VOL. IV. 
KANSAS CITY, MO., NOVEMBER, 1890. 
NO. 1-2. 
For The Naturalist: 
The Mound Builders nnd the Brass 
Button. 
In a brochure, issued from the 
National Bureau of Ethno]ogy,Professor 
Thomas details the recent work of the 
bureau in mound exploration and offers 
the followina; as indebatable results 
arrived at: 
First, that the so-called Mound Build- 
ers were identical with the race popu- 
larly known as "Lo, the poor Indian," 
and second, that many of the mounds 
heretofore attributed to them, weie 
erected after the advent of the whites. 
This view is also advocated by Major 
Powell, the director of the bureau, in 
several recent papers. Of course the 
force of the flrst conclusion depends 
largely upon the correctness of the sec- 
ond ; and this again, whether cori-ect or 
not, cannot affect the issue unless it be 
conceded that the constructions of the 
modern redskins are undistinguishable 
from the tumuli which the benighted 
predecessors of these savants supposed 
were raised by a prehistoric people. The 
method by which the above conclusions 
were reached is indicated by illustrations 
of the following character: 
In a Wisconsin mound "which stands 
in the midst of a group of effigies, was 
found, lying at the bottom, on the orig- 
inal surface of the ground, near the 
center, a genuine, regularly formed gun- 
flint. In another, in Tennessee, some six 
feet high and which showed no sign of 
disturbance, an old-fashioned, horn- 
handled case-knife was found near the 
bottom." 
Verily such finds are posers to the old 
school archaeologists who cling to the 
antiquity of the mounds; that is, if it is 
an unquestioned fact that in the instan- 
ces named the mounds were the same in 
character as those ascribed to the mound 
builders, and that there was no possible 
means for the intrusion of the relics. 
Yet there is some comfort left; for it 
will be recalled that a few years since an 
explorer discovered in an ancient tomb 
in Mesopotamia a well preserved ear of 
maize, a grain indigenous to America and 
unknown to the Old World until after the 
voyage of Columbus, and Dr. (Jlarke, in 
in his celebrated " Travels etc.," tells us 
that in the ancient mounds of Scythia, 
well preserved gun barrels are occasion- 
ally found Ijing in juxtaposition to 
articles of a known anticiuity antedating 
the discovery of gunpowder; but the 
most remarkable instance of this nature, 
is the fact attested by the naturalist 
Pallas, that volcanoes in the Taman pen. 
insula have been known to cast up 
Greek and Scythian potterj'— which 
would seem to indicate a spurious manu- 
facture of volcanoes. 
These instances illustrate the curious 
and suggestive fact that arch.-cological 
frauds are not all confined to the fabri- 
cation of aiiti(]uarian curios; that it is 
just as easy to destroy as to build up the 
rei)utation of a supposed relic of an- 
tiquity. Those who recall the conduct 
of an emissary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution during the exploration of mounds 
opposite Dubuque, ';ome years ago, will 
know what is meant. 
But it is not intended to dwell on this 
aspect of the case. It has long been 
known that finds of the character indi- 
cated by Prof. Thomas were occasionally 
made, and, wherever they seemed to 
obfuscate the mound-builder theory, 
attempts, more or less successful, were 
made to explain away their apparent 
bearing on the subject. Such a find once 
occurred within the experience of the 
writer antl, as it was investigated at tbe 
time, it may be useful to detail the 
circumstances. 
Some years ago, while convalescing 
from a severe illness at Kockport, 111., I 
used the idle time at my disposal ex- 
ploring the many vestiges of mound- 
builder industry in the neighborhood. 
With alight spade I dug into many of 
the mounds, being the victim meanwhile 
of the jocular sarcasm of l ustic wags. 
One day as I sat in the shade of a tree on 
the edge of a bluff", upon wiiich was a 
laige mound which I proposed to open as 
soon as I could recover breath from the 
climb, a tall, well dressed stranger 
made his appearance and, after examin- 
ing my rather emaciated figure and toy 
spade, with a (luizzical glance asked 
what my errand was at such a spot and 
with such a utensil. I gave him an ac- 
count of myself and was surprised and 
pleased to find that he was engaged in the 
work of exploring the mounds also, and 
in some official capacity, the nature of 
which 1 don't recall nor do I remember 
his name. We agreed at once to attack 
the moimd in concert and, as he had a 
laborer with him to do the heavy work 
a trench was soon dug through the center 
of the mound to the level of the surround- 
ing ground. During the work of exca- 
vating 1 discovered to my dismay that 
the gentleman had strong dot^bts of the 
anti(|uity of the mounds and I thought an 
eagerness on his part could be detected 
to turn every fact in such a way as to 
favor his opinion. Indeed we got into 
as much of a controversy as an experi- 
enced and educated man would permit 
when his adversary is a green j^outh. 
During the morning we found several 
relics in the form of bones, pottery- 
shards, beads, etc., and at last I discov- 
ered a metallic object, black from 
oxidation and dirt, sticking in the side of 
the excavation, about a foot from the 
bottom, and pulled it out for examina- 
tion. Upon cleaning it we found it to be 
a brass button and, miribule dictul a 
military one, a genuine overcoat button 
such as Uncle Sam's soldiers wore during 
the then, ver^ '-.afe unpleasantness." 1 
know it was identical with the.se for we 
compared it with the buttons on the 
coat of the laborer who, like so many 
other persons at that time, possessed one 
of these overcoats which lay on the 
ground near by. The mirth of my com- 
panion over the circumstance was very 
unseemly and when we parted th.it even- 
ing I was -'almost persuaded'" that his 
view was correct. 
In truth I had been so nonplussed over 
the find that several facts pertinent to its 
explanation did not occur to me until I 
got back to town. Then I suddenly re- 
membered that there had been no Indi- 
ans in Pike county (except an old 
half-breed squaw, who lived "up the 
creek'" and had the reputation of being a 
witch) for at least thirty years — this was 
in 1867 — while the oldest inhabitants ile- 
clared that the mound in question had 
been there since they were children. It 
was plainly evident therefore that neither 
the Davenport Academj' nor any other 
modern institution had built the mound 
and, as there has been no Indians in the 
county during or after the civil war the 
button could not be accounted for by sup- 
posing an intrusive burial, unle.ss,indeed, 
the whites of the neighborhood had 
buried one of their[mnuber there ''with 
his martial cloak about him." This, from 
the height of the bluff" and for other rea- 
sons, was altogether improbable. 
Puzzling over the problem thus presented 
1 determined to make another visit to 
the mound on the morrow and make an 
effoit to clear np the mystery. 
