THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 33 



As will be seen, when the report which is now in the hands of the 

 printer is published, the burials in this mound were at various depths, 

 and there is nothing- shown to indicate separate and distinct periods, 

 or to lead to the belief that any of these were intrusive in the true sense. 

 On the contrary, the evidence is pretty clear that all these burials were 

 by one tribe or people. By the side of nearly every skeleton were one 

 or more articles, as shell masks, engraved shells, shell pins, shell beads, 

 perforated shells, discoidal stones, polished celts, arrow-heads, spear- 

 heads, stone gorgets, bone implements, clay vessels, or copper hawk- 

 bells. The last were with the skeleton of a child found at the depth 

 of 3i feet. They are precisely of the form of the ordinary sleigh-bell 

 of the present day, with pebbles and shell-bead rattles. 



That this child belonged to the people to whom the other burials are 

 due will not be doubted by any one not wedded to a preconceived 

 notion, and that the bells are the work of Europeans will also be 

 admitted. 



In another mound a little farther up the river, and one of a group 

 probably marking- the site of one of the '^ over-hill towns," were found 

 two carved stone pipes of a comparatively modern Cherokee type. 



The next argument is founded on the fact that in the ancient works 

 of the region alluded to are discovered evidences of habits and customs 

 similar to those of the Cherokees and some of the immediately sur- 

 rounding- tribes. 



In the article heretofore referred to allusion is made to the evidence 

 found in the mound opened by Professor Carr of its once having sup- 

 ported a building similar to the council-house observed by Bartram on 

 a mound at the old Cherokee town Cowe. Both w^ere built on mounds, 

 both were circular, both were built on posts set in the ground at equal 

 distances from each other, and each had a central pillar. As tending 

 to confirm this statement of Bartram's, the following passage may be 

 quoted, where, speaking- of Colonel Christian's march against the Cher- 

 okee towns in 177G, Ramsey' says that this ofheer found in the center 

 of each town -a circular tower rudely built and covered with dirt, 30 

 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet high. Tliis tower was used as a 

 council-house, and as a place for celebrating the green-corn dance and 

 other national ceremonials." In another mound the remains of posts 

 apparently marking the site of a building were found. Mr. M. C. Read, 

 of Hudson, Ohio, discovered similar evidences in a mound near Chat- 

 tanooga,^ and Mr. Gerard Fowke has quite recently found the same 

 thing in a mound at Waverly, Ohio. 



The shell ornaments to which allusion has been made, although occa- 

 sionally bearing designs which are undoubtedly of the Mexican'or Cen- 

 tral American type, nevertheless furnish very strong evidence that the 

 mounds of east Tennessee and western Xorth Carolina were built by 

 the Cherokees. 



Annals of Tennessee, p. 1(59. ^ Smithsonian Kept, for 1867 (1863). p 401 



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