Omaha daily bee., 1903-05-31
Mound Builders
Continued from Page Five.)

NCOntlnue0 from rage E1Ve.)
sand to quite conceal the origin even of SO
remarkable a mound as the great Cahokia-
The habits of the modern Indian, as he
was found in different parts of America,
have likewise removed, in the light of
modern comparative study, the old idea
hat the Mound Builders were an agricul-
tural people, living in fixed communities
while the Indians on the other hand, were,
a series of roaming nations subsisting
chiefly by the chase. 1t has been proved
that the Indians in many cases were quite
as much farmers as hunters; that they
cultivated broad fields of maize and corn,
and kept supplies of provisions sufficient,
as sometimes happened during the early
conQuests of European adventurers, to
provision entire armies for a long CAM
paign. Thousands OF the smaller mounds,
mere tumuli raised some inches above the
ground, are now believed to have been
nothing more than elevations on which
the Indians pitched their individual tents
for the sake of drainage, and
many of the other mounds, as
has been proved by their con-
tents, represented forms of Indian burial
that continued even into the last century.
In fact there is nothing that has yet been
found among the relics of the Mound
Builders that cannot be attributed to the
North American Indian, albeit in a higher
state of savage cultivation than his present
descendants. Thousands of minor relics
stone and metal implements; arrow heads;
pipes, among them the finest Indian pipe
ever discovered in America; bones, shells,
and miscellaneous articles of many kinds
found near Cahokia have invariably cor
roborated this theory, even while it is ad-
mitted that no man knows what might
result from further Investigation.
In 1873 Professor Putnam of the Peabody
museum made a careful examination of
Cahokia; his account, later published in
the reports of the Peabody museum, is a
brief summary of the purpose OF Cahokia
as viewed in the light of modern knowl-
edge. Probably this immense tumulus,'
says Professor Putnam, was not erected
primarily as a burial mound, though such
may prove to be the case. From the
present evidence it seems more likely that
It was made In order to obtain an elevated
site for some particular purpose; presum-
ably an important pubic building. One
fact, however, that 1 observed indicated
that a great length of time was occupied
In its construction, and that its several
level platforms may have been the sites of
many lodges, which, possibly, may nave
been placed upon such artificial elevations
In order to avoid the malaria of a district,
the settlement of which in former, as in
recent times, was likely due to the prolihc
and easily cuItivable soil; or, more likely,
for the purpose Of protection from enemies.
The fact to which / allude is that every
where In the gullies, and over the broken
surface of the mound, mixed with the earth
of which 1t is composed, are quantities of
broken vessels of clay, flint chips, arrow
heads, charcoal, bones of animals, etc,
apparently the refuse of a numerous peo-
- of course it is possible that these re-
Ha3ins, so unlike the homogeneous struc-
tnre of an ordinary mound. may be the
simple refuse of numerous feasts that may
have taken place on the mound at various
times during it's construction. The first
Interpretation, however, is as well borne
out as any other from our present knowl-
edge of this mound; the structure and OBJ
ject OF which cannot be fully understood
until a thorough examination has been
made" Professor Putman's theory, Il will
be noticed, does not preclude the posi-
bllity suggested by Mr.. Bushnell.
In more exact figures than those of the
earlier visitors, the great mound of Ca
hOkia measures no feet from east to west
and 1850 feet from north to south. Like the
smaller mounds OF the group, many OF
which are parallelOgrams In construction