Cherokee Indian Cremation in Burial Mounds

Cherokee Indian Cremation in Burial Mounds

Allied somewhat to cremation is a peculiar mode of burial which is supposed to have taken place among the Cherokees, or some other tribe of North Carolina, and which is thus described by J. W. Foster:

Up to 1819 the Cherokee held possession of this region, when, in pursuance of a treaty, they vacated a portion of the lands lying in the valley of the Little Tennessee River. In 1821 Mr. McDowell commenced farming. During the first season’s operations the plowshare, in passing over a certain portion of a field, produced a hollow rumbling sound, and in exploring for the cause the first object met with was a shallow layer of charcoal, beneath which was a slab of burnt clay about 7 feet in length and 4 feet broad, which, in the attempt to remove, broke into several fragments. Nothing beneath this slab was found, but on examining its under side, to his great surprise there was the mould of a naked human figure. Three of these burned-clay sepulchers were thus raised and examined during the first year of his occupancy, since which time none have been found until recently. During the past season, (1878) the plow brought up another fragment of one of these moulds, revealing the impress of a plump human arm.

“We have Indians all about us, with traditions extending back for 500 years. In this time they have buried their dead under huge piles of stones. We have at one point the remains of 600 warriors under one pile, but a grave has just been opened of the following construction: A pit was dug, into which the corpse was placed, face upward; then over it was moulded a covering of mortar, fitting the form and features. On this was built a hot fire, which formed an entire shield of pottery for the corpse. The breaking up of one such tomb gives a perfect cast of the form of the occupant.”

Colonel Jenkes, fully impressed with the value of these archeological discoveries, detailed a man to superintend the exhumation, who proceeded to remove the earth from the mould, which he reached through a layer of charcoal, and then with a trowel excavated beneath it. The clay was not thoroughly baked, and no impression of the corpse was left, except of the forehead and that portion of the limbs between the ankles and the knees, and even these portions of the mould crumbled. The body had been placed east and west, the head toward the east. “I had hoped,” continues Mr. McDowell, “that the cast in the clay would be as perfect as one I found 51 years ago, a fragment of which I presented to Colonel Jenkes, with the impression of a part of the arm on one side and on the other of the fingers, that had pressed down the soft clay upon the body interred beneath it.” The mound-builders of the Ohio valley, as has been shown, often placed a layer of clay over the dead, but not in immediate contact, upon which they builded fires; and the evidence that cremation was often resorted to in their disposition are too abundant to be gainsaid.

This statement is corroborated by Mr. Wilcox:

Mr. Wilcox also stated that when recently in North Carolina his attention was called to an unusual method of burial by an ancient race of Indians in that vicinity. In numerous instances burial places were discovered where the bodies had been placed with the face up and covered with a coating of plastic clay about an inch thick. A pile of wood was then placed on top and fired, which consumed the body and baked the clay, which retained the impression of the body. This was then lightly covered with earth.

Mohawk Indian Burial Mounds

Mohawk Indian Burial Mounds

Mohawk Indian remains taken from a burial mound in New York

The Mohawks of New York made a large round hole in which the body was placed upright or upon its haunches, after which it was covered with timber, to support the earth which they lay over, and thereby kept the body from being pressed. They then raised the earth in a round hill (burial mound) over it. They always dressed the corpse in all its finery, and put wampum and other things into the grave with it; and the relations suffered not grass nor any wood to grow upon the grave, and frequently visited it and made lamentation.

Giant American Indians Uncovered in Montana

Logansport Reporter, September 3, 1903

GIANT HUMAN PEOPLE

Prehistoric Relics Unearthed in Montana

      Wonderful finds of fossills and bones of prehistoric animals are being made in the Fish Creek country, Montana, by Professor Marchus S. Farr, and a party of students from Princeton college. The remains of a stone age city have been found in which the bones of animals of great size, along with stone implements of all kinds, many of which are ornamented with gems.  In a mound near the creek were found the almost complete skeleton of a man. The bones showed that the man, when alive, measured nearly nine feet in height, and was of powerful build. Nearby was a skeleton of a woman, a trifle smaller in size Who were these giant people? At the foot was a skeleton of an animal that resembled the dog of today except the animal must have been as large as a small horse.

