698 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



^Vccordiug to a statement by Dr. Kau, furnished Mr. C. C. Jones and 

 repeated to me personally, "it is a faet well remembered by many per- 

 sons in this neighborhood (Mouroe county, Illinois) that the Indians 

 who inhabited this region during the early j)art of the present century 

 {probabl}' Kickapoos) buried their dead in stone coffins."" 



Dr. Shoemaker, who resided on a farm near Columbia in ISCl, 

 showed Dr. Kau, in one of his fields, an empty stone grave of an Indian 

 who had been killed by one of his own tribe and there interred within 

 the recollection of some of the farmers of Monroe county. 



It is doubtful whether Dr. Ran is correct in ascribing these graves 

 to the Kickapoos, as their most southern locality appears to have 

 been in the region of Sangamon county.'' It is more probable they 

 were made by the Kaskaskias, Tamaroas, and Cahokias. Be this as it 

 may, H is evident that they are due to some of the tribes of this section 

 known as Illinois Indians. ])ertainingto the s:une branch of the Algonkin 

 family as the Shawuees and Delawares. An old lady of Jackson county, 

 who the writer knew was accounted one of the first settlers of that 

 county, informed one of the Bureau assistants that she had seen a 

 Kaskaskia Indian buried in a certain stone grave which she pointed 

 out to him. The evidence that many of those in southern Illinois are 

 comparatively recent is sliown by Mr. Middleton's account of those he 

 explored in that region. 



That the stone graves of southern Illinois were made by the same 

 people who built those of the Cumberland valley, ov closely allied 

 tribes, is indicated not only by the graves themselves, but by other 

 resemblances, as, for examjile, the similarity of works in Union and 

 Alexander counties, Illinois, to those examined by Prof, rutman near 

 Nashville, Tennessee. 



On the Linn place, in ITnion county, as shown in the field report, 

 there is a wall inclosing an area of some 25 or more acres. Within 

 this inchisure are several mounds, one of considerable size, also a 

 number of small excavations or depressions, which evidently mark the 

 sites of circular dwellings. The large mound, about 140 feet in diameter 

 and 13 feet high, was, as sliown by the excavation made in it, built for 

 sonu^ other purpose than that of burial. First, there had been a fire 

 built appaiently on the surface of the ground, and over the ashes a 

 mound of comparatively small size raised ; this was coated over with 

 clay and liardened by a fire made by burning straw and brush on it. 

 Over this, probably while burning, a layer of clay and sand was made 

 and also burned, then more earth, and probably a third layer of clay 

 mixed with sand. 



Not far away, only a few miles, was a mound (one on Mill creek 

 examined by Mr. Earle) literally crowded with stone graves, and at 

 various points in the intermediate region similar graves over which no 



1 Aiiti<|. So. IIldi.^n^*, i>. 22n. * RoynoUls' Hist. Illiuois, p. 20. 



