situated on both sides of the Ohio river, ("°) just as is the case with the mounds and embankments found there to-day. Of course it is not pretended that all the works in these valleys were erected subsequent to this date, and it is quite probable that not one of those of large size was, but that some of them were built after the arrival of the whites, a hundred and fifty or two hundred years earlier, is proved by the contents of mounds opened at Circleville and Marietta; and that these same Indians, or their immediate descendants, have, within comparatively recent times, "encompassed their villages with ditches and walls," as well as palisades, is evident from the account Schoolcraft has • left us of his visit to Prophet's, town, on the Tippecanoe, and to the sites of other Indian villages in Indiana and Illinois. ( I:I ) These facts are undoubtedly of importance in indicating the phase of civilization that had been reached by the builders of some — perhaps the smaller and more recent — of these works; but they do not enable us to connect, even infer- entially, those of the larger size with any particular tribe, owing to the fact that there was such a long interval of time when Ohio, so far as we know, was virtually uninhabited. If it were possible to show that previous to the settlement of the Iroquois in Western New York, a Shawnee confederacy had occupied the Ohio Valley, as Rafinesque ( II2 ) so confidently asserts, our task would be much simplified. It would, then, be apparent that, in return- ing here, these people were but re-occupying their old homes and hunting grounds ; and as they can be shown to have defended themselves, within comparatively recent times, behind ditches and breastworks, (" 3 ) and as they must, from the necessities of the case, have erected all the mounds that (109.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. VI, p. 277. Croghan, Journal, in Appendix to Butler's HistJ of Kentucky, p. 462: Cincinnati, 1836. (110.) Cristopher Gist's Journal, in Appendix to Pownall's Topographical Description, p. 10: London, 1776. See also Croghan's Journal. (111.) Schoolcraft, Travels in Central Portion of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 129 and 323. (112.) Rafinesque, Ancient Annals of Kentucky, p. 25: Frankfort, 1824. (113.) Gist, in p. 12 of the Appendix to Pownall's Topographical Description of Parts of North Amer- ica: London, 1776, speaks of a "fort" of the Twightwees; and Croghan, in 17C5, found a "breastwork " near the mouth of the Wabash, which, in one account, is "supposed" to have been erected by the Indiansj but in another the fact is stated positively. 96 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, were built within that region subsequent to the landing of the whites, there would certainly be nothing forced or illogical in the inference that they had constructed the older and larger series of works during the palmy days of their confederacy, some hundreds of years before the time of which we are now speaking. Unfortunately, however, Rafinesque fails to make good his statement; and though the evidence, drawn from other sources, bearing upon this point is sufficient to furnish the basis for a very plausible theory, yet it does not afford a satisfactory foundation for an inductive argument, and hence it is altogether omitted. For these reasons, then, we are without any historical evidence as to the origin of the works in the northern part of the Ohio Valley, and as there is no probability that any will ever be discovered, we are obliged to fall back upon the comparative method in order to see whether there are any such differences between the hill forts and fortified villages of Southern Ohio and those found in "Western New York and in some of the Southern States as would authorize the inference that they were the work of a people in a different stage of civilization. Beginning with the "forts," as Grov. DeWitt Clinton ( II4 ) calls them, of Western New York, we are told that they were, generally speaking, erected upon the most commanding ground, and were surrounded, either wholly or in part, by ditches and earthen walls. The palisades that once stood on some of these embankments ( 1IS ) had long since rotted away, and in their places were growing oak trees which, from the number of concentric circles, must have been three hundred years old; and there were evident indica- tions, not only that they had sprung up since the erection of these works, but that they were, at least, a second growth. The trenches were, in some cases, deep and wide, and in others shallow and narrow; and the breast- works varied in height from three to ten feet. In one case near Elmira they are said to have been fourteen feet wide at the base.(" 6 ) There were one or more entrances to these forts, from one of which a "covered way" sometimes led to the water.