Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XV (1900)

              444 wisconsin historical collections vol xv and was a persistent searcher after indian traditions touch ing upon them and as a result can say that i never found an indian who ever heard of such occurrences or such mounds at the grand butte they locate all the con tests at petit butte des morts including both of morand's expeditions.1 when i came here in 1830 there were sev eral mounds there of varying sizes ; the largest was on the north menasha side and was about one hundred feet in diameter rising gradually from the ground to a peak in the center which might have measured ten feet in height from the level ground it was nearly circular the indians said it was made by the whites and was the burial j;>lace of sacs and poxes who had been killed in a great fight there and thrown in a heap to be covered with earth it was probably a great deal larger when first built and had set tled as the bodies mouldered i never dug into one but have seen others who have who say they found copper tools and pottery mixed up with the bones the menomo nees always seemed to express great indifference concern ing them grand butte des morts great hill of the dead was so named by the french because it was a higher point of land than usual in this particular region of the wolf valley and was the principal burying ground for the sacs and foxes and the menomonees after them though the latter tribe had practically abandoned it as a general cemetery before the opening of the nineteenth century and buried their dead at various points wherever mortal disease or accident befell them when the band was off upon its hunt and a member died the deceased was hung up in a tree on a scaffolding of saplings and left there until his party set out for their return when they would gather the bodies of their deceased friends and bury them in the common field 1 see numerous references to the old fox war in previous volumes of this series in vol xvi we hope to publish a large quantity of documents thereon recently obtained by us from the french archives in paris see also in wis hist soc proc 1899 pp 204-211 lawson's the outa gamie village at west menasha — ed