American Indian Sacred Stones and Burial Mounds in Wabash County, Indiana

 AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL MOUNDS AND FISH WEIRS, AND SACRED STONES IN WABASH COUNTY, INDIANA

Map showing the location of early Native American burial mounds and earthworks in Wabash County, Indiana.

Get the directions to all of these sites.  85 burial mounds and earthworks from the enigmatic mound builder culture, photographed and directions provided in Indiana. 222 burial mound and earthwork sites in Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan.  America's best travel guide to the Indian mounds and earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

“Tales of the Old Days” by W.E. Billings

      At some point, about a half mile southwest of Round Lake, this trail was joined by another from the wets, and together they continued in a northeastern direction to the south edge of the tamarack swamp north of Laketon. Here the trail apparently swung west around the swamp and continued northeast along the ridge that can be seen about a half mile east of the Ogdon Road. Near the edge of the tamarack swamp, at 2668 feet north of the Eel River, there were two mounds visible. The near one, about 100 feet northwest of this point, was described as “five or six feet high, unfinished.” The upland in this area, north of Laketon, was described as “level 2nd rate”. The timber was white and black oak with undergrowth of sassafras and vines. This was the first mention of sassafras.

Ancient fish weir constructed by the mound builder culture to catch eels.  The date of construction could be as early as 1500 B.C. and as late as 1200 A.D.  Burial mounds that once existed near this site give the probability of an early origin of this Indiana treasure.

Geology and Natural Resources 17th Annual Report,1891

       A few small mounds are said to exist in the southern part of the county. One mile west of Roann near the north bank of the Eel River, on the farm at Mr. Silas E. Shoemaker, is an extensive burial place of the Miami Indians, and bones are frequently exposed in plowing the land. On the farm of Mr. R.G. Arnold in Pleasant Township, Section 12, TGP. 29, Range 5 East, there is a mound having an elevation of sixty feet above Silver Creek, which the Indians used as a burial place. The mound consists of gray gravel to the bed of the stream. Mr. Arnold says that in cultivating the burial place soon after it was cleared the plow turned out pipes, arrowheads, peelers, and parts of human bones, but they were carried away years ago by relic hunters.

NOTE: Nothing remains of this mound.

A series of  sacred stone bowls also existed on the Wabash and Mississenewa Rivers.  One bowl was described as being within the city of Wabash.  Another bowl can still be seen on the Wabash River.

Stone bowls were not fro function, but part of some kind of ceremony that was related to the Earth Mother.

Another stone bowl, where the sacred nature of this site is revealed because of the adjacent spring that flows in to the bowl. The proximity of burial mounds to the other sacred or spirit stones is evidence that all of these works were constructed by the mound building culture.

Close to the previous stone bowl is this stone enclosure that surrounds a 4 foot depression. Its construction is a mystery. 

Along the stone wall of the enclosure is a series of sacred stones, indicated by the white stone that has a bowl carved in the top.  There is no other site  like this, but the stone bowl indicates that it too, was constructed by the mound builders culture.

Prehistoric American Indian Mound Builders Ruins in Wayne County, Indiana

INDIANA HISTORY: EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA

Map showing the locations of burial mounds and earthworks in Wayne County, Indiana

GET MORE PHOTOS AND DIRECTIONS TO THE BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA. 85 BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS PHOTOGRAPHED IN INDIANA.  EXPLORE HISTORIC INDIANA. 222 BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN INDIANA, OHIO, WEST VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY AND MICHIGAN.

 AMERICA'S PREMIER TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE OHIO VALLEY.

Eighth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 1876

      The high table-lands of this county, and its deep canon-like river valleys, afforded the Mound Builders favorable sites for their settlements, and we constant find the remains of a number of large and interesting earthworks and a great many mounds scattered along the bluffs of the streams. Prof. J.C. MacPherson, county superintendent of schools of Wayne County, has kindly furnished me with a sketch of these ancient works, and as he has given considerable attention to the study of archaeology, his report is a very valuable acquisition to our knowledge on this subject, and I take pleasure in presenting it to the public.

