THE CHEROKEES AND THE TALLEGWI.
The ancient works of Ohio, with their "altar mounds," "sacred
enclosures," and "mathematically accurate" but mysterious circles
and squares, are still pointed to as impregnable to the attacks of
this Indian theory. That the rays of light falling upon their
origin are few and dim, is admitted; still, we are not left wholly
in the dark.
If the proof be satisfactory that the mounds of the southern half
of the United States and a portion of those of the Upper
Mississippi Valley are of Indian origin, there should be very
strong evidence in the opposite direction in regard to those of
Ohio to lead to the belief that they are of a different race. Even
should the evidence fail to indicate the tribe or tribes by whom
they were built, this will not justify the assertion that they are
not of Indian origin.
If the evidence relating to these works has nothing decidedly
opposed to the theory in it, then the presumption must be in favor
of the view that the authors were Indians, for the reasons
heretofore given. The burden of proof is on those who deny this,
and not on those who assert it.
It is legitimate, therefore, to assume, until evidence to the
contrary is produced, that the Ohio works were made by Indians.
The geographical position of the defensive works connected with
these remains indicates, as has been often remarked by writers on
this subject, a pressure from northern hordes which finally
resulted in driving the inhabitants of the fertile valleys of the
Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum, southward, possibly into the Gulf
States, where they became incorporated with the tribes of that
section. [Footnote: Force: "To what race did the mound-builders
belong?" p. 74, etc.] If this is assumed as correct it only tends
to confirm the theory of an Indian origin.
But the decision is not left to mere assumption and the
indications mentioned, as there are other and more direct
evidences bearing upon this point to be found in the works of art
and modes of burial in this region. That the mound-builders of
Ohio made and used the pipe is proven by the large number of pipes
found in the mounds, and that they cultivated tobacco may
reasonably be inferred from this fact.
The general use of the pipe among the mound-builders is another
evidence of their relation to the Indians; while, on the other
hand, this fact and the forms of the pipes indicate that they were
not connected with the Nahua, Maya, or Pueblo tribes.
Although varied indefinitely by the addition of animal and other
figures, the typical or simple form of the pipe of the Ohio mound-
builders appears to have been that represented by Squier and Davis
[Footnote: Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, 1847, p.
179.] in their Fig. 68; and by Rau in Smithsonian Contributions to
Knowledge, No. 287. [Footnote: 1876, p. 47, Fig. 177.] The
peculiar feature is the broad, flat, and slightly-curved base or
stem, which projects beyond the bowl to an extent usually equal to
the perforated end. Reference has already been made to the
statement by Adair that the Cherokees were accustomed to carve,
from the soft stone found in the country, "pipes, full a span
long, with the fore part commonly running out with a short peak
two or three fingers broad and a quarter of an inch thick." But he
adds further, as if intending to describe the typical form of the
Ohio pipe, "on both sides of the bowl lengthwise." This addition
is important, as it has been asserted [Footnote: Young
Mineralogist and Antiquarian, 1885, No. 10. p. 79.] that no
mention can be found of the manufacture or use of pipes of this
form by the Indians, or that they had any knowledge of this form.
E. A. Barber says: [Footnote: Am. Nat., vol. 16, 1882, pp. 265,
266]
The earliest stone pipes from the mounds were always carved from a
single piece, and consist of a flat curved base, of variable
length and width, with the bowl rising from the center of the
convex side (Anc. Mon., p. 227).
The typical mound pipe is the Monitor form, as it may be termed,
possessing a short, cylindrical urn, or spool-shaped bowl, rising
from the center of a flat and slightly-curved base. [Footnote: For
examples of this form see Rau: Smithsonian Contributions to
Knowledge, No. 287, p. 47, Fig. 177.]
Accepting this statement as proof that the "Monitor" pipe is
generally understood to be the oldest type of the mound-builders'
pipe, it is easy to trace the modifications which brought into use
the simple form of the modern Indian pipe. For example, there is
one of the form shown in Fig. 5, from Hamilton County, Ohio;
another from a large mound in Kanawha Valley, West Virginia;
[Footnote: Science. 1884, vol. 3, p. 619.] several taken from
Indian graves in Essex County, Mass.; [Footnote: Abbott, Prim.
