Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
Stone graves have been found in Washington County, Md. [Footnote:
Smithsonian Report for 1882 (1884), p. 797.] History informs us
that there were two Shawnee settlements in this region, one in the
adjoining county of Maryland (Allegany), and another in the
neighborhood of Winchester, Va. [Footnote: C. C. Royce in American
Antiquarian, vol. 3, 1881, p. 186. Virginia State Papers, 1. p.
63.]
Mr. W. M. Taylor [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1877, p. 307.
Mentions only known instance of mound with Delaware Village.]
mentions some stone graves of the type under consideration as
found on the Mahoning River, in Pennsylvania. An important item in
this connection is that these graves were in a mound. He describes
the mound as 35 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, having on one
side a projection 35 feet long of the same height as the mound.
Near by a cache was discovered containing twenty one iron
implements, such as axes, hatchets, tomahawks, hoes, and wedges.
He adds the significant statement that near the mound once stood
the Indian (Delaware) village of Kush-kush-kee.
Graves of the same type have been discovered in Lee County, Va.
[Footnote: Eleventh Report of the Peabody Museum, 1878, p. 208.]
Others have been found in a mound on the Tennessee side, near the
southern boundary of Scott County, Va. Allusion has already been
made to the occasional presence of the Shawnees in this region. In
the map of North America by John Senex, Chaonanon villages are
indicated in this particular section.
The presence of these graves in any part of Ohio can easily be
accounted for on the theory advanced, by the well-known fact that
both Shawnees and Delawares were located at various points in the
region, and during the wars in which they were engaged were moving
about from place to place; but the mention of a few coincidences
may not be out of place.
In the American Antiquarian for July, 1881, is the description of
one of these cists found in a mound in the eastern part of
Montgomery County. Mr. Royce, in the article already referred to,
states that there was a Shawnee village 3 miles north of Xenia, in
the adjoining county, on Mad River, which flows into the Miami a
short distance above the location of the mound.
Stone graves have been found in great numbers at various points
along the Ohio from Portsmouth to Ripley, a region known to have
been occupied at various times by the Shawnees.
Similar graves have been discovered in Ashland County. [Footnote:
Smithsonian Report for 1877, pp. 261-267.] These, as will be seen
by reference to the same report (page 504), are precisely in the
locality of the former Delaware villages.
The evidence is deemed sufficient to show that the Shawnees and
Delawares were accustomed to bury in stone graves of the type
under consideration, and to indicate that the graves found south
of the Ohio are to be attributed to the former tribe and those
north to both tribes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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