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,T- -.™ ™:2TR' T If- Indian Mounds and Earthworks. 99 Winnebagos, are retiring before the power and the intelligence of the white man of the old world, as the Sauks and Fox Indians had previously retreated from the Winnebagos, and at a still earlier period, the Illinois Indians were nearly exterminated by the Sauks and Foxes.* But who were they who have left almost imperisha.ble memorials on the soil, attesting the superiority of their race ? Nation and tribe and family succeed each other, and for a while occupy the land. They vanish in succession, and leave few or no traces. Yet of this unknown people, thousands and tens of thousands of monuments remain, which will scarcely be obliterated so long as the earth retains its present form. The result of a recent examination, by a friend of the writer, of the interior of many of the Fox river mounds, shews satisfac¬ torily that the animal shaped earthAVorks contain human bones equally with the round tumuli. These bones were found in a very brittle and decomposed state, having roots and fibres grow¬ ing through them, and were distributed, commonly, through every part of the mounds. These researches also threw some light on the mode adopted in the construction of these monu¬ ments ; for it became evident that the bones or bodies of the de¬ ceased were originally laid upon the surface of the ground, and the earth was then heaped upon them. No appearances occur of graves being dug beneath the surface, in the first instance.f Upon the summits of many of the original tumuli it is evident that the remains of other deceased persons have been subse¬ quently placed; and a new heaping up of soil thereon contri¬ buted to augment its former height. Finally, the wandering Menominee or Winnebago, the last Indian occupant of the prairie, excavates a grave upon the summit, places the body therein, in a sitting or reclining position, and strongly defends it with pickets. That the more ancient form of burial upon the surface, and of accumulating the soil over the remains of the dead, was not uni¬ versal among the Indian tribes of North America, appears from the examination of M. Rhea| of some antiquities in Tennessee, * McKenney's History of the Indian Tribes. t One of the animal monuments lately opened by Col. Petitval near the Red Bank, in the vicinity of Fox river, was one hundred and fifty feet long. The exca¬ vation was carried along the entire length, that is, from one extremity to the other, and bones were found abundantly. The number of individuals buried in some of these earthworks must have been very great. Perhaps they each formed the cemetery of a family in those cases. t Made 2>ublic by Prof. Rafinesque in 1832. , . ,, _,.:.
Object Description
Page Title | Notes respecting certain Indian Mounds and Earthworks, in the form of Animal Effigies, chiefly in the Wisconsin Territory, U.S. |
Author | Taylor, Richard C., 1789-1851 |
Source Publisher | American Journal of Science and Arts |
Source Creation Date | 1838 |
Language | English |
Digital Format | XML |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Rights | We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. |
Electronic Publication Date | 2004 |
Digital Identifier | TP007000 |
Description | The only earlier descriptions of Wisconsin mounds had been a short passage about those near Prairie du Chien in William H. Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River... (Philadelphia, H. C. Carey & I. Lea, 1824), digitized by the Library of Congress, and Nathaniel Hyer's article on Aztalan (both given elsewhere on the Turning Points site). 22aTaylor, who knew about mounds in Ohio and had studied European archaeology, was the first person to carefully measure and map any Wisconsin effigy mounds. When he published this illustrated article in the leading scientific journal of his day, he opened scholarly debate on the origin and purpose of the mounds. That debate would last most of the 19th century until the investigations of Cyrus Thomas were published in 1894 (given elsewhere at Turning Points) |
Owner | Wisconsin Historical Society Library |
Format | Text |
Recommended Citation | Taylor, Richard C. "Notes respecting certain Indian Mounds and Earthworks, in the form of Animal Effigies, chiefly in the Wisconsin Territory, U.S." American Journal of Science and Arts XXXIV (July 1838): 88-104; online facsimile at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=7 |
Document Number | TP007 |
URL | http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=7 |
Owner Collection | Pamphlet Collection |
Owner Object ID | 56- 2799 |
Series | American journal of science and arts, vol. 34 (1838) |
Event Date | 1838-07 |
Event Years | 1838 |
Event Month | July |
Type | Text |
Description
Page Title | 99 |
Author | Taylor, Richard C., 1789-1851 |
Source Publisher | American Journal of Science and Arts |
Source Creation Date | 1838 |
Language | English |
Digital Format | JPG |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Rights | We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. |
Electronic Publication Date | 2004 |
Digital Identifier | TP007012 |
Owner | Wisconsin Historical Society Library |
Format | Text |
Size | 20 cm. |
Owner Collection | Pamphlet Collection |
Owner Object ID | 56- 2799 |
Series | American journal of science and arts, vol. 34 (1838) |
Full Text | ,T- -.™ ™:2TR' T If- Indian Mounds and Earthworks. 99 Winnebagos, are retiring before the power and the intelligence of the white man of the old world, as the Sauks and Fox Indians had previously retreated from the Winnebagos, and at a still earlier period, the Illinois Indians were nearly exterminated by the Sauks and Foxes.* But who were they who have left almost imperisha.ble memorials on the soil, attesting the superiority of their race ? Nation and tribe and family succeed each other, and for a while occupy the land. They vanish in succession, and leave few or no traces. Yet of this unknown people, thousands and tens of thousands of monuments remain, which will scarcely be obliterated so long as the earth retains its present form. The result of a recent examination, by a friend of the writer, of the interior of many of the Fox river mounds, shews satisfac¬ torily that the animal shaped earthAVorks contain human bones equally with the round tumuli. These bones were found in a very brittle and decomposed state, having roots and fibres grow¬ ing through them, and were distributed, commonly, through every part of the mounds. These researches also threw some light on the mode adopted in the construction of these monu¬ ments ; for it became evident that the bones or bodies of the de¬ ceased were originally laid upon the surface of the ground, and the earth was then heaped upon them. No appearances occur of graves being dug beneath the surface, in the first instance.f Upon the summits of many of the original tumuli it is evident that the remains of other deceased persons have been subse¬ quently placed; and a new heaping up of soil thereon contri¬ buted to augment its former height. Finally, the wandering Menominee or Winnebago, the last Indian occupant of the prairie, excavates a grave upon the summit, places the body therein, in a sitting or reclining position, and strongly defends it with pickets. That the more ancient form of burial upon the surface, and of accumulating the soil over the remains of the dead, was not uni¬ versal among the Indian tribes of North America, appears from the examination of M. Rhea| of some antiquities in Tennessee, * McKenney's History of the Indian Tribes. t One of the animal monuments lately opened by Col. Petitval near the Red Bank, in the vicinity of Fox river, was one hundred and fifty feet long. The exca¬ vation was carried along the entire length, that is, from one extremity to the other, and bones were found abundantly. The number of individuals buried in some of these earthworks must have been very great. Perhaps they each formed the cemetery of a family in those cases. t Made 2>ublic by Prof. Rafinesque in 1832. , . ,, _,.:. |
Event Date | 1838-07 |
Event Years | 1838 |
Event Month | July |
Type | Text |