May 30, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



331 



vanaechers, which was the name universally given by the 

 Indians to those whom the English call Shawnees, removed 

 from Savannah River, between Georgia and South Carolina, 

 by permission of the Cherokees, to Cumberland, they having 

 been attacked and almost ruined by a combination of several 

 of the neighboring tribes of Indians; that many years after- 

 wards a difference took place between the two nations, and 

 the Cherokees, unexpectedly to the Shawnees, marched in a 

 large body to the frontier of the latter." 



There is, however, another item of evidence directly in 

 point found in the following statement in Schoolcrafts 

 "History of the Indian Tribes:" "A discontented portion of 

 the Shawnee tribe from Virginia broke off from the nation 

 which removed to the Scioto country in Ohio about the year 

 1730, and formed a town known by the name of 'Lulbegrud' 

 in what is now Clark County (Kentucky), about thirty miles 

 east of this place (Lexington). ' This tribe left this country 

 about 1750, and went to East Tennessee, to the Cherokee na- 

 tion." It is very probable that the stone graves about the 

 sites of the "Over-hill towns" are due to this band. 



The importance and bearing of this evidence in the present 

 connection lie in the fact that numbers of graves of this type 

 are found in mounds, some of wliich are of comparatively 

 large size, and connected with works which no one hesitates to 

 attribute to the true mound-building age. Sometimes they are 

 arranged in these tumuli in two, three, and even four tiers. 

 Not only are they found in mounds of considerable size, but 

 they are also connected with one of the most noted groups 

 in the United States; namely, the one on Col. Tumlin's 

 place, near Carters ville, Ga., known as the "Etowah 

 mounds," of which a full description will be found in the 

 "Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology" and in 

 Jones's "History of the Southern Indians." In the smallest 

 of the three large mounds of this group were found stone 

 graves precisely of the type described ; not in a situation 

 where they could be attributed to intrusive burial, but in the 

 bottom layer of a mound some thirteen or fourteen feet high, 

 "with a thick and undisturbed layer two feet thick of hard- 

 packed clay above them. In them were found the remarkable 

 figured copper plates and engraved shells which are described 

 by the writer in the "Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology," also in Science. In singular corroboration of 

 the idea here advanced, the only other similar copper plates 

 were found in a stone grave at Lebanon, Tenn. ; in a stone- 

 grave mound at Mill Creek, southern Illinois; in a stone 

 grave in Jackson County, 111. ; in a mound of Madison 

 Countj', 111. ; and in a small mound at Peoria, 111. ; not all, 

 of course, attributed to Shawnees, but in stone graves or 

 mounds, thus connecting them with the mound-building 

 age, which is the only point with which we are at present 

 interested. 



Another important link in this discussion is found in the 

 engraved shells, of which specimens were found in the 

 mounds of North Carolina and East Tennessee, attributable 

 to the Cherokees. 



The following list, showing localities where and circum- 

 stances under which specimens have been found, will suffice 

 to show their relation to the mounds and stone graves: Lick 

 Creek, and near Knoxville, E. Tenn., in mound; near Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., in mound, also in stone grave; Old Town, 

 Franklin, and Sevierville, Tenn., in mound; Bartow Coun- 



ty, Ga., in stone grave in mourid ; Monroe County, E Tenn., 

 Lee County, Ya., and Caldwell.County, N.C.,in mound; near 

 Mussel-Shoals, Ala., in cave; New Madrid. Mo., and Union 

 County, III, in mound; "^^St. Clair County, 111., in stone 

 grave. 



As a large number of these bear exactly the same carved 

 designs as those found in the Cherokee mounds, the evidence 

 seems conclusive that we must assign them to the same age. 

 This, of course, connects the Cherokees with the mound- 

 builders' era, and furnishes a justifiable basis for another 

 backward step. But before attempting to take this, I add 

 some information on the point now under discussion, gath- 

 ered by Mr. James Mooney during his ethnological investi- 

 gations among the Cherokees in behalf of the Bureau of 

 EtliDology. This is given in a paper read before the An- 

 thropological Society. 



"In connection with my work, at the instance of the Bu- 

 reau of Ethnology, in the summer of 1887, I visited the East 

 Cherokee reservation in western North Carolina. Being 

 delayed over night at a small town called Webster, about 

 twenty miles from the reservation, an opportunity was afford- 

 ed to make the acquaintance of Capt. J. W. Terrell, the post- 

 master, an intelligent American, who in his younger days 

 had been a trader among the Cherokees, and who has some 

 'knowledge of the language. In the couree of our conversa- 

 tion he stated that about thirty years ago he had been told 

 by an old Indian named Tsiskwaya that the Cherokees had 

 built the mounds in their country, and that on the occasion 

 of the annua] green-corn dance it was the custom in ancient 

 times for each household to procure fresh fire from a new 

 fire kindled in the town-house. I afterward found that this 

 Tsiskwaya had been regarded as an authority on such mat- 

 ters. 



"Subsequently, in investigating the ceremonies of the 

 green-corn danc^, this statement was confirmed by another 

 old man, who volunteered the additional information that 

 it was customary to begin a mound on the occasion of this 

 dance, when representatives of the seven gentes brought 

 baskets filled with earth, which was placed in a common 

 pile with appropriate ceremonies, and afterward added to by 

 the labors of the common people. This man is somewhat 

 unreliable, and his testimony would have little weight by it- 

 self, but it is of value in so far as it is borne out by the state- 

 ments of others. It is proper to state, however, that he was 

 one of the masters of ceremonies at the green-corn dance of 

 1887, so that he may reasonably be supposed to know some- 

 thing on that subject. Of curious interest in this connec- 

 tion is the fact that Miss Alice C. Fletcher witnessed a simi- 

 lar ceremonial mound-building at one of the secret rites of 

 the Winnebagoes. 



"But the most detailed statement as to the mounds was 

 obtained afterward from Ayunini ('Swimmer'), who, although 

 not an old man, is one of the most prominent Cherokee sha- 

 mans and a general conservator of Indian knowledge, being 

 probably better acquainted with the myths, traditions, and 

 ceremonial formulas than any other man of the tribe. For 

 some time lie refused to talk, but this difficulty was finally 

 overcome by appealing to his professional pride; and his 

 stock of Indian lore proved so extensive, that I brought him 

 to the house, and kept him with me most of the time. This 

 aroused the jealousy of rivals, who took occasion to circulate 



