Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
By Cyrus Thomas.
Introduction
Historical evidence
Similarity of the arts and customs of the mound-builders to those of Indians
Architecture
Tribal divisions
Similarity in burial customs
Removal of the flesh before burial
Burial beneath or in dwellings
Burial in a sitting or squatting posture
The use of fire in burial ceremonies
Similarity of the stone implements and ornaments of various tribes
Mound and Indian pottery
Stone graves and what they teach
The Cherokees as mound-builders
The Cherokees and the Tallegwi
No other ancient works of the United States have become so widelyknown or have excited so much interest as those of Ohio. This isdue in part to their remarkable character but in a much greaterdegree to the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," byMessrs. Squier and Davis, in which these monuments are describedand figured.
The constantly recurring question, "Who constructed these works?"has brought before the public a number of widely differenttheories, though the one which has been most generally accepted isthat they originated with a people long since extinct or drivenfrom the country, who had attained a culture status much inadvance of that reached by the aborigines inhabiting the countryat the time of its discovery by Europeans.
The opinion advanced in this paper, in support of which evidencewill be presented, is that the ancient works of the State are dueto Indians of several different tribes, and that some at least ofthe typical works, were built by the ancestors of the modernCherokees. The discussion will be limited chiefly to the latterproposition, as the limits of the paper will not permit a fullpresentation of all the data which might be brought forward insupport of the theory, and the line of argument will besubstantially as follows:
FIRST. A brief statement of the reasons for believing that the
Indians were the authors of all the ancient monuments of the
Mississippi Valley and Gulf States; consequently the Ohio mounds
must have been built by Indians.
SECOND. Evidence that the Cherokees were mound builders afterreaching their historic seats in East Tennessee and western NorthCarolina. This and the preceding positions are strengthened by theintroduction of evidence showing that the Shawnees were theauthors of a certain type of stone graves, and of mounds and otherworks connected therewith.
THIRD. A tracing of the Cherokees, by the mound testimony and bytradition, back to Ohio.
FOURTH. Reasons for believing that the Cherokees were the Tallegwiof tradition and the authors of some of the typical works of Ohio.
Space will not permit any review here of the various theories i