(" 7 ) The form of these inclosures was deter- (114.) This account is made up from Clinton's Discourse in Collections of the N. Y. Hist. Soc, vol.11, p. 90; Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of New York; Moulton, History of New York, vol. I, parti; Clark's Onondaga, &c, &c. (115.) MSS. of Prof. E. N. Horsford in Abor. Mon. New York, p. 38. (116.) Abor. Mon. New York, p. 38. (117.) Kirkland MSS. quoted in Moulton, New York, pp. 16 and 17. In one case he speaks of a "covered way in the middle of a stockade down to the water;" in the other he says: "a way was dug to the water." THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 97 mined by the nature of the ground; and in area they varied from two to. six acres, though occasionally they were much larger, as, for instance, the one near Livonia, New York, which contained sixteen acres, (" 8 ) and the one fourteen miles from Sackett's Harbor, which, according to Moulton, "covers fifty acres/'C' 9 ) That they were very numerous is evident from Squier's estimate, placing them at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty ;("°) and as they seem to have made up in number what they lacked in size, it is equally evident that, taken in mass, the amount of labor, involved in their construction must have been immense. It would be a grave mistake, however, to regard this as a measure of the populousness of this region, since it probably resulted from the custom of the Indians of changing their village sites every "ten, fifteen, or thirty years," or in fact whenever the scarcity of firewood, the exhaustion of their fields, or the prevalence of an epidemic made such a step desirable. ( I21 ) This is a brief general description of these inclosures as they appear to-day; and if we compare them with the "defensive works" as depicted in Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, it will be seen that they are very like those along the southern shore of Lake Erie, as well as the smallest of those in the Ohio Valley ; and that they do not differ, except in size, from those found in the same valley, which are usually ascribed to the Mound-builders. In situation, form, and structure they are the same, and as both were covered with heavy forests, there can be no difference urged between them upon the score of antiquity. The relics, too — especially the implements and ornaments of stone, bone, and shell — that are found under similar circumstances within or near these two series of works are identical in form and finish; and the best specimens of the Iroquois black pottery, described by Morgan ( I22 ) as being of various designs and sizes, and of such (118.) Abor. Mon. of New York, p. 44. (119.) I. c, p. 15. (120.) Abor. Mon. New York, p. 11. Compare Moulton, p. 18, who says that on the south side of Lake Erie, for a distance of fifty miles, " is a series of old fortifications, some of which are from two to four miles apart, others half a mile only." (121.) Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, Tome I, p. 81: Paris, 1865. La Vega, I, p. 265: Paris, 1709. (122.) League of the Iroquois, p. 354. The Indians everywhere east of the Mississippi and south of the lakes had made great progress in the manufacture of earthenware. Thus we are told that " the Roan- oke Indians have earthen pots, large, white, and sweet : " Hakluyt's Voyages, III, p. 304. The Creeks, Chickasaws, &c, "make earthen pots of very different sizes, so as to contain from two to ten gallons; large pitchers to carry water; bowls, dishes, platters, basins, and a prodigious number of other vessels of such -antiquated forms as would be tedious to describe and impossible to name. Their method of glazing them is, they place them over a large fire of smoky pitch pine, which makes them smooth, black, and firm; " Mem. — vol. n — 7. 98 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. "fine texture as to admit a tolerable polish, and so firm as to have the appearance of stone," cannot have been very different from the same elasa of articles that have been taken from the mounds in the Ohio Valley.. Indeed, Mr. Squier( 133 ) says that the terra cottas of Western New York compare favorably with anything he had yet seen of native workmanships and that the earthen pipes, said by Morgan to be nearly as hard as marble-,, fancifully moulded in the form of animals and of the human head, are so "hard, smooth, and symmetrical as almost to induce doubts of their abo- riginal origin." In view of these manifold resemblances, too numerous and too close to have been the result of accident, it behooves us- to inquire into the origin of the earth-works in Western New York. According to Mr. Sq-uier(" 4 ) they were, one and all — mounds as well as embankments — "erected by the Iroquois or their western neighbors;" and he bases this opinion upon a comparison of the "relics and traces of occupancy" that are found within these abandoned inclosures with those which mark the sites of towns and forts that are known to have been occupied by the recent Indians. These he declares to be identical, as is also their pottery,, whilst their pipes, and ornaments are said to be indistinguishable. "The indications of aboriginal dwellings are precisely similar, and, so far as can be discovered, have equal claim to antiquity. Near many of these works are found cemeteries, in which well-preserved skeletons are contained, and which y except in the absence of European art, differ in no essential respect from the cemeteries found in connection with the deserted modern towns and "castles" of the Indians." This is certainly a very strong statement of the case,, and if we add that the Huron-Iroquois were accustomed