592 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
art, differ in no essential respect from the cemeteries found in connec- 
tion with the deserted modern towns and ‘castles’ of the Indians.” 
This is certainly a very strong statement of the case, and if we add 
that the Huron-Iroquois were accustomed to fortify their forts or castles 
with a ditch and wall, the latter surmounted by a stockade, it will be 
seen that Mr. Squier had good and sufficient reasons for attributing all 
these works to the recent Indians. Indeed, now that the palisades 
that once inclosed the villages known to have been occupied by the 
Iroquois have rotted away, there is no structural difference to be seen 
between them and any of the earthworks of western New York; and 
as these, in their turn, are identical in this respect with the hill forts 
of the Ohio Valley, it must follow, if the Iroquois or their western 
neighbors erected the New York series of these works, that there is 
no reason why these same western neighbors, or a people in the same 
stage of civilization, could not have built those in Ohio and still fur- 
ther to the west, due regard being had to their population and to the 
necessity for such defenses. Thus for instance whilst a weak or 
peaceful tribe, in the midst of enemies, would find it necessary to 
fortify themselves at every point, a strong and warlike people, of whom 
their neighbors stood in awe, would be relieved of this necessity, ex- 
cept in the direction from which they anticipated danger. This was 
forcibly exemplified in the case of the Iroquois,* when in the heyday of 
their power; and it may still be seen in New Mexico, where the Pueblo 
of Taos is, or was until very lately, “surrounded by an adobe wall, 
strengthened in some places by rough palisades,”+ whilst their more 
warlike neighbors, like the Apache and the Navajo, have not found 
such defenses necessary or even desirable. 
Of the method practiced by the Huron-Iroquois of fortifying their 
villages, our accounts are very full and explicit. Parkman,t whom it is 
safe to follow, in an admirable sketch of the Hurons, tells us that the 
defenses of this family of tribes, “ like their dwellings, were, in essential 
points, alike. A situation was chosen favorable to defense—the bank 
of a lake, the crown of a difficult hill, or a high point of land in the fork 
of confluent streams. A ditch several feet deep was dug around the vil- 
lage, and theearth thrown up on the inside. Trees were then felled by an 
alternate process of burning, and hacking the burnt part with stone 
hatchets, and by similar means were cut into lengths to form palisades. 
These were planted on the embankment in one, two, three, or four con- 
centric rows,” the whole being crossed and interlaced after the manner of 
a chevaux-defrise, and lined within to the height of a man with heavy 
Sheets of bark. At the top, where the palisades crossed, was a gallery 
*Morgan, p. 314. 
tBanecroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 1, p. 664. 
{Jesuits in America, p. xxix of the Introduction: Boston, 1874. Compare Morgan, 
p. 314; Latitau, vol. 11, pp. 3 et seq.; Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, pp. 79-80: Paris, 
1856, 
