12 THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 



tram/ Dainont/-^ Komaiis,^ and otlicrs, but most fully by Joau dc Brebeuf.* 

 It is a well-attested fact tliat northern as well as southern Indians 

 were accustomed to erect palisades around their villages for defense 

 against attack. 



Some evidences of mound building by northern Indians may be found 

 in the works of comparatively modern writers. Lewis C. Beck ^ afiirms 

 that " one of the largest mounds in this country has been thrown up on 

 this stream [the Osage] within thelast thirty orforty years by the Osages, 

 near the great Osage village, in honor of one of their deceased chiefs." 

 It is in-obablc this is the mound referred to by Major Sibley,*^ who says 

 an Osage Indian informed him that a chief of his tribe having died 

 while all the men were off on a hunt, he was buried in the usual man- 

 ner, with his weapons, etc., and a small mound was raised over him. 

 When the hunters returned this mound was enlarged at intervals, every 

 man carrying materials, and so the work went on for a long time, and the 

 mound, when finished, was dressed off to a conical form at the top. The 

 old Indian further said he had been informed, and believed, that all 

 the mounds had a similar origin. 



Lewis and Clarke mention not only the erection of a mound over a 

 modern chief, but also numerous earthworks, including mounds, which 

 were known to be the work of contemporaneous Indians." 



L. V. Bierce"^ states that when Nicksaw, an old Wyandotte Indian 

 of Summit County, was killed, "the Indians buried him on the ground 

 where he fell, and according to their custom raised a mound over him 

 to commemorate the place and circumstances of his death. Bis grave 

 is yet to be seen." 



Another writer says : " It is related by intelligent Indian traders that 

 a custom once prevailed among certain tribes, on the burial of a chief or 

 brave of distinction, to consider his grave as entitled to the tribute of a 

 portion of earth from each passer-by, which the traveler sedulously car- 

 ried with him on his journey. Hence the iirst grave formed a nucleus 

 around which, in the accumulation of the accustomed tributes thus paid, 

 a mound was soon formed."'* 

 The same author says ^" the tumulus at the Great Butte des Morts 



'Travels (17<J1), p. 510. 



'^ Mciiioires IliHt. L.i., vol. 1, p. 240. 



^Nat. and Civil Hist. Fla., pp. 88-90. 



■■ 111 his account "Des c6r6raoiiics qii'ils [les Hurons] gardcnt en leiir s^pnUure ct 

 (Ic leiir deiiil," and "De la Fe3t6 soleruaelle de.s morts." — Jesuit Relations for 1630, 

 jip. 129-131). See translation in Tlioinas's "Burial Mounds of the Northern Section 

 of the United States," Fifth Annual liept. Bur. Etlinol., p. 111). See also Lafitan, 

 "Moours desSanvages," vol. 2, pp. 447-4;')."). 



•■ (iazetteer of tho~ States of 111. and Mo., p. 308. 



'■ Featherstonhaiijfli, Excur. through Slave! States, p. 70. 



'Travels, Dublin e,d., 1817, j)]). 30,31, .^).^), 07, ll.'>, 117, \-22-\2:^,otc. 



** JIistori(;al U(Mninise(>,nces of Snmniit County, Ohio, p. I'.'M. 



■'Smith's History of Wisconsin, vol. 3, 18.')4, p. 245. 

 ' " Ibid., ]). 202. 



