Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1845-08-02

The following interesting article from the
pen of IIENaY C, SoHooLcRAFr, we clip from
the Aeghenian:
THE MOUND BUILDERS OF NORTH
AMERICA.
Our au,horitis, respecting the ancient at
leghenies do not leave us in doubt, that this an
Gent people who occupy the foreground OF our
remote aboriginal history, were a valiant nos
BILE and populous race, who were advanced IN
arts and the policy of government, and raised
Notifications for their defence. While they
held high reputation as hunters, they cultl-
waited maize extensively, which enabled them
to live in largo towns, and erect those antique
Notifications which are extended over the en-
tire Mississippi valley, as high as lat. 43 deg,
and the lake country, reaching from st. CLAIR
to the south side Of the Niagara ridge, the old
shore Of Lake Ontario (and the country Of the
Onondaguas and the Onedas. Towards the
south they extended as far as the borders OF
the Cherokees and Muscogees. From the ira
dtions of Father Raymond, they were wor-
shippers of the sun, had an order of priests
hood, and exercised sovereignty over very
wide area of country.
| At what era the Alleghan coniederacy, thus
Swallowed forth, existed and fell in North
America, we do not know. Our Indian nations
have no certain chronology, and we must es-
tablish data by contemPoraneous tradition, oil
the Mexican nations, or by internal antiquarian
evidence.
The /" Old Fortm discovered by Dr.. Locke in
| Uiphland county, Ohio. ia 1893, denoted q
period Of 600 years from its abandonment;
that is, ga years between Christopher Colum-
bus first sailed boldly into the western ocean.
The trees on Grave Creek mound, denote tho
abandonment of the trenches and stonelook>
outs in that vncinity to have been IN 1881
The rampar,s at Marietta had a tree decayeP
| in the heart, but the concentric outer circles,
which could be counted, were 462. The live
oaks on the low mounds of Florida, where ono
Of the Algonquin tribes, namely the Shawnees,
aver tina, thev once lived and had been precs-
ded by people more advanced in arts, denote
their abandonment about ll45 Blu! even
these data do not probably, reach sufficiently far
to denote the true period.
If we fix upon the 18th century as the era
Of The fall OF the Alleghan race, we shall not
probably over estimate the event. They had
probably reached the Mississippi valley a CEN
fury or two before, having felt, in their origin
al position west and south Of that stream, the
great revolutionary movements which prece>
ded the overthrow of Toltec and the establish
ment OF the Atzec empire 10 Mexican America
There are but two words left in our geogra.
| ply, supposed 10 De oil inc ancient AlleSnah
language. These are Alehany and Yioghio-
gany; the latter being the name OF stream
which falls into the Monongahela on its right
bank, about twenty miles above Pittsburgh.
Tradition, not of the highest character, gives
us the word Talligeu, or TallIgwee, as tbs
name OF this ancient nation, although it is near.
y identical In sound with the existing and true
name of the Cherukees, which, according to th-
ate Elias Boudino,, "a Cherokee,) is Tsalla-
kee. Col. Gibson, plain man, an Indian tra>
der, and no philolrgist, who furnished Mr.. JEFF
erson with Indian vocabularies Of the dialects
Of his day, to be used in answering inquiries Of
Catherine the Great, expressed an opinion that
this ancient people did not t. before the
epi,het but were called AIlegewee. Tradi-
lion has, however, strictly speaking, preserved
neither Of these terms, although both appear 10
have strong stfinities with them, The word
Allegheny has come down TO US from the earli-
est times as the name OF the great right hand
fork of the Ohio, and also as the name, from
the same remote period Of antiquity, Of tho
chain OF mountains OF which the stream itself
may be said to be the most norheastery tri-
buary. In this form it is evidently a local
term, applied geographically accordingly ts
the general principles Of the Indian langu-
ages, like hanna in SuSquehanna, and hammock
in the Rappahannock, which appear to denote,
in each case, a river or torrent Of wafer. By
removeing this local infection, we have Al
eghan as the proper term for the people, and
| have felt sustained, by this nductve process,
in regarding Aleghan as the original cogno
men Of the " mound buiiders' of North Ameri-
ca. IL. r. S.