Industry, 1881, Fig. 313, p. 319; Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 3, 1872,
p. 123.] another found in the grave of a Seneca Indian in the
valley of the Genesee; [Footnote: Morgan, League of the Iroquois,
p. 356.] and others found by the representatives of the Bureau of
Ethnology in the mounds of western North Carolina.
[Illustration with caption: FIG. 5. Pipe from Hamilton County,
Ohio.]
So far, the modification consists in simply shortening the forward
projection of the stem or base, the bowl remaining perpendicular.
The next modification is shown in Fig. 6, which represents a type
less common than the preceding, but found in several localites,
as, for example, in Hamilton County, Ohio; mounds in Sullivan
County, east Tennessee (by the Bureau); and in Virginia.
[Footnote: Rau: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 287,
p. 50, Fig. 190.] In these, although retaining the broad or winged
stem, we see the bowl assuming the forward slope and in some
instances (as some of those found in the mounds in Sullivan
County, Tenn.) the projection of the stem is reduced to a simple
rim or is entirely wanting.
[Illustration with caption: FIG. 6. Pipe from Hamilton County,
Ohio.]
[Illustration with caption: FIG. 7. Pipe from Sullivan County,
Tennessee.]
The next step brings us to what may be considered the typical form
of the modern pipe, shown in Fig. 8. This pattern, according to
Dr. Abbott, [Footnote: Prim. Industry, 1861, p. 329.] is seldom
found in New England or the Middle States, "except of a much
smaller size and made of clay." He figures one from Isle of Wight
County, Va., "made of compact steatite." A large number of this
form were found in the North Carolina mounds, some with stems
almost or quite a foot in length.
[Illustration with caption: FIG. 8. Pipe from Caldwell County,
North Carolina.]
It is hardly necessary to add that among the specimens obtained
from various localities can be found every possible gradation,
from the ancient Ohio type to the modern form last mentioned.
There is, therefore, in this peculiar line of art and custom an
unbroken chain connecting the mound-builders of Ohio with the
Indians of historic times, and in the same facts is evidence,
which strengthens the argument, disconnecting the makers from the
Mexican and Central American artisans.
As this evidence appears to point to the Cherokees as the authors
of some of the typical mounds of Ohio, it may be as well to
introduce here a summary of the data which bear upon this
question.
Reasons which are thought well-nigh conclusive have already been
presented for believing that the people of this tribe were mound-
builders, and that they had migrated in pre-Columbian times from
some point north of the locality in which they were encountered by
Europeans. Taking up the thread of their history where it was
dropped, the following reasons are offered as a basis for the
conclusion that their home was for a time on the Ohio, and that
this was the region from which they migrated to their historic
locality.
As already shown, their general movement in historic times, though
limited, has been southward. Their traditions also claim that
their migrations previous to the advent of the whites had been in
the same direction from some point northward, not indicated in
that given by Lederer, but in that recorded by Haywood, from the
valley of the Ohio. But it is proper to bear in mind that the
tradition given by Lederer expressly distinguishes them from the
Virginia tribes, which necessitates looking more to the west for
their former home. Haywood connects them, without any authority,
with the Virginia tribes, but the tradition he gives contradicts
this and places them on the Ohio.
The chief hostile pressure against them of which we have any
knowledge was from the Iroquois of the north. This testimony is
further strengthened by the linguistic evidence, as it has been
ascertained that the language of this tribe belongs to the
Iroquoian stock. Mr. Horatio Hale, a competent authority on this
subject, in an article on Indian migrations published in the
American Antiquarian, [Footnote: Am. Antiquarian, vol. 5, 1883, p.
