CHAPTER II

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS

THE MOUND BUILDERS CHARACTER OF THEIR RELICS-DISTRICTS OF IN THE UNITED STATES-THEORIES CONCERNING THEM-MOUNDS IN LEE COUNTY-THE INDIANS GENERAL DISTRIBUTION AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY THE ILLINI—THE IOWASSACS AND FOXES-CHIEF BLACK HAWK-KEOKUK-HIS REPUTATION AS AN ORATOR AND DIPLOMAT-MONUMENT AT RAND PARK, KEOKUK-MATANEQUA.

Who were the first human beings to inhabit the region now included in the State of Iowa? The question is more easily asked than answered. The first white settlements along the Atlantic coast were made early in the seventeenth century. More than a century elapsed after these settlements were established before evidences were discovered to show that the interior had once been peopled by a peculiar race. These evidences were found in the numerous mounds and earthworks. Says one of the reports of the United

States Bureau of Ethnology:

"During a period beginning some time after the close of the Ice Age and ending with the coming of the white man-or only a few generations before the central part of North America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to some extent from the darkness of savagery, had acquired certain domestic arts, and practiced some well-defined lines of industry. The location and boundaries inhabited by them are fairly well marked by the mounds and earthworks they erected."

The center of this ancient civilization-if such it may be called— appears to have been in the present State of Ohio. Iowa may be regarded as its western frontier. From the relics left the people have been given the name of "Mound Builders" by archæologists. Most of the mounds discovered are conical in shape and when explored generally are found to contain skeletons. They have been designated as burial mounds. Others are in the form of truncated pyramids that is, square or rectangular at the base and flat on the top. The mounds of this class are usually higher than the burial

mounds and are supposed to have been lookouts or signal stations. Here and there are to be seen well-defined lines of earthworks, indicating that they had been used as a means of defense against invading enemies. In a few instances, the discovery of a large mound, surrounded by an embankment, outside of which are a number of smaller mounds, has given rise to the theory that such places were centers of religious worship or sacrifice.

Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, has divided the region inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight districts, in each of which there are certain characteristics not common to the others. These districts are as follows:

1. The Dakotah District, which includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the northeastern corner of Iowa. The distinguishing features of this district are the effigy mounds, which are constructed in the form of some bird or animal. They are believed to have represented the totem of a tribe, or some living creature that was an object of veneration. The burial mounds in this district are comparatively small. In some places are mounds with an outline of stone, which is filled in with earth.

2. The Huron-Iroquois District, which embraces the country once inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois Indians. It includes the lower peninsula of Michigan, a strip across Northern Ohio, the greater part of New York, and extends northward into Canada. Burial mounds are numerous throughout this district, a few fortifications have been noted, and hut rings, or foundations of ancient dwellings, are plentiful.

3. The Illinois District, embracing the middle and eastern portions of Iowa, Northeastern Missouri, the northern part of Illinois and the western half of Indiana. Along the western side of the Mississippi the burial mounds in this district gradually grow smaller as one travels toward the south. When representatives of the Bureau of Ethnology explored this district they discovered that: "Upon the bluffs near the junction of the Des Moines River with the Mississippi were many circular mounds, most of which have been opened and numerous articles, mostly of intrusive burials, obtained therefrom. Several were opened by the bureau agent, but nothing was found in them save decayed human bones, fragments of pottery and stone chips." The mounds thus referred to are in Lee County.

4. The Ohio District, which takes in the eastern half of Indiana, all of Ohio, except the strip above referred to as belonging to the Huron-Iroquois District, and the southwestern part of West Virginia. In this district both the burial mounds and the fortifications

are numerous, and the former are larger than the burial grounds found elsewhere, frequently having a diameter of one hundred feet or more and rising to a height of eighty feet. More than ten thousand mounds have been explored in the State of Ohio alone. The Great Serpent, a fortification in the form of a snake, situated on a bluff in Adams County, Ohio, is one of the most perfect specimens of this class of mounds so far discovered, and the Grave Creek Mound, in West Virginia, is one of the greatest lookout or signal station mounds. There are also a number of sacrificial mounds, surrounded by embankments.

5. The Appalachian District, which includes the mountainous regions of Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, Southwestern Virginia and the northern portion of Georgia. Throughout this district have been found abundant evidences that the tribe inhabiting it was different in many respects from the people of the other districts. The mounds are of a different construction, stone graves are numerous, and among the relics discovered are a number of more or less ornamental tobacco pipes and utensils of copper.

6. The Tennessee District, embracing Middle and Western Tennessee, Southern Illinois, nearly all of Kentucky, a strip through the central part of Georgia and a small section of Northern Alabama. Here pottery is plentiful, especially the long-necked water jar. The fortifications of this district are distinguished by covered ways leading to the streams, indicating that they were constructed with a view to withstanding a siege. Several stone images, believed to have been used as idols, have also been found in the mounds of this district.

