90 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 



tion to one oi' another class of pursuits, and yet remain essentially the same j^eople. 

 Again, the Indians are to a certain extent migratory ; and hence we may look for 

 the posterity of the mound-builders of Wisconsin in remote portions of the country. 



Some tribes of the Dacotah or Sioux family, especially the Mandans and Aricaras 

 (Ricaras, or Riccarees), are much more stationary and fixed in their habits than 

 other tribes of Indians. " They cultivate corn, not only for their own use, but also 

 enough to make it a very prominent article of trade."^ 



Dr. Morton says : " the Osages, Minetaris, Mandans, Assinaboins, and many cog- 

 nate tribes, are more or less connected with the great Sioux nation ;"^ and that the 

 Osages, Omahas, Kansas, Missouris, and Ouapans, all speak a language so nearly 

 allied that they can severally converse with each other without an interpreter.^ 



It is quite probable that a more thorough knowledge of the habits, religious 

 ceremonies, and superstitious beliefs of this great family, or group of families of 

 Indians, would throw much light upon the obscure subject of the mounds, and 

 perhaps unravel the mystery of their origin and uses. 



The ancient works in Wisconsin are mostly at the very places selected by the 

 present Indians for their abodes; thus indicating that the habits, wants, modes of 

 subsistence, &c., of their builders, were essentially the same. 



If the present tribes have no traditions running back as far as the times of 

 Allouez and Marquette, or even to the more recent time of Jonathan Carver, it is 

 not strange that none should exist in regard to the mounds, which must be of much 

 earlier date. 



It is by considerations of this nature that we are led to the conclusion that the 

 mound-builders of Wisconsin were none others than the ancestors of the present 

 tribes of Indians. 



There is some evidence of a greater prevalence than at present of prairie or culti- 

 vated land in this State, at no very remote age. The largest trees are probably not 

 more than five hundred years old ; and large tracts of land are now covered with 

 forests of young trees, where there are no traces of an antecedent growth. Every 

 year the high winds prostrate great numbers of trees ; and frequent storms pass 

 through the forest, throwing down nearly every thing before them. Trees are left 

 with a portion of the roots still in the ground, so as to keep them alive for several 

 years after their prostration. These " wind-falls" are of frequent occurrence in the 

 depths of the forests, and occasion much difiiculty in making the public surveys. 

 The straight lines of the sections frequently encounter them, as may be seen by 

 the accompanying map. (Fig. 61.) 



The amount of earth adhering to the roots of a tree when prostrated by the wind, 

 is, under favorable circumstances, very considerable, and upon their decay forms 

 an oblong mound of greater or less magnitude, and a slight depression is left where 

 the tree stood. These little hillocks are often, by the inexperienced, mistaken for 

 Indian graves. From the paucity of these little " tree-mounds" we infer that no 



' T. A. Culbertson's Journal, in 5th Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, p. 118. 



^ Crania Americana, pp. 199, 200. 



^ The Winnebagos are a branch of the Sioux stock. Gallatin's Synopsis, p. 120. 



