700 JIOI'XD EXPLORATIONS. 



fouiul a large number of skeletons wliieli "were carefully inclosed with 

 flat stones, each skeleton being separate.'' These were evidently stone 

 graves. The resemblance, therefore, between the two groups is com 

 l)lete, and leads to the conclusion that the works on the Linn place in 

 Illinois are to be attribirted to the same people who built those in Ten- 

 nessee described by Prof. Putnam. In other words, it affords some 

 grouiuls for believing that the Shawuees were in Illinois previous to 

 their return thither in more modern times from the Cumberland valley. 



Taking all these corroboi'ating facts together, there are reasonable 

 grounds for concluding that graves i>f the type now under considera- 

 tion, although found in widely separated localities, are attributable to 

 the Shawnee Indians and their congeners, the Delawares and Illinois, 

 and that those south of the Ohio are due entirely to the first named 

 tribe. That they are the work of Indians must be admitted by all who 

 are willing to be convinced by evidence, and this is the only point at 

 present insisted upon. 



That the authors of these graves were mound-builders is proved 

 beyond (luestion by the fact that in most cases the graves are con- 

 nected with mounds, and in numerous cases in the various sections 

 where found (except when due to the Delawares, who were never mound- 

 builders) are in mounds sometimes in two, three, and even four tiers. 



The importance and bearing of this evidence does not stop with what 

 has been stated, for it is so interlocked with other facts relating to the 

 works of the "veritable mound-builders" as to leave no hiatus into 

 which the theory of a "lost race" or "Toltec occupation" can possibly 

 be thrust. It forms an unbroken chain, connecting the mound-builders 

 and historical Indians, which no sophistry or reasoning can break. 

 Not only are these graves found in mounds of considerable size, but 

 they are also connected with one of the most noted groups in the United 

 States. 



The group alluded to is the one on Col. Tumlin's place, near Carters- 

 ville, (la., known as the Etowah mounds, of which a full description 

 will be found in this volume, and of which mention is made a few i)ages 

 back. 



In the smallest of the three large mounds were found stone graves 

 precisely of the type attributable, when found south of theOhio, totbe 

 Shawuees; not in a situation where they could be ascribed to intru- 

 sive burials, but in the bottom layer of a comparatively large mound, 

 with a thick and undisturbed layer of hard packed clay above them. 

 It is also worthy of notice that the locality is intermediate between the 

 principal scat of the Shawnees in the Cumberland valley and their 

 eastern outposts in northeastern Ceorgia, where both tradition and 

 stone graves indicate a settlement. The tradition regarding this set- 

 tlement has already been given. 



In these graves were found the renuirkable figured copper i)lates and 

 certain engraved shells elsewhere described and illustrated. 



