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[Entered at the Posi-OflBce of New York, N."V., as Second-Class Matter.J 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Eighth Year. 

 Vol. XV. No. 385. 



NEW YOEK, June 20, 1890. 



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THE CHEROKEES IN PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES. 

 IV. 



Having traced back the tribe by the mound evidence thus 

 far along the traditional line of migration with strong prob- 

 ability of being correct, we are prepared to take another 

 backward step. As will be observed by the careful reader, 

 reliance has been placed in this investigation upon what ap- 

 pear to be indications of peculiar customs. Connection with 

 the group of which tbe great Grave Creek tumulus forms a 

 prominent feature seems to be established, thus verifying the 

 ancient "oration," or tradition, of which Haywood speaks. 

 Allusion has also been made to the similarity, in some re- 

 'spects, of tbe works of the Kanawha group to those of Ohio, 

 but there is more to be added on this point. Not only does 

 it appear that it was a custom in both these sections to en- 

 close the bodies of the dead in bark, to bury in wooden 

 vaults, and to form at the bottom of mounds basin-shaped 

 clay masses which have received the name "altars," but 

 also to arrange wooden vaults the same way in the tumuli, 

 and to build other structures similar to each other in form. 



In confirmation of the statement in reference to the 

 wooden vaults, attention is called to the description by Mr. 

 H. L. Reynolds, in a recent bulletin of tbe Bureau of Eth- 

 nology, of a mound he explored in Paint Creek valley, Ohio. 

 This is tbe "square truncated mound" shown on No. 1. Plate 

 XXI., "Ancient Monuments," which, by its close proximity 

 to the combined square and circular enclosures known as the 

 "Baiim Works," is supposed to bear some intimate relation 

 thereto. 



As the description has been published, it is only necessary 

 here to allude to such portions as bave a bearing on the 

 question before us. 



At the time it was measured by Messrs. Squier and Davis 

 it was a hundred and twenty-five feet iti diameter, andiifteen 

 feet in height. Since then its annual disturbance by plough 

 and freshet has reduced the height to twelve feet, and in- 

 creased the diameter to a hundred and forty. The same 

 agencies have likewise destroyed its pyramidal form, so that 

 now it resembles an upturned basin. It was composed, for 

 the most part, of clay mottled with black loam, and in some 

 places with patches of a grayish, plagtic lime. The promi- 

 nent feature is the evidence that two large wooden vaults, 

 or structures of some kind, had been built here, one above 

 the other, as in one of the Kanawha moiinds heietofore de- 

 scribed. Both of these structures had been built of upright 

 posts, five inches in diameter and ten inches apart, forming 

 a regular circle tiiirty six feet in diameter. The lower circle 

 consisted of a single series, but the upper of two, eighteen 



inches apart, the outer series standing directly over the posts 

 of the lower structure. 



Separating the two structures was what the explorer terms 

 "a thin, sagging streak of burnt clay," but which reminds 

 us strongly of the basin-shaped clay beds found in the 

 mounds of East Tennessee and Kanawha valley. Here and 

 there upou its surface were traces of black wood-ashes and a 

 small quantity of white bone-ashes. Horizontal timber 

 moulds, smaller in size than the posts, filled, in places, with 

 charcoal, could be seen distinctly lying against the inside of 

 each line of posts. These appear to have been cross-beams 

 or stays used for bracing-purposes. On the east side there 

 was a break in each circle, of thi-ee feet two inches, in which 

 there were no post-moulds. Within each circle, at different 

 depths, and placed without any apparent regularity, were 

 several skeletons Lying on the natural surface of the 

 ground, running from the base of the lower series of posts 

 toward the centre of the circle, were the remains of logs 

 about eight inches in diameter. Directly over these timbers 

 was a horizontal layer of decayed and burnt wood or bark, 

 averaging half an inch thick. Notice should also be taken 

 of the fact that this mound is on the lower level near the 

 creek, — in fact, is one step or terrace below the bridge land- 

 ing, — and is almost yearly surrounded by water from the 

 overflow. 



It is true that this mound shows some indication of being 

 comparatively recent: in fact, Mr. Reynolds found in it a 

 small piece of bone which he thought had been shaped with 

 a steel knife. This supposition, if accepted, would seem to 

 be incompatible with the theory that attributes works of this 

 type to the Cherokees. We give the data, however, as they 

 are, and will present our explanation further on. 



We observe in this mound the somewhat unusual arrange- 

 ment of one wooden structure above another, seen elsewhere 

 only in the Kanawha and Grave Creek groups; we also no- 

 tice that in each oase the walls of these structures are formed 

 by standing the timbers upright. There is, however, one 

 particular worthy of note, in which those of the Ohio mound 

 differ from the others ; to wit, the much larger size of the 

 former, suggesting the possibility that they were council- 

 houses, and not vaults. But should this conclusion be 

 adopted, we find parallels in tbe customs of the Cherokees 

 and mound-builders of the Cherokee district. 



Mr. Lucien Carr of Cambridge, Mass., explored a mound 

 in Lee County, Va., in which were found indicationsof alarge 

 circular or oval wooden structure. From his description, as 

 given in the "Tenth Annual Report of the Peabody Mu: 

 seum," we take the following extracts: — 



"The mound in question, a truncated oval in shape. 



