| OCR Text |
Show THE MOUND BUILDERS Burial of Dead in This Manner Practised Prac-tised Up to Advent of Whites. Mound builders of the Mississippi valley, in tho manner of burial of their dead, were in closo touch with thoso of the valley of tho Ohio, and had something in common with them, cm-bracing cm-bracing the ideals displayed in the ancestor an-cestor worship of tho Oriental; as well as antedating tho custom of settling a granito shaft as a mai-k of respect over the graves of our departed at tho present pres-ent time. Formerly mound builders wero supposed sup-posed to have become an extinct race, occupying tho territory'in which theso numerous burial mounds aro found, prior to its occupancy by tho North American Indiana, but in tho light of more recent and more thorough investigation, investi-gation, writes Richard Hermann, in ''Records of the Past," it has been shown that burial of tho dead in mounds has been practiced by the Mus-kawakies Mus-kawakies of the Foxes, who occupied the territory up to and including somo of the timo when the first whito pcoplo settled in the upper Mississippi valley. The former erroneous supposition came about principally through the un-communicativeness un-communicativeness of tho Indian. When questioned concerning tho mounds and their contents ho would invariably act tho stoic, for according to his ideas of ancestor worship tho subject was held sacred and was not to be touched upon, nor were any of the bolougings which had been buried with him ever in any manner to bo used again by any living man. For this reason, when shown lliut arrow or spear heads they would profess ignor-nncc ignor-nncc and insist that they were there boforo the arrival of the Indian. The conical mounds, Mr. Hermann slates, are generally individual or family fam-ily burying mounds. Tho earth, sand or other material is carried there by the members of the tribo or the nearest of kin and filled around tho body. Apparently Ap-parently the further tho earth, sand or other material of which the mound is being built is brought or tho more laborious tho work of carr'iug it to tho place of interment, the higher tho respect paid to tho dead. And in this respect they do not differ materially , from white" pcoplo. Wo would disdain to erect over a grave in tho middlo West a shaft mado from tho limestono of the local Galena formation, but in-sicad in-sicad get a granito shaft shipped from Vermont or elsewhere, equally as great ! a distance, and at as great an ex-I ex-I penso. |
