THE MOUNDBUILDERS
“Father,” said Ed one evening, as he came in from a short hunting trip,
“were there ever any armies encamped here, or battles fought in this
part of the country?”
“No, son,” replied Mr. Allen, “not that history gives account of. There
may have been some fighting between the Indian tribes and the voyageurs
who accompanied the Jesuit Fathers as they explored this land, in the
early days of settlement of our country, but nothing like armies or
battles have been known here.”
“Well, I found some old fortifications, or what looked like them,
today. I had started up a deer near the Round Slough, and found that it
took to a trail leading almost due west. About a mile from the slough I
came to what evidently had been an old bed of the river, where sometime
in the long past it had made a big bend, up near the high sand knolls.
Now it was entirely dry, and I ran down into the old bed and across,
and clambered up the west bank. It was there I found the earthworks. At
first, where I ran across it, I thought it was a ridge of dirt some big
flood had left upon the bank, but as I followed it along for several
rods I came to the conclusion that it must have been the work of men.
It was of uniform height and size, and followed the curve of the river.
Soon I came to a large mound, some twelve feet across, just where the
bend in the river had come, and saw that another embankment, like the
one upon which I was walking, stretched out from this central mound on
the other side.
“It was for all the world as though some army had cast up earthworks at
this bend of the river as a protection from an enemy coming either up
or down the river.
“I was after that deer, so I did not wait to examine the old fort
more closely. My trail led northward from there, and when I had gone
about two miles, reaching that big hill we have so often seen in the
distance, I had my second surprise. I was approaching the hill from
the west, as I had lost track of the deer I had been following, and
had turned for home. On that side the hill was so nearly straight up
and down that a fellow would have a hard time in getting to the top. I
thought I might as well see the other side of the hill; perhaps I might
find a place there where I could climb up and look over the country.
Sure enough, there was a place where I could clamber to the top. This,
the east side, was covered with timber, oak and basswood being mixed
with the pine trees. As I looked up at the top the hill took on the
funniest appearance; something like a big squat bottle with a rim
around its mouth and a cork stuck in.
“I scrambled up. About two-thirds from the bottom I came to the rim
of the bottle--the obstruction, whatever it was. With considerable
difficulty I got up and over. It was plainly another case of
fortifying--this time a hill instead of a river. The earth had been
scraped away to the solid sandstone rock beneath, and brought forward
into a ridge clear across the face of the hill. A thousand soldiers
would have been safe behind that embankment on that side of the hill,
from even the missiles of a modern army.”
“Well, son,” replied Mr. Allen, “your finds are certainly interesting.
They are undoubtedly the work of the moundbuilders. We must examine
them some day, and perhaps may find something that will tell us of
their story.”
“But, father,” asked Rob, “who were the moundbuilders? and when did
they live here? and who was it that was after them?”
“You have asked some hard questions, my boy. The scientists have
guessed and guessed again. The earthworks they reared are really all we
know about them. The Indians have no traditions concerning them.”
“But, father,” persisted Ed, “what became of them? Did they kill each
other off, or did they all die of some great epidemic?”
“As I said, son, these are questions which can only receive conjectures
for answer. It may be that they were the descendants of some roving
tribe that came over from Asia by the way of the Behring Strait, after
the Lord scattered the people abroad from the plains of Shinar. They
may have continued their migrations southward before some later horde
from the Old World, and become the ancestors of the cliff-dwellers of
Arizona, or the Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico and Yucatan.
“However, it is evident that the moundbuilders were in possession of
a much less degree of civilization than the prehistoric ancestors
of the South Mexicans, for the moundbuilders have left nothing but
their earthworks, while the ruined cities and temples of the ancient
ancestors of the Toltecs and Aztecs show a civilization that must have
rivalled that of old Egypt, or even famous Babylon itself.”
“Is it about the moundbuilders you are speaking, Mr. Allen?” enquired
Dauphin Thompson, who had just come in. “If you can spare the time some
day I would like to take you to what seems to have been a town laid out
by those old fellows. It is about four miles south, and I suppose half
way between the Necedah and the Wisconsin rivers. I came across it last
fall when hunting our cattle that had strayed over on that side of the
river. I confess that the strangeness of it--like some great graveyard
of giants, made me feel a little creepy, in the twilight. I did pluck
up courage, though, to ride my pony to the top of what appeared to be
the large central mound and look about.
