Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United StatesThomas, Cyrus
History
Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States
Thomas, Cyrus
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites; Mounds -- United States; Wyandot Indians
Be our conclusion on this question what it may, one important result of
the explorations in this northern section of the United States is the
conviction that there was during the mound-building age a powerful tribe
or association of closely allied tribes occupying the valley of the
Ohio, whose chief seats were in the Kanawha, Scioto, and Little Miami
Valleys. We might suppose that one strong tribe had occupied
successively these various points, yet the slight though persistent
differences in methods and customs indicated by the works seem to favor
the other view. Moreover, the data furnished by the burial mounds lead
to the conclusion that all the works of these localities are relatively
contemporaneous. Not that those of either section are all of the same
age, perhaps by some two or three or possibly more centuries, but that
those of one section, as a whole, are relatively of the same age as
those of the other sections. Nevertheless a somewhat careful study of
all the data bearing on this subject leads me to the conclusion that the
Cherokees are the modern representatives of the Tallegwi, and that most
of the typical works of Ohio and West Virginia owe their origin to this
people.
In each section there are some indications that the authors of these
works followed the custom of erecting burial mounds down to the time the
Europeans appeared on the continent. These evidences have not been given
here, as it is not my intention to discuss them in this paper.
In Ohio there are undoubted evidences of one, if not two, waves of
population subsequent to the occupancy of that region by the builders of
the chief works. But these were of comparatively short duration, and
were evidently Indian hordes pressed westward and southward by the
Iroquois tribes and the advance of the whites.
THE APPALACHIAN DISTRICT.
This district, as already defined, includes East Tennessee, western
North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and the southeastern part of
Kentucky. It is probable that northeastern Georgia and the northwestern
part of South Carolina should be included, but the investigations in
most of the sections named have not been sufficiently thorough to
enable us to fix with any degree of certainty the boundaries of the
district.
Although there is uncertainty in reference to the area occupied by the
people who left behind them the antiquities found in this region, there
can be no doubt that here we find a class of burial mounds differing in
several important respects from any we have so far noticed.
Some of the most important mounds of this class found in this district
were discovered in Caldwell County, North Carolina, and opened in 1882
by Mr. J. P. Rogan, one of the Bureau assistants, aided by Dr. J. M.
Spainhour, a resident of the county.
As Mr. Rogan's descriptions are somewhat full, I give them substantially
as found in his report:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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