26] remarks as follows:
Following the same course of migration from the northeast to the
southwest, which leads us from the Hurons of eastern Canada to the
Tuscaroras of central North Carolina, we come to the Cherokees of
northern Alabama and Georgia. A connection between their language
and that of the Iroquois has long been suspected. Gallatin, in his
"Synopsis of Indian Languages," remarks on this subject: "Dr.
Barton thought that the Cherokee language belonged to the Iroquois
family, and on this point I am inclined to be of the same opinion.
The affinities are few and remote, but there is a similarity in
the general termination of the syllables, in the pronunciation and
accent, which has struck some of the native Cherokees."
The difficulty arising from this lack of knowledge is now removed,
and with it all uncertainty disappears. The similarity of the two
tongues, apparent enough in many of their words, is most
strikingly shown, as might be expected, in their grammatical
structure, and especially in the affixed pronouns, which in both
languages play so important a part.
More complete vocabularies of the Cherokee language than have
hitherto been accessible have recently come into possession of the
Bureau of Ethnology, and their study serves to confirm the above
conclusion that the Cherokees are an offshoot of Iroquoian stock.
On the other hand, the testimony of the mounds all taken together
or considered generally (if the conclusion that the Cherokees were
the authors of the North Carolina and East Tennessee mounds be
accepted) seems to isolate them from all other mound-building
people of that portion of the United States east of the Rocky
Mountains. Nevertheless there are certain remains of art which
indicate an intimate relation with the authors of the stone
graves, as the engraved shells, while there are others which lead
to the opinion that there was a more intimate relation with the
mound-builders of Ohio, especially of the Scioto Valley. One of
these is furnished by the stone pipes so common in the Ohio
mounds, the manufacture of which appears also to have been a
favorite pursuit of the Cherokees in both ancient and modern
times.
In order to make the force of this argument clear it is necessary
to enter somewhat further into details. In the first place, nearly
all of the pipes of this type so far discovered have been found in
a belt commencing with eastern Iowa, thence running eastward
through northern Illinois, through Indiana, and embracing the
southern half of Ohio; thence, bending southward, including the
valley of the Great Kanawha, eastern Tennessee, and western North
Carolina, to the northern boundary of Georgia. It is not known
that this type in any of its modifications prevailed or was even
in use at any point south of this belt. Pipes in the form of birds
and other animals are not uncommon, as may be seen by reference to
Pl. XXIII of Jones's Antiquities of the Southern Indians, but the
platform is a feature wholly unknown there, as are also the
derivatives from it. This is so literally true as to render it
strange, even on the supposition here advanced; only a single one
(near Nashville, Tenn.), so far as known, having been found in the
entire South outside of the Cherokee country.
This fact, as is readily seen, stands in direct opposition to the
idea advanced by some that the mound-builders of Ohio when driven
from their homes moved southward, and became incorporated with the
tribes of the Gulf States, as it is scarcely possible such sturdy
smokers as they must have been would all at once have abandoned
their favorite pipe.
Some specimens have been found north and east of this belt,
chiefly in New York and Massachusetts, but they are too few to
induce the belief that the tribes occupying the sections where
they were found were in the habit of manufacturing them or
accustomed to their use; possibly the region of Essex, Mass., may
prove to be an isolated and singular exception.
How can we account for the fact that they were confined to this
belt except upon the theory that they were made and used by a
single tribe, or at most by two or three cognate tribes? If this
be admitted it gives as a result the line of migration of the
tribe, or tribes, by whom they were made; and the gradual
modification of the form indicates the direction of the movement.
In the region of eastern Iowa and northern Illinois, as will be
seen by reference to the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of
Natural Sciences [Footnote: Vol. 1, 1876, Pl. IV.] and the
Smithsonian Report for 1882, [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for
1882 (1884), Figs. 4-8, pp. 689-692] the original slightly-carved
platform base appears to be the only form found.
Moving eastward from that section, a break occurs, and none of the
type are found until the western border of Ohio is reached,
indicating a migration by the tribe to a great distance. From this
point eastward and over a large portion of the State, to the
western part of West Virginia, the works of the tribe are found in
numerous localities, showing this to have long been their home.
