THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 41 



fore, ill this peculiar line of art and custom an nnbrokeu chain couuect- 

 ing the mound-bniklers of Ohio with the Indians of historic times, and 

 in the same facts is evidence, which strengthens the argument, discon- 

 necting the makers from the Mexican and Central American artisans. 



As this evidence appears to point to the Cherokees as the authors of 

 some of the typical mounds of Ohio, it may be as well to introduce here 

 a summary of the data which bear upon this question. 



Reasons which are thought well-nigh conclusive have already been 

 presented for believing that the people of this tribe were mound-build- 

 ers, and that they had migrated in pre-Columbian times from some 

 point north of the locality in which they were encountered by Euro- 

 peans. Taking up the thread of their history where it was dropped, 

 the following reasons are offered as a basis for the conclusion that their 

 home was for a time on the Ohio, and that this was the region from 

 which they migrated to their historic locality. 



As already shown, their general movement in historic times, though 

 limited, has been southward. Their traditions also claim that their 

 migrations previous to the advent of the whites had been in the same 

 direction from some i)oint northward, not indicated in that given by 

 Lederer, but in that recorded by Haywood, from the valley of the 

 Ohio. But it is proper to bear in mind that the tradition given by 

 Lederer expressly distinguishes them from the Virginia tribes, which 

 necessitates looking more to the west for their former home. Haywood 

 connects them, without any authority, with the Virginia tribes, but the 

 tradition he gives contradicts this and places them on the Ohio. 



The chief hostile pressure against them of which we have any knowl- 

 edge was from the Iroquois of the north. This testimony is further 

 strengthened by the linguistic evidence, as it has been ascertained that 

 the language of this tribe belongs to the Iroquoian stock. Mr. Horatio 

 Hale, a competent authority on this subject, in an article on Indian 

 migrations published in the American Antiquarian, ^ remarks as follows: 



Following the same course of migration from the northeast to the southwest, which 

 leads us from the Hurous of eastern Canada to the Tuscaroras of central North Caro- 

 lina, we come to the Cherokees of northern Alabama and Georgia. A connection 

 between their language and that of the Iro([Uois has long been suspected. Gallatin, 

 in his "Synopsis of Indian Languages," remarks on this subject: "Dr. Barton thought 

 that the Cherokee language belonged to the Iroquois family, and on this point I am 

 inclined to be of the same opinion. The affinities are few and remote, but there is a 

 similarity in the general termination of the syllables, in the pronunciation and 

 accent, which has struck some of the native Cherokees. * * * 



The difficulty arising from this lack of knowledge is now removed, and with it all 

 uncertainty disappears. The similarity of the two tongues, apparent enough in 

 many of their words, is most strikingly shown, as might be expected, in their gram- 

 matical structure, and especially iu the affixed pronouns, which in both languages 

 play so important a part. 



More complete vocabularies of the Cherokee language than have 

 hitherto been accessible have recently come into possession of the Bu- 



' Am. Antiquarian, vol.5, 1883, p. 20. 



