USA > Iowa > Marion County > History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 3
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Vol. 1-2
CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
THE MOUND BUILDERS-CHARACTER AND PROBABLE PURPOSE OF THE MOUNDS-DISTRICTS IN THE UNITED STATES-PECULIARITIES OF EACH-THEORIES REGARDING THE MOUND BUILDERS-MOUNDS IN MARION COUNTY-THE INDIANS-GENERAL DISTRIBUTION AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY-THE SACS AND FOXES-THE IOWAS-CHARACTER SKETCHES OF THEIR PRINCIPAL CHIEFS-THE POTTAWATOMI-THE WINNEBAGO.
All over the central part of the United States have been found mounds, earthworks and other relics of a bygone race. A report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology says: "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 years 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."
Early in the seventeenth century the first white settlements were established along the Atlantic coast. Gradually civilization extended westward, but more than a century passed before the white men came in contact with the evidences that the interior of the continent had once been peopled by this peculiar race, to which archaeologists gave the name of "Mound Builders." Then arose the question: Who were the Mound Builders? It was soon discovered, however, that it was easier to ask the question than to answer it.
Most of the mounds discovered are of conical form and varying height, and when opened by the investigator have generally been found to contain human skeletons, hence they have been designated as burial mounds. Other mounds are in the form of truncated pyramids -- that is, square or rectangular at the base and flattened on the top. The works of this class are usually higher than the burial mounds, which has given rise to the theory that they were used as lookouts or
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
signal stations. In some sections of the country may still be scen well- defined lines of earthworks, sometimes in the form of a square, but more frequently of oval or circular shape, indicating that they were erected as a means of defense against an invading enemy. Still an- other class of works, less numerous but more interesting, consists of a large mound surrounded by an embankment, outside of which are a number of smaller mounds. As these smaller mounds are generally void of skeletons or other relics, antiquarians have advanced the theory that such places were the centers of sacrifice or religious cere- mony of some character.
Shortly after the United States Bureau of Ethnology was estab- lished it undertook the work of making an exhaustive and scientific investigation of the relics left by this ancient people. Cyrus Thomas, of the bureau, has divided the region once inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight districts, each of which is distinguished by certain characteristics not common to the others.
Farthest east is the Huron-Iroquois District, which is comprised of the country once inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois tribes of Indians, viz. : Southern Canada, the greater part of the State of New York, a belt some fifty miles wide across Northern Ohio, and the lower peninsula of Michigan. In this district a few fortifications have been noted near Sandusky and Toledo, Ohio, but by far the greater part of the mounds are the small burial tumuli and "hut rings," or foundations of ancient dwellings.
Directly south of the Huron-Iroquois District is the Ohio Dis- trict, which includes the central and southern parts of Ohio, the cast- ern half of Indiana and the southwestern part of West Virginia. Throughout this district both the fortifications and burial mounds are found in large numbers, the latter being larger than those found elsewhere, frequently having a diameter of one hundred feet or more and rising to a height of seventy or eighty feet. More than ten thou- sand mounds have been explored in the State of Ohio alone. The Grave Creek Mound, in West Virginia, is one of the largest lookout or signal mounds so far discovered. Situated on a bluff in Adams County, Ohio, is the "Great Serpent," a fortification in the form of a snake nearly fourteen hundred feet in length. It is one of the most perfect specimens of this class of mounds and the site has recently been purchased by the state with a view to its preservation. Near Anderson, Indiana, is a circular fortification connected by a subter- ranean passage with the White River, evidently for the purpose of obtaining a water supply in case of siege. Scattered over this district are a number of sacrificial mounds surrounded by embankments.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
The Appalachian District includes the mountainous regions of Southwestern Virginia, Western North Carolina, Northern Georgia and Eastern Tennessee. Judging by the structure of the mounds and the character of the relics found in this district, the ancient inhabit- ants were different in many respects from those other portions of the country. Here stone graves are numerous, the mounds are of differ- ent construction, and among the relics found are a number of copper awls and knives and ornamental tobacco pipes made of clay and baked. A few pipes carved from a peculiar kind of stone have also been found.
Next to the above lies the Tennessee District, which includes Mid- dle and Western Tennessee, the southern portion of Illinois, nearly all the State of Kentucky, a small district in Northern Alabama and the central portion of Georgia. In the mounds of this district have been found a number of stone images, believed to have been objects of worship, and many pieces of pottery, a long-necked jar being espe- cially abundant. A distinguishing feature of the fortifications of this section is the covered or subterranean passage leading to a stream, in- dicating that such works were constructed with a view to withstand- ing a siege.
