Holocaust of Giants: The Great Smithsonian Cover-up

http://greatserpentmound.org/articles/giants3.html

Holocaust of Giants:
The Great Smithsonian Cover-up
Noted Native American author and professor of law
emeritus, Vine Deloria, writes in a personal
communication:

It's probably better that so few of the ruins and
remains were tied in with the Smithsonian because they
give good reason to believe the ending of the Indiana
Jones movie-a great warehouse where the real secrets
of earth history are buried.

Modern day archaeology and anthropology have nearly
sealed the door on our imaginations, broadly
interpreting the North American past as devoid of
anything unusual in the way of great cultures
characterized by a people of unusual demeanor. The
great interloper of ancient burial grounds, the
nineteenth century Smithsonian Institution, created a
one-way portal, through which uncounted bones have
been spirited. This door and the contents of its vault
are virtually sealed off to any but government
officials. Among these bones may lay answers not even
sought by these officials concerning the deep past.

The first hint we had about the possible existence of
an actual race of tall, strong, and intellectually
sophisticated people, was in researching old township
and county records. Many of these were quoting from
old diaries and letters that were combined, for
posterity, in the 1800s from diaries going back to the
1700s. Says Vine in this understanding:

Some of these old county and regional history books
contain real gems because the people were not
subjected to a rigid indoctrination about evolution
and were astonished about what they found and honestly
reported it.

The title pages of the early county and pioneer
history books often included phrases like "CAREFULLY
WRITTEN AND COMPILED" and "LEST WE FORGET."

Some time before archaeology came to subscribe the
general public to its view of prehistory-generations
prior to Darwin's troublesome theory-the pioneers
thought that some of the earthworks were as ancient as
could be concurrent with human habitation in America.
Some among the early settlers exercised their pens
assured that the earthworks were not built by the
direct ancestry of the native people living in the
historical period, but rather were constructed in a
more remote era encompassing a different social order.
They compared the "Mound Builders," with the
"Indians," clearly discerning the former as belonging
to an earlier time-possessing a different fate or
destiny from the latter.

Evidence for the occupation of this region before the
appearance of the red man and the white race is to be
found in almost every part of the county, as well as
through the northwest generally. In removing the
gravel bluffs, which are numerous and deep, for the
construction and repair of roads, and in excavating
cellars, hundreds of human skeletons, some of them of
giant form, have been found. A citizen of Marion
County estimates that there were about as many human
skeletons in the knolls of Marion County as there are
white inhabitants at present!

The History of Marion County, Ohio
(complied from past accounts, published in 1883)

Mastodonic remains are occasionally unearthed, and,
from time to time, discoveries of the remains of
Indian settlements are indicated by the appearance of
gigantic skeletons, with the high cheek bones,
powerful jaws and massive frames peculiar of the red
man, who left these as the only record with which to
form a clew to the history of past ages.

The History of Brown County, Ohio
(complied from past accounts, published in 1883)

Group of Mounds in Brown County, Ohio.

She said also that three skeletons were found at the
mouth of the Paw Paw Creek many years later, while Nim
(Nimrod) Satterfield was justice of the peace. Jim
Dean and some men were digging for a bridge foundation
and found these bones at the lower end of the old
buffalo wallow. She thought it was Dr. Kidwell, of
Fairmont, who examined them and said they were very
old, perhaps thousands of years old. She said that
when the skeletons were exposed to the weather for a
few days, their bones turned black and began to
crumble, that Squire Satterfield had them buried in
the Joliffe graveyard (Rivesville). All these
skeletons, she said, were measured, and found to be
about eight feet long.

Now and Long Ago-A History of the Marion County Area
by Glen Lough (1969)
(This citation on West Virginia courtesy Dave Cain.)

Another of many examples, this one, collected by James
Mooney (1861-1921), tells of the visit of very tall
people from the west:

James Wafford, of the western Cherokee, who was born
in Georgia in 1806, says that his grandmother, who
must have been born about the middle of the last
century, told him that she had heard from the old
people that long before her time a party of giants had
once come to visit the Cherokee. They were nearly
twice as tall as common men, and had their eyes set
slanting in their heads, so that the Cherokee called
them Tsunil´ kalu´, "the Slant-eyed people," because
they looked like the giant hunter Tsul´ kalu´. They
said that these giants lived far away in the direction
in which the sun goes down. The Cherokee received them
as friends, and they stayed some time, and then
returned to their home in the west...

Dancing Figures Found on a Copper Plate in Union
County, Illinois.

