Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States

by Cyrus Thomas

Mound 31 of this group seems to furnish a connecting link between the West Virginia and the Ohio mounds. It is sharp in outline, has a steep slope, and is flattened on the top; is 318 feet in circumference at the base and about 25 feet high. It was opened by digging a shaft 10 feet in diameter from the center of the top to the base. After passing through the top layer of surface soil, some 2 feet thick, a layer of clay and ashes 1 foot thick was encountered. Here, near the center of the shaft, were two skeletons, lying horizontally, one immediately over the other, the upper and larger one with the face down and the lower with the face up. There were no indications of fire about them. Immediately over the heads were one celt and three lance-heads. At the depth of 13 feet and a little north of the center of the mound were two very large skeletons, in a sitting posture, with their extended legs interlocked to the knees. Their arms were extended and their hands slightly elevated, as if together holding up a sandstone mortar which was between their faces. This stone is somewhat hemispherical, about 2 feet in diameter across the top, which is hollowed in the shape of a shallow basin or mortar. It had been subjected to the action of fire until burned to a bright red. The cavity was filled with white ashes, containing small fragments of bones burned to cinders. Immediately over this, and of sufficient size to cover it, was a slab of bluish-gray limestone about 3 inches thick, which had small cup-shaped excavations on the under side. This bore no marks of fire. Near the hands of the eastern skeleton were a small hematite celt and a lance-head, and upon the left wrist of the other two copper bracelets. At the depth of 25 feet, and on the natural surface, was found what in an Ohio mound would have been designated an "altar." This was not thoroughly traced throughout, but was about 12 feet long and over 8 feet wide, of the form shown in [Fig. 24].

It consisted of a layer of well-prepared mortar, apparently clay, slightly mixed with ashes. This was not more than 6 or 8 inches thick in the center of the basin-shaped depression, where it was about 1 foot lower than at the other margin. It was burned to a brick-red and covered with a compact layer of very fine white ashes, scattered thickly, through which were small water-worn bowlders, bearing evidences of having undergone an intense heat. Mingled with this mass were a few thoroughly charred human bones. The material of the shaft, after the first 3 feet at the top, consisted almost wholly of finely packed ashes, which appeared to have been deposited at intervals of considerable length and not at one time.

It is evident from this description, which is abridged from the report of the assistant, that we have here a true representation of the so-called "altars" of the Ohio mounds. But, contrary to the usual custom, as shown by an examination of the Ohio works, this mound appears to have been used by the people who erected it as a burial place, for the mode of construction and the material used for the body of it forbid the supposition that the lower burial was by a different people from those who formed the clay structure at the base.

It is proper to state that around and near the inclosure (No. 7 of [Plate V]) were a number of stone graves of the ordinary box shape, constructed in the usual way, of stone slabs.

At this place was also discovered a pit or cache resembling those found at Madisonville, Ohio. A more thorough examination will probably bring to light others.

The descriptions of other burial mounds of this region, differing slightly in minor details from those mentioned, might be presented, but the foregoing will suffice to give the types and show the character of the structures of this kind in this section. The details given will, I think, satisfy any one that the authors of these structures were also the authors of the Ohio works, or that they belonged to tribes so closely related that we may justly consider them as one people.

I have been and am still disposed to connect the mound-builders of the Kanawha valley with those of western North Carolina, but our explorations in the two sections have convinced me of their close relation to the people whose mysterious monuments dot the hills and valleys of Ohio. That they were related in some way to the mound-builders of North Carolina and East Tennessee is more than probable, but the key to unlock this mystery, if it exists anywhere, is most likely to be found in the history, traditions, and works of the Cherokees, and the traditions relating to the Tallegwi.

As a result of my examination and discussion of the burial mounds of Wisconsin, I reached the conclusion that they were built by the Indian tribes found inhabiting that section at the advent of the whites, or by their ancestors. The data, of which but a comparatively small portion is given, seem to justify this conclusion. But the case is somewhat different in reference to the works of the Ohio district. Although the data obtained here point with satisfactory certainty to the conclusion that Indians were the authors of these works, it cannot be claimed that all or even the larger portion of them were built by Indians inhabiting the district when first visited by the whites, or by their ancestors.

Hence the mystery which enshrouds them is deeper and much more difficult to penetrate than that which hangs about the antiquities of some of the other districts; in fact, they present probably the most difficult problem for solution in this respect of any ancient works of our country. That some of the burial mounds, graves, and other works are to be attributed to Indians who entered this district after the Europeans had planted colonies in Canada and along the Atlantic coast is probably true, but that much the greater portion of the typical works belong to a more distant period must be conceded. It is a singular fact that in the latter half of the seventeenth century, when European explorers began to penetrate into this region, what is now the State of Ohio was uninhabited.