Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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