Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
Mr. William McAdams, in an address to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, remarks: "Mounds, such as are here
described, in the American Bottom and low-lands of Illinois are
seldom, if ever, found on the bluffs. On the rich bottom lands of
the Illinois River, within 50 miles of its mouth, I have seen
great numbers of them and examined several. The people who built
them are probably connected with the Ohio mound-builders, although
in this vicinity they seem not to have made many earthen
embankments, or walls inclosing areas of land, as is common in
Ohio. Their manner of burial was similar to the Ohio mound-
builders, however, and in this particular they had customs similar
to the mound-builders of Europe." [Footnote: Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv.
Sci., 29th (Boston) meeting, 1880 (1881), p. 715.] One which he
opened in Calhoun County, presented the regular form of the Ohio
"altar."
A mound in Franklin County, Ind., described and figured by Dr. G.
W. Homsher, [Footnote: Smithsonian Report for 1882 (1884), p.
722.] presents some features strongly resembling those of the
North Carolina mounds.
The works of Cuyahoga County and other sections of northern Ohio
bordering the lake, and consisting chiefly of inclosures and
defensive walls, are of the same type as those of New York, and
may be attributed to people of the Iroquoian stock. Possibly they
may be the works of the Eries who, we are informed, built
inclosures. If such conclusion be accepted it serves to strengthen
the opinion that this lost tribe was related to the Iroquois. The
works of this type are also found along the eastern portion of
Michigan as far north as Ogemaw County.
The box shaped stone graves of the State are due to the Delawares
and Shawnees, chiefly the former, who continued to bury in
sepulchers of this type after their return from the East. Those in
Ashland and some other counties, as is well known, mark the
location of villages of this tribe. Those along the Ohio, which
are chiefly sporadic, are probably Shawnee burial places, and
older than those of the Delawares. The bands of the Shawnees which
settled in the Scioto Valley appear to have abandoned this method
of burial.
There are certain mounds consisting entirely or in part of stone,
and also stone graves or vaults of a peculiar type, found in the
extreme southern portions of the State and in the northern part of
Kentucky, which can not be connected with any other works, and
probably owe their origin to a people who either became extinct or
merged into some other tribe so far back that no tradition of them
now remains.
Recently a resurvey of the remaining circular, square, and
octagonal works of Ohio has been made by the Bureau agents. The
result will be given in a future bulletin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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