Till: PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 



By Cyrus Thomas. 



rNTEODUCTION. 



No otboT ancient works of the United States have become so widely 

 known or have excited so much interest as those of Ohio. This is due 

 in part to their remarkable character but in a much greater degree to 

 the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Talley," by Messrs. Squier 

 and Davis, in which these monuments are described and figured. 



The constantly recurring question, " Who constructed these works?" 

 has brought before the public a number of widely diiferent theories, 

 though the one which has been most generally accepted is that they 

 originated with a people long since extinct or driven from the country, 

 who had attained a culture status much in advance of that reached by 

 the aborigines inhabiting the country at the time of its discovery by 

 Europeans. 



The opinion advanced in this paper, in support of which evidence 

 will be presented, is that the ancient works of the State are due to In- 

 dians of several different tribes, and that some at least of the typical 

 works, were built by the ancestors of the modern Cherokees. The dis- 

 cussion will be limited chiefly to the latter proposition, as the limits of 

 the paper will not permit a full presentation of nil the data which might 

 be brought forward in support of the theory, and the line of argument 

 will be substantially as follows: 



First. A brief statement of the reasons for believing that the Indians 

 were the authors of all the ancient monuments of the IMississippi Val- 

 ley and Gulf States; consequently the Ohio mounds must have been 

 built by Indians. 



Second. Evidence that the Cherokees were mound builders after 

 reaching their historic seats in East Tennessee and western North 



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