“Observations on the Prehistoric Earthworks of Wayne County, Indiana”

     The surface of Wayne County presents many evidences of occupancy by the Mound Builders. Mounds are found in all parts of the county-situated on the uplands and along the courses of the streams. The plowshare has leveled many, and some have been removed in opening roads to the material used in making brick. Twenty-five mounds have been located on a map of the county prepared in connection with the geological report.

The works in the county seem to be a continuation southward from the works along White River in Randolph County, and follow the branches of the White Water. Perhaps, when all the works located in this part of the Ohio Valley are mapped, some systematic arrangement may be discovered.

Three miles north from Fountain City (formerly called Newport), on a rise overlooking the wooded valley of Noland’s fork, is a mound seventy-five feet in diameter, (section 19, township 18, range 15 east).

A slight undulation in this field still marks the site of this burial mound.  

Another is on the farm of Daniel Hough, adjoining Fountain City. A third is said to have been removed in making the principal street of that town.

One mile northeast from Fountain City, on level ground, between Noland’s fork and a small tributary-Buck run-is an embankment enclosing eleven acres. The figure (Plate C) of this earthwork is a square with curved corners. The length on the inside of the embankment is 780 feet. The embankment has been plowed over for years, yet can be plainly traced. A gateway is discernible on the west side, and hollows are found in the vicinity, which some suppose were made by the builders when collecting material for the embankment. Since the accompanying map was made, a more careful survey has discovered the fact that the direction of the embankment is not due north and south, but at an angle, with the west side nearly parallel with the road.

Making the correction stated above about the position of the earthwork, if it was parallel to the road the gateway would be aligned to the summer solstice sunset and would again align to the west on the winter solstice sunrise.  

Undulations in this field are the only remnants of the once massive 50 feet wide earthen wall that enclosed this sacred temple.

A large mound stood two miles north from Chester (Section 4, Township 14, and Range 1 west). The greater part was removed in making the Arba road. A copper ring was found therein, and is now in the collection at Earlham College. (Judge N.R. Overman informs me that four copper bracelets were found. He has one in his cabinet. He also has three flint implements taken from this mound.)

Several mounds are situated in the neighborhood of Middleboro. Some have been opened, but no contents worthy of notice have been obtained.

One mile north from Richmond, on the Hoover farm, and in the vicinity, several small mounds were located. In one, when removed, was found a copper ornament.

   Map shows two burial mounds and a square enclosure within the city limits of Richmond

One of the burial mounds near the square enclosure is still visible in some dense thickets. The mound is unique in that a graded way leads to second terrace below.

A mound near Earlham College was opened by President Moore and the usual contents of mounds found-pieces of pottery, ashes, and other evidences of fire.

On the J.C. Ratliff farm a mound was opened, and some small articles, which were at first supposed to be beads, but are now thought to be parched corn, found therein. L.B. Case, of Richmond, has some grains of corn, which were found in a jar some distance below the surface of the ground, in the vicinity of that place.

A large mound south from the town of Centreville was deemed of sufficient note to be marked upon an early map of the State, but has since been destroyed.

In the southwestern part of Boston Township is a mound hidden away in a “hollow”; and one formerly stood south from Richmond near the Boston pike.

Small burial mound located in a holler next to a small creek.  Small burial mounds like this that are tucked away far from the road are in the greatest danger of being destroyed by University archaeologists. 

Traces of a mound are to be seen on the farm of James W. Martindale, adjoining Washington. This mound was opened in early times, and charcoal found near the original surface of the ground. A great quantity of arrowheads have been found around a spring (long since dry) near this mound.

A circular embankment was found near Green’s fork, east from Jacksonburg, twenty-five feet in diameter. It was long since plowed down.

Two mounds are to be seen a short distance northwest from Jacksonburg.

Overlooking Martindale’s creek in Jefferson Township (section 18, township 17 north, range 13 east,) is a mound. Also two in the bottom land along West River, at Hagerstown.

Two miles southeast from Milton (section 6, township 15, range 13 east,) is a beautiful mound, fifteen feet in diameter. Forest trees are still standing upon it; also a stump measuring two feet across.

Headwaters to creeks were Sacred Grounds to the early mound builders.  Other sacred grounds were drainage divides.  It worth noting here that while the creeks to the west of the mound are flowing south, this creek at the mound is flowing north.

