And now that we have had a look at the Mound-builders, it only remains
to be said that still another people, closely related but somewhat
different, lived in the Ohio country before the coming of white men.
Archæologists, in exploring the ancient Mounds, have learned just what
kinds of implements, ornaments and utensils the Mound-builders used. But
this is not all. In plowing and cultivating the fields, and in shallow
graves found here and there, great numbers of relics of kinds not used
by the Mound-builders have been found. Numerous collections of such
relics, including arrow and spear points, grooved stone hatchets or
tomahawks, stone pestles or corn grinders, ornaments of slate and stone,
rude pottery vessels and other things somewhat different from what the
Mound-builders used; are to be seen in these private collections. Some
of them have been found on almost every farm in Ohio and almost every
family has a few of these “Indian relics.” And the name “Indian relics”
exactly describes them, because the archæologist has found that they
were made and used by ancient tribes of Indians who lived in Ohio, in
prehistoric times, but who did not build Mounds. It is probable that
some of them were here at the same time as were the Mound-builders, but
it is also likely that some of them were earlier, and perhaps they
continued to live here after the passing of the Mound-builders, and up
pretty close to the coming of white men. Doubtless they were the
ancestors—the grandparents and the great-grandparents—of the Indians of
later times. They seem to have belonged to the two great families of
Indians—the Algonquins and the Iroquois—who were here when the Ohio
country was first visited by white men.
Just who these ancient Indian tribes were—that is, just what they may
have called themselves or what others may have called them—is not known.
Although the Shawnee, Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Mingo and other Indian
tribes were living in Ohio at the time of settlement, these tribes all
were newcomers in a sense; that is, they had come into the country only
a century or two earlier, mostly from the east and south. The earlier
tribes, which we might call the native tribes, had been driven out of
the country along about 1650 by a great raid or invasion carried on by
the Iroquois Indians of New York state and the St. Lawrence Valley. This
was about a century before the coming of white men, and it is believed
that it left the Ohio country almost without Indian residents, a sort of
no-man’s land, until the Wyandots, Miamis and others arrived.
And now as to the interesting questions concerning the Mound-builders:
Who were they? Where did they come from and when? Why did they build
Mounds? What became of them?