Proceeding westward, the Illinois District embraces the central and northern portions of Illinois, the western half of Indiana, North- eastern Missouri, and middle and eastern portions of Iowa. Several mounds of the truncated pyramid variety have been found in this district, the great mound near Cahokia, Illinois, being one of the finest and best preserved specimens of this class known. Burial mounds are numerous and a few fortifications have been discovered. but they are greatly inferior, both in size and structure, to those of the Tennessee and Ohio districts. West of the Mississippi River the burial mounds grow smaller toward the south. Agents of the Ethno- logical Bureau opened several of these mounds in Southeastern Iowa, but found nothing except some decaved human bones, stone chips and fragments of pottery.
The Arkansas District includes the state from which it takes its name, part of Southeastern Missouri, and a strip across the northern part of Louisiana. Here the burial mounds are small and few in number. Those examined failed to yield up any relics of historic im- portance. Pottery, which has been found in abundance, is the prin- cipal product of investigation so far, though numerous hut rings and a few village sites have been noted.
Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico lies the Gulf District, including Southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and the southern portions
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
of Alabama and Georgia. The entire district abounds in pottery, ornaments and weapons of polished stone and obsidian, etc. Skeletons have been found in caves and others have been found buried in bark coffins. Here are also a number of fine truncated pyramids, some of which are constructed in terraces.
In the northwestern part of the great central region lies the Dakota District, which includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, the northeastern corner of Iowa and the State of Wisconsin. In some places in this district are mounds having an outline of stone, which is filled with earth. As a rule the burial mounds here are comparatively small, but what they lack in interest is more than made up by the beautiful effigy mounds, which are constructed in the form of some bird or animal. Near Prairieville, Wisconsin, there is a mound resembling a turtle, fifty-six feet in length, and not far from Blue Mounds, in the same state, is a mound 120 feet in length in the form of a man lying on his back. Some archæologists are of the opinion that these effigies were made to represent the totem of some tribe, while others think they are images of some living creature that was an object of veneration.
Long before the Bureau of Ethnology was established, individuals interested in American archæology explored a number of mounds in various parts of the country and published their theories concerning the builders. Some of these early writers on the subject took the view that the Mound Builders first established their civilization in the Ohio Valley, from which region they gradually moved southward into Mexico and Central America, where the white man found their descendants in the Aztec Indians. Others contended, with arguments equally as plausible and logical, that the people who left these inter- esting relics originated in the South and gradually worked their way northward to the country about the Great Lakes, where their further progress was checked by hostile tribes. Upon one phase of the sub- ject, however, nearly all the early writers were agreed, and that was that the Mound Builders belonged to a very ancient and extinct race. This view was sustained by the fact that the Indians with whom the first white men came in contact had no traditions concerning the mounds or the people who built them, and the theory of great antiquity was supported by the great trees, several feet in diameter, growing upon many of the mounds and earthworks.
Among the earliest authors were Squier and Davis, who about 1850 published a work entitled "Ancient Monuments of the Missis- sippi Valley." Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two investi- gators, working together, explored over two hundred mounds and
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
earthworks, the description of which was published by the Smithson- ian Institution. Following Squier and Davis came Baldwin, McLean, and a number of other writers on archæology, all of whom advocated the theory that the early inhabitants of the interior were of a separate and distinct race, in no way related to the Indians found here by the first white settlers.
That this theory is erroneous, to some extent at least, is seen when it becomes known that the first French and Spanish explorers in the southern part of what is now the United States found that among the Natchez Indians the house of the chief was always built upon an artificial mound. As eminent an authority as Pierre Margry says : "When a 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."
It has also been learned that the Yamasee Indians of Georgia built mounds over those killed in battle, and Charlevoix found among the . Canadian tribes earthworks resembling those described by Thomas as once existing in the Huron-Iroquois District above mentioned. How long the custom of the Natchez and Yamasee tribes had pre- vailed no one knows, but it might be the reason for a large number of the small artificial mounds in the country once inhabited by these Indians and their ancestors.
Early investigators found in many small mounds charcoal and burnt or baked clay, for which they were at a loss to account. Brinton advances the hypothesis that among certain tribes, especially those of the lower Mississippi country, the family hut was frequently built upon an artificial mound The house was constructed of poles and plastered with mud. When the head of the family died, the body was buried under the center of the hut, which was then burned. This custom, which might have been followed for many generations, would account for the large number of small mounds, each containing a single human skeleton, the bones of which have sometimes been found charred.
Another evidence that there is some relationship between the ancient Mound Builder and the modern Indian has been found in the pottery made by some of the southwestern tribes, which is very similar to that found in some of the mounds. In the light of these recent dis- coveries, it is not surprising that archæologists are discarding the theory of a separate race and great antiquity, and laying claim to one of a vastly different nature, viz. : that the Mound Builder was nothing more than the ancestor, more or less remote, of the North American
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Indian. 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."
MOUNDS IN MARION COUNTY
While much of the above general history and theory concerning the Mound Builders is not directly applicable to Marion County, it is hoped that the reader will not find it uninteresting, as it throws some light upon the people who once inhabited this part of the coun- try and enables one to understand better the character and probable origin of the mounds found in the Des Moines Valley.
