Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-04
THE MOUND-BUTLDERS.
SACRiFICiAL AND EFFlGY MOUNDS IN
WISCONSIN AND ELSEWHERE.
Half the Indian Mounds Pointed Out
Are Not Gcnuine-Asiatic Origin OF the
People Who Mined Copper i'm the Lake
Superior Region.

In the realms of archaeology and ancient
history there are many shapeless things that
give to the mind no clew by which they can
be identified, but no figure in TIE whole
gamut is more vague than an Indian mound.
One authority speaks OF an Indian mound
as a common grave, such as one meets with
in any cemetery. The average farmer,
driving his city guest over country roads,
points with his whip into an ad jacent field
at circular hillock, with the base like q
charcoal pit and rising more gradually 70 a
point near the top, saying: That's an In
dian mound As the guest shows his in
terest in the subject and strains his eyes TO
catch sight of the object, the accommodate
ing farmer keeps pointing out the mounds
every little way. In truth, half the mounds
pointed out are not genuine or if they are
no one knows about it, as they have never
been opened. 1t is scarcely plausible to as
sert that the Indians passed all their time
building mounds. IL they did, they might
have been in better business
A traveller who has ridden, fast and far
in company with inventive drivers, and who
has had things palned OF on him Indian
mounds that would have made the builders
turn in their graves, had an interview with
an eminent searcher after mounds on the
subject He said that he was convinced, as
far as any one could be convinced, when
tangible proofs We're wanting, of the Asiatic
origin of the people who mined their copper
on the south Shore OF Lake Superior and ear
her still on Isle Royale and who built what 10
known Aztalan There is a great va
riety of mounds in the state he said, "but
all divisions that have been made yet are
not to ne depended on. The earliest that
were luilt were the sacrificial mounds and
the mounds o. alteration The latter were
built so that the rising and setting sun could
be seen from them, They Were invariably
built round. The sacrifciai mounds were
square, as their remains indicate. The size
of the mounds depended ON the ease with
which the soil could be moved There are
also round mounds in which n great many
skeletons are found when they are opened
sACRIFICIaI, ErFIGy AND SJ-RIaL MOUNDS
The sacritieial mounds are not very
plenty in this part of the state, nor, in fact
in any part The remains OF one are located
on the east hank OF tie Chippewa river,
noar Beef Slough. and another on the point
of land at the confluence Il the Red Cedar
and CEetek rivers, in northern Wisconsin.
a path of eiiigy noun 5 has been traced
from Chctes lake 10 Cedar lake, IN Barren
county. In n swamp west o: Chetek lake,
flooded by water now, IS the old road the
early caravans used to travel These traces
aye all that remain OF the race that worked
the early copper mines on Lake Superior.
In Wisconsin by far the larger proportion
are eiiigy mounds while in Ohio the animal
mounds do not probably number half
dozen, and The largest enc OF them is entirely
separated from the Enclosures Two bird
moan.is cscur in Putnam county, Georgia.
With these exceptions the eliigy mounds be-
long g. one locality and 10 Il people who
had not the characteristics of contemporary
nations ii is also probable that the peo-
pie who built the mounds were not the same
who constructed the burial mounds 1t is
the remains OF the e!ligy mounds that we
want the state to appropriate money TO pur-
chase
How much land would il take,s
Aboa; 500 acres in different parts of the
stata Ii is the square mounds that are the
most sisniicant, as their relative positions
show the way the peopls travelled
Abiding TO the magnitude of the work
done by tais strange i.eop,e. he said that
the exca alton on fsls Roya:s, Lake Sups-
rior. showed that thousands OF men mad
WORKED there at time
Whole eart,aads Of hammers were found
there an on.oaagan county AMI at Ke-
waunee Point, on the south shore Of the
lake. the excavation extends for fifty miles
Tie Indian of the prescnt day are a differ
s,t race. To- thu WORK OF the copper mines
was abandoned several hundred years ago.
In fact. / is my theory that the conquest
of Aczico by Corses and the shutting down
o. wors in the copper mines was at the same
time Milwaukee Wisconsin
A Kansas City msn estimates that stream /
OF beer eirog; ;,To inches in diameter and los !
niies bong flows through Kansas City threats !
every year.