In this region the modifications begin, as heretofore shown, and
continue along the belt mentioned through West Virginia,
culminating in the modern form in western North Carolina and East
Tennessee.
As pipes of this form have never been found in connection with the
stone graves, there are just grounds for eliminating the Shawnees
from the supposed authors of the Ohio works. On the other hand,
the engraved shells are limited almost exclusively to the works of
the Shawnees and Cherokees (taking for granted that the former
were the authors of the box-shaped stone graves south of the Ohio
and the latter of the works in western North Carolina and East
Tennessee), but are wanting in the Ohio mounds. It follows,
therefore, if the theory here advanced (that the Cherokees
constructed some of the typical works of Ohio) be sustained, that
these specimens of art are of Southern origin, as the figures
indicate, and that the Cherokees began using them only after they
had reached their historical locality.
Other reasons for eliminating the Shawnees and other Southern
tribes from the supposed authors of the typical Ohio works are
furnished by the character, form, and ornamentation of the pottery
of the two sections, which are readily distinguished from each
other.
That the Cherokees and Shawnees were distinct tribes, and that the
few similarities in customs and art between them were due to
vicinage and intercourse are well-known historical facts. But
there is nothing of this kind to forbid the supposition that the
former were the authors of some of the Ohio works. Moreover, the
evidence that they came from a more northern locality, added to
that furnished by the pipes, seems to connect them with the Ohio
mound-builders. In addition to this there is the tradition of the
Delawares, given by Heckewelder, which appears to relate to no
known tribe unless it be the Cherokees. Although this tradition
has often been mentioned in works relating to Indians and kindred
subjects, it is repeated here that the reader may judge for
himself as to its bearing on the subject now under consideration:
The Lenni Lenape (according to the tradition handed down to them
by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago in a very
distant country in the western part of the American continent. For
some reason which I do not find accounted for, they determined on
migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a
body. After a very long journey and many nights' encampments
[Footnote: "Many Nights' encampment" is a halt of one year at a
place.] by the way, they at length arrived on the Namaesi-Sipu,
[Footnote: The Mississippi or The River of Fish; Namaes, a fish,
and Sipu a river.] where they fell in with the Mengwe, [Footnote:
The Iroquois, or Five Nations.] who had likewise emigrated from a
distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher
up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares; they
were proceeding on to the eastward, until they should find a
country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent
forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their
arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was
inhabited by a very powerful nation who had many large towns built
on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I
was told) called themselves Talligew or Tallgewi. Many wonderful
things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been
remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that there
were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the
tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to
themselves regular fortifications or intrenchments, from whence
they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. I have seen
many of the fortifications said to have been built by them, two of
which, in particular, were remarkable. One of them was near the
mouth of the river Huron, which empties itself into the Lake St.
Clair, on the north side of that lake, at the distance of about 20
miles northeast of Detroit. This spot of ground was, in the year
1776, owned and occupied by a Mr. Tucker. The other works,
properly intrenchments, being walls or banks of earth regularly
thrown up, with a deep ditch on the outside, were on the Huron
River, east of the Sandusky, about six or eight miles from Lake
Erie. Outside of the gateway of each of these two intrenchments,
which lay within a mile of each other, were a number of large flat
mounds in which, the Indian pilot said, were buried hundreds of
the slain Talligewi, whom I shall hereafter, with Colonel Gibson,
call Alligewi. Of these intrenchments Mr. Abraham Steiner, who was
with me at the time when I saw them, gave a very accurate
description, which was published at Philadelphia in 1789 or 1790,
in some periodical work the name of which I can not at present
remember.
