INDIAN MOUNDS NEAK FORT WADS WORTH, D. T. 399 



the "upper agency" formerly stood. Arrow-heads, muscle-sliells, and 

 occasionally implements of bone and stone were formerly found in this 

 locality. 



Indian pottery, in addition to being found at this post, is said to be 

 found also on the Coteau du Prairie, about thirty miles from this post. 



On a granite rock situated upon a hill about a mile or two distant 

 from the residence of Major Brown are to be seen what is called Wa-lcui- 

 yan Owe^ (the track of thunder^) and regarded by the Indians as a super- 

 natural phenomenon. Two tracks of a bird, as they regard them, are 

 impressed upon the rock, each having three anterior toes and one pos- 

 terior. The tracks are about sis inches long, each line representing a 

 toe, not more than one-eighth of an inch wide ; their origin is clearly 

 artificial and may be explained on the snpposition that centuries ago, 

 with a piece of flint, some member of the Cheyenne jSTation has exercised 

 his talents in engraving the tracks of a bird, in which a calcareous 

 concretion of a diiferent color from the original rock has since been 

 deposited. 



To an elevation or knoll, from forty to sixty feet high, one-quarter 

 of a mile in diameter, arising almost perpendicularly from the sonth- 

 ern shore of one of Kettle Lakes, and sloping gradually in every 

 direction into an erosion valley, I have applied the Dakota name of 

 Cega lyeyapi, (Chaga Eyayiipee,) a name by whicli Fort Wadsworth 

 and the surrounding country is familiarly known to the Indians. The 

 term signifies in their language the place where " they found the kettle." 

 The knoll has, probably, been for a long period the favorite camping- 

 ground of the aborigines. The valley has at one time been a wide and 

 deep ditch, communicating with one of Kettle Lakes and some adjoining 

 sloughs, converting the hill into an island, admirably fortified by nature 

 for defense. On the summit of this knoll was an artificial mound 

 whose base was one hundred feet in diameter, and th-e i)erpendicular 

 height of its superior plane, above the surface of the prairie, imme- 

 diately surrounding it, was from one foot and a half to two feet. The 

 demarkation O'f the circumference of the base of the mound is somewhat 

 indistinct. At various distances from the surface to the depth of four 

 feet were found alternate strata of clay, and what appears to be a dark 

 vegetable mold, such as is found on the prairie elsewhere. The strata 

 of clay are each about three inches thick, very hard and dry, and con- 

 tain in their composition a slight admixture of lime, forming a sort of 

 concrete. It would appear from this arrangement of a series of concrete 

 floors that this locality, so admirably situated for defense, has been the 

 favorite camping-ground of one band of aborigines after another, each 

 renovating the locality of the former occupants by covering it with a layer 

 of soil from eight to twelve inches thick, and covering the whole with a 

 new concrete floor. On these floors I found the bones of birds, lish, and 

 various edible animals. The lowest floor is about four feet deep, and is 

 upon the natural clay soil ; in this I found a number of hearths, formed by 



