90 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 



they have no knowledge of these men ? The Winneba- 

 goes and Menomonees assert positively that they never made 

 flint arrowheads, stone axes or pottery, and that these things 

 must have been made by some one else. White Snake, a 

 chief of the Winnebagoes, said in all sincerity, they were 

 never made by the Indians. (Antiquities of Wisconsin, p. 

 90, Smithsonian Report of 1879, p. 430.) 



In view of these facts what weight has the lack of tradi- 

 tion respecting the mounds? Just none at all. 



Jefferson, speaking of the barrows or mounds of Virginia, 

 says: " But on whatsoever occasion they may have been 

 made, they are of considerable notoriety among the Indians. 

 About thirty j-ears ago a party of Indians passing through 

 that part of the country where a mound was situated, went 

 through the woods directly to it, without instruction or in- 

 quiry, and staid about it for some time with expressions 

 which were considered those of sorrow. They returned di- 

 rectly to the high road and pursued their journey after 

 spending one half of a day in visiting the mound." (Drake's 

 Indians, p. 56.) 



Dr. Samuel Drake studied many of the mounds of Ohio. 

 After describing stone axes, copper implements, flint arrow- 

 heads, teeth of carnivorous animals, mica and bone imple- 

 ments, shell beads, and various patterns of pottery, etc., he 

 remarks, " this pottery was made of the same materials em- 

 ployed by the Louisiana Indians within my own recollection, 

 namely, powdered muscle and other river shells, sand and 

 clay." 



Dr. Drake, in speaking of the rough stone walls found in 

 several localities in Ohio, said that they were similar to 

 those constructed by the Cherokee Indians of the south. 

 (Drake's Indians, p. 57.) 



Atwater, in 1819, surveyed and studied a large number of 

 the ancient works of Ohio. He says: "What the true 

 height of these ruined works was, cannot be very well ascer- 

 tained, as it is almost impossible to know the rate of their 

 diminution even were the space of time given. But there 

 can be no doubt that most of them are much diminished by 

 the action of the tempests which have swept over them for 



