The problem of the Ohio mounds / by Cyrus Thomas.

  • Thomas, Cyrus, 1825-1910.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The problem of the Ohio mounds / by Cyrus Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fore, in this peculiar line of art and custom an unbroken chain connect¬ ing the mound-builders of Ohio with the Indians of historic times, and in the same facts is evidence, which strengthens the argument, discon¬ necting the makers from the Mexican and Central American artisans. As this evidence appears to point to the Cherokees as the authors of some of the typical mounds of Ohio, it may be as well to introduce here a summary of the data which bear upon this question. Reasons which are thought well-nigh conclusive have already been presented for believing that the people of this tribe were mound-build¬ ers, and that they had migrated in pre-Columbian times from some point north of the locality in which they were encountered by Euro¬ peans. Taking up the thread of their history where it was dropped, the following reasons are offered as a basis for the conclusion that their home was for a time on the Ohio, and that this was the region from which they migrated to their historic locality. As already shown, their general movement in historic times, though limited, has been southward. Their traditions also claim that their migrations previous to the advent of the whites had been in the same direction from some point northward, not indicated in that given by Lederer, but in that recorded by Haywood, from the valley of the Ohio. But it is proper to bear in mind that the tradition given by Lederer expressly distinguishes them from the Virginia tribes, which necessitates looking more to the west for their former home. Haywood connects them, without any authority, with the Virginia tribes, but the tradition he gives contradicts this and places them on the Ohio. The chief hostile pressure against them of which we have any knowl¬ edge was from the Iroquois of the north. This testimony is further strengthened by the linguistic evidence, as it has been ascertained that the language of this tribe belongs to the Iroquoian stock. Mr. Horatio Hale, a competent authority on this subject, in an article on Indian migrations published in the American Antiquarian,1 remarks as follows: Following the same course of migration from the northeast to the southwest, which leads us from the Hurous of eastern Canada to the Tusearoras of central North Caro¬ lina, we come to the Cherokees of northern Alabama and Georgia. A connection between their language and that of the Iroquois has long been suspected. Gallatin, in his “ Synopsis of ludian Languages,” remarks on this subject: “Dr. Barton thought that the Cherokee language belonged to the Iroquois family, and on this point I am inclined to be of the same opinion. The affinities are few and remote, but there is a similarity in the general termination of the syllables, in the pronunciation and accent, which has struck some of the native Cherokees. * * * The difficulty arising from this lack of knowledge is now removed, and with it ail uncertainty disappears. The similarity of the two tongues, apparent enough in many of their words, is most strikingly shown, as might be expected, in their gram¬ matical structure, and especially in the affixed pronouns, which in both languages play so important a part. More complete vocabularies of the Clierokee language than have hitherto been accessible have recently come into possession of the Bu-