The burial mound is still visible in this field. It is now under cultivation.  preservation of Indiana's antiquities must start on a local level, since it is the mission of the Indiana Historical Society to destroy all of Indiana's burial mounds.  

Near the county line, about one-mile north of Waterloo, Fayette County, is a mound upon high ground, and about a mile to the southeast, in Fayette County, is a curiously shaped.

This mound is visible across the road from the mound in the holler.  According to the kland owner it was much more conical years ago before being plowed.

The most notable mounds (Plates A and B) in Wayne County are located on the left bank of the west branch of the White Water River, one and a quarter miles north from Cambridge City. They consist of a series of circular embankments, continued over half a mile of ground.

Earthwork cox near Cambridge City, Indiana

The south circle (Plate A) is in the best state of preservation. The embankment was made of the earth taken from the trench, which is on the inside of the embankment. Within, the ground has been made to slope gently from the center to the bottom of the trench, except to the east, where there was left a roadway leading from the center through a gateway in the embankment to the level ground beyond. The embankment is four feet above the surface of the field, and seven feet above the bottom of the trench, and wide enough on the top to allow two carriages to pass each other. The gateway is one rod wide. This circle is made of gravelly soil, while the north circle is composed of a loam, and has yielded more to the destroying influence of plowing.  It is not as symmetrical as the other, being more oval in outline.

Two large henges of the Cambridge City earthwork complex.  The north henge is aligned to the summer solstice sunrise, and would align again on the winter solstice sunset.

Henge complexes at Mounds State Park in Anderson, New Castle Indiana, and Athens, Ohio all contained 8 works in the group. From the previous map the Indiana Geological Survey placed 7 north alonong the river and the two main henges.  In this aerial photo the 8th earthwork is revealed next to the southern henges northwest side.  A silar, samller circle also occurs at Mounds State Park in Anderson, Inidana.

Despite being plowed for years the central platform and exterior ditches are still visible of the southern henge. The gateway also still visible and marking the yearly equinoxes as it has done for the last 2000 years.

The class of works to which these belong is described in “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” page 47, and are denominated “Sacred Enclosures.”

These two circles on Plate A, are about fifteen rods apart, and about the same distance from the bluff of the stream. In the bluff, equally distant from both the circles, is a passageway cut from the top of the bluff to low ground bordering the water, some twelve feet below. This cut is evidently not a water-wash, for along the sides can be seen the earth which was removed in making it thrown up as dirt is thrown up along the sides of a ditch.

This "cut" is still visible between the two henges that leads on a gradual descent to a small creek that runs to the west of the earthworks.  It is evidence of an important concept at most earthworks sites that will have elements of both the Sky Father (sun) and the Earth Mother (creek)

The bluff here spoken of is the edge of the first terrace. The rounded margin of the second terrace can be seen a quarter of a mile to the east.

Several hundred feet north from the second of the above-described circles is a group of five small circles (Plate B). With one exception these are about sixty feet in diameter, and are now from one to two feet high. The circle numbered 3, on Plate B, is at the point of a tongue of higher ground, and affords an outlook over the other works.  The embankment of the largest work in this group (numbered 7) can not be traced on the south, that part being in a field which has long been cultivated. Trees of large size were, until recently, standing upon the embankments of these works.

Burial places and remains have been found in various localities within the county. A number of years ago, in removing the gravel from a bank in the northwest part of Jefferson Township, nine feet below the surface, eight skeletons were discovered. They had been buried in an upright position. These bones were gathered together by the workmen and reburied in a common grave. In constructing the Valley Railroad from Hagerstown to Cambridge City, human remains were exhumed; also some at the latter place.

O. Beeson communicated to the local papers some twelve years ago an account of the discovery of a burial place in the extreme southwest corner of the county. Many skeletons were found in a gravel bank, some having been placed in a sitting posture and some with the head downward.

Recently some twenty or more skeletons were unearthed in a gravel pit on George Jordan’s farm, about two miles northwest from Economy. These bodies seem to have been buried in graves a few feet apart, and six feet below the surface. Some of them were in a sitting position, while others were in various positions.

