WHO WERE THE MOUND-BUILDERS ? 265 



have slight bearing upon the grand ethnological and arch geological questions in- 

 volved in the ante-Columbian history of this continent." 



Also, 3 " Misled by statements which no opportunity was offered of verify- 

 ing I have elsewhere though in a guarded manner, ventured the opinion that the 

 ancient remains of western New York belonged to the same system with those of 

 Ohio and the west generally " 



I do not find in any of the above paragraphs evidence that Mr. Squier en- 

 deavors to convey the impression that he considered a similarity to exist between 

 the ancient mounds of Ohio and the New York works, but on the contrary their 

 tendency is toward an opposite conclusion. 



Fully admitting that modern tribes of Indians erected burial mounds I can 

 see no connection between the erection of a few insignificant tumuli such as that 

 described by Catlin over the remains of the Omaha chief and his horse, and the 

 building of a great truncated pyramid hke that at Cahokia, covering acres of 

 ground and containing, as has been estimated twenty millions of cubic feet of 

 earth, or the construction of the wonderful series of earth-works in Ohio with 

 their regular outlines, true circles and accurate squares. The one is just such a 

 memorial as might be raised by the rudest tribe of savages in honor of a deceased 

 chief; the others must have been the work of a people essentially different in 

 their habits and existing in a widely dissimilar condition of society. 



Dr. Snyder says, "The mounds of the Mississippi basin are in no essential 

 particular different from those seen on the plains of Europe or the steppes of 

 Asia." 



The definition of the word mound is, '* An artificial hill or elevation of the 

 earth," consequently in such simple structures there can be no essential difference 

 wherever they may exist, but the term is a misnomer when applied to such struct- 

 ures as the great truncated pyramids of Cahokia and Seltzertown and many others 

 of their class, with their graded avenues, terraces and regularity of form, to the 

 so-called sacrificial mounds, or to the wonderful earth-works of Ohio ; these struct- 

 ures are not only essentially different from the tumuli so profusely scattered over 

 Europe and Asia, but they serve to distinguish the ancient people of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley from all others on this continent. 



Professor D. Wilson says, "The so-called sacrificial mounds are a class of 

 ancient monuments altogether peculiar to the New World and highly illustrative 

 of the rites and customs of the ancient races of the mounds." 



It is unfortunate that the name mound-builders has been applied to these 

 ancient people, as it is apt to create a false impression with respect to the distinc- 

 tive character of their works, and to add to the confusion which exists in so many 

 minds on all subjects appertaining to the aborigines of America. 



I think that Dr. Snyder in his efforts to prove that the ancient people were 

 mere barbarians, makes some assertions that are open to criticism; he says, 

 " The builders of the mounds knew nothing of astronomy or mathematics," also 

 " They lived in temporary huts of frail, perishable materials and had not advanced 



3 Aboriginal Monuments of New York, page 11. 