When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi they sent
a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle
themselves in their neighborhood. This was refused them, but they
obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement
farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the
Namaesi-Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so
very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a
furious attack upon those who had crossed, threatening them all
with destruction, if they dared to persist in coming over to their
side of the river. Fired at the treachery of these people, and the
great loss of men they had sustained, and besides, not being
prepared for a conflict, the Lenapi consulted on what was to be
done; whether to retreat in the best manner they could, or to try
their strength, and let the enemy see that they were not cowards,
but men, and too high-minded to suffer themselves to be driven off
before they had made a trial of their strength and were convinced
that the enemy was too powerful for them. The Mengwe, who had
hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance,
offered to join them, on condition that, after conquering the
country, they should be entitled to share it with them; their
proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two
nations, to conquer or die.
Having thus united their forces the Lenape and Mengwe declared war
against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought in which many
warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns
and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near
lakes, where they were successfully attacked and sometimes stormed
by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell,
who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and
covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the
Alligewi at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if
they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the
conquerors and fled down the Mississippi River, from whence they
never returned.
The war which was carried on with this nation lasted many years,
during which the Lenape lost a great number of their warriors,
while the Mengwe would always hang back in the rear leaving them
to face the enemy. In the end the conquerors divided the country
between themselves. The Mengwe made choice of the lands in the
vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and
the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long
period of time, some say many hundred years, the two nations
resided peacefully in this country and increased very fast. Some
of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great
swamps, and falling on streams running to the eastward followed
them down to the great bay river (meaning the Susquehanna, which
they call the great bay river from where the west branch falls
into the main stream), thence into the bay itself, which we call
Chesapeake. As they pursued their travels, partly by land and
partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great
salt-water lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great
river which we call the Delaware.
This quotation, although not the entire tradition as given by
Heckewelder, will suffice for the present purpose.
The traces of the name of these mound-builders, which are still
preserved in the name "Allegheny," applied to a river and the
mountains of Pennsylvania, and the fact that the Delawares down to
the time Heckewelder composed his work called the Allegheny River
"Allegewi Sipu," or river of the Allegewi, furnish evidence that
there is at least a vein of truth in this tradition. If it has any
foundation in fact there must have been a people to whom the name
"Tallegwi" [Footnote: There appears to be no real foundation for
the name Allegewi, this form being a mere supposition of Colonel
Gibson, suggested by the name the Lenape applied to the Allegheny
River and Mountains.] was applied, for on this the whole tradition
hangs. Who were they? In what tribe and by what name shall we
identify them? That they were mound-builders is positively
asserted, and the writer explains what he means by referring to
certain mounds and inclosures, which are well known at the present
day, which he says the Indians informed him were built by this
people.
It is all-important to bear in mind the fact that when this
tradition was first made known, and the mounds mentioned were
attributed to this people, these ancient works were almost unknown
to the investigating minds of the country. This forbids the
supposition that the tradition was warped or shaped to fit a
theory in regard to the origin of these antiquities.
Following the tradition it is fair to conclude, notwithstanding
the fact that Heckewelder interpreted "Namaesi Sipu" by
Mississippi, that the principal seats of this tribe or nation were
in the region of the Ohio and the western slope of the Allegheny
Mountains, and hence it is not wholly a gratuitous supposition to
believe they were the authors of some of the principal ancient
works of eastern Ohio (including those of the Scioto Valley) and
the western part of West Virginia. Moreover, there is the
statement by Haywood, already referred to, that the Cherokees had
a tradition that in former times they dwelt on the Ohio and built
mounds.
These data, though slender, when combined with the apparent
similarity between the name Tallegwi and Cherokee or Chellakee,
and the character of the works and traditions of the latter,
furnish some ground for assuming that the two were one and the
same people. But this assumption necessitates the further
inference that the pressure which drove them southward is to be
attributed to some other people than the Iroquois as known to
history, as this movement must have taken place previous to the
time the latter attained their ascendancy. It is probable that Mr.