to fortify their forts or castles with a ditch and wall, the latter surmounted by a stockade, it will be seen that Mr. Squier had good and sufficient reasons for attributing all these works to the recent Indians. Indeed, now that the palisades that once inclosed the villages known to have been occupied by the Iroquois have Adair, p. 425. Among the Natchez these vessels were "d' un assez beau rouge: " Du Pratz, II, p. 179: Paris, 1758. "The Naudowessies make black pottery nearly as hard as iron:" Carver, pp. 101-223. West of the Mississippi, at Naguatex, there are vessels made of clay which differ very little from those of Estre- moz and Montremor: " Knight of Elvas in Hist. Coll. Louisiana, part II, p. 201. In Ancient Society, note to p. 530. Morgan, on the authority of Mr. F. A. Cushing, tells us that " the Iroquois ornamented their jars and pipes with miniature human faces attached as buttons;" and as this style of ornamentation is believed to be somewhat unusual, it may be well to say that, in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, there are several bowls of black pottery, from stone graves in Tennessee, which are ornamented in this manner. (123.) Abor. Mon. of New York, p. 13 and chapter V. (124.) I. c, p. 82, ttE Mounds of the Mississippi valley. 99 rotted away, there is no structural difference to be seen between them and any of the earth- works of Western New York ; and as these, in their turn, are identical in this respect with the hill forts of the Ohio Valley, it must follow, if the Iroquois or their western neighbors erected the New York series of these works, that there is no reason Avhy these same western neigh- bors, or a people in the same stage of civilization, could not have built those in Ohio, and still further to the west, due regard being had to their population, and to the necessity for such defenses. Thus, for instance, whilst a weak or peaceful tribe, in the midst of enemies, would find it nec- essary to fortify themselves at every point, a strong and warlike people, of whom their neighbors stood in awe, would be relieved of this necessity, except in the direction from which they anticipated danger. This was forcibly exemplified in the case of the Iroquois, ( I2S ) when in the heyday of their power; and it may still be seen in New Mexico, where the Pueblo of Taos" is, or was until very lately, "surrounded by an adobe wall, strength- ened in some places by rough palisades, "( iz6 ) whilst their more warlike neighbors, like the Apache and the Navajo, have not found such defenses necessary or even desirable. Of "the method practiced by the Huron-Iroquois of fortifying their vil- lages, our accounts are very full and explicit. Parkman,( 127 ) whom it is safe to follow, in an admirable sketch of the Hurons, tells us that the defenses of this family of tribes, "like their dwellings, were, in essential points, alike. A situation was chosen favorable to defense — the bank of a lake, the crown of a difficult hill, or a high point of land in the fork of confluent streams. A ditch several feet deep was dug around the village, and the earth thrown up on the inside. Trees were then felled by an alter- nate process of burning and hacking the burnt part with stone hatchets, and by similar means were cut into lengths to form palisades. These were planted on the embankment in one, two, three, or four concentric rows," the Whole being crossed and interlaced after the manner of a chevaux-de- frise, and lined within to the height of a man with heavy sheets of bark. At the top, where the palisades crossed, was a gallery of timber for the defenders, together with wooden gutters, by which streams of water could (125.) Morgan, p. 314. (126.) Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. I, p. 664. (127.) Jesuits in America, p. xxix of the Introduction: Boston, 1874. Compare Morgan, p. 314; Lafi- tau, vol. II, pp. 3 a seq.; Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, pp. 79-80: Paris, 1856. 100 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. be poured down on fires kindled by the enemy. There was no mathemati- cal regularity in these works, their form being determined by the nature of the ground. Frequently a precipice or river sufficed for partial defense, and the line of embankment occurs only on the exposed sides. We are also told that in erecting these works it was probable that the palisades were planted first, and the earth afterwards heaped on both sides in the manner described by Cusick( 128 ) and La Hontan.