Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-05-04
The Work Of the Mound Builders.


THE Hon. Z. H. Morgan has already
won high repute by his philosophical
studies of the ethnology Of this continent
A vast mass of material concerning the
early races of North and Central America
has been accumulated for the greater part
in a fragmentary way, and the effort to
systematic it and draw from it definite
history, deserves, even though it should
not fully achieve, success. One of the
toughest Of the problems connected with
such an attempt is presented by the relics
of the Mound Builders Their earthworks,
their graves, their skeletons, are puzzle
without key. There has been abudant
speculation on the subject, and on insult
ficient grounds the origin of the Mound
Builders has been ascribed to Judea,
Phenicia, Egypt, China, Siberia, the
Islands of the Pacific and the South Amer
lean Continent. Prof. Morgan has at last
attacked this problem. He began this
morning the reading of his paper entitled
A Conjectural Restoration of Pueblo
OF the Mound Builders" with the remark
that "a conjecture is sometimes worth the
time spent upon it." 1t is necessary first
to consider carefully some practices and
usages of the aborigines which were gen
eral among them over wide area We
find that in all parts of America they
sometimes constructed what may be called
joint houses. We find these
houses occupied by a number of related
families. They practiced communism in
living. The marriage relation was simply
pairing. They also followed certain Gus
toms, which may be designated as the law
of hospitality The land was owned in
common by families and households.
Those that had fully reached this method
of living have been called Village Indians.
Prof. Morgan thinks that the Mound
Builders were probably Village Indians
from New Mexico. Their arts, as shown
by their implements, their copper tools,
their textile and fictile fabrics, were In adj
vance Of the Indian tribes found east of
the Mississippi.
We find in Yucatan and Chiapas the
highest type of Village Indian Life. 1t
declines as we advance northward to Mex
leo and New Mexico. 1t was best adapted
to warm climate. The attempt to trans
plant this mode of life from the Rio
Grande, or the San Juan, first to the Gulf
of Mexico and then northward to the
Ohio, must have been doubtful experi-
from ha cta IoIo Al.
structures left by the Mound Builders in
dictate such an attempt; their earthWorls
may be regarded as the dwelling site of
Village Indians. It is certain that if a
sensible use for these entertainments can
be discovered, the mystery about them
will be dispelled. The theory that they
were built for religious purposes is ex-
ceedingly improbable; the magnitude of
the work, considering their grade in civ
ilizatiOn, indicates that these Indians were
labOring for themselves, not for their
gods. If tribe of Village Indians, with
their acquired habits of living, emigrated
to the Valley of the Ohio, they would find
it impossible to construct adobe houses.
Some modification of the plan and char
acter of the house would be necessary, be-
cause Of the difference of climate. They
might have used stone, but they did not;
no stone houses had been built by the
Mexican tribes. They might have made
house OF inferior character upon the level
ground, like the timber framed houses of
the Minnetous. Lastly, they might have
TaI nG i al-r1 rs Of IL
houses on the SUBMITS; and this, it is
respectfully submitted, is what they did.
The elevated platf orm is a feature of
the adobe houses of New Mexico it ap-
pears also in the Yucatan dwellings. Let
US regard the high bank on the Sciota
River as pueblo. It is an octagonal in
closure 900 feet square, with an opening
at each angle and in the center of each
side. The embankments are fifty feet
thick at the base, ten or eleven feet high,
and over thirty feet level on their sum-
mits. These, then, were the sites of their
houses. There are six of these embank-
ments, each $50 feet long, and one of 900
feet. On the inside, before each opening,
gateways defended by palisades, the whole
structure became fortress. We have
now to suppose that the buildings were of
timber on the SUBMITS of the embank-
ments, and uniform with the latter in
slope. The walls of the buildings were
coated with earth, and probably rose ten
or twelve feet above the entertainments,
thus making a continuous sloping ram
part twenty feet high. This form of
house would harmonic with the prevail
ing architecture of the Village Indians;
but knowledge of the actual shape of
the houses, or of their interior arrange
ments, is not necessary to the hypothesis
The Mandan Indians surround their
houses with wall of split timber, coated
with earth. 1t may be pointed out that
such structures on the edge of embank-
ments could not be successfully assailed
from without, either by Indian weapons
or by fire.
Prof. Morgan exhibited a ground plan