The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-06
CHlPOUAW- KAY,
Remarkable Monuments of a Long-Losi
and Intelligent Race.

and Intelligent Race.
Chipquaw-Kay was the name of a
Miami Indian village on the banks OF
the Wabash river two hundred years
ago. Around about it lay the remains
of city much older and of civiliza-
ton much higher than that of the
Miamis-the dwelling place of people
of whom history and tradition are alike
silent. Huge monumental piles bore
enduring testimony to the enterprise
OF the unknown race. Venerable trees
grew upon the mounds and their rings
of annual growth marked many gem
erations of their antiquity. In the con-
struction of these mounds their builders
displayed no mean comprehensiveness
OF design and no inconsiderable en-
cheering skill. The implements left
by these builders are of the stone age.
They are all of peaceful character
hoes, spades, avis, axes, knives, saws,
pipes, beads, etc.. symmetrical in shape
and wrought from the hard stone with
mature skill. The absence of instru-
ments of war leads to the belief that
the piles were built by royal priest
hood in honor of their god-the SUM-
Two hundred of these great artificial
heaps stood about the village. North
of ChipquawKay were fifty-two of
them, ordered like city, with streets
leading directly to the cardinal points.
Two hundred years have worked no
changes in these piles. Two thousand
more will find them as majestic and as
placid as we found them yesterday.
There is nothing ordinary about these
mounds. From their bases they tower
nearly two hundred feet above the sur
rounding plain. The sides of their
bases are slightly greater than their
height. Within their bosoms have
been found innumerable relics of the
lost race. Three of the mounds are
more majestic than the others, and on
their fat tops were, doubtless, the al
tars of the priesthood when sacrifice
was offered to the god of bounty. To
the right and left of these were the
sepulchral mounds. Their tombs have
been violated, but they have yielded no
secrets save human skeletons and a
few pieces of round bottomed pottery.
Yet others of the mounds were de-
signed for habitations, and upon them
are the ruins of walls of stone, the
i foundations, doubtless, of structures OF
some architectural pretensions.
! But Chipquaw-Kay has other claims
to interest than these monuments OF
unrecorded time. Hither, in 1858,
came the French voyagers, followed in
! 1902 by the missionaries of the cross,
with their doctrine of peace and good
will" Sixty years later the lion stand.
ard, by right of conquest, courted the
breeze above the village, In the heart
of the town you may see to-day where
Fort Sackville was built, and to the
north stood the stone walls of Fort
Knox, which gave its name to the
present county. Long years ago Chip
quaw-Kay became an almost forgotten
name, and the French occupation be-
came immortalized in the name of Vim
cennes.
When the sword was drawn for the
liberation of the American colonies the
"Old Post" as Fort Knox was called
became of Importance to the battling
patriots, and General George Rogers
Clark was sent to wrest it from En-
gland. How he marched his little bant
he magnified it to the British eyes anC
frightened their commander and hi
superior force into surrender,is part O
history. The mound which thus served
the cause ofliberty now bears the name
of Bunker Hill,
Before the present century was yea
old the territory of Indiana, comprising
an underlined area north of the Ohit
river and west of the Buckeye State
was erected and Vincennes became it
capital. William Henry Harrison wa
part of the town the curious may We
see his executive mansion. Its rough
boards were sawed out by hand, ant
the nails which held them togethe
were hammered into rude shape upol
blacksmith's anvil. Beneath the fam
lily room was the powder magazine
placed there, it is said, by the Genera
for the purpose of blowing up his fam
lily should the post fall into the hand
of the Indians. In the cellar may b.
seen the cells in which prisoners wer
kept.
As one dashes across the bridge
which spans che Wabash he may SEE
from the ca, windows two venerable
trees standing near the rivers bank
Until within few years there wer
three of them, and beneath their shad
General Harrison held conference witt
the Indian chiefs. Here treaties wer
made and here gathered the pride an
wisdom of the red nations and of tn
pioneers of the great West.
A stroll through the streets of tn
old town to -day is full of reminders G
the time when "Stout ST. Louis COLDER
lilies flew the breeze above it VM
cenl1eS (I1aa.) Cor. Chicago Neoos.
| NaAu IndIctrM in Delhi.