100 Indian Mounds and Earthworks. 
where, within the ruins of an ancient town or village, fortified 
with walls, “graves are found in abundance, from one to three 
feet in depth, containing human bones. The bodies seem gen- 
erally to have been buried in a sitting posture, with flat stones 
placed around and over them.” I observed a grave or sepulchre 
of this kind on the summit of the natural hill, of limestone, called 
Sinsinnawa mound, a few miles north of Gialente 
Whilst endeavoring to ascertain the origin of the animal forms, 
adopted in the Wisconsin territory for monumental purposes, the 
writer became early aware of the embarrassments attendant on 
all researches in Indian archeology. It has been suggested, that 
they might be designed merely to record the achievements of cer- 
tain chiefs in hunting. That they were sepulchral, and enclosed 
the remains of human beings, has been proved by the recent ex- 
amination of many earthworks which have the peculiar forms 
noticed in the preceding pages. 
Concerning these ancient memorials of a by-gone people, view- 
ing them as commemorative of the dead, it has occurred to me 
that they may have served in some way to designate the respect- 
ive tribes or branches to which the deceased, in whose honor the 
structures were reared, belonged. Even at the present day it is 
an undisputed fact, I believe, that certain, perhaps most, Indian 
families and even tribes or branches, are distinguished from each 
other by badges indicating particular animals, or objects; or by 
devices symbolical of some memorable national event or peculiar- 
ity. In the same mode, and for the same purposes, many indi- 
viduals also, among the more remarkable of their warriors, assumed 
similar devices ; commemorative of personal prowess, of success in 
the chase or in war; and were further distinguished among their 
friends and adherents, by titles equally characteristic. 'Thus have 
We seen, even within the space of a few months from the time 
of writing this article, the survivors of an Indian chief recording 
at the head of his grave, by some rude hieroglyphics, the tribe 
and attributes of the deceased. And this is Indian heraldry: as 
useful, as commemorative, as inspiriting to the red warrior and his 
race, as that when in the days of the crusades, the banner and the 
pennon, the device and the motto, the crest, the shield and the 
War ery, exercised their potent influence on European chivalry. 
In all times have nations adopted and men arranged themselves 
under badges and symbols, to which custom and long cherished 
associations endeared them. Yet were they of no higher import 
