The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-05-04

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 havebeen 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 flctile fabrics, were in ad-
vance of the Indian tribes found east OF
the Mississippi.
We find in Yucatan and Chiapas the
highest type of Village Indian Life. Ii
declines as we advance northward to Mex
leo and New Mexico. It was best adapted
to wariii climate. The attempt to trans
plant this mode of life from the Rio
Grande, or the San Juan, first TO the Gull
of Mexico and then northward to the
Ohio, must have been doubtful expert,
ment from the start. Nevertheless, the
structures left by the Mound Builders in
dictate such an attempt; their earthworks
may be regarded as the dwelling site OF
Village Indians. 1t is certain that if
sensible use for these entertainments car
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 wer,
laboring for themselves, not for their
gods. If a tribe of Village Indians, will
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 cf the difference of climate They
might have used stone, but they did not
no stone houses had been built by thu
Mexican tribes. They might have mad,
a house of inferior characterupon the leve,
ground, like the timber-f framed houses OF
the Minnetous. Lastly, they might have
raised entertainments of earth and bulls
louoSo VI 'hO ttId lilS, II II
respectfully submitted, is what they did
The elevated platform is a feature OF
the adobe houses of New Mexico; it ap
pears also in the Yucatan dwellings. Lei
us regard the high bank on the Sciota
River as a pueblo. 1t is an octagonal in
closure 900 feet square, with an opening
at each angle and in the center of eacl
side. The embankments are fifty fee
thick at the base, ten or eleven feet high
and over thirty feet level on their sum
mits. These, then, were the sites Of thei
houses. There are six of these embank
ments, each $50 feet long, and one of y0'
feet On the inside, before each opening.
there is mound. If the openings wer,
gateways defended by palisades, the who'll
structure became a fortress. We hav,
now to suppose that the buildings were OF
timber on the SUBMITS of the embank-
ments. and uniform with the latter il
slope. The walls of the buildings were
coated with earth, and probably rose tel
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 o.
the houses, or of their interior arrange
ments, is not necessary to the hypothesis
The Mandan Indians surround then
houses with wall of split timber, coated
with earth. 1t may be pointed out thai
such structures on the e1ge of embank-
ments could not be successfully assailed
from without, either by Indian weapons
or by fire.
Prof Morgan exhibited ground plan
for such buildings, showing how they
might have been readily constructed, and
would perhaps contain from 200 to 800
families, on the communal plan, and serv-
ing the purposes of their former mode OF
life. In fact, the mode of life necessarily
determined the form of architecture. We
need not discuss the uses or contents OF
the Enclosure formed by the embank-
ments. 1t is not at all improbable that il
was the village garden, or at all events re-
ceived some tillage. Butthis mode of life
was, after all, not adapted to the climate,
and these emigrants eventually succumbed
in the struggle for existence. There is
evidence of the better adaptation of such
life in warmer climates, from the fact OF
the longer continuance of the Village In
dams in Mexico, and especially in Cen
trail America.-N. Y. Tribune.