The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-05-04
THE MOUND


An Attempt q Solve the Enigma Of
Their Lives by = ConjecturaI Restor-
alton OF q Pueblo
[yrom the New York Tribunc.l
The Hon. L. II. Morgan has already
won high repute by his philosophical
studies Of the ethnology of this CONT
nent. A vast mass of material concern
ing the early races of North and Cen
trail 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, sue
cess. One of the toughest of the
problems connected with such an at
tempt is presented by the relics of the
Mound Builders. Their ~earthworks,
their graves, their skeletons, are a puzzle
without a key. There has been abund-
ant speculation on the subject, and on
insufficient grounds the origin Of the
Mound Builders has been ascribed to
Judea, PhGnicia, Egypt, China, Sibc.
ria, the Islands of the Pacific, and the
South American Continent. Pro-
fessor Morgan has at last attacked
this problem. lie began this morning
the reading Of his paper entitled "a
Conjectural Restoration of n Pueblo of
the Mound Builders" with the remark
that "a conjecture is sometimes worth
the time spent upon it," 1t is neces-
sary first to consider carefully some
practices and usages of the aborigines
which were general among them over a
wide area. We find that in all parts of
America they sometimes constructed
what may be called j~oint-tenement
houses. We find these houses occupied
by n number of related families. They
pract.ccd communism in living. The
marriage relation was simply pairing.
They also followed certain customs,
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 Vii
lage Indians. Professor Morgan thinks
that the Mound Builders were probably
Village Indians from New Mexico.
Their arts, as shown by their imple-
ments, their copper tools, their textile
and fictile fabrics, were in advance of
the Indian tribes found east of the Mis-
sissippi.
We find in Yucatan and Chiapas the
highest type of Village Indian life. 1t
declines as we advance northward to
Mexico and New Mexico. 1t was best
adapted to n warm climate. The at
tempt to transport 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
a doubtful experiment from the start.
Nevertheless, the stru ctures left by the
Mound Builders indicate such an at
tempt; their earthworks may he regard
ed as the dwelling site of Village In
dams. II is certain that il q sensible
use for these entertainments can be dis
covered, the mystery about them will be
dispelled. The theory that they were
built for religious purposes is exceed
ingly improbable; the magnitude of the
work, considering their grade in civili-
cation, 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 tt con-
struct adobe houses. Some modiiica.
cation of the plan and character of the
house would be necessary, because of
the difference of climate. They might
have used stone, but they did not; no
stone houses had been built by the Mex.
lean tribes. They might have made a
house of inferior character upon the
level ground, like the timber-framed
houses of the Minnetous. Lastly, they
might have raised entertainments of
earth and built houses on the SUBMITS I;
and this, it is respectfully submitted, is
what they did.
The elevated platform is n 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 a pueblo. 1t is an octa-
gonal Enclosure 900 feet square, with an
opening at each angle and in the ceater
of each side. The embankments are
80 feet thick at the base, 10 or II feet
Highland over 80 feet level on their sum-
mits. These, then, were the sites of
their houses. There are six of these
embellishments, each $50 feet long, and
n of 800 feet. On the inside, before
each opening, there is a mound. If the
openings were gateways defended by
palisades, the whole structure became a
fortress. We have now to suppose that
the buildings were of timber on the
SUBMITS of the entertainments, and uni
form 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 rampant twenty feet
high. The form of house would har.
monte with the prevailing architecture
of the Village Indians; but II knowledge
of the actual shape of the houses, or of
their interior arrangements, is not
necessary to the hypothesis. The