The discovery of a human skeleton in a mound on the bank of White Water, near Richmond, many years ago, was the occasion for the following lines from the pen of the late John Finley; author of the “Hoosier’s Nest,” and other poems, and once Mayor of Richmond.

“Year after year its course has sped,

Age after age has passed away,

And generations born and dead,

Have mingled with their kindred clay,

Since this rude pile, to memory dear,

Was watered by affection’s tear.

* * * * * * * * * *

“No legend tells thy hidden tale,

Thou relic of a race unknown!

Oblivion’s deepest, darkest veil

Around thy history is thrown;

Fate, with arbitrary hand,

Inscribed thy story on the sand.”

Stone and flint implements were formerly found in great numbers in this region. Wayne County, like the rest of our State, has suffered in being robbed by collectors and traffickers, who have carried away many specimens to grace the museums of other states. But recently more interest has been manifested in the subject of archaeology, and the collection at Earlham College, and several private collections, are beginning to assume interesting proportions.

“Setzler’s Survey”, Indiana Historical Society

The Indiana Historical Society is in leauge with the university archaeologists and the DNR to destroy every mound in Indiana. Despite a historical legacy than spans thousands of years the Indiana Historical Society has not saved, preserved or even noted any of these antiquities as historic sites. They have given millions of dollars to universities to desecrate burial mounds across the State.

The following list is a good example of the mindless destruction done to Indiana's antiquities by the Indiana Historical Society.

These are mounds in his report in addition to mounds reported by McPherson.

1.) Schroeder Mound. On the east bank of the Green Fork. Diameter of mound twelve feet, six inches. Located in the southeast one quarter of Section 21, Green Township.

Very litle remains of the Schroeder mound after Setzler and the Indiana Historical Society were done with it.

*If mound found in frac.-Section 19 of New Garden Township, mound was originally forty feet in diameter and three feet high.

2.) Teetor Mound. Located one mile east of Hagerstown on Highway 38. Originally the mound was 43 feet in diameter and eight feet high.  Southeast quarter of Section 23, Jefferson Township.

3.) Wolford Mound. Measured 45” in diameter and five and half feet high. One quarter mild northeast of the circular earthwork. Mound’s location was the northeast one quarter of Section 15, Jefferson Township.

4.) This mound was used by surveyors as a base for survey measurements. It was described as being 45 feet in diameter and nine feet high. Located in the northwest one quarter of Section 5, Jackson Township.

5.) Secrist Mound. Was located in a woods, one half mile southeast of Jacksonburgh. Mound was originally 42 feet in diameter and eight feet high. Located in the southwest one-quarter of Section 8, Harrison Township.

6.) Davis Mound. Near the edge of the east bank of the Green Fork stood a mound 43 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Located in the northeast one quarter of Section 16, Harrison Township.

7.) No physical descriptions exist of two mounds located in the northeast one quarter of Section 6 and the northwest one quarter of Section 5, Harrison Township.

8.) In the northeast one quarter of Section 6 and the northwest one quarter of Section5, Harrison Township.

9.) Hodgins Mound. Original dimensions were thirty-nine feet north and south, forty-eight feet east and west and was three to four feet in height. Located in the southeast one quarter of Section 21, Wayne Township.

  Burial mound is still visible on a table of high ground that descends into an aquifer.

10.) Richmond City Waterworks. Mound originally was thirty-five feet in diameter and nearly six feet high. Located in the northeast one quarter of Section 34, Wayne Township.

AAfter an hour of clearing brush from the mound we were able to photograph the Waterworks mound.  It would be visible from the road if it were cleared.

11.) Mound once stood roughly 11,000 feet from the west bank of the East Fork of the Whitewater River in the northwest one quarter of Section 8, Wayne Township.

12.) One mile south of the City of Milton was a mound forty-nine feet in diameter and five feet high in the northwest one quarter of Section 11, Washington Township.

13.) A small mound was located in the northwest one quarter of Section 12, Washington Township.

14.) Doddridge Mound. Located on a sharp bend of Noland’s fork. Originally the mound was thirty-eight feet in diameter and three feet high in the southwest one quarter of Section 16, Washington Township.