( ,29 j At an early day the Jesuits taught the Hurons to build rectangular palisaded forts with bas- tions, and the Iroquois, whose forts are said to have been stronger and more elaborate than those of the Hurons, soon adopted the same practice, omit- ting, in some cases, the ditch and the embankment. Among the Algonquin tribes of Southeastern New York a similar method of fortification seems to have prevailed. According to Van der Donck, ( ,3 °) the Indians of New Netherlands, "in their villages and castles always build firm strong works. They usually select a situation on the side of a steep high hill, near a stream or river, which is difficult of access except from the water, and inaccessible on every other side, with a level plain on the crown of the hill, which they inclose with a strong stockade in a singular manner. First they lay along on the ground large logs of wood, and frequently smaller logs upon the lower logs, which serve for the foundation of the work. Then they place strong oak palisades in the ground on both sides of the founda- tion, the upper ends of which cross each other, and are joined together. In the upper cross of the palisade, they then place the bodies of trees, which makes the work strong and firm. These castles are considered very strong, and they frequently contain twenty or thirty houses, some of which, by actual measurement, are one hundred and eighty yards (sic) long, and about twenty feet wide. Beside these strongholds they have other villages and towns, which are also inclosed." The Pequots of Connecticut were a kindred tribe, and Vincent, ( I31 ) describing their fort near New London, says : " Here they pitch, close together as they can, young trees and half trees as thick as a man's thigh or the calf of his leg, Ten or twelve foot high they are above the ground, and within rammed three foot (128.) In vol. V of Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, p. 637. (129.) Travels, vol. II, p. 67: "The Hurons set up pales and fasten them with earth.'' "The Indians are more skillful in erecting their fortifications than in building their houses ; here you see villages sur- rounded with a good palisade and with redoubts: " Charlevoix, Letters, II, p. 127: London, 1761. (130.) New Netherlands, p. 197, (131.) Mass.. Hist. Coll., third series, vol. VI, p. 39. THE MOUNTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 16l deep with undermining, the earth being cast up for their better shelter against the enemy's dischargements." A fort of the Narragansetts is said to have had an exterior ditch, ( I3Z ) and we are told that a party of Mohegans having invaded Block Island, were driven to a high bluff and starved to death, though not until they had found means to "dig a trench around them, toward the land, to defend them from the arrows of their ene- mies."( 133 ) In 1637 the Algonquins, living at Trois Rivieres, Canada, being alarmed at- the rumor of an Iroquois attack, strengthened their fort by erecting a second row of palisades, distant from the first about a foot and a half, and filling the intervening space with fascines and earth.(' 34 ) According to Charlevoix, the Outagamis (Foxes), in 1712, made an attack upon the French post at Detroit, and having been repulsed, took irefuge in a fort where they were well entrenched (rebranches). The fire upon them, however, was so steady that they were obliged to' get into a ditch four or five feet deep (se metbre a quabre oti cinq pieds en berre). Taking advan- tage of a lull in the firing, they made themselves masters of a house that was left standing near their fort, and raised a redoubt (redoube).(' 3S ) Being eventually driven from this stronghold, they retired to a peninsula that jutted into the lake, where, to the number of 500 men and 3,000 women and children, they shut themselves up in a fort, surrounded by "three rows of oak palisades with a deep ditch behind."( 136 ) Elsewhere, as we have seen, tribes in Illinois and Indiana belonging to this same family have defended themselves in a similar manner within comparatively recent times; and in the narrative of Conrad Wiser, the interpreter, we are told of a place in Pennsylvania where "the Indians, in former times, had a strong fortification on a height. It was surrounded by a deep ditch; the earth was thrown up in the shape of a wall, about nine or ten feet high, and as many broad. But it is now (1741) in decay, as from appearance it had been deserted beyond the memory of man."(' 37 ) In Virginia, the Indians, according to Capt. Smith, had "pallizadoed towns, mantelled with the barkes of trees, with scaffolds like mounts. "( ,38 ) (132.) Dwight's Travels, vol. Ill, p. 23: New Haven, 1822. (133.) Mass. Hist. Coll., third series, vol. VI, p. 197. (134.) La Jeune, Belation 1637, p. 83. In the original it reads: " Avec dessein de remplir ce vuide de fascines et de terre.'' (135.) Nouvelle France, vol. IV, pp. 97 and 98. (136.) IUd., p. 156. (137.) Published in vol. IV, Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, p. 326. (138.) Purchas Pilgrims, vol. IV, p. 1715. 102 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. There is no mention of a ditch or of an embankment,, and, as a rule, there seems to have been but one row of palisades, though when they would be very safe "they treble the pales." Sometimes they "encompassed their whole town, but for the most part only their kings' houses, and as many others as they judge sufficient to harbor all their people, when the enemy comes against them."(' 39 ) This mode of defense was kept up in Carolina until the final expulsion of the Indians, as we are told that the Tusca- roras (1712-13) built their forts in this manner, and upon one occasion, when besieged by the whites, they refused to surrender until cannon were planted within a few yards of their walls.