A number of interesting mounds have been found in the county. In a "Summary of the Archæology of Iowa," prepared by Frederick Starr and reprinted from the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, occurs the following: "Kimberling examined the mounds at Knoxville. They occur in groups of 5 to 10 in a straight line or a circle and always on bluffs or highland ; in one case there was a raised way some 20 rods long, 8 to 10 feet wide, and I foot high, leading to an abrupt bluff. The mound structure is described thus: 'Two feet of soil; 16 inches of hard baked clay, ashes and charcoal; 5 feet below the clay layer, a hearth, 2 feet by 4 feet and 10 inches deep, full of ashes and charcoal ; the walls of the furnace were glazed by heat; the arch is 12 feet in diameter and its height was such that a tall man might stand under it. In the center of the mound was a piece of cement with a crushed human skull below it.'"
The mounds thus described are not really at Knoxville, but in the southeast corner of section 15, township 76, range 19, in Polk Township. The explorations mentioned-which were the last exca- vations made at that point by scientists-were made about 1885 or 1886, though the plowed grounds in the vicinity are still littered with fragments of the old "furnace," giving the surface the appearance of a deserted brick yard. From one-fourth to one-half mile south of the above described mound, in the northeast corner of section 22, along the margin of a bluff are two chains of small mounds, some ten or fifteen in number, arranged in the form of a "Y" or the wishbone of a fowl.
Mounds varying in size from mere hummocks to larger ones from six to eight feet high and twenty to sixty feet in diameter have been noted in all the river townships of the county, and along the breaks of Cedar Creek in Indiana and Liberty townships. Near Marysville,
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
on Cedar Creek, in Liberty Township, is a great collecting ground for archæologists. Hundreds of arrow and spear heads, stone axes and celts- implements of stone for dressing skins-have been found within a radius of two miles of the town. The territory now compris- ing Red Rock Township was once the habitat of the Mound Builder, or the prehistoric Indian, and many stone implements and utensils similar to those found about Marysville have been collected in that township. Another famous field for those seeking stone relics is on the bluffs of the Skunk River, in the northeastern part of the county.
The mounds nearest Knoxville are situated on English Creek, in the southeast corner of section 9, township 75, range 19, about two and a half miles east of the city. Here some ten or fifteen low mounds were formerly plainly to be seen. When first discovered they were in a dense woods, but the land has since been brought under cultivation and the plow has done its deadly work. The mounds are almost obliterated. In this locality have been found a great number of stone implements and large quantities of fragmentary pottery. These mounds are situated on what is called "second bottom," the land shelv- ing off to the margins of an old time pond of considerable dimensions. About half a mile south, in the northeast corner of section 16, on the top of a high ridge, is another group of mounds, having the appear- ance of being walled up around the edges with rough, unequal pieces of limestone and sandstone. These mounds have never been explored.
On the bluffs bordering on the Des Moines River, northeast of the town of Swan, is another group of mounds. In this vicinity a great many arrow heads and other stone relics have been found, as well as a large quantity of broken pottery. Very few pieces of un- broken prehistoric pottery have ever been found in the county. One of these, and perhaps the best specimen, was plowed up by William Coolley on his farm in section 16, township 75, range 19, near the mounds on English Creek already described. It was a vessel of the round-bottom variety, with flaring mouths and two lugs or handles for suspending it in the air. It was found several years ago. In one of the mounds in Marion County was found a copper spear head about five inches in length, but, so far as known, this is the only metal relic found in the county.
It would be safe to say that mounds, earthworks and stone relics have been found in every township of the county, with the possible exception of Franklin and Washington. Even in these two townships arrow heads, etc., have been turned up by the plow, but if any mounds ever existed in that part of the county they have been overlooked by archaeologists.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
THE INDIANS
After the Mound Builders came the Indian. About the begin- ning of the sixteenth century, when the first European explorers came to the Western Hemisphere, the continent of North America was inhabited by a race of copper colored people, to whom the white men gave the name of Indians. This race was divided into several groups, or families, each of which was distinguished from the others by the dialect spoken, as well as certain physical characteristics.
In the far North the country about the Arctic Circle was inhab- ited by the Eskimo, a tribe that has never played any important part in history, except as guides to polar expeditions. The Algonquian family, the largest and most powerful of all the Indian groups, occupied a large triangle, which may be roughly bounded by the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras, and lines drawn front these points to the western end of Lake Superior. In the very heart of the Algonquian territory, along the shores of Lake Ontario, was the country of the Iroquian tribes, viz .: The Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas and Mohawks. These tribes became known by the early colonists as the "Five Nations." Some years later the Tusca- roras were added to the alliance, which then took the name of the "Six Nations." South of the Algonquian tribes was a large tract of country occupied by the Muskhogean group, the leading tribes of which were the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw. In the Northwest, about the sources of the Mississippi River and extending westward to the Missouri River, was the country of the Siouan group, noted for their physical prowess and warlike tendencies. South and west of the Siouan country were bold, vindictive Comanche, Apache and other tribes, closely allied to the Sioux in appearance, language and customs.
