84 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE Ieth. ann. 37 



tion. The Winnebago themselves claimed that the reason lodges 

 were built upon mounds was because they could thus shed water 

 most easily. 



The conical mounds were unquestionably used for purposes of 

 burial. Whether, however, they were always constructed with that 

 particular object in view may be seriously doul)ted, for in some 

 cases the burials seem to represent clear evidences of being intrusive 

 in character. A few Indians insisted that some of the conical 

 mounds were used as platforms from which to adch'ess an audience; 

 that some were ".stations" in the game of lacrosse, and that some 

 were bases of lodges. 



The composite type of mound, characterized by the union of a 

 conical and a linear or by the union of a number of each, was inter- 

 preted by the Winnebago questioned as lodge bases connected with 

 one another, the conical mound being the base of the lodge and the 

 "linear" acting as a sort of connecting passageway. 



We mentioned before that Mr. Stout maintains the view that the 

 linear are in reality conventionalized effigy moimds. Our main 

 objection to such an interpretation would be that conventionaliza- 

 tion is a method of artistic expression exceedingly rare among the 

 Winnebago. Had it been common it would certainly have been 

 found in use in their bead and quill work or in their woven bags. 

 There is a possibility that some of the linears may be either very 

 crudely constructed effigy mounds or that they may represent effigy 

 mounds that have been changed tlirough the influences of weather 

 and general climatic conditions, as well as, to a smaller extent, by 

 human hands, factors that have been neglected altogether too much 

 in this connection, especially in the interpretation of what appear 

 to be anomalies. From this point of view, it would be suggestive 

 to compare some of the so-called "turtle" effigies with the water- 

 spirit or "panther" type, on the one hand, and with the linears on 

 the other. It is perhaps such "transitional" forms that have led 

 Mr. Stout to postulate that all linears are effigies. 



Summing up, we might say that the linears may be either effigies, 

 in part representing a snake, or they may be, in part, altered or 

 mutilated or crude effigies ; or they may be the bases of lodges. We 

 have the authority of a number of Indians that some are snake effi- 

 gies. The interpretation that some are altered or mutilated has 

 never been confirmed by the Indians themselves. Finally, that some 

 of them are the bases of lodges is the statement of a large number of 

 Indians, but it must await further evidence before it can be accepted. 

 That some of the mounds found in the Wiimebago territory ante- 

 date, in part, the coming of the whites, and can conseqiiently be 

 regarded as constituting an archeological problem, there can hardly 

 be any doubt. Nevertheless, many of them have been erected since 