15.) Robbins Mound. Mound used to be visible from the road that divides Section 17. Its size was forty-five feet east, west, and 35 feet north-south with a height of four feet. Location was the northwest one quarter of Section 17, Abington Township

Shawnee and Cherokee and the Ancient Stone Graves and Burial Mounds

The Problem of Ohio Burial Mounds

STONE GRAVES OF THE SHAWNEE AND CHEROKEE

 There are several forms and varieties of stone graves or cists found in the mound area, some being of cobble stones, others of slabs; some round, others polygonal; some dome-shaped, others square, and others box shaped, or parallelograms. Reference is made at present only to the last mentioned—the box shaped type, made of stone slabs. If the evidence shows that this variety is found only in certain districts, pertains to a certain class of works, and is usually accompanied by certain types of art, we are warranted in using it as an ethnic characteristic, or as indicating the presence of particular tribes. If it can be shown that graves of this form are found in mounds attributed to the so- called mound-builders, and that certain tribes of Indians of historic times were also accustomed to bury in them, we are warranted in assuming that there was a continuity of custom from the mound-building age to historic times, or that graves found in the mounds are probably attributable to the same people (or allied tribes) found using them at a later date. This conclusion will be strengthened by finding that certain peculiar types of art are limited to the regions where these graves exist, and are found almost exclusively in connection with them. For more information on Cherokee Indians cremation in burial mounds https://nativeamericanhistoryandphotographs.blogspot.com/2013/05/cherokee-indian-cremation-in-burial.html

       These graves, as is well known, are formed of rough and unhewn slabs or flat pieces of stone, thus: First, in a pit some 2 or 3 feet deep and of the desired dimensions, dug for the purpose, a layer of stone is placed to form the floor; next, similar pieces are set on edge to form the sides and ends, over which other slabs are laid flat, forming the covering, the whole when finished making a rude, box-shaped coffin or sepulcher. Sometimes one or more of the six faces are wanting; occasionally the bottom consists of a layer of water-worn bowlders; sometimes the top is not a single layer of slabs, but other pieces are laid over the joints, and sometimes they are placed shingle-fashion. These graves vary in length from 14 inches to 8 feet, and in width from 9 inches to 3 feet.

       It is not an unusual thing to find a mound containing a number of those cists arranged in two, three, or more tiers. As a general rule, those not in mounds are near the surface of the ground, and in some instances even projecting above it. It is probable that no one who has examined them has failed to note their strong resemblance to the European mode of burial. Even Dr. Joseph Jones, who attributes them to some "ancient race," was forcibly reminded of this resemblance, as he remarks:

In looking at the rude stone coffins of Tennessee, I have again and again been impressed with the idea that in some former age this ancient race must have come in contact with Europeans and derived this mode of burial from them. [Footnote: Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, pp. 34,35]

         The presence of stone graves of the type under consideration in the vicinity of the site of some of the "over hill towns" of the Cherokees on the Little Tennessee River, presented a difficulty in the way of the theory here advanced, as it is well known that the Cherokees and Shawnees were inveterate enemies from time immemorial. But by referring to Schoolcraft's History of the Indians the following statement solves the riddle and confirms the theory:

          A discontented portion of the Shawnee tribe from Virginia broke off from the nation, which removed to the Scioto country, in Ohio, about the year 1730, and formed a town known by the name of Lulbegrud, in what in now Clark County [Kentucky], about 30 miles east of this place [Lexington]. This tribe left this country about 1730 and went to East Tennessee, to the Cherokee Nation. [Footnote: Vol. 1, p. 301.]

Some years ago Mr. George E. Sellers discovered near the salt spring in Gallatin County, Ill., on the Saline River, fragments of clay vessels of unusually large size, which excited much interest in the minds of antiquarians, not only because of the size of the vessels indicated by the fragments, but because they appeared to have been used by some prehistoric people in the manufacture of salt and because they bore impressions made by some textile fabric. In the same immediate locality were also discovered a number of box-shaped stone graves. That the latter were the work of the people who made the pottery Mr. Sellers demonstrated by finding that many of the graves were lined at the bottom with fragments of these large clay "salt pans." [Footnote: Popular Science Monthly, vol. II, 1877, pp. 573-584.]