Hale is correct in deciding that the "Namaesi Sipu" of the
tradition was not the Mississippi. [Footnote: Am. Antiquarian,
vol. 5, 1883, p. 117.] His suggestion that it was that portion of
the great river of the North (the St. Lawrence) which connects
Lake Huron with Lake Erie, seems also to be more in conformity
with the tradition and other data than any other which has been
offered. If this supposition is accepted it would lead to the
inference that the Talamatau, the people who joined the Delawares
in their war on the Tallegwi, were Hurons or Huron-Iroquois
previous to separation. That the reader may have the benefit of
Mr. Hale's views on this question, the following quotation from
the article mentioned is given:
The country from which the Lenape migrated was Shinaki, the "land
of fir trees," not in the West but in the far North, evidently the
woody region north of Lake Superior. The people who joined them in
the war against the Allighewi (or Tallegwi, as they are called in
this record), were the Talamatan, a name meaning "not of
themselves," whom Mr. Squier identities with the Hurons, and no
doubt correctly, if we understand by this name the Huron-Iroquois
people, as they existed before their separation. The river which
they crossed was the Messusipu, the Great River, beyond which the
Tallegwi were found "possessing the East." That this river was not
our Mississippi is evident from the fact that the works of the
mound-builders extended far to the westward of the latter river,
and would have been encountered by the invading nations, if they
had approached it from the west, long before they arrived at its
banks. The "Great River" was apparently the upper St. Lawrence,
and most probably that portion of it which flows from Lake Huron
to Lake Erie, and which is commonly known as the Detroit River.
Near this river, according to Heckewelder, at a point west of Lake
St. Clair, and also at another place just south of Lake Erie, some
desperate conflicts took place. Hundreds of the slain Tallegwi, as
he was told, were buried under mounds in that vicinity. This
precisely accords with Cusick's statement that the people of the
great southern empire had "almost penetrated to Lake Erie" at the
time when the war began. Of course in coming to the Detroit River
from the region north of Lake Superior, the Algonquins would be
advancing from the west to the east. It is quite conceivable that,
after many generations and many wanderings, they may themselves
have forgotten which was the true Messusipu, or Great River, of
their traditionary tales.
The passage already quoted from Cusick's narrative informs us that
the contest lasted "perhaps one hundred years." In close agreement
with this statement the Delaware record makes it endure during the
terms of four head-chiefs, who in succession presided in the
Lenape councils. From what we know historically of Indian customs
the average terms of such chiefs may be computed at about twenty-
five years. The following extract from the record [Footnote: The
Bark Record of the Leni Lenape.] gives their names and probably
the fullest account of the conflict which we shall ever possess:
"Some went to the East, and the Tallegwi killed a portion.
"Then all of one mind exclaimed, War! War!
"The Talamatan (not-of-themselves) and the Nitilowan [allied
north-people] go united (to the war).
"Kinnepehend (Sharp-Looking) was the leader, and they went over
the river. And they took all that was there and despoiled and slew
the Tallegwi.
"Pimokhasuwi (Stirring-about) was next chief, and then the
Tallegwi were much too strong.
"Tenchekensit (Open-path) followed, and many towns were given up
to him.
"Paganchihiella was chief, and the Tallegwi all went southward.
"South of the Lakes they (the Lenape) settled their council-fire,
and north of the Lakes were their friends the Talamatan
(Hurons!)."
There can he no reasonable doubt that the Alleghewi or Tallegwi,
who have given their name to the Allegheny River and Mountains,
were the mound-builders.
This supposition brings the pressing hordes to the northwest of
the Ohio mound-builders, which is the direction, Colonel Force
concludes, from the geographical position of the defensive works,
they must have come.
The number of defensive works erected during the contest shows it
must have been long and obstinate, and that the nation which could
thus resist the attack of the northern hordes must have been
strong in numbers and fertile in resources. But resistance proved
in vain; they were compelled at last, according to the tradition,
to leave the graves of their ancestors and flee southward in
search of a place of safety.
Here the Delaware tradition drops them, but the echo comes up from
the hills of East Tennessee and North Carolina in the form of the
Cherokee tradition already mentioned, telling us where they found
a resting place, and the mound testimony furnishes the
intermediate link.
If they stopped for a time on New River and the head of the
Holston, as Haywood conjectures, [Footnote: Nat. and Aborig. Hist.
