The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the MammothMercer, Henry C.
History
The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the Mammoth
Mercer, Henry C.
Delaware Indians; Mammoths; Picture-writing, Indian
If the account of Cusic and the Lenape traditions concur in solving
the mystery of the mound-builders, and proving their identity with the
Allegewi of the Lenape tradition, the evidence is strengthened by the
concurrent testimony of language, which, as Mr. Hale and others have
shown, renders it probable that the conquered race, fleeing down the
Mississippi, were received and adopted by the Choctaws and Cherokees,
who thus became in part their descendants. Both the language of the
Cherokees lying to the southeast of the mound-builders' dominions, and
who claim to have built the Grave Creek mound, and that of the Choctaws
lying to the southwest, have in their vocabularies been largely
recruited from a similar foreign linguistic element. One remnant of
the Allegewi mingling with their conquerors, the Talamatan or Hurons,
became in part the ancestors of the Cherokees. Living to the southeast
of the mound-builders' dominions, the Cherokees had their council lodge
on the summit of a vast mound, the construction of which they ascribed
to a people who had preceded them. In grammar their language resembled
the Huron-Iroquois, while in vocabulary it has been largely recruited
from some foreign source.
The other remnant of the vanquished Allegewi, fleeing down the
Mississippi "to the southward," would have been received and protected
by the warlike Choctaws, themselves a mound-building people in
comparatively recent times, and the peculiar foreign element in whose
language, which differs considerably from that of the sister Creek and
Chicasaw nations, would thus be explained.
CARVED "GORGET" FOUND ON THE HANSELL FARM, JANUARY 8, 1885.
While the foregoing pages were in course of publication, the carved
"gorget" (fig. 23) was found on the Hansell farm, on Thursday, January
8, 1885.
The circumstances of the discovery were as follows: Late in the autumn
of last year--1884--the writer had caused an excavation to be made at
a spot in one of the fields on the Hansell property, where the carved
stone (fig. 19) had been found. At this place the soil of the field, a
yellowish clay, was very noticeably discolored as if by the fires and
decayed refuse of aboriginal dwellings; the discolored spot was of a
dark brown color, and covered an area of about twenty square yards.
The excavation measured about 25 feet in length by 4-1/2 feet in width,
and about 3 feet in depth. The dark brown stratum had a depth of 1-1/2
to 2 feet, and beneath it appeared the yellow clay of the surrounding
field. The place was at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from
the spot where the Lenape Stone had been found. In digging the trench
many small stones were thrown up, but no human remains or implements
were discovered. The earth was not thrown through a sieve. As the
excavation was to have been continued in the spring, the trench and
pile of earth were left undisturbed.
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