BDLL. 30] MOTA S VILLAGE MOUNDS AND MOUND-BUILDERS 



949 



Mota's Village. A former Potawatomi 

 village, so called from the chief, just n. 

 of Tippecanoe r., near Atwood, Kosciusko 

 CO., Ind. The reservation was sold in 

 1834. 



Motepori. A village of the Opata in 

 1726, on the Rio 8onora, lat. 30°, n. cen- 

 tral Sonera, Mexico (Bandelier in Arch. 

 Inst. Papers, iii, 71, 1890). The place 

 is now civilized. 



Motsai (possibly from pd-motsan, 'a loop 

 in a stream'). A Comanche division, 

 nearly exterminated in a battle with the 

 Mexicans about 1845. 



Moochas. — Hazcn in Sen. Ex. Doc. 18, 40th Cong., 

 3d se.ss., 17, 1.S69. Motsai'.— Mooney in 14th Rep. 

 B. A. E., 104.5, 1896. Mut-sha.— Buteher and Lyen- 

 decher, Comanche MS. vocab., B. A. E., 1867 

 (trans., 'big noses'). 



Motwainaiks { ' all chiefs ' ) . A band of 

 the Pieijan division of the Siksika. 

 All Chiefs.— Grinnell, BlarkfcM.t Lodge Tales, 225, 

 1892. Mo-twai'-naiks.— Ibid,, 209. 



Mouanast. A village of the Powhatan 

 confederacy in 1608, situated on the n. 

 bank of Rapjiahannock r., in King George 

 co.,Ya. — Smith (1629), Va., i, map, repr. 

 1819. 



Mouchaouaouastiirinioek. A Montagn- 

 ais tribe of Canada in the 17th centurv. — 

 Jes. Pel. 1643, 38, 1858. 



Mouisa. An unidentified tribe or vil- 

 lage which according to Douay was found 

 by Tonti in 1682 on or near the lower 

 Mississippi. Cf. Mosopdea. 

 Mouisa. — Le Clercq, First Estab. of the Faith, ii, 

 277,1882; Shea, Discov. Miss., 226, 18.52. Mousas.— 

 Barcia, Ensayo, 261, 1723. 



Mounds and Mound-builders. The term 

 mounds has been used in America in two 

 different senses as regards the scope in- 

 tended. By a number of writers it has 

 been applied in a broad sense to include not 

 only the tumuli proper but also various 

 other kinds of ancient monuments. In 

 the more limited sense it refers only to 

 the tumuli, or true mounds, whether of 

 earth or stone. Following the usual 

 custom the term is here used in the 

 broader sense, and hence includes the true 

 mounds, inclosures, walls, embankments, 

 refuse heaps, and other fixed structures. 



Although the tumuli are of various 

 forms they may be classed, with few ex- 

 ceptions, as conical tumuli, elongate or 

 wall-like mounds, pyramidal, and effigy 

 or imitative mounds. The conical tumuli 

 are artificial hillocks, not mere accumu- 

 lations of debris. The form, except 

 where worn down by the plow, is usually 

 that of a low, broad, round-topped cone 

 varying in size from a scarcely percepti- 

 ble swell in the ground to elevations of 80 

 oreven 100ft, and from 6 to 300 ft in diam- 

 eter. Most of the burial mounds are of 

 this type. The elongate or wall-like 

 mounds are earthworks having the ap- 

 pearance of walls, usually from 150 to 

 300 ft in length, though some are only 50 



ft, while others extend to 900 ft. They 

 seem to be confined exclusively to the 

 effigy-mound region. 



The typical form of the pyramidal 

 mounds is a truncated quadrangular 

 pyramid; some, 

 however, are circu- 

 lar and a few are 

 irregularly pentag- 

 onal, but are distin- 

 guished by the flat 

 top. "Some have ter- 

 races extending 

 outward from one 

 or two sides, and 

 others a ramp or 

 roadway leading up to the level surface. 

 The sharp outlines showing the true form 

 have been more or less obliterated in 

 most instances. 



The so-called effigy mounds are those 

 representing animal forms, and with a few 

 notable exceptions are confined to Wis- 

 consin and the immediately adjoining 



Zx 



Platform Mound, MibbuuRi, 150 



FT. LONG, 25 FT. HIGH. (thOMAs) 



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SERPENT MOUND, OHIO. LENGTH OF WORK, 500 FT. (hoLMEs) 



states. The exceptions are two in Ohio, 

 including the noted Serpent mound, and 

 two bird mounds in Georgia. They vary 

 in length from 50 to 500 ft, and in height 

 from a few inches to 4 or 5 ft. 



The conical mounds are sometimes com- 

 posed of earth and stones intermingled, 

 and in a few cases are wholly of stones; 



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CONICAL MOUNDS, MISSISSIPPI; HEIGHT 30 FT. (thOMAs) 



they are also, as a rule, depositories of 

 the dead, but burials also occur in the 

 pyramidal mounds, although the flat- 

 topped structures were usually the sites 

 for buildings, as temples, council houses, 

 and chiefs' dwellings. Burials were 

 rarely made in the wall-like or the effigy 

 mounds. As a rule no special order pre- 