Tenn., p. 223.--See Thomas, "Cherokees probably mound-builders,"
Magazine Am. Hist., May. 1884, p. 398.] their line of retreat was
in all likelihood up the valley of the Great Kanawha. This
supposition agrees also with the fact that no traces of them are
found in the ancient works of Kentucky or middle Tennessee. In
truth, the works along the Ohio River from Portsmouth to
Cincinnati and throughout northern Kentucky pertain to entirely
different types from those of Ohio, most of them to a type found
in no other section.
On the contrary, it happens precisely in accordance with the
theory advanced and the Cherokeee traditions, that we find in the
Kanawha Valley, near the city of Charleston, a very extensive
group of ancient works stretching along the banks of the stream
for more than two miles, consisting of quite large as well as
small mounds, of circular and rectangular inclosures, etc. A
careful survey of this group has been made and a number of the
tumuli, including the larger ones, have been explored by the
representatives of the Bureau.
The result of these explorations has been to bring to light some
very important data bearing upon the question now under
consideration. In fact we find here what seems to be beyond all
reasonable doubt the connecting link between the typical works of
Ohio and those of East Tennessee and North Carolina ascribed to
the Cherokees.
The little stone vaults in the shape of bee-hives noticed and
figured in the articles in Science and the American Naturalist,
before referred to, discovered by the Bureau assistants in
Caldwell County, N. C., and Sullivan County, Tenn., are so unusual
as to justify the belief that they are the work of a particular
tribe, or at least pertain to an ethnic type. Yet under one of the
large mounds at Charleston, on the bottom of a pit dug in the
original soil, a number of vaults of precisely the same form were
found, placed, like those of the Sullivan County mound, in a
circle. But, though covering human remains moldered back to dust,
they were of hardened clay instead of stone. Nevertheless, the
similarity in form, size, use, and conditions under which they
were found is remarkable, and, as they have been found only at the
points mentioned, the probability is suggested that the builders
in the two sections were related.
There is another link equally strong. In a number of the larger
mounds on the sites of the "over-hill towns," in Blount and Loudon
Counties, Tenn., saucer-shaped beds of burnt clay, one above
another, alternating with layers of coals and ashes, were found.
Similar beds were also found in the mounds at Charleston. These
are also unusual, and, so far as I am aware, have been found only
in these two localities. Possibly they are outgrowths of the clay
altars of the Ohio mounds, and, if so, reveal to us the probable
use of these strange structures. They were places where captives
were tortured and burned, the most common sacrifices the Indians
were accustomed to make. Be this supposition worthy of
consideration or not, it is a fact worthy of notice in this
connection that in one of the large mounds in this Kanawha group
one of the so-called "clay altars" was found at the bottom of
precisely the same pattern as those found by Squier and Davis in
the mounds of Ohio.
In these mounds were also found wooden vaults, constructed In
exactly the same manner as that in the lower part of the Grave
Creek mound; also others of the pattern of those found in the Ohio
mounds, in which bark wrappings were used to enshroud the dead.
Hammered copper bracelets, hematite celts and hemispheres, and
mica plates, so characteristic of the Ohio tumuli, were also
discovered here; and, as in East Tennessee and Ohio, we find at
the bottom of mounds in this locality the post-holes or little
pits which have recently excited considerable attention. We see
another connecting link in the circular and rectangular
inclosures, not combined as in Ohio, but analogous, and,
considering the restricted area of the narrow valley, bearing as
strong resemblance as might be expected if the builders of the two
localities were one people.
It would be unreasonable to assume that all these similarities in
customs, most of which are abnormal, are but accidental
coincidences due to necessity and environment. On the contrary it
will probably be conceded that the testimony adduced and the
reasons presented justify the conclusion that the ancestors of the
Cherokees were the builders of some at least of the typical works
of Ohio; or, at any rate, that they entitle this conclusion to
favorable consideration. Few, if any, will longer doubt that the
Cherokees were mound builders in their historic seats in North
Carolina and Tennessee. Starting with this basis, and taking the
mound testimony, of which not even a tithe has been presented, the
tradition of the Cherokees, the statement of Haywood, the Delaware
tradition as given by Heckewelder, the Bark Record as published by
Brinton and interpreted by Hale, and the close resemblance between
the names Tallegwi and Chellakee, it would seem that there can
remain little doubt that the two peoples were identical.
