1852.] 



THE ANCIENT MINEES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



lOV 



the Ontonogon River, extending 15 or 20 miles along the trap 

 range each way from where it crosses the course of that stream. 



They are also very apparent in the vicinity of Portage Lake. 

 On Point Kewena they may be seen extending from the Forsyth 

 location, ('now Fulton,) eastward along the range about 20 miles, 

 and across the Lake on Isle Royal, are abundant evidences of 

 mining operations of the same era. The details, concerning the 

 mode in which these mines were worked — the dejjth and extent 

 of their excavations ; the tools, implements, Ac, used — may be 

 seen in the Reports of the Government Geologists, and in Mr. 

 Foster's paper on that subject in the Smithsonian Contributions. 



I shall coniine myself to the evidences which show the con- 

 nexion, or rather the identity of the jjeople who wrought these 

 mines, with the " race of the mounds," which anciently occupied 

 the State of Ohio, and from them to the Aztecs, the ancestoi-s of 

 the Mexicans. 



That part of the discussion which connects the " race of the 

 mounds" or the " mound builders" with the Aztecs, will be brief. 

 The foundation for this relationship, is the leai-ned work of Mr. 

 Belafield, upon the Antiquities of America, where all the points 

 bearing upon the question are most ably presented. If Mr. 

 Delafield does not establish the point that the Mexicans are 

 descendants of the " mound builders," he succeeds in giving his 

 opinion as nearly the character of a demonstration, as the nature 

 of the subject allows. Many of his proofs musf^ of necessity, 

 rest upon tradition, which is always vague, upon symbolical paint- 

 ings, sculptures, and characters, such as all the ancient, ignorant, 

 and half civilized nations made use of, and which constitute their 

 history, and their only history. We cannot expect, in such 

 enquiries, the strict conviction, which is required under oral testi- 

 mony in a court of law ; if we did, there is little of written history 

 that would command our belief. In affairs of such remote anti- 

 quity we must of necessity, deal in speculations and deductions, 

 or we must abandon the subject altogether. 



Nothing is better settled in ethnology, than that the North 

 American Indian, or Northern Aborigines, belong to the Moro- 

 golian or Tartar family, which inhabits Northern Asia. 



On the basis of craniology, according to which the human race 

 is divided into families, by naturalists, the race of the mounds is 

 unequivocally distinct from the North American Indian. Mr. 

 Delafield's -enquiry into the origin of the " race of the mounds," 

 and the excellent work of Squier and Davis, upon the Ancient 

 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, show conclusively, that the 

 ancient mounds of the Mississijipi valley are the same as those of 

 Mexico and Peru. 



They have been examined from the western part of New York, 

 southerly and westerly, through the States, on the Mississippi, to 

 Texas, and thence through Mexico and Central America to Peru, 

 and are found to have a common external appearance. The same 

 elevated platforms of earth are seen in Ohio and in Mexico, on 

 which, it is presumed, the same religious rites were once celebrated. 



In Peru, the Spaniards, when they conquered that country, 

 found lines and circles of embankment, with exterior ditches, 

 situated on the summit of difficult hills, having the form and 

 stmcture of the so-called " Indian forts," that are so numerous in 

 this State. 



At the South, these works are built on a larger scale than they 

 ai'e here, but after the same general pattern. 



The mounds at Grave Creek, Virginia ; at Miamisburgh, Ohio ; 

 at St. Louis, Mo.; and at Moorehouse Pan's, Louisiana, are 



exceeded in bulk by the Pyramid of Cholula, in Mexico; but all 

 belong to the same S3'stem. The similarity of the earth-works, 

 over so large a space, is one of the links in the chain of evidence 

 adduced by Mr. Delafield. 



Another pomt is supported by historical proof. There ara 

 among the Mexicans, national annals, which say, that about the 

 year 600 of our era, their ancestors migrated from the north, 

 under an Emperor named Citin, or Votan. There have been 

 Comparisons made between three sculls, taken from ancient mounds 

 in the valley of the Mississippi, and that belong to the race of 

 the mounds, if any of the relics which are found here do ; and 

 three others, which were procured from ancient tumuli in Peru. 

 — Ancient Monuments, see p. 291-2. Their anatomical propor- 

 tions correspond so well, that craniologists pronounce them to be 

 of the same family. 



The pyramid of Cholula, which our officers visited during the 

 war, is built of unburnt brick and of clay. The ruins of Astelan 

 on the Rock River, Wisconsin, show that brick were used in the 

 construction of the walls ; but which were partially burnt. 



The Mexicans believed in, and worshipped, an evil spirit, which 

 they called Tlacalecalatl or the " rational owl," and had made 

 images of this bad deity in the form of an owl. The " mound 

 builders," also made and deposited in their tumuli, images of the 

 owl, which doubtless had some connexion with their superstitions, 

 probably the same as the Mexican owls. 



These are the principal proofs that the race of the mounds 

 were the ancestors of the Aztecs, and of the Toltecs, a branch of 

 the same family, who inhabited the country about Copan. There 

 is, moreover, a tradition, and also hieroglyphical maps among the 

 Mexicans, and credited by them, showing that their progenitora, 

 like the Mongohan ancestors of our Indians, were emigrants from 

 Asia, by the way of Behring's Straits. 



I adopt the conclusions of Mr. Delafield, as to the mound 

 builders, because it is not merely an hypothesis ; but is based on 

 strong analogies, and upon many facts. 



To suppose that the " race of the mounds" has become extincb 

 would be far more unreasonable, because it is contrary to the 

 history of nations, and is sustained by no evidence. 



Here I leave the subject of identity between the ancient Mex- 

 icans and the ancient race of the mounds ; and turn to the con- 

 sideration of the question, whether they are the people who 

 wrought the copiper veins of Lake Superior in ancient times. 



Mr. Delafield observes, that there are traditions among the 

 Indians, that their ancestors drove out a people who inhabited 

 North America, and who occupied the ancient earth-works of the 

 west. I have never been able to verify the existence of such a 

 tradition ; but in numerous cases, where Indians have been ques- 

 tioned upon the subject of the mounds, they have replied that 

 they knew nothing about them, or the people who built them. 

 The most probably theory, on this point, is, that the countiy was 

 abandoned voluntarily by the Aztecs. These military works show 

 no signs of having been attacked, or of having undergone pro- 

 tracted sieges. If they had been attacked, there certainly would 

 have been resistance ; for a people so numerous, and so well forti- 

 fied, woidd not have fled like cowards before an enemy, however 

 numerous, in the open field. An enemy could not have invested 

 these fortifications without constnicting similar works of attack. 

 A permanent fortification, of any kind, cannot be carried by storm ; 

 but only after a tedious approach, sustained by works of a like 

 kind, such as ti'enches of circumvallation and contravallation. 