“In the fading light that filtered through the trees I could not see
well nor very far, but the mounds seemed to extend for several rods
each way. They were laid off in regular lines, north and south, and
east and west in what seemed to be a perfect square. There must have
been fifty or perhaps more, of the mounds. They were not all of the
same size, although they may have once been--save the mound which I
had ridden upon; that was as large as three or four of the others. I
asked my young Menominee friend, Kalichigoogah, about them once, but he
looked scared and wouldn’t talk. All he would say was ‘No know, me. Big
medicine. White boy keep away.’”
“I understand,” said Mr. Allen, “the feeling our Indians have for such
objects and places. The mysterious to them is sacred. It is their
religion to worship or give tribute and offerings to whatever they can
not understand. I have read that from the earliest times certain tribes
of Indians have used these mounds as burial places for their own dead,
so great a reverence had they for them.
“Indeed, in some of the accounts given by the followers of La Salle, or
Marquette, or Hennepin, I do not recall which, it is stated that near
the junction of the Fox and Wolf rivers in this state, they came upon
several large mounds of this kind. These voyageurs, ever greedy of the
gold supposed to be hidden away in the New World, dug into them. But
instead of the coveted treasure, they found a few simple trinkets, and
very many human bones. So they gave the place the name of Buttes des
Mort, ‘mounds of the dead.’
“But, father, isn’t there _anyone_ who can tell us about these people?”
demanded Ed. “I want to know why they made those breastworks on the
bend of the old river, and why they went up to that hill and made a
fort. Who was it that was after them? and which side won? Were they
hunters? or did they plant crops? What kind of houses did they live in?
and what did they look like?”
“My dear boy, if I could answer those questions correctly at this
moment, I would suddenly find myself one of the famous men of the
country. As I have said, this departed race has left but little to tell
of its existence, but that little the scientists are taking, and by
comparison and deduction, may finally build up a plausible story.
“It would be something like the work done by a famous naturalist who,
it is said, from a single fossil bone of an extinct fish, that had been
found, constructed its probable framework entire. Years afterwards
the whole skeleton of this rare, ancient fish was dug up, and the
professor’s guess found to be marvellously near the truth.
“While there are a few indications of the moundbuilders west of the
Rockies and east of the Alleghanies, they seem to have inhabited the
Mississippi valley, the mounds being most numerous in the states of
Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio. Indeed, there were so many in
the vicinity of the city of St. Louis, that place was nicknamed ‘Mound
City.’
“While their civilization seems to have far exceeded that of our
present race of Indians, there is also indication that they lived in
constant menace of some other, more warlike people. As we go eastward
toward the Alleghanies we find the mounds grow more defensive in their
characteristics.
“One of the finest specimens of these defensive constructions is known
as ‘Fort Ancient,’ and is near the Little Miami river, in Ohio. It is
on the top of a steep hill, its stiff clay walls ranging from five to
twenty-five feet in height. The wall crooks and turns and twists about,
until it is several miles in length, yet it encloses only land enough
for a common-sized farm.
“At Chillicothe there is the largest of this kind of mounds, embracing
145 acres. In connection with this old fortress there are several high
mounds which may have been used for lookout stations.
“As a rule, the mounds in the valleys are not of the warlike shapes,
but are laid off in squares or octagons, like the little “town”
Dauphin has told us about on the other side of the river. These are
usually called “sacred” mounds, though it would be difficult to give
a good reason why, other than the Indians’ reverence for that which
is mysterious and unexplained. Perhaps the best known example of this
class of mounds are those at Newark, Ohio. There is an octagon of 50
acres, a square of 35 acres, and two circles, one of 29 and the other
of 20 acres. They are all joined by avenues and surrounded by ditches.
“The temple mounds are fewer in number than those of the other classes,
but may, in the future, prove to yield more interest as they are
compared with similar pyramids found in Mexico and Central America.
In this country, the best specimen of the temple mounds is at Cahokia,
Ills. It is nearly an hundred feet high, and is more than 200 rods
around the base.
“Perhaps the most curious of the work of the ancient people are the
‘animal’ mounds, fashioned after a crude representation of different
beasts. One of these in the southern part of this state is a very fair
reproduction of the outlines of an elephant.”
