The Problem of Ohio Mounds | Page 5

first encountered by the whites. To
verify this assertion it is only necessary to read the chronicles of De
Soto's expedition and the writings of the pioneer travelers and French
missionaries to that section. This evidence proves conclusively not only
that this had been a custom, but that it was continued into the
eighteenth century.
Such statements as the following, attested by various contemporaneous
authors, should suffice on this point:
The caciques of this country make a custom of raising near their
dwellings very high hills, on which they sometimes build their houses.
[Footnote: Biedma, Hist. Coll. La. vol. 2, p. 105.]

The Indians try to place their villages on elevated sites, but inasmuch as
in Florida there are not many sites of this kind where they can
conveniently build, they erect elevations themselves in the following
manner, etc. [Footnote: Garcilasso de la Vega, Hist. Fla., ed. 1723, p.
69. ]
The chief's house stood near the beach upon a very high mount made
by hand for defense. [Footnote: Gentlemen of Elvas. Bradford Club
series, vol. 5, p. 23.]
The last, which was on Tampa Bay, was most likely near Phillippi's
Point, where tradition fixes De Soto's landing place, and where a
number of mounds and shell heaps have been found. One of these,
opened by Mr. S. T. Walker,[Footnote: Smithsonian Report, 1879
(1880), pp. 392-422.] was found to consist of three layers. In the lower
were "no ornaments and but little pottery, but in the middle and top
layers, especially the latter, nearly every cranium was encircled by
strings of colored beads, brass and copper ornaments; trinkets, etc.
Among other curious objects were a pair of scissors and a fragment of
looking-glass."
An earlier exploration is thus described: "The governor [De Soto]
opened a large temple in the woods, in which were buried the chiefs of
the country, and took from it a quantity of pearls which were spoiled by
being buried in the ground." [Footnote: Biedma. Hist. Coll. La., vol. 2,
p. 101.]
Another chronicler says: "This house stood on a high mound (cerro),
similar to others we have already mentioned. Round about it was a
roadway sufficiently broad for six men to walk abreast." [Footnote:
Garcilasso de la Vega, Hist. Fla., ed. 1723, p. 139.] (There are good
reasons for believing this to be the Etowah mound near Cartersville,
Ga.) [Footnote: Thomas, Mag. Am. Hist., May, 1884, pp. 405, 406.]
The town of Talise is described as being strong in the extreme, inclosed
by timber and earth. [Footnote: Garcilasso, Hist. Fla., p. 144.]
Herrera speaks of "a town of 400 houses, and a large square, where the

cacique's house stood upon a mound made by art." [Footnote: Hist.
Am., Stoven's transl., vol. 6, p. 5.]
Father Gravier [Footnote: Shea's Early French Voyages, pp. 126, 136.]
speaks of mounds of the Akansea and "Tounika" villages.
M. La Harpe says "the cabins of the Yasous, Courois, Offogoula, and
Ouspie [along the Yazoo about 1700] are dispersed over the country
upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, from which it is
inferred that these nations are very ancient and were formerly very
numerous, although at the present time they hardly number two
hundred and fifty persons." [Footnote: Lu Rarpe, Hist. Coll. La., part 3,
p. 106, New York, 1851.] (This seems to imply that there were
numerous mounds unoccupied.) "In one of the Natches villages," says
Dumont, "the house of the chief was placed on a mound." [Footnote:
Mem. Hist. La., vol. 2, p. 109.]
Another writer says: "When the chief [of the Natchez] dies they
demolish his cabin and then raise a new mound on which they build the
cabin of him who is to replace him in this dignity." [Footnote: La Petit,
Hist. Coll. La., vol. 3, pp. 141, 142, note. Also Lettres edifiantes et
curioses, vol. 1, pp. 260, 261. See Du Pratz. Histoire Louisiane, 1738,
vol. 3, p. 16.]
According to Bartram, in the Cherokee town of Stico the council-
house was on a mound, as also at Cowe. [Footnote: Bartram's Travels,
pp. 345, 367.]
The same writer says [Footnote: Ibid., p. 516.] the Choctaws raised
mounds over their dead in case of communal burials.
It is apparent from Jefferson's language [Footnote: Notes on Virginia.
4th Am ed., 1801, pp. 142-147.] that the burial mounds of Virginia
were of Indian origin.
These references, which might be indefinitely multiplied, are sufficient
to bear out the assertion that history testifies that the southern tribes
were accustomed to build mounds.

It is a matter of surprise that so little is to be found regarding the
mounds in the older records of the Northern States. There is but one
statement in the Jesuit Relations and no mention in the writings of the
Recollects, so far has been found, and yet one