12 THE PArVr CREEK MOUNDS. 



are tlie produets; oi two differeiiT people or whether they 

 have been made by the same race for different purposes. 

 In either ease there is little doubt that the burial 

 mounds served some purpose in connection with some 

 mortuary or religious customs, or possiljly militaiy 

 practices, among entire tribes or nations, while the dwel- 

 ling sites merely mark the place of the abode of some 

 household or clan, occupied in ordinary and peaceful 

 every day pursuits. 



THE PAINT CREEK DWELLING SITES.* 



' )n the west bank oi Paint creek about a mile and 

 a half south of the Smoky Hill rivpi- in McPherson 

 county there is a group of some fifteen low mounds 

 which must be classified as dwelling sites in an aborig- 

 inal village. They are scattered over the southeast 

 quarter of the northwest quarter oi section twelve in 

 township eighteen south and range four west of the 

 sixth principal meridian. For the most part the group 

 occupies a gentle slope to the southeast and east, 

 which extends from the left bank of the creek. The 

 mounds do not seem to be arranged in any particular 

 order, but the distance separating them is. in most 

 eases, about 125 feet, or a multiple of this di.stance. 

 (Fig. li. This left a convenient s]iace beeween the dwel- 

 lings. A line running through the outer members of 



* These are the .=ame monnds that Mr. .J. V. Brower has called the Udden 

 Village Site in his Qaivira, Vol. I. Memoirs of Explorations in the Basin of the 

 Mississippi, p. .55. It is from no disregard for the distiDgnished explorer that the 

 present author prefers to here retain the designation above nsed. 