7. The Arkansas District, including the entire State of Arkansas, part of Northern Louisiana and the southeastern corner of Missouri. Pottery has been found in abundance in this district, hut rings and village sites have been discovered, though the burial mounds are small and few in number.

8. The Gulf District, which, as its name indicates, includes the region along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In this district are. a number of fine truncated pyramids, some of them with terraces; skeletons buried in bark coffins have been found; other skeletons have been found in caves, and the entire district is rich in pottery, polished stones, weapons of obsidian, etc.

Who were the Mound Builders? Various authors have written upon the subject and nearly every one has a theory as to their origin. Some maintain that they first established their civilization in the Ohio Valley, whence they worked their way gradually southward into Mexico and Central America, where the white man found their

descendants in the Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally as plausible and logical, contend that the Mound Builders originated in the South and migrated northward to the region of the Great Lakes, where their progress was checked by hostile tribes. Practically all the early writers were agreed upon one thing, and that was that the Mound Builders were a very ancient race. The principal

reasons for this view were that the Indians had no traditions concerning many of the relics, and upon the mounds and earthworks discovered were trees of several feet diameter, indicating that the works were of great antiquity.

Among the earliest writers on the subject were Squier and Davis, who about the middle of the nineteenth century published a work entitled "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two investigators opened over two hundred mounds, the description of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. Following the lead of Squier and Davis, other investigators claimed the Mound Builders, who once inhabited the Ohio and Mississippi valleys at a period more or less remote, were of a different race from the Indians found here by the white man. In more recent years archæologists, who have made extensive research among the mounds, and those who have given the ancient relics the closest study in connection with the Bureau of Ethnology, are practically a unit in the conclusion that the Mound Builder was nothing more than the ancestor of the Indian.

Early French and Spanish explorers in the southern part of the United States found that among the Natchez Indians the house of the chief was always built upon an artificial mound. Says Margry: "When the chief dies they demolish his cabin and then raise a new mound, on which they build the cabin of the chief who is to replace the one deceased in this dignity, for the chief never lodges in the house of his predecessor."

How long this custom had prevailed no one knows, but it might be the reason for a large number of artificial mounds in the country once inhabited by the Natchez and their ancestors. The Yamasees of Georgia built mounds over those killed in battle, and Charlevoix found among the Canadian tribes earthworks resembling those of the Huron-Iroquois District of Thomas' Division.

In the early exploration of the mounds, some surprise was manifested at the presence of charcoal and burnt or baked clay. Subsequent investigations have disclosed the fact that among certain tribes, particularly in the lower Mississippi country, the family hut was built upon an artificial mound, usually of small dimensions. The

house was constructed of poles and plastered with mud. Upon the death of the head of the family, the body was buried under the center of the house, which was then burned. This custom, practiced perhaps for many generations, would account for the great number of small mounds, each containing a single skeleton. Again, among some of the southwestern tribes, white men have found pottery very similar in texture and design to that found in some of the ancient mounds. In the light of these discoveries it is not surprising that the Indian ancestry theory has made great headway within the last few years, and that a majority of the leading archæologists of the country advocate that theory. Says Thomas: "The hope of ultimately solving the great problems is perhaps as lively today as in former years. But with the vast increase of knowledge in recent years, a modification of the hope entertained has taken place."

While much of this general history and description of the Mound Builders is not directly applicable to Lee County, it is hoped that the reader will find it of interest, inasmuch as it throws some light upon the people who formerly inhabited this section of the country and enables one to understand better the character of the mounds found in the county.

Several interesting mounds have been opened and explored in Iowa. In one in Marion County was found a number of pieces of pottery, some of them of graceful outline, and a copper spear head about five inches in length. A large mound in Boone Countyoval in form and 90 by 110 feet at the base-was investigated in 1908. About four thousand pieces of pottery, some of them indicating that the vessels were three feet in diameter, were found in the center of the mound, with a collection of shells, four or five human skulls, a few bones and a large pile of ashes and charcoal. Upon the summit of this mound were two oak trees two feet in diameter. Some years ago Justus M. T. Myers wrote the following concerning the mounds of Lee County:

"As far as I know, there are some fifteen or twenty mounds on my father's farm, in Green Bay Township, and several others on adjoining farms, all of which are of oval formation, from two to seven feet in height and from twelve to thirty feet in diameter. I have drifted into some of these mounds and found pieces of flint, pottery, and bones, both human and animal. Some of the bones were burnt or charred, as if the occupants of the country at that period of time cremated their dead, or sacrificed them as burnt offerings. In one of the mounds I found thirty-two human skeletons, that had evidently been left there at the time of sepulture in a sitting position, but had fallen