( I4 °) In the States still farther to the south, the same method of fortification was practiced. Le Moyne, the artist of Laudonniere's expedition, gives a picture of one of these vil- lages,^ 4 ') which is surrounded by a single row of palisades, twice the height of a man, set close together. The entrance is narrow, drawn in after the manner of a snail shell, and is further defended by two small round build- ings, with slits and holes for observation, something like an old-fashioned sentry-box. In the Gulf States, including under this head portions of Tennessee and Arkansas, the Indians have been in the habit of fortifying their villages with ditches and stockades from the time of De Soto down to the begin- ning of the present century. As late as 1814 the position of the Creeks, at the battle of the Horseshoe, is said to have been protected by a line of earth-works from six to eight feet high,( 142 ) and about 1735, almost a century earlier, the Chickasaws met the attack of Bienville in a stockaded fort, and standing, waist deep, in a ditch. ( I43 ) Going back still farther, we are told by the Portuguese Gentleman ( I44 ) that the wall around a town belonging to the Cacique of Co?a, as well as that "of others which afterwards we saw, was of great posts thrust deep into the ground, and (139.) Beverly, book III, p. 12. (140.) Martin, North Carolina, vol. I, p. 251: New Orleans, 1829. (141.) De Bry, plate XXX. (142.) Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. VI, p. 372. (143.) Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 83: " Surrounded by timber one cubic foot placed circularly with three rows of loop-holes; the Chicachas were bedded to the stomach in the earth," &c. "A large village, surrounded by a kind of wall made with potter's clay and sand, fortified with little towers at intervals, where we found fastened to a post the arms of Spain engraved on a copper plate, dated 1588 : " Cavelier in Shea's Early Voyages, p. 21 : Albany, 1861. "The old village of the Akansea, where they formerly received the late Father Marquette, and which is discernible now only by the old outworks (.dehors), there being no cabins left: " Father Gravier in Shea's Early Voyages, p. 126. (144.) Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 153. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 103 very rough; and many long rails, as big as one's arm, laid across be- tween them, and the wall was about the height of a lance, and it was daubed within and without with clay, and had loop-holes." The town of Mauvila was situated in a plain, and consisted of eighty houses, the small- est of which, according to La Vega,, might contain six hundred persons. It was surrounded by a high rampart, palisaded with heavy beams of wood planted in the ground, and with timbers placed crosswise. The vacant places were filled in with earth mixed with straw, so that the wall looked like a piece of masonry. At every fifty paces there was a small tower, with loop-holes, large enough to hold eight men. The town had two gates, and a large square in the middle, which was surrounded by the principal houses.('«> West of the Mississippi was the village of Capaha, which is said to have consisted of five hundred houses. It was situated on a little hill, surrounded by a ditch ten or twelve cubits deep, and fifty paces wide in most places, and in others only forty. This ditch was kept full of water by means of a canal that had been dug from the town to the river Chucagua. This canal was three leagues long, a pike's length, at least, in depth, and so broad that two large boats could navigate it side by side. The fosse, filled by this canal, surrounds the city except in one place, which is closed by heavy posts planted in the ground, and fastened by means of others placed crosswise, the whole being covered with earth and straw. Within this town was the temple, in which were deposited the bones of the ancestors of the Capaha chief. This the Indian allies of De Soto pillaged, breaking open the coffins and scattering the bones., They also removed the head's of their countrymen, who had been killed in previous wars, and sub- stituted those of the Capahas who had fallen in the recent battle. ( m6 ) This is the account left by La Vega of this village, and though it is evidently exaggerated, as are all of his descriptions, yet there can be no doubt that it is substantially true, as it is confirmed in all important particulars by the other chroniclers of that expedition. Thus, for instance,. Biedma ( I4 *) tells us that "they reached a village in the midst of a plain, surrounded by walls, and a ditch filled with water which had been made by the Indians;" and according to the Knight of Elvas,( 148 ) this town, which he calls Pacaha, (145.) La. Vega, Seconde Partie, p. 19. (146.) Ibid. Seconde Partie Livre Second, chap. VI and VH. Compare this with the account of the Temple of the Tensas, by Tonti, on p. 42. (147.) Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part II, p. 105. (148.) I. c., part II, p. 172. 