American antiquities, and researches into the origin and history of the red race / By Alexander W. Bradford.

  • Alexander Warfield Bradford
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American antiquities, and researches into the origin and history of the red race / By Alexander W. Bradford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    stages of decomposition, and the appearance of the bones of infants. A mound of similar character, and constructed in layers or strata at successive periods, existed near the south branch of the Shenandoah, in the same state. There are other tumuli ascribed to the Indians, consisting of stones thrown rudely together, but they are less frequent than those formed of earth. One of these, upon the Blue Ridge, ' upon being opened was found to contain human bones; and another, in New York, is said to have marked the grave of a distinguished warrior.^ The size of all of them is not invariably diminutive, as we are informed that Fort Watson, in South Carolina, was built upon the summit of one upwards of thirty feet in height and, according to an authentic report, a mound of the largest dimensions has been thrown up within a few years, in Illinois, over the remains of an eminent chief J So materially have the customs and institutions of the In- dians been changed since the discovery, that most of these tumuli are of considerable age, and it has even been doubted, whether they were constructed by the immediate ancestors of the present Indians; but it appears, from a very respectable authority, that many tribes still continue to this day to raise a tumulus over the grave, the magnitude of which is proportioned to the rank and celebrity of the deceased.§ We find these mounds scattered at intervals over the surface of both Americas, from the country of V. * Macaiiley’s History of New York, vol. ii. p. 239. t Ramsay’s History of the United States, vol. ii, p. 34. \ Beck’s Gazetteer, p, 308. § James, vol. ii. p. 1.—Description of the Red River, p. 152.— Brackenridge’s View of Louisiana, p. 137.
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