THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. '11 



try upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, from which it is 

 inferred that these nations are very ancient and were formerly very 

 numerous, although at the present time they hardly number two hun- 

 dred and fifty persons." ' (This seems to imply that there were numer- 

 ous mounds unoccupied.) " In one of the Natches villages," says Du- 

 mont, " the house of the chief was placed on a mound." ^ 



Another writer says: "When the chief [of the Natchez] dies they 

 demolish his cabin and then raise a new mound on which they build 

 the cabin of him who is to replace him in this dignity."^ 



According to liartram, in the Cherokee town of Stico the council- 

 house was on a mound, as also at Oowe.'' 



The same writer says ■' the Choctaws raised mounds over their dead 

 in case of communal burials. 



It is apparent from Jefferson's language'^ that the burial mounds of 

 Virginia were of Indian origin. 



These references, which might be indefinitely multiplied, are suffi- 

 cient to bear out the assertion that history testifies that the southern 

 tribes were accustomed to build mounds. 



It is a matter of surprise that so little is to be found regarding the 

 mounds in the older records of the Northern States. There is but one 

 statement in the Jesuit Kelations and no mention in the writings of the 

 Recollects, so far has been found, and yet one of the missionaries 

 must have passed a good portion of the winter of 1700 in the very midst 

 of the Cahokia group. Coldeii notes that "'a- round hill was sometimes 

 raised over the grave in which a corpse had been deposited."' Carver 

 noticed ancient earthworks on the Mississippi near Lake Pepin, but knew 

 nothing of their origin.^ Ileckewelder observed some of these works 

 near Detroit, which he was informed had been built by the Indians. An 

 account of them was j)ublished in a Philadelphia periodical in 1780 or 

 1790. This description was afterwards given briefly in his " History of 

 the Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations." 



These older records mention facts which aiford a reasonable explana- 

 tion of some of the ancient monuments found in the northern section 

 of the country; as for example the communal or tribal burials, where 

 the bones and remains of all the dead of a village, region, or tribe, who 

 had died since the last general burial (usually a period of eight to ten 

 years) were collected and deposited in one common grave. This method, 

 which was followed by some southern tribes, has been described by Bar- 



' La Harpc, Hist. Coll. La., part 3, p. lOrt, New York, 1851. 

 2 Mem. Hist. La., vol. 2, p. 109. 



^La Petit, Hist. Coll. La., vol. 3, pp. 141, 142, note. Also Lcttres ddifiantes ct cnrioaes, 

 vol. 1, pp. 200, 2(J1. See Da Pratz, Histoiro Lonisiane, 1758, vol. 3, p. 10. 

 ■* Bartram's Travels, pp. 345, 367. 

 fll)ia.,p..5ir). 



'•Notes on Virginia, 4tli Am. ed., 1801, pp. 142-147. 

 ''Hist. Five Nations, introd., vol. 1, Ijondon, 1755, p. 10. 

 ^Travels, ed. 1790, Piiila., p. 30; ed. 177'.», London, p. .57. 