104 THE MOUNDS OP THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. "was very great, walled and beset with towers, and many loop-holes were in the towers and wall. * * * Where the Governor was lodged was a great lake that came near unto the wall ; and it entered into a ditch that went round about the town, wanting but a little to environ it around. From the lake to the great river was made a wear by which the fish came into it; * * * with nets that were found in the town they took as much as they would ; and took they never so much, there was no want perceived. Within a league and a half there were other great towns all walled." Proceeding still further to the northwest, we are told that, within the present century, the Mandans, Arikaras, and other tribes living high up on the Missouri, when they were first visited by the whites, were accustomed to fortify their towns by ditches, embankments, and palisades. Lewis and Clarke make repeated mention of recently abandoned Indian villages, sur- rounded by earthen walls, which, in one case, at least, are said to have been eight or ten feet high;( 149 ) and Brackenridge,(' s °) who visited these same tribes in 1811, tells us of a citadel or fortification oval in form, and four or five acres in extent, around which a village had apparently been built. The earthen wall that inclosed this fort was about four feet high, and upon it cedar posts were still standing. Struck with the resemblance, "in every respect," between these ruins and the "vestiges," as he calls the earth- works on the Ohio and the Mississippi, he very justly concluded that these latter were but the sites of stockaded towns and villages ;(' SI ) and this inference. is borne out by the fact that on some of them "the remains of pallisadoes were found by the first settlers. "( I52 ) That this resemblance is not altogether fanciful will be admitted by those who have followed the course of this investigation, though it is possible that the comparison would be more just if it were limited to the hill forts of the Ohio Valley. Defensive works of the character of these latter seem to have been the same everywhere, and whether built by Iroquois, Chickasaw, Mandan, or Mound-builder, admit of no distinction in situation, form, or structure. Not so, however, with the class of works to which the term (149.) Lewis and Clarke, vol. I, pp. 62, 92, 94, 97, 98, 108, &c: Philadelphia, 1814. The Omahas and Pawnees too, so I am told by Miss Alice C. Fletcher, " formerly dug ditches around their villages, and made walls from three to five feet high." (150.) Views of Louisiana, p. 242. He adds: "Probably, in cases of siege, the whole village wag crowded into this space." (151.) Ibid., p. 183. Compare Catlin, vol. II, pp. 259 et. seq. (152.) Ibid., p. 21. THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 105 fortified village has been applied. These are groups rather than single works, and though primarily nothing but mounds, ditches, and embank- ments, and as such differing in nowise, except perhaps in size, from similar structures elsewhere, yet they are often arranged in such a complicated manner as to have but little in common with the inclosures, north of the Ohio, that are known to have been erected by the modern Indians. For their counterparts we must look to the Gulf States, Georgia and Arkansas, and it is possible that, even here, they will be found to be neither so large nor so complicated. Upon this point, however, it is necessary to " make haste slowly," as our knowledge of the earth- works in the Southern States is very slight ; and there can be no doubt that the statement of the Portu- guese Gentleman ( I53 ) as to the existence of "great and walled towns, and many houses scattered all about the fields, to-wit, a cross-bow shot or two, the one from the other," taken in connection with what is known of the manner in which these tribes built their houses and fortified their villages, is suggestive of a condition of affairs strongly resembling the famous tttound centres of the Ohio Valley. ( IS4 ) In all other respects, the works of. the Southern Indians, such as they have been described by the early chron-. iclers, will compare favorably with anything of the same character that has yet been found in the United States. The truncated or temple mounds are far more numerous in the States south of the Ohio than anywhere else in the Mississippi Valley, and, except in one or two notable instances, are of larger size ; whilst the artificial ponds, with canals to feed them, are believed to be peculiar to that region. Of the other earth-works— the sfione cairns, burial mounds, graded ways, ditches and embankments— it can only be said that they are common to both sections, and that the only difference between them is in their size, or in the order in which they are sometimes grouped together. Even in these (153 )it pp 160 169 170 144, and 172. The Indians everywhere throughout this region built their village's in groups, some of which were very large. Upon this point consult the other chromclers of De Soto's expedition and the narratives of Father Douay, p. 204, and Gravrer, pp. 133, 138, and 148 ; also Adair n 352, and Charlevoix, Letters II, p. 245 etseq.: London, 1761. (154) A series of explorations, under the auspices of the Peabody Museum of Amencan Archeology and Ethnology, has recently been conducted amid the mounds and village Sites of the northeastern por- tTono ArkanL-the region that the Capahas are supposed to have inhabited m the time of De Soto, and where they were found by Fathers Douay and Charlevoix in 1687 and 1721-and it » cunous to note howL statement of the old chronicler as to the existence of « walled towus wxthm a league or a league nL half of each other" is verified. See Fourteenth Annual Keport of the Peabody Museum, p. 10, where w are tola *a« these mounds are usually surrounded by earth-works and ditches, forming ri^of from three or four to eighteen or twenty acres ;» and the MS. field notes of the late Mr. i^s£X£V?