SCHOOLCRAFT'S NATIONAL WORK. 137 



According to his classification, mounds may be considered as tumuli proper, 

 (meaning the larger class of mounds, termed sepulchral by Davis and Squier) ; 

 propyls, or redoubt mounds, at the gates of enclosures, barrows or small earthen 

 heaps, generally under nine or ten feet in height; the small "sciotic" mounds of 

 sacrifice; the totemic or imitative mounds; and the massive platform mounds of 

 the South. 



The purposes to which the latter were applied, he considers as sufficiently shown 

 by the manner in which they were used and occupied within the period of observa- 

 tion, viz : for the dwellings of the caciques and priests. To this is added the 

 testimony of tradition. " With regard to the platform mounds, it is the recorded 

 tradition of the Muscogees, and Appalachian tribes, that these were public works 

 laid out on the selection of a new site' for a town, and engaged in immediately by 

 the whole tribe, to serve as the official seat of their chief ruler." (Vol. IV. p. 130, 

 quoting from Pickett's History of Alabama, and Vol. II. pp. 83, 84.) The celebrated 

 work at Marietta he believes to have also been of the same character. 1 



" In Oregon and Washington," he says, " there is not a mound or earthwork 

 analogous to those of the Mississippi Valley, or, indeed, of any kind." " The 

 tribes who had reached the Mississippi in their migrations, did not come from the 

 elevated, bleak, and barren deserts stretching at the east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 There are no indications that they crossed that broad and forbidding barrier." (Vol. 

 V. pp. 100, 101, and authorities there cited.) (Ibid., Appendix, p. 062, et seq.) 



In further limitation of the extent of such remains, he says : " In the highest 

 latitudes occupied by the Algonkins, on and north of the Lake Superior basin, we 

 search in vain for any striking objects of antiquity. There are no artificial mounds, 

 embankments, or barrows, in this basin, to denote that the country had been 

 anciently inhabited. It is something to affirm, that the mound builders who have 

 filled the West with wonder — quite unnecessary wonder — had never extended their 

 sway here." (Vol. I. p. 06.) 



Mr. Schoolcraft has, in various passages, expressed an opinion respecting the 

 period when the mounds, &c. were abandoned. 



" Could we determine the age of these works, one great object of their considera- 

 tion would be attained. The opening of the great tumulus at Grave Creek re- 

 vealed the mode which brought structures of earth of this capacity within the 

 means of the semi-industrial tribes. The cortical layers, counted in the mature 

 and heavy forest trees, denoted the period of its completion to have been at, or 

 soon after, the twelfth century ; but there was no proof that it had not been com- 

 menced centuries earlier. It appeared, conclusively, that the structure was the result 

 of comparatively trivial sepulchral labors during an immense period ; one age and 

 tribe having added to another the results of its easily accomplished and slowly 

 accumulating toils." (Vol. IV. p. 129.) 



" The testimony drawn from the cortical layers of trees on an antique fort in 



1 Reference is made, Vol. II. p. 127, to a Creek tradition respecting the construction of mounds of 

 refuge from sudden inundations. 

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