Mention of this pottery had been made long previously by J. M.
Peck in his "Gazetteer of Illinois." [Footnote: 1834, p. 52.]

He remarks that "about the Gallatin and Big Muddy Salines large fragments of earthenware are very frequently found under the surface of the earth. They appear to have been portions of large kettles used, probably, by the natives for obtaining salt."

Another very significant fact in this connection is that the fragments of large earthen vessels similar in character to those found in Gallatin County, Ill., have also been found in connection with the stone graves of the Cumberland Valley, and, furthermore, the impressions made by the textile fabrics show the same stitches as do the former. Another place where pottery of the same kind has been found is about the salt-lick near Saint Genevieve, Mo., a section inhabited for a time by Shawnees and Delawares. [Footnote: C.C. Royce in American Antiquarian, vol. 3, 1881, pp. 188, 189.]

Stone graves have been found in Washington County, Md. [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1882 (1884), p. 797.] History informs us that there were two Shawnee settlements in this region, one in the adjoining county of Maryland (Allegany), and another in the neighborhood of Winchester, Va. [Footnote: C. C. Royce in American Antiquarian, vol. 3, 1881, p. 186. Virginia State Papers, 1. p. 63.]

Mr. W. M. Taylor [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1877, p. 307. Mentions only known instance of mound with Delaware Village.] mentions some stone graves of the type under consideration as found on the Mahoning River, in Pennsylvania. An important item in this connection is that these graves were in a mound. He describes the mound as 35 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, having on one side a projection 35 feet long of the same height as the mound. Near by a cache was discovered containing twenty one iron implements, such as axes, hatchets, tomahawks, hoes, and wedges. He adds the significant statement that near the mound once stood the Indian (Delaware) village of Kush-kush-kee.

Graves of the same type have been discovered in Lee County, Va. [Footnote: Eleventh Report of the Peabody Museum, 1878, p. 208.] Others have been found in a mound on the Tennessee side, near the southern boundary of Scott County, Va. Allusion has already been made to the occasional presence of the Shawnees in this region. In the map of North America by John Senex, Chaonanon villages are indicated in this particular section.

     The presence of these graves in any part of Ohio can easily be accounted for on the theory advanced, by the well-known fact that both Shawnees and Delawares were located at various points in the region, and during the wars in which they were engaged were moving about from place to place; but the mention of a few coincidences may not be out of place.

In the American Antiquarian for July, 1881, is the description of one of these cists found in a mound in the eastern part of Montgomery County. Mr. Royce, in the article already referred to, states that there was a Shawnee village 3 miles north of Xenia, in the adjoining county, on Mad River, which flows into the Miami a short distance above the location of the mound.

       Stone graves have been found in great numbers at various points along the Ohio from Portsmouth to Ripley, a region known to have been occupied at various times by the Shawnees.

Similar graves have been discovered in Ashland County. [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1877, pp. 261-267.] These, as will be seen by reference to the same report (page 504), are precisely in the locality of the former Delaware villages.

         The evidence is deemed sufficient to show that the Shawnees and Delawares were accustomed to bury in stone graves of the type under consideration, and to indicate that the graves found south of the Ohio are to be attributed to the former tribe and those north to both tribes.

     As graves of this kind are common over the west side of southern
Illinois, from the month of the Illinois to the junction of the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, attention is called to some evidence
bearing on their origin.

Hunter, who traveled in the West, says that some of the Indians he met with during his captivity buried their dead in graves of this kind.

      According to a statement made by Dr. Rau to Mr. C. C. Jones, and repeated to me personally, "it is a fact well remembered by many persons in this neighborhood [Monroe County, III.] that the Indians who inhabited this region during the early part of the present century (probably Kickapoos) buried their dead in stone coffins." [Footnote: Antiquities So. Indians, p. 220.]

       Dr. Shoemaker, who resided on a farm near Columbia, in 1861, showed Dr. Rau, in one of his fields, the empty stone grave of an Indian who had been killed by one of his own tribe and interred there within the memory of some of the farmers of Monroe County. An old lady in Jackson County informed one of the Bureau assistants that she had seen an Indian buried in a grave of this kind.

