Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-16

7r.aSx1HxSElS to the number OF hun
w. dreds of thousands
over the greater part
of the United States.
I'VE know that the mounds of eastern
Tennessee and western North Carolina
were mostly built by the Cherokees of CEN
tGries ago. said Maj. J. w. Powell yester-
day. Indians of the same tribe were prob
ably the authors also Of most of the an
cient works of this sort In the Kanawha
valley. West Virginia The tuInull in north
ern Mississippi were constructed by ChiciSa-
saws chiefly, and those in the gulf states
were created by the Muskogee tribes. The
| Shawnecs made the shaped stone graves
and the mounds containing them in Ken
lucky and northern Georgia, while similar
graves in the valley Of the Delaware and
in Ohio may be safely attributed to the
Delawares.
"As might be expected, in digging into
the mounds some very extraordinary things
were discovered. In a mound in Iowa was
found skeleton of a giant, who judging
from actual measurement must have stood
seven feet six inches tall when alive. The
bones crumbled to dust when exposed to
he air. Around the neck was a collar of
bears teeth, and across the thighs were
ozens of small copper beads, which may
have once adorned hunting shirt The
latter were formed by rolling slender wire
like strips Of metal into little rings. One
skull obtained from a mound in Alabama
was completely filled with snail shells,
| though for what purpose cannot be imagin-
ed
In another mound in Iowa was found a
entral chamber containing eleven skeletons,
Whlch We're arranged in a circle with their
backs against the walls. In their midst
was a great sea shell which had been con-
verted into drinking cup. Smaller cavi-
ties in the same tumulus were filled with
fine copper-colored dust which, when first
uncovered, gave out such a sickening odor
that operations had to be suspended for
Wnhe mis- dust was supposed to be
ashes from burned flesh-perhaps that of
the individuals in the central chamber A
oottleful of 1t was carried away for subse-
Huent eHatnination In other mounds hol-
1elt-iike substance, believed to be the re-
mains OF human flesh. Many tribes OF In.
dams IN ancient times made a practice of
removing the flesh from the bones of the
ead-commonly by exposing the bodies on
levated platforms. where they were permit
cd 10 undergo the processes of decay Very
! l keny tne practice had its origin in an OBJ
Hous precaution against the digging up of
| -orpses by hungry wild beasts
Found In Caves.
Some Of the most interesting material
or investigation was found in caves. Fac.
ng the Mississippi river, six miles south of
New Albin, Is a great cavity in the vertica,
ace of the sandstone bluff, so feet long and
IL feet high. The walls and ceiling are
literally covered with rude etchings repre-
senting quadrupeds, birds, bird-tracks and
symbolic or fanciful objects. The floor is
spread to depth of two feet with the bones
OF fishes and beasts, fragments Of pottery.
charcoal and ashes. Obviously this place
was used for residence purposes during a
long period OF time. Yet more remarks Bile
Is a cave near Guntersville Ala EvidentIy
IL was utilized for many generations as a
cemetery, and the number Of dead depositsd
IN IL must have been very great Though
much OF its contents has been hauIad awov
In sacks for fertilizing land, the floor Is vet
covered to a depth Of four feet with nats'
rial composed chiefly Of fragments OF human
oones. In tennessee and Kentucky the
nesh or bodies stored in caves cen turies go
Is sometimes remarkably preserved
"On farm In Bollinger county No 60
an area OF considerable extent Surrounded
by an ancient wall Of earth about three
feet high in places Inside of n forr,arIv
were many remarkable mounds used for
burial purposes by the Indians of nrehis
toric times but forty years of Continues
cultivation Of the soil have nearly leyeled
them. However, the mass OF material COM
posing them was so great that even now
the land within the Enclosure is two feet
higher than that outside, and SO rich ia II
that IT yields seventy-five bushels of corn
per acre in good years. the owner saws
while that outside yields only fifty bushels
Ploughing over one of the mounds a few
years ago the owner struck something and
on digging discovered two stone collins,
each containing a skeleton. In one of the
collins he found a gourd-shaped vessel filled
with lead ore SO pure that he afterward
turned 1t into bullets.
In 1873 people in the neighborhood Of a
town In Mississippi discovered that the not
terry. in which the mounds Of that region
were unusually rich. had considerable com
mercial value. A regular mining fever at
once broke out and spread so rapidly that
as many as twenty-five or thirty men
women and children could be seen digging
for aboriginal brfc-a-brac in a single field
at the same time The specimens obtained
were sold to merchants who in turn fur
nished them to museums, scientific institu-
lions and relic hunters The trade brought
several thousand dollars to the town
All Made by Indians.
agents Of the bureau Of ethnology have
explored and made excavations in more
than 1000 Of these mounds. Among the
objects found in them were pearls in great
numbers and some Of very large size, en-
graved Shells bracelets Of drawn wire, sill
yer brooches, pins. needles, a silver plate
with the coat-of-arms Of Spain, a gun bar
rel. Roman Catholic medal. a copper ket-
tie and uncovered. brass-nalled trunk.
OF course, many Of these articles were OBJ
tanned from the whites They demonstrate
beyond a question that mound building
and burial in mounds went on for some
time after the whites landed on the shores
OF America In fact, I myself have seen
such mounds in process Of construction
by Indians. There has never been an atom
Of evidence to prove that any other race
than the Indians themselves was concerned
In the creation of these works.
Articles Of Caucasian manufacture oh
tained by barter on the coast or from
wrecks. quickly found their way to the in
terror Of the continent passing from hand
to hand In the course of traffic between the
tribes or by capture In war The system
of trade which existed anciently among
the Indians was surprisingly efficient and
satisfactory. Aboriginal drummers actual
ly made their way on foot from the gulf of
Mexico to the headwatsrs of the Mississippi
river. The products of the native mines of
copper. flint and mica were distributed in
a manner sufficiently business-like to be
worthy OF q more advanced civilization
Dried oysters and other shell fish were
shipped inland, just as the same mollusks
are sent from the Atlantic coast to cities
Of the interior today. Thus, sea shells are
found In the mounds of Illinois and Wiscon-
sin, while articles Of native Wisconsin COP
per occur in the tumuli Of West Virginia
TlAk