ETHNOLOGY. 



INDIAN MOUNDS NEAR FOUT WADSWOUTM, DAKOTA TERRITORY. 



By a. J. Co:mfoi;t, 



Acting Assistant Si(rij<-on United i^tatcs Army. 



Indian nioands of the larger size were probably designed as ceme- 

 teries. Tkey are located generally on a terrace, knoll, or elevation, at a 

 convenient distance from tlie water. 



It bas been a custom of tlie American Indian, from time immemorial, 

 to deposit the remains of tbe dead upon burial-scaffolds or suspend them 

 from trees. At stated periods the bones were gathered together and 

 interred. Among the Dakotas the custom has been, when a member of 

 the tribe dies, after the autumnal leaves have fallen, to deposit the re- 

 mains upon a scaffold, not to be removed until the leaves have unfolded 

 in spring, and if a death occur after the leaf-buds have burst, the re- 

 mains of the dead are likewise deposited, not to be removed until the 

 leaves have fallen in autumn. When a member of the lodge of the 

 " grand medicine" dies, the removal of tlie remains from the burial- 

 scaffold, and their interment, is attended with a grand " medicine dance," 

 and the initiation of a new member to fill the vacancy. 



A solitary mound, occupying an elevated i)osition upon the rolling 

 prairie, near the eastern shore of a beautiful lake, was first selected for 

 exploration. This site was chosen by the " mound-builders " evidently 

 for its richness in those associations in which men in their primitive 

 simplicity of customs especially delight. In every direction, except the 

 west, as far as the eye can reach, lay stretched out the broad prairie 

 of Dakota, upon which it was impossible for an enemy to lurk or a 

 buffalo to range unperceived. By a gradual and almost uniform descent 

 of a quarter of a mile, the largest of Kettle Lakes may be reached, 

 abounding in fish and, at the appropriate season, water-fowl of the 

 choicest variety, as game. Within a quarter of a mile of the shore is an 

 island, about a mile in circumference, heavily timbered, the favorite re- 

 sort of wood-ducks and cormorants during the period of incubation. 

 Trees support the nests of the former in great numbers ; geese, brant, 

 and swan are wont to feed here in autumn, on their journey southward. 

 It seems but reasonable that an elevated site possessing such advan- 

 tages for the living savage should be selected as the place of deposit for 

 his bones, especially when we reflect that among the aborigines there 

 was prevalent an almost universal belief in the existence of a spirit 

 which had intrusted to its charge the guardianship of the remains of 

 the dead; consequently, a spot the most eligible on account of the 