*^ M i um ? fo? *• relative situation of swn? 0| thes?mglt ™ 106 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. particulars the advantage is not always on one side, for the reason that there is no uniformity in any of the works; and whilst, as a matter of fact, the largest and most complicated group of the Ohio system exceeds anything that has yet been found in the Gulf States, it is equally true that there are mounds and embankments south of the Ohio that are larger than are many of those found to the north of that stream. Between the giant mass of the Cahokia, Illinois, mound and the long lines of embankment on Paint creek, Ohio, and their counterparts in Mississippi ('") and else- where in the Southern States, ( ,s6 )' the difference is much less than it is between these same works and the average of those of similar character in the northern half of the Ohio Valley. But even if there were no such differences, and the groups in the Ohio system of works were uniformly of larger size and more complicated pattern than can be found elsewhere in the United States, the fact would still be without any ethnical significance; otherwise we should have to admit that there existed in the Ohio Valley, at or about the same time, and in close proximity to each other, as many different races or phases of civilization as there are groups of works, and this would be absurd. With the. establishment of this point, my task is brought to a close. In it I have confined myself almost entirely to the historical proof of the recent origin of these works, and, except incidentally, have ignored the argument that may be drawn from the similarity of burial customs, and from the identity of the implements and ornaments found in the mounds with those that are known to have been made and used by the recent Indians. This has not proceeded from any failure to appreciate the full ethnical significance of these resemblances, nor has it been caused by any lack of material ; but it has been the result of the limits voluntarily placed upon the investigation. At some future time it may be necessary to revert to this subject, and then it will be competent to show that the "vestiges of art," found in the mounds, "do not excel in any respect those of the Indian tribes known to history. "('") In the meantime we can well afford to con- (155.) The great mound at Seltzertown, Mississippi, according to Brackenridge, Appendix to Views of Louisiana, was a truncated pyramid 600 X 400 feet, and forty feet in perpendicular height. It was ascended by graded ways, and the area on top embraced about four acres. At each end of this area, and near the centre, were other mounds, one of which was about forty feet high, with a level space at its summit thirty feet in diameter. The whole was surrounded by a ditch that averaged ten feet deep. (156.) For the size of some of these works, see above note 102. Compare also Squier, Aborig. Mon. of the Miss. Valley, pp. 113 el seq.; and Jones, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 163: New York, 1873. (157.) J. W. Powell, in Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, p. 116: Pamphlet, 1881, THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 107 tent ourselves with this brief and cursory examination into the early rec- ords. 'Summing up the results that have been attained, it may be safely said that, so far from there being any a 'priori reason why the red Indians could not have erected these works, the evidence shows conclusively that in New York and the Gulf States they did build mounds and embank- ments that are, essentially, of the same character as those found in Ohio. And not only is this true, but it has also been shown that whilst, for rea- sons that have been given, we are without any historical account of the origin of the Ohio system of works— the only one about which there seems to be any dispute— yet there can be no doubt that one of the more elabo- rate of them, viz: the mound at Circleville, in which were found articles of iron and silver, was built after contact with the whites, and therefore by the recent Indians. In view of these results, and of the additional fact that these same In- dians are the only people, except the whites, who, so far as we know, have ever held the region over which these works are scattered, it is believed that we are fully justified in abandoning the seemingly negative position occupied at the outset of this argument, and in claiming that the mounds and inclosures of Ohio, like those in New York and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians of historic times, or of their immediate ances- tors. To deny this conclusion, and to accept its alternative, ascribing these remains to a mythical people of a different civilization, is to reject a simple and satisfactory explanation of a fact in favor of one that is far-fetched and incomplete, and this is neither science nor logic. ?$0!$l .■•:■: ;.■: : ,'^[ i !"'' ('""i' »>\i