Evening star., 1915-01-04
American Mound Builders
By Frederic J. Haskin.

Like most of the other antiquities in
this country. the mounds OF the great
lakes region and of the Mississippi
basin have been made the subject or
a great deal of romance masqueradins
as science. Early writer's were almost
unanimous in attributing these mounds
to some vanished people. which was
much moro numerous and civilized than
tho tribes of Indians who occupied the
continent when it was discovered. One
theory which gained = great deal of
support was that the Toltecs. q civil
ICED tribe of Mexico. had at one time
occupied what is now the United
States. Others believed the mounds to
have been the work of the Pueblo
tribes Of the southwest. But the ia
vorite theory has always been that the
mounds were the work of some great
nation. which, in remote antiquity.
dominated the continent from the lakes
to the gulf and from the Mississippi
to the foothills OF the Alleghenies, ana
which was subsequently annihiiated,
leaving only these forest-grown monu-
lnents.
By a laborious study of the mounds
themselves. the bureau of ethnology
has disproved this and all Of the other
theories of the archaeological ro-
mancers, and has established the fact
that the mounds were the work of the
North American Indians. the ances-
territory when America was discovered
by Europeans.
Although the myth of vanished race
is thus destroyed, the mounds still re-
main very in
Relics OF More tere ting an
Settled Existence. they tn ~ ares res, unr lor
doubtedly relics of a day when the In
dians were much more numerous and
led q more settled existence than was
the case when Europeans reached this
continent.
The belief that the mounds were the
work of a people more civilized than
the North American Indians was based
chiefly upon the fact that some Of these
appear to be the remains Of walled and
fortified towns. while the Indians have
been nomads ever since the white man
has known them.
This argument is largely answered
by study of the diaries and memoirs
Of the earliest explorers, who came to
America in the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries. These show that
even the Indians Of the Atlantic coast
in those days had permanent towns,
with log stockades, numerous houses
made Of logs, bark and mud, and large
fields Of corn. peas. squashes, tobacco
and other crops.
De Soto's journals show that he lived
almost entirely upon the products OF
native agriculture during his explora-
tions. and he describes some of their
plantations as being several miles in
extent. This and much other evidence
Of a similar nature prove conclusively
that a much larger native population
occupied this continent four or five
centuries ago than has ever been the
case in modern times; and the size OF
the population itself forced the people
to cultivate the soil for q living, as
only small tribes can subsist by the
chase alone. An agricultural existence
would necessarily be a more settled
one, and among warning tribes fortified
towns would be the natural result.
Moreover. in the valleys of the Missis-
sippi and its principal aff1uents, where
are found many OF the largest mounds.
the people would need some means of
raising their homes above the reach
Of the flood waters, and this necessity
Is believed to explain the existence OF
some of the highest mounds.
Early Investigators believed that
many of the mounds were built for re-