The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-11-04
CHIPQUAW-KAY.
Remarkable Monuments of . Long-Lost
and Intelligent Race.

| Remarkable Monuments of Long-Lost
| and Intelligent Race.
Chipquaw-Kay was the name of q
Miami Indian village ga the banks OF
the Wabash river two hundred years
ago. Around about it lay the remains
of a city much older and of a 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 gen.
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 sun.
| Two hundred of these great artificial
heaps stood about the village. North
of Chipguaw-kav were tifty-two of
them, ordered like q city. with streets
leading directly to the cardinal points.
Two hundred years have worked no
changes in these piles. Two thousand
more VIII 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
|
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
foundations, doubtless. OF structures of
some architectural pretensioAs.
But Chipquaw-Kay has other claims
to interest than these monuments OF
unrecorded time. Hitler, in 1888,
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
1uaw-kay became an almost forgotten
name, and the French occupation he
came immort allied 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 band
around one of the great mounds until
! he magnified it to the British eyes and
| frightened their commander and his
superior force into surrender,is part eff
history. The mound which thus served
the cause ofliberty now bears the name
of Bunker Hill,
Before the present century was n year
old the territory of Indiana, comprising
an underlined area north of the Ohio
river and west of the Buckeye State,
was erected and Vincenncs became its
capital. William Henry Harrison was
made Governor, and in the northern
part of the town the curious may yet
see his executive mansion. Its rough
boards were sawed out by hand, and
the nails which held them together
were hammered into rude shape upon
a blacksmith's anvil. Beneath the fam
lily room was the powder magazine,
placed there, it is said, by the General
for the purpose of blowing up his fam
lily should the post fall into the hands
of the Indians. In the cellar may be
seen the cells in which prisoners were
kept.
As one daShes across the bridge
which spans the Wabash he may see
from the car windows two venerable
trees standing near the rivers bank.
Until within few years there were
three of them, and beneath their shade
! General Harrison held conference with
the Indian chiefs. Here treaties were
made and here gathered the pride and
wisdom of the red nations and of the
pioneers of the great West.
4 stroll through the streets of the
old town to-day is full of reminders OF
the time when .'Stout st. Louis golden
lilies" flew the breeze above it.-Vin
cenneS (hld.) Cor. Chicago Ncws.