It is doubtful whether Dr. Rau is correct in ascribing these graves to the Kickapoos, as their most southern locality appears to have been in the region of Sangamon County. [Footnote: Reynolds's Hist. Illinois, p. 20.] It is more probable they were made by the Kaskaskias, Tamaroas, and Cahokias. Be this as it may, it is evident that they are due to some of the tribes of this section known as Illinois Indians, pertaining to the same branch of the Algonquin family as the Shawnees and Delawares.

         That the stone graves of southern Illinois were made by the same people who built those of the Cumberland Valley, or closely allied tribes, is indicated not only by the character of the graves but by other very close and even remarkable resemblances in the construction and contents as well as in the form and size of the mounds; the presence of hut-rings in both localities, and the arrangement of the groups.

       Taking all the corroborating facts together there are reasonable grounds for concluding that graves of the type now under consideration, although found in widely-separated localities, are attributable to the Shawnee Indians and their congeners, the Delawares and Illinois, and that those south of the Ohio are due entirely to the first named tribe. That they are the works of Indians must be admitted by all who are willing to be convinced by evidence.

      The fact that in most cases (except when due to the Delawares, who are not known to have been mound-builders) the graves are connected with mounds, and in many instances are in mounds, sometimes in two, three, and even four tiers deep, proves beyond a doubt that the authors of these graves were mound-builders.

       The importance and bearing of this evidence does not stop with what has been stated, for it is so interlocked with other facts relating to the works of the "veritable mound-builders" as to leave no hiatus into which the theory of a lost race or a "Toltec occupation" can possibly be thrust. It forms an unbroken chain connecting the mound-builders and historical Indians which no sophistry or reasoning can break. Not only are these graves found in mounds of considerable size, but they are also connected with one of the most noted groups in the United States, namely, the one on Colonel Tumlin's place, near Cartersville, Ga., known as the Etowah mounds, of which a full description will be found in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.

        In the smallest of the three large mounds of this group were found stone graves of precisely the type attributable, when found south of the Ohio, to the Shawnees. They were not in a situation where they could be ascribed to intrusive burials, but in the bottom layer of a comparatively large mound with a thick and undisturbed layer of hard-packed clay above them. It is also worthy of notice that the locality is intermediate between the principal seat of the Shawnees in the Cumberland Valley, and their extreme eastern outposts in northeastern Georgia, where both tradition and stone graves indicate their settlement. The tradition regarding this settlement has been given elsewhere. [Footnote: Am. Antiq, vol. 7, 1885, p. 133]

        In these graves were found the remarkable figured copper plates and certain engraved shells, of which mention has been made by Mr. W. H. Holmes [Footnote: Science, vol. 3, 1884, pp. 436-438.] and by myself [Footnote: Ibid., pp. 779-785.] in Science. It is a singular corroboration of the theory here advanced that the only other similar copper plates were found at Lebanon, Tenn., by Prof. F. W. Putnam; in a stone grave in a mound at Mill Creek, southern Illinois, by Mr. Earle; in a stone grave in Jackson County, Ill., by Mr. Thing; in a mound of Madison County, Ill., by Mr. H. R. Howland; and in a small mound at Peoria, Ill., by Maj. J. W. Powell. All, except the specimens found by Professor Putnam and Mr. Howland, were secured by the Bureau of Ethnology, and are now in the National Museum.

There can be but little doubt that the specimens obtained from simple stone graves by Professor Putnam and Mr. Thing are to be attributed to Indian burials, but surely not to Indian manufacture.

We have, therefore, two unbroken chains connecting the Indians of historic times with the "veritable mound builders," and the facts which form the links of these chains throw some additional light on the history of that mysterious people, the Shawnees.

        It may be stated here that in the report relating to the claim of the Wabash Land Company [Footnote: American State Papers, Land Affairs, Appendix, p. 20.] is a statement giving a list of articles furnished the Indians, among which we notice nine ear wheels. These we suppose to be the same as the spool shaped ear ornaments found in stone graves and elsewhere.

      The engraved shells also form a link which not only connects the mound-builders with historic times but corroborates the view advanced in regard to the Shawnees, and indicates also that the Cherokees were mound-builders. But before introducing this we will give the reasons for believing that the mounds of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina are due to the last-named tribe.


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