The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-01-04

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Like most Of the other antiquities
IN this country, the mounds Of the
Great Lakes region and Of the MISC
issippi Basin, have been made the sub
'ject Of q great deal OF romance mas
querading as science. EARLY writer's
were almost unanimous in attribute
ing these mounds to some yanishefl
people, which was much more n1mers
Gus and civilized than the tribes Of.
Indians who occupied the continent
when ut was discovered. one theory
which gained q great deal Of support
was that the ToItecs, q civilized tribe.
|sof 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 fayorite theory.
has always been that the mounds were.
1.-THE work Of some great nation which,
I'm remote antiquity, dominated the
continent from the lakes to the guilt
and from the Mississippi to the FOOT
hills OF the Alleghanys, and which
was subsequeatly annihtlated leaving
only these forest grown tnonumntits.
By q laboriolts study of the mounds
themselves, the Bureau OF Ethnology
has disproved this and all sof the other
theories Of the archaeological roman
GERS, and has estariished the fact that
the mounds were the work Of the
North American Ind lans, the uncestpfsl
[of the natives occupying the same
Territory when Americ q was discov-
Tered by Europeans I. Z
Although the myth OF q vanished.
race is thus DESTROYED, tho mounds
lstNl remain very interesting antiqui=
ties, for they are nndoub tedly relics
lof q day when the Indians were much
more numerous and led q more set
tiled existence than was the case when
Europeans reached this continent.
The belief that the mounds were the
work Of a people more civilized than
1.-The North American Indians was
based chiefly upon the fact that some
lof these appear to be the remains Of
walled and fortified towns, while the
Indians haze been nomads ever since
1.-THE white man has known them.
This argument is largely answered
lby a study of the diaries and memoirs
Tor the earliest explorers, who canio
Ito America in the sixteenth and seven
Iteenth centuries. These show that
even the Indians Of the Atlantic coast
lin those days had permanent towns
with log stockades, numerous houses
made Of logs, bark and mud, and large
fields OF corn, peas, squashes, to-
bacco and other crops. Z. y +
De Soto's journals show that he
lived almost entirely upon the pro-
ducts Of native agriculture during his
lexplorations,s and he describes some
os their plantations as being several
miles In extent. This, and much
1other evidence of a rstmilar nature,
tproyes conclusively that a much lar
ger native population occupied this
a continent four or five centuries ago
4 than has ever been the case In modern
times; and the size OF the population
Itself forced the people to cultivate
1.-THE soil for living, as only small
tribes can subsist by the chase alone
Ian agricultural existence would nee
!; lessarily be a more settled one, ans
among warning tribes. fortified town;
would be the natural result. Moreover
lin the valleys Of the Mississippi AMI
i its principal affluents, where art
4 found many OF the largest mounds
/ the people would need some means 81
4 raising their homes above the reach
LOT the flood waters, and this necessity
| lis believed to explain the existence
tof some of the highest mounds.
Early Investigators believed that
| many OF the mounds were built for re.
| lgious purposes, and from the fac,
that both ciiarred clay and human
bones were found in many of them
they drew the conclusion that tue
mounds had been used as affairs 10,
human sacrifice. Scientific inyestisa'
ttion, however, has shown that human
sacrifice was never practices by the
authors of these mounds, but that the
dead were buried in them, and ,tht
| structures which they supported after
ward burned.
The last bit Of evidence that I'll.
!. North American Indians were tn.
lmound+builders was discovered quit,
recently by an expert Of the Burear
lof Ethnology. He found that tht
Greek Indians, who formerly occupied
tine southern mound ilder region
|Ebut were removed to Oklahoma n
|l1s30, had built q mound In their new
|jhome. In shape and method of CON
4 struction it was very similar to ths
1Iancient ones, and was built for use y
|iGonnection with some native cere
IImony. Evidently some atavistic i'm
pulse, possibly engendeTed by thell
enforced sedentary life upon the res
n ervatfon, impeiled the adams Il. erecl
| lone OF the monuments which playe5
such an important part in the lives
LOT their remote forbears.
The mounds which have been the
n cause OF all this controversy are 9
number OF earthworks. Of various
shapes and sizes, which are found II
the Great Lakes region, in thesyalleys
iof the; mississippi and Its prancipa
tributaries, and in the Gulf states
They. do not occur in the West.
L These earthworks have been CLASH
fled according to shape by the Bureau
ehatno gro