90 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



IROQUOIAN TRIBES ADJOINING THE FIVE NATIONS 



Westward from the region just described, in the northern part of 

 the State of Ohio, bordering on the south shore of Lake Erie, are 

 to be found many ancient inclosures, erected to surround and pro- 

 tect a village, thus resembling the works once so numerous in the 

 country of the Five Nations. And it is quite evident that these were 

 likewise erected by an Iroquoian tribe, probably the long extinct 

 Erie who were lost to history about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. The works in northern Ohio, often of irregular form, and 

 in many instances a wall extending across a neck of land, must not 

 be confused with the remarkable squares and circles, octagons, and 

 great walls existing in the southern part of the State. 



Tribes belonging to the same linguistic stock occupied the greater 

 part of the State of Pennsylvania, adjoining the country of the Five 

 Nations on the north. Of these tribes the Susquehanna, known in 

 history since the year 1608, was the most important. But their terri- 

 tory in later years became the home of other tribes, some of which 

 had been forced westward by the ever-growing colonies along the 

 coast, and many moved into the rich valley of the Susquehanna, where 

 game was plentiful and consequently food could be easily secured. 

 There were several important villages in the valley of the West 

 Branch of the Susquehanna, near the present Lockhaven, Clinton 

 County. One of these later Delaware towns stood near "MonseytOAvn 

 Flats," and the site of the cemetery which adjoined the village is 

 shown in plate 10, a. It is said that in addition to Delaware and 

 Shawnee, many Seneca and Cayuga are buried here. The cemetery 

 occupied the level area on the far side of the river, as shown in the 

 photograph. 



THE CHEROKEE / 



Far to the southward, occupying the beautiful hills and valleys of 

 eastern Tennessee and the adjoining parts of Georgia and Carolina, 

 lived that great detached Iroquoian tribe, the Cherokee. Here they 

 lived when the country was traversed by the Spaniards in 1540, and 

 here they continued for three centuries. But although so frefjuently 

 mentioned by early writers, and so often visited by traders, very little 

 can be learned regarding their burial customs. Nevertheless it is evi- 

 dent they often placed the body on the exposed surface, on some 

 high, prominent point, and then covered it with many stones gathered 

 from the surface. Such stone mounds are quite numerous, not only 

 on the hills once occupied by the Cherokee, but far northward. Many 

 of the western towns of the Cherokee, often termed the Overhill 

 Towns, were in the vicinity of Blount County, Tennessee. Many 

 stone mounds were there on the hilltops, and these may justly be at- 