“But, father,” exclaimed Ed, “how could that be? Where could these
people have seen an elephant? Did elephants live in America then? or
did the people come from the land of elephants?”
“My boy, that is a part of the mystery of the past of this mysterious
race. The fact is that the Grant county mound was clearly made to
represent an elephant, and the rest we must guess at.
“However, the larger number of mounds that have been examined were used
for burial places, undoubtedly first by the moundbuilders themselves,
as well as later by the Indians.”
That night the boys could scarcely sleep for planning excavations in
all three of the collections of mounds near them. Mr. Allen had hinted
that some day some mound might be uncovered which would yield the
long-looked-for key that would unlock the history of this past and
forgotten people. Why might not it be they who would be the discoverers?
Ed was for making the first investigation at the hill fort. If there
had been an assault upon those works, he argued, it must have been a
fierce one, and no doubt there would be found many of the weapons of
the attacking party buried in the soft earth beneath the steep walls.
Rob contended that if the mounds between the rivers were, indeed, the
site of one of their towns, more relics would be found there to show
what manner of people they were in their everyday life. Especially
would it be so, he argued, if they had been suddenly driven from their
homes by an enemy.
“You remember, Ed, when Captain Hunt and his soldiers came after the
Winnebagoes and they left their camps in a hurry, they first buried
many of their household utensils in the ground. You know how they
then smoothed down the earth and built a fire over the place, so that
the ashes and coals would give the ground an appearance of not having
been disturbed. I imagine we may find some such caches in that mound
village.”
Necessary work interfered with the boys’ plans for several weeks, and
the first flakes of late October snow were falling when they set off
upon their ten miles’ walk to the mound city.
After some discussion they decided to attack the largest, central mound
first, “For,” said Dauphin, “this must have been the mound of the
chief, if these mounds were the sites of their homes.”
Carefully they dug a hole six feet across, searching carefully through
each spadeful of dirt. In the first two feet down there was nothing
discovered; then Ed ran across two long, flint arrow- or spear-heads.
A little further down they came upon a human skeleton, the bones of
which crumbled so badly, as they were brought out to the air, that the
boys were able to save only the top of the skull and one thigh bone
intact.
It was only when they reached the depth of about four feet, nearly
at the level of the surrounding ground, that their spades struck
unmistakable evidences of fire--discolored earth, small coals, ashes,
and some brown fragments, the nature of which they could not at once
determine. “We have found it, Hurray!” shouted Rob. “They cached their
goods and built their fire over them just like our Indians did.”
“Now, boys,” counseled Dauphin, “let’s not be too hasty. Let’s examine
every spadeful carefully as we dig.”
Now the finds became more numerous: A stone mortar and pestle, such
as the Indians now use for preparing their meal from maize; a red,
stone pipe, curiously carved; several pure white arrow-heads, others
coal-black; a stone axe, grooved near the head for its fastening to
the handle; some broken earthenware vessels, decorated with queer,
spear-point designs; and most valuable of all, a copper knife in fairly
good state of preservation.
Then they came to a great quantity of brown fragments, which upon
examination, proved to be charred bone.
Down through the burned earth they dug in feverish haste toward the
treasure they believed to be hidden there. But alas! although they
toiled until dark, they were forced to acknowledge to themselves that
the ground beneath the fire had never been disturbed before.
“Well,” said Ed, “We didn’t find the ‘key’ to unlock the history of
these mounds, but we’ve got one of the old fellows, with some of his
dishes, his axe, his pipe, his spears and arrows, and his wife’s grist
mill. That’s pretty good for one day.”
And indeed it was, although the skeleton proved, according to the
decision of the professor of science at Carleton College, for whose
inspection the boys sent the relics, to be that of a modern Indian,
who had been buried probably not over an hundred years. He also
wrote the boys that of the various things they had dug up, only the
broken pottery could with probability be assigned to the time of the
moundbuilders. He added, however, that the large amount of fragments of
burned bones went to confirm the theory that the mounds of that class
had been used as places in which human bodies had been burned, either
in sepulchre or sacrificial rites.
Other excavations were planned by the boys, but the strenuous duties
of their pioneer life crowded in upon them, and the trips were put off
from time to time, until it so came about that their first exploration
into the affairs of the lost race, proved to be their last.