The Problem of Ohio Mounds | Page 6

of the missionaries must
have passed a good portion of the winter of 1700 in the very midst of
the Cahokia group. Colden notes that "a round hill was sometimes
raised over the grave in which a corpse had been deposited." [Footnote:
Hist. Five Nations, introd., vol. 1, London, 1755, p. 16.] Carver noticed
ancient earthworks on the Mississippi near Lake Pepin, but knew
nothing of their origin. [Footnote: Travels, ed. 1796, Phila., p. 36; ed.
1779, London, p. 57.] Heckewelder observed some of these works near
Detroit, which he was informed had been built by the Indians. An
account of them was published in a Philadelphia periodical in 1780 or
1790. This description was afterwards given briefly in his "History of
the Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations."
These older records mention facts which afford a reasonable
explanation of some of the ancient monuments found in the northern
section of the country; as for example the communal or tribal burials,
where the bones and remains of all the dead of a village, region, or tribe,
who had died since the last general burial (usually a period of eight to
ten years) were collected and deposited in one common grave. This
method, which was followed by some southern tribes, has been
described by Bartram, [Footnote: Travels (1791), p.516.] Dumont,
[Footnote: Memoires Hist. La., vol. 1, p. 246.] Romans, [Footnote: Nat.
and Civil Hist. Fla., pp. 88-90.] and others, but most fully by Jean deo
Brebeuf. [Footnote: In his account "Des ceremonies qu'ils [les Hurons]
gardent en leur sepulture et de leur deuil," and "De la Feste solemnelle
des morts."--Jesuit Relations for 1636, pp. 129-139. See translation in
Thomas's "Burial Mounds of the Northern Section of the United
States," Fifth Annual Rept. Bur. Ethnol., p. 110. See also Lafitau,
"Moeurs des Sauvages," vol. 2, pp. 447-455.]
It is a well-attested fact that northern as well as southern Indians were
accustomed to erect palisades around their villages for defense against
attack.

Some evidences of mound building by northern Indians may be found
in the works of comparatively modern writers. Lewis C. Beck
[Footnote: Gazetteer of the States of Ill. and Mo., p. 308.] affirms that
"one of the largest mounds in this country has been thrown upon this
stream [the Osage] within the last thirty or forty years by the Osages,
near the great Osage village, in honor of one of their deceased chiefs."
It is probable this is the mound referred to by Major Sibley, [Footnote:
Featherstoubaugh, Excur. through Slave States, p. 70.] who says an
Osage Indian informed him that a chief of his tribe having died while
all the men were off on a hunt, he was buried in the usual manner, with
his weapons, etc., and a small mound was raised over him. When the
hunters returned this mound was enlarged at intervals, every man
carrying materials, and so the work went on for a long time, and the
mound, when finished, was dressed off to a conical form at the top. The
old Indian further said he had been informed, and believed, that all the
mounds had a similar origin.
Lewis and Clarke mention not only the erection of a mound over a
modern chief, but also numerous earthworks, including mounds, which
were known to be the work of contemporaneous Indians. [Footnote:
Travels, Dublin ed., 1817, pp. 30, 31, 55, 67, 115, 117, 122-125, etc.]
L. V. Bierce [Footnote: Historical Reminiscences of Summit County,
Ohio, p. 128.] states that when Nicksaw, an old Wyandotte Indian of
Summit County, was killed, "the Indians buried him on the ground
where he fell, and according to their custom raised a mound over him
to commemorate the place and circumstances of his death. His grave is
yet to be seen."
Another writer says: "It is related by intelligent Indian traders that a
custom once prevailed among certain tribes, on the burial of a chief or
brave of distinction, to consider his grave as entitled to the tribute of a
portion of earth from each passer-by, which the traveler sedulously
carried with him on his journey. Hence the first grave formed a nucleus
around which, in the accumulation of the accustomed tributes thus paid,
a mound was soon formed." [Footnote: Smith's History of Wisconsin,
vol. 3, 1834, p. 245.]

The same author says [Footnote: Ibid., p. 262.] the tumulus at the Great
Butte des Morts (Great Hill of the Dead) was raised over the bones of
Outagami (Fox Indian) warriors slain in battle with the French in 1706.
According to a Winnebago tradition, mounds in certain localities in
Wisconsin were built by that tribe, and others by the Sacs and
Foxes.[Footnote: Wis. Hist. Soc., Rept. I, pp. 88, 89.]
There is another Indian tradition, apparently founded on fact, that the
Essex mounds in