Volumes have been written on the North American Indian and the subject has not yet been exhausted. In a work of this nature it is not the design to give an account of the race as a whole, but to mention only those tribes whose history was connected with the region now comprising the State of Iowa. Chief among these were the Sacs and Foxes, the Iowas, the Sioux, the Pottawatomi and Winnebagoes.
The Sacs-also called Sauks or Saukies-were an Algonquian tribe known as "the people of the outlet." Some writers also refer to them as "people of the yellow earth." Their earliest known habitat was in the lower peninsula of Michigan, where they lived with the Pottawatomi. The name Saginaw, as applied to a bay and city in Michigan, means "the place of the Sac," and marks the place where
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
they once dwelt. Here they were allied not only with the Potta- watomi, but also with the Mascoutens, Foxes and Kickapoos, before they became an independent tribe. They are first mentioned as a separate tribe in the Jesuit Relations of 1640, though even then they were confederated with the tribes above mentioned and also the Miamis and Winnebagoes. Father Allouez, the Jesuit missionary, writing of these Indians in 1667, says: "They are more savage than all the other peoples I have met; they are a populous tribe, although they have no fixed dwelling place, being wanderers and vagabonds in the forests."
According to their traditions, they were driven from the western shores of Lake Huron by the Iroquois and Neuters in the early part of the seventeenth century. Retiring by way of Mackinaw, about the middle of that century they found a new abode along the shores of Green Bay, Wisconsin. This tradition is first narrated by Father Dablon in the Jesuit Relations for 1671. Says he: "The Sacs, Pot- tawatomies and neighboring tribes, being driven from their own countries, which are the lands southward from Missilimakinac, have taken refuge at the head of this bay, beyond which one can see inland the Nation of Fire, with one of the Illinois tribes called Oumiami, and the Foxes."
In the same year this was written the Hurons and Ottawas invaded the Sioux country and on the way persuaded the Sacs and Pottawat- omi to join the expedition. The allied tribes were defeated by the Sioux and the surviving Sacs returned to Green Bay, where they were content to live for several years without making any more war- like demonstrations.
Dorsey divides the Sac tribe into fourteen gentes or clans, viz .: Trout, Sturgeon, Bass, Great Lynx or Fire Dragon, Sea, Fox, Wolf. Bear, Bear-Potato, Elk, Swan, Grouse, Eagle and Thunder. Mar- riages were usually made between men and women of different gentes. Polygamy was practiced to some extent, though in this respect the Sacs were not so bad as some of the other Algonquian tribes. Their religion consisted of a belief in numerous "Manitous" and was rich in myth and fable.
The Foxes were an Algonquian tribe, resembling in many par- ticulars the Sacs. They were also called Musquakies, or "red earth people," and were sometimes designated as "the people of the other shore," by which they were known to the Chippewa Indians. Their original habitat is not definitely known. At an early date some of the tribe occupied the country along the southern shore of Lake Superior, from which region they were driven out by the Chippewas. Prior to
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
that at least a portion of the tribe inhabited the Atlantic coast in the vicinity of Rhode Island. The name Fox originated with the French, who gave them the name of Reynors. In 1676 Father Allouez found some of the Foxes on the Wolf River, in what is now the State of Wis- consin. In his writings of that time he speaks of a "Musquakie vil- lage with a population of about five thousand."
Neighboring tribes regarded the Foxes as "avaricious, thieving, passionate and quarrelsome." They hated the French and planned the attack on the French post at Detroit in 1712. The timely arrival of reinforcements saved the post and the Indians were overwhelm- ingly defeated. Those who took part in this movement then joined the Foxes spoken of by Father Allouez on the Wolf River.
About 1730 the English and Dutch traders operating in Michigan and Wisconsin, knowing the dislike of the Foxes for the French, 'entered into an alliance with them to drive out the French traders. The French formed a defensive alliance with the Ottawa, Huron, Pottawatomi and some minor tribes, and in the war which followed the Musquakies were defeated. They then found a refuge among the Sacs in the neighborhood of Green Bay. De Villiers, a French officer, with a force of French soldiers and Indian allies, marched to the Sac village and demanded the surrender of the refugees. His demand was refused by the Sac chiefs and a battle ensued, which lasted for several hours and resulted in the defeat of the Sacs, though the Foxes were not surrendered. This occurred in 1833. This led to an alliance of the Sacs and Foxes, and since that time the two tribes have been nearly always spoken of as one people.
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