Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
"Paganchihiella was chief, and the Tallegwi all went southward.
"South of the Lakes they (the Lenape) settled their council-fire,
and north of the Lakes were their friends the Talamatan
(Hurons!)."
There can he no reasonable doubt that the Alleghewi or Tallegwi,
who have given their name to the Allegheny River and Mountains,
were the mound-builders.
This supposition brings the pressing hordes to the northwest of
the Ohio mound-builders, which is the direction, Colonel Force
concludes, from the geographical position of the defensive works,
they must have come.
The number of defensive works erected during the contest shows it
must have been long and obstinate, and that the nation which could
thus resist the attack of the northern hordes must have been
strong in numbers and fertile in resources. But resistance proved
in vain; they were compelled at last, according to the tradition,
to leave the graves of their ancestors and flee southward in
search of a place of safety.
Here the Delaware tradition drops them, but the echo comes up from
the hills of East Tennessee and North Carolina in the form of the
Cherokee tradition already mentioned, telling us where they found
a resting place, and the mound testimony furnishes the
intermediate link.
If they stopped for a time on New River and the head of the
Holston, as Haywood conjectures, [Footnote: Nat. and Aborig. Hist.
Tenn., p. 223.--See Thomas, "Cherokees probably mound-builders,"
Magazine Am. Hist., May. 1884, p. 398.] their line of retreat was
in all likelihood up the valley of the Great Kanawha. This
supposition agrees also with the fact that no traces of them are
found in the ancient works of Kentucky or middle Tennessee. In
truth, the works along the Ohio River from Portsmouth to
Cincinnati and throughout northern Kentucky pertain to entirely
different types from those of Ohio, most of them to a type found
in no other section.
On the contrary, it happens precisely in accordance with the
theory advanced and the Cherokeee traditions, that we find in the
Kanawha Valley, near the city of Charleston, a very extensive
group of ancient works stretching along the banks of the stream
for more than two miles, consisting of quite large as well as
small mounds, of circular and rectangular inclosures, etc. A
careful survey of this group has been made and a number of the
tumuli, including the larger ones, have been explored by the
representatives of the Bureau.
The result of these explorations has been to bring to light some
very important data bearing upon the question now under
consideration. In fact we find here what seems to be beyond all
reasonable doubt the connecting link between the typical works of
Ohio and those of East Tennessee and North Carolina ascribed to
the Cherokees.
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