The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-15
they AhTEOATE HISTORY.
&Some Wonderful Discoveries Made
in North Dakota by Prof.
Lewis.
He Explored ass Mounds and
Found q Great Many In
teresting Relics.

Dakota Indians Have No Traditions Ac-
counting for Them-Built Before tho
Mound Builders.
JAMESTOWN, sAug. 14.-Prof. T. H. Lewis,
an archeologist Of st. Paul, has been max
ing this city his headquarters during the
last two or three weeks while exploring the
adjacent country for mounds and other
Searthworks Of the prehistoric mound build
ers. Thus far he has been very successful,
having surveyed over 200 mounds along the
bluffs bordering the valley. and some thir-
ty-fve around Spirit Wood lake. The FIN
est group of earthworks in this region lie To-
Gated on the bluff, about two miles south
west of Montpelier, on the south side of
Beaver creek and we st of the river. The
work is parallelOgram in theground plan.
It encloses some twenty acres at the
northeast corner. There is conical
mound twelve feet high at the southeast
corner, and there ID truncated
the same height. These three corners are
come cted together by entertainments that
average some two feet in height. From
the northwest mound there is another en-
bankment about the same height running
in a southerly direction to the head of the
ravine, forming q third side.
The north bank of the ravine is very
steep and it defends the south side, so that
q wall is unnecessary. The walls on three
sides were probably palisades and there is
an opening. or gateway, on the north and
dent that the mounds we're built first as
monuments. At late period the works
were built and the mounds were utilized to
form part of the enclosure, thus saving a
large amount Of iabor.
There are twelve mounds IN addition to
the walls forming the enclosure, and the
earth in all of them wAs carried from dis
tance, there being no evidence in the
vicinity to show where the dirt was OBJ
tanned. Many have noticed circles COM
posed of half buried boulders that abound
on the submits of many of the buttes and
eminences in the Jim river valley. These
extend over vast area of the northwest
from Manitoba to the northern Iowa line
and from st. Paul to Great Falls, Mont.
They are particularly abundant along the
Missouri, Big Sioux and Jim river valleys,
and are nearly always found near the lake
or water course. The present Indian tribes
Of the Dakotas know nothing of their orr
gin. Gabrielle Renveille, the old chief of
the Sissetons. says no tradition of the Da-
kotas accounts for them, and the Dakotas
never bothered with the stone work. They
either buried their dead like the whites of
placed thelbodies on sca6olds or in trees.
Neither do the Mandans know anything
about them.
These rings of boulders show great an
tiuuity, and the comparatively rainless reg
ion is peculiarly adapted for preserving
them, and hundreds Of years must elapse
before the large boulders are covered by the
ordinary process Of nature. Yet in many
of the circles Of high Rravelly points, boul-
ders arc Just visible on the surface, while
excavation shows that many are buried out
of sight entirely. These remains are not
always in the form Of circles. There are
boulder pavements around the circle whore
the stones have been placed 90 thickly to-
gether as to touch each other. Some of
the circles have openings, others not. Ex-
PLANTATION of their origin as being used to
hold down tepees is superficial and not a
correct one. The rings will average about
sixteen feet in diameter. although there are
many only two or three feet across. Some
Of them are a. large as forty feet across
others are divided by boulders into
four parts. There are squares, par.
allelograms and trianRles. One
large circles discovered near this place has
a thickly set stone pavement two feet wide
bordering circle, with another circle OF
large bouiders around tho outside of the
In addition to these circles there are
stone heaps and mounds, undoubtedly usee
as burial places.
Between Jamestown and Lamoure Prof
Lewis estimates that there are 500 of thesl
stone heaps. What was the use or objec
of the circles is yet a matter of mystery.
They are certainly not the work of Dakos
ia Indians, or Of their immediate ancestors
Prof. Lewis 10 Of the opinion that they hav
been left by race succeeding the origina
mound builders, whose works are 80 com
mon in this locality.
Evidences of the mound builder ar
found in every truncated cone. Near Mont
pelier there have been discovered cope
hatchets and chisels. Earth works and en-
architecture, while the precision witt
which the walls were constructed shows grea
intelligence and care. The fertilization
are composed of different kinds of earth
carried to the spot, showing the construe
ton in the different periods by the by dill
ferent tribes. If the builders had been in
hurry a trench would have been dug.
Buried mounds have been combined wit
forts-in some cases there are intrusiy
graves on top of the Older mounds ana en-
bankmente showing the work Of the LAT
tribes. The excavation around mound
/ are not AS prolific in specimens and bone
but where truncated mound is found, any
where across its top, within depth c
three or four feet, abundant specimen
may be had. Most of these mounds al
filled with bones, showing that an immens
number Of people lived on these prairie
concerning which neither history nor trad
ton yields any clue.
What Do Yo1 Know
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