536 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
by a people who worshiped the sun; and they even go so far as to use 
this as an argument why they could not have been erected by the red 
Indian. That some of these works were, in some way, connected with 
this cult is extremely probable; at all events, in view of the plausible 
explanation it gives of their origin, the statement is admitted to be true; 
but to assume that this furnishes a sound basis for the next step in the 
argument, and authorizes the inference that the red Indian could not 
have built them, is without warrant, either in fact or logic. Indeed, so 
far is it from being an argument in favor of this theory, that it is be- 
lieved to tell, with disastrous effect, against it, since it can be shown, 
on undoubted authority, that everywhere in the valley east of the Mis- 
sissippi the Indian was a sun-worshipper,* and thus, of course, he and 
the mound-builder must have had the same religious cult, even accord- 
ing to the admissions of those who hold that the two belonged to differ- 
ent races and represented different phases of civilization. This being 
the case, and it being further admitted that it was this cult that led the 
mound-builders to erect works like the so-called sacred inclosures of 
southern Ohio, it must follow that there can be no reason why the same 
cult should not have produced, among the Indians, precisely similar 
results. 
To the argument when stated in this fashion, the only answer logically 
possible is a denial that the Indians were sun-worshipers, all others 
being barred by the terms of the statement; and as this is the course 
that the discussion must inevitably take, it behooves me to strengthen 
this point as much as possible. To this end an appeal to the early 
records again becomes necessary, and though it seems like a waste of 
time thus to “thrash old straw,” yet the fact that recent writers on this 
subject have either entirely ignored the existence of sun worship among 
the modern Indians, or else have limited it to a few tribes,t is proof 
positive of the necessity for repeating the evidence which has led me 
to a contrary conclusion. In doing this, however, the order followed in 
investigating the question of subsistence will be reversed. Instead of 
beginning with the Huron and Algonquin families, as was done in that 
““The tribes of the New World chose the sun as the object of their adoration:” 
Brinton, Notes on the I'loridian Peninsula, p. 126, Philadelphia, 1859. ‘‘ With almost 
all the aborigines there is proof - - - of the former worship of the sun:” Brad- 
ford, American Antiquities, p. 181, New York, 1841. ‘‘The United States Indians re- 
garded the sun as the symbol of light, life, power, and intelligence, and deemed it 
the impersonation of the Great Spirit. They sang hymns to thesun and made genu- 
flections to it:” Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. V, p. 407, and vol. 111, pp. 60 and 64. 
‘The religions or superstitions of the American Nations - - - are only modifica- 
tions of that primitive system which has been denominated sun or fire worship :” 
Squier, Serpent Symbol in America, p. 111, New York, 1851. See also Tylor, Primitive 
Culture, vol. 11, pp. 287 et seq., Boston reprint 1874, Nuttall, Travels in Arkansas, p. 
277, Philadelphia, 1821. 
t Footprints of Vanished Races, p. 61: St. Louis, 1879. 
