The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-06-07
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Behind The Indians. who were In posses
sion Of the country when u was discovered
by Europeans Is dimly soon the shadovy
form Of another people who have left many
remarkable evidences of their habits and
customs and of q singular degree of ~civiliza-
ton, but who many centuries ago disappeared
either ~erterminated by pestilence or by some
powerful and pitiless enemy, or driven from
the country to seek new homes south and
west of the Gulf of Mexico.
The evidences Of the presence of this an
cient people are found almost everywhere
upon the North American continent, except,
perhaps, upon the Atlantic coast. They con-
sist of mounds sometimes of imposing size,
and other e~arthworks, so numerous that in
Ohio alone there are, or were till quite re-
Gently. estimated to be not less than ten
thousand ofthe mounds, and fifteen hundred
Enclosures Of earth and stone, all evidently
the work of the same people. In other parts
Of the country they were found in such num-
bers that no attempt has ever been made to
count them all.
There are no data by which the exact age
of these singular relics of a once numerous
and industrious people, living q long-sus-
tanned, agricultural life, can be fixed. But
it is evident from certain established facts
that this must date from a very remote Pc
rod. Tho chief seat of their power and pop
ulation seems to nave been in the Miaaissip-
pi Valley. The signs of their occupation
are many along the banks Of its rivers, but
they arc rarely found upon the last formed
termcesof those streams-those which have
been longest in formation, and which were
the beds OF the rivers when most Of the earth
works were built. It Is very seldom that tho
human bones found In them, except those
Of later and evidently intrusive burial, are IN
a condition TO admit of their removal, a. thoy
crumble into dust on exposure TO tho air;
while bones in British tumuli, know TO be-
long to the Roman period and 70 ages older
than the Christian era, are frequently taken
entire from situations, as regards soil and
moisture, much less conducive TO their pre-
servation than those of the mound. They
ate often also covered by primoval forests,
which are known to have grown ~undisturbed
sinco the country WINS first occupied by the
whites, and the annular growth Of those trees
has boon ascartained to be sometimes from
five to eight centuries.
But this, SO far from fixing the date Of the
occupation Of these works, does not even in
dictate the time when they were abandoned;
for q considerable period must nave elapsed
before tho ground was occupied by trees Of
any kind, and before the forest, In It's gradual
and slow ~oncroachment, obtained complete
possession Of tho ground; and then forest after
forest, may have grown and fallen, and min
gled with the soil through the progress OF
many centuries, before the seed Of the ltest
growth was sown, five hundred or q thousand
years ago.
Even the purpose for which they were
erected Is often doubtful and one class Of
them battles all rational conjecture. In the
state of Wisconsin, occupying the region be-
tween Lake Michigan and the Missisainni
Hiver. are many earthworks Of q peculiar
character, which find few parallels in other
partao Of tho country while In the same region
Il remarked the absence Of the circumvalla-
Hons and immense mounds so numerous
elsewhere. The Significance of these works
In tho Northwest seems TO be in their con-
hguration alone, though whit That signif-
mnoo could have boon is altogether inexpli-
cable.
: Generally, these figures are in groups,
though sometimes they stand alone they
represent animals, usually in relief, though
frequently the reverse, and the figures IRE
varied and distinct enough to show that they
were meant to be the efigies of perhaps every
quadrupod then known in the country, of
birds with outstretched wings, of fishes with
fms extended, reptiles, of man and of in
animate things, the war-club, the bow and
hrrow, the pipe, the cross, the crescent,
the circle, and other mathematical forms.
They rise above the surface two, four, some
six feet in height the animal figures
vary from ninety to one hundred and twenty
feet In length. But there are rectangular
ombankments, only "a few feet in height and
width, TINT stretch out to a length of several
hundred feet. Among all these Representa-.
tons, Of animals there is no one more re-
markable than that recently described, called
Big Elephant Mound, found in Wisconsin n
few miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin
River. Its name indicates its form.
. II does not seem probable that the
people who piled up these mysterious earth
works could represent IA mastodon or elephant
il it were not a living creature with which
they were familiar
In other parts of the country walls of stone
and earth were raised for defense mounds
OF great or small dimensions were heaped up
10 cover the dead, or erected to their memory,
or set up as monuments where some mys-
FERROUS rites of incremation, or sacrifice, or
Ind been celebrated; or they marked
the former site of temples OF Of habitation.