104 Indian Mounds and Earthworks. 
quoted, notices that the Winnebagos, like the Algonquin, and 
other tribes, are divided into bands, each designated by some ani- 
mal, as the bear, or by the devil, or some bad spirit.* Among the 
clans or bands of the Mohawks, were those of the Bear, the Wolf, 
and the Turtle. The Hurons also had a Bear clan. The Natches, 
who lived on the borders of the Mississippi, had four clans, or 
classes; the Sioux proper were subdivided into seven bands, 
and the southern Sioux into eight tribes, each being separately 
classed by some characteristic name.t Whether the southern 
Indians were similarly subdivided and distinguished does not ap- 
pear. From the different structure and form of their monuments, 
it is not improbable that there always existed a variety of races 
upon this continent. And if in remote times those.races were 
classified and designated in the mode which we have seen still 
exists, and long has existed,—that is to say, under the denomina- 
tion of particular animals,—it is not altogether incompatible with 
probability, that the earthworks in which their dead were depos- 
ited, and which resemble certain animal figures, were in fact de- 
‘as representations of those national or family badges, and 
uently pointed out the burial place of the members of 
those particular tribes. 
I confess that I am aware of no positive evidence to show, that 
any existing tribes or branches, thus distinguished by a species of 
armorial bearings, actually did erect monuments of earth in the 
shape of the animals whose names they bear. In the absence of 
a more plausible conjecture, the idea suggested itself, perhaps on 
very insufficient grounds, that there might be some connection 
traced between the animal shaped configurations eco in 
the west, and some of the tribes who assumed animals for their 
badges, sit classed themselves under their names. — 
If, as is perhaps the case, the foregoing views are inadequate, to 
establish the heraldic character of some of the monuments of 
the aborigines, they show at least that to the same common cause 
may be traced, at every period in the recorded history of man, in 
all countries, and in every stage of civilization, the adoption of 
symbols and devices, derived from the simplest objects, yet char- 
acterizing nations, orders and classes, and even the indivi 
members of communities. 
ia, Feb. 12th, 1838. 
= BS ies ee es 
€ McKenney’s History of the Indian Tribes. { Archeologia Americana. 
