Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-11

! ha, Drew and Ashley Counties. I found
traces of the mound builders in the Aleu-
tian Isles, in Alaska, along the Pacific
slope and across the continent to the
great Mississippi. Near it and along it's
tributaries they builded and builded
well. n
In this connection a legend which l
heard in China IS most interesting. The
story goes that In the far-away, ages the
greatest of the Tartar Chiefs was Chen
gis. He hadAa million and a half of cav
alrymen and "a cloud of infantry and he
boosted, as his arm. swept onward to the
western shores of Europe, that nothing,
not even a blade Of grass, should survive
behind it. But Ghengis died and his
lieutenants fell to fighting. The great
army was divided against itself and a
part of it was driven away. These fierce
Tartars. I believe, reached America, and
were the ancestors of our Indians. The
Comanches have today customs similar
to some Of the customs of the Tartarst
The Tartar wears the scalping lock and:
uses the same Knife thai the Comanche
of a n years ago used, and in the
land of the Tartar can be found arrows
heads similar to the Indian arrow heads
found in this country. $ :
"The mound builders, however, were
not Tartars in my opinion. but We're Chin
csc. or maybe kamchadales, for they
were not a warlike people. The bones
otii III tIS ouJi tH III ItShStS VI
pottery in which the mound builders bury
their dead. bear ME out in this. =
THE mound builders were sun worI
shippers. l have found several of their
pottery caskets and onseach of them is to
he seen the crude tracings of the face of d
man with lines radiating from it, as rays
radiate from the sun. No casket that I
have ever opened contained the remains
of a The skeletons are all those of
women. The Baskets are Theoretically
sealed and are glazed red and b lack. On
each side of the head of each corpse a
bowl containing what I suppose is grain
can be found. and a bowl can be found
at the top of the head of the skeleton.
Grain was to feed the spirit d uring the
journey to the spirit land. This is still a
burial custom of the Chinese, and GER
tainly no Indian was ever buried in q cas-
7 ket by his brother braves. This is at least
evidence against the theory so often ad-
vanced, that the mounds We're built by
Indians.
Zone of the most remarkable works OF
the mound builders who lived in south
) western. Arkansas was the tranSporta-
5 ton in primitive boats of tons of shells
which were brought up the Mississippi
l river from the gulf, hundreds of miles
7 away. In the prehistoric city there is a
:. great mound of these shells which were
| used for making lime, there being nc
: lime stone rock in the vicinity of the area
1 covered by their city. One can. with the
naked eye, see traces of the powdered
shell in the pottery of the mound build
; ers. l found a jar filled with these shells
: and 1 suppose the jars We're used to put
: the shells in when g athered."
7 Mr.. Fontaine holds himself rady to as
t slst any archaeologist who wishes tc
| make researches among the ruins of the
t prehistoric city. Any light thrown upor
the lives and ORIGIN of the builders of the
city would be most valuable for now thei,
history is a lost page. but a source OF
, wide speculation What annihilateC
them? Was it a plague, or civil strife, O,
!. did the fierce Tartars, soldiers mayfair
!, who served under Ghengis, finally reach
+ the world OF the Mound builders ard rou1
them with spear and arrow? Archaeology
, has done much Will it ever answer
these questions?