It is at least apparent that the ancient works of the Kanawha
Valley and other parts of West Virginia are more nearly related to
those of Ohio than to those of any other region, and hence they
may justly be attributed to the same or cognate tribes. The
general movement, therefore, must have been southward as
indicated, and the exit of the Ohio mound-builders was, in all
probability, up the Kanawha Valley on the same line that the
Cherokees appear to have followed in reaching their historical
locality. It is a singular fact and worthy of being mentioned
here, that among the Cherokee names signed to the treaty made
between the United States and this tribe at Tellico, in 1798, are
the following: [Footnote: Treaties between the United States of
America and the several Indian tribes (1837), p. 182.]
Tallotuskee, Chellokee, Yonaheguah, Keenakunnah, and
Teekakatoheeunah, which strongly suggest relationship to names
found in the Allegheny region, although the latter come to us
through the Delaware tongue.
If the hypothesis here advanced be correct, it is apparent that
the Cherokees entered the immediate valley of the Mississippi from
the northwest, striking it in the region of Iowa. This supposition
is strengthened not only by the similarity in the forms of the
pipes found in the two sections, but also in the structure and
contents of many of the mounds found along the Mississippi in the
region of western Illinois. So striking is this that it has been
remarked by explorers whose opinions could not have been biased by
this theory.
Mr. William McAdams, in an address to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, remarks: "Mounds, such as are here
described, in the American Bottom and low-lands of Illinois are
seldom, if ever, found on the bluffs. On the rich bottom lands of
the Illinois River, within 50 miles of its mouth, I have seen
great numbers of them and examined several. The people who built
them are probably connected with the Ohio mound-builders, although
in this vicinity they seem not to have made many earthen
embankments, or walls inclosing areas of land, as is common in
Ohio. Their manner of burial was similar to the Ohio mound-
builders, however, and in this particular they had customs similar
to the mound-builders of Europe." [Footnote: Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv.
Sci., 29th (Boston) meeting, 1880 (1881), p. 715.] One which he
opened in Calhoun County, presented the regular form of the Ohio
"altar."
A mound in Franklin County, Ind., described and figured by Dr. G.
W. Homsher, [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1882 (1884), p.
722.] presents some features strongly resembling those of the
North Carolina mounds.
The works of Cuyahoga County and other sections of northern Ohio
bordering the lake, and consisting chiefly of inclosures and
defensive walls, are of the same type as those of New York, and
may be attributed to people of the Iroquoian stock. Possibly they
may be the works of the Eries who, we are informed, built
inclosures. If such conclusion be accepted it serves to strengthen
the opinion that this lost tribe was related to the Iroquois. The
works of this type are also found along the eastern portion of
Michigan as far north as Ogemaw County.
The box shaped stone graves of the State are due to the Delawares
and Shawnees, chiefly the former, who continued to bury in
sepulchers of this type after their return from the East. Those in
Ashland and some other counties, as is well known, mark the
location of villages of this tribe. Those along the Ohio, which
are chiefly sporadic, are probably Shawnee burial places, and
older than those of the Delawares. The bands of the Shawnees which
settled in the Scioto Valley appear to have abandoned this method
of burial.
There are certain mounds consisting entirely or in part of stone,
and also stone graves or vaults of a peculiar type, found in the
extreme southern portions of the State and in the northern part of
Kentucky, which can not be connected with any other works, and
probably owe their origin to a people who either became extinct or
merged into some other tribe so far back that no tradition of them
now remains.
Recently a resurvey of the remaining circular, square, and
octagonal works of Ohio has been made by the Bureau agents. The
result will be given in a future bulletin.