This kind of recorded tradition did not start with
Mooney, rather beginning early in American history.
During the Colonial and post-Colonial era, the
information seekers were keen on gathering as much
knowledge of the forgotten past as feasible through
native sources. Some of it was woven into romantic
tales including verse, but the main of it went into
records, which, like the accumulation of earth and
debris over ancient village sites, became buried in
the musty stacks of old libraries-considered to have
no real "substance" in the emerging field of the white
man's science.

Of the very early history of the region which now
embraces Lake County but little can be written. The
Mound Builders had occupied it and passed away,
leaving no written language and but little even as
tradition... These mounds were quite numerous...
Excavations...have revealed the crumbling bones of a
mighty race. Samuel Miller, who has resided in the
county since 1835, is authority for the statement that
one skeleton which he assisted in unearthing was a
trifle more than eight feet in length, the skull being
correspondingly large, while many other skeletons
measured at least seven feet...

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of
Lake County
Edited by Newton Bateman, LL.D. and Paul Selby, A.M.
(1902)

From the outset of North American archaeology, no
federally sponsored concern has researched and
collected evidence specifically emphasizing the
existence of unusually tall Native Americans in
prehistoric, and even in historic times. There are
reasons for this oversight, though in hindsight it has
placed limits on our overview of prehistory. Because
there were only occasional people of large stature
born among the light-skinned, European races, numbers
of giants were far from anticipated in America.
Scientists in Europe, in case-by-case studies,
declared their giants to have been victims of
pituitary disorder. Another reason was that when the
private citizenry in the U.S. unearthed the bones of
very tall and strongly constructed people, and when
these disinterments were recorded, rarely was any
comparison made with sites of similar contents. It was
still a sort of wilderness in many rural areas right
until the middle 1800s. In this, each discovery was
sort of "un iqu

There were mounds situated in the eastern part of the
village of Conneaut and an extensive burying-ground
near the Presbyterian church, which appear to have had
no connection with the burying-places of the Indians.
Among the human bones found in the mounds were some
belonging to men of gigantic structure. Some of the
skulls were of sufficient capacity to admit the head
of an ordinary man, and jaw bones that might have been
fitted on over the face with equal facility; the other
bones were proportionately large. The burying-ground
referred to contained about four acres, and with the
exception of a slight angle in conformity with the
natural contour of the ground was in the form of an
oblong square. It appeared to have been accurately
surveyed into lots running from north to south, and
exhibited all the order and propriety of arrangement
deemed necessary to constitute Christ ian

Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes
by Henry Howe, LL.D. (1888)

Although not regarded by the government as reliable,
the oral traditions of the native people in the
eastern U.S. aver of the existence of possibly two
races of giants, one supplanting the other by violent
means. Here we have the first inkling of some very
remote prehistory preserved, through the tradition of
the Chippewa, Sandusky, and Tawa tribes, (members of
the Algonquin language group), the existence of giant,
bearded men.

In this connection I would say that Mr. Jonathan
Brooks, now living in town, stated to me, that his
father, Benjamin Brooks, who lived with the Indians
fourteen years, and was well-acquainted with their
language and traditions, told him and others that it
was a tradition of the Indians that the first tribe
occupying this whole country, was a black-bearded
race, very large in size, and subsequently a red
bearded race or tribe came and killed or drove off all
the black beards, as they called them.

The Firelands Pioneer (1858)

Offsetting the carefully recorded diaries of the rural
folk, there were popular writers who creatively
developed the more contemporary histories and folk
legends, leaving to cursory treatment the deeper
accounts of North American antiquities. These authors,
while having captured the essence of the public
perception of the noble native tradition, were not
reconciled to the antique body of legend. The pens of
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) and Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (1807-1882) relate virtually nothing of the
tall ones. Native Americans, as we know, were
discouraged from writing, although some, such as David
Cusick, circumvented the bias using Christian names.
Fortunately, early missionary concerns gathered oral
tradition from the tribal elders concerning men of
giant stature.

But even the most informative or entertaining accounts
could not instill enough respect for the native people
to put an end to the further destruction of the sacred
sites. The attitude of the white race in general
toward the red race was an abomination, totally
lacking in mercy and compassion. Many of the Native
American skulls were compared with European skulls,
but selectively so as to depict the current native
populace as being of inferior intelligence. Almost
without resistance, the black seeds of racial bias
were forming in the uncorrupted soil of prehistoric
interpretation. Take for example the words of an
important government official and popular writer,
Henry Schoolcraft (1793-1864):

The Indian has a low, bushy brow, beneath which a
dull, sleepy, half-closed eye seems to mark the
ferocious passions that are dormant within. The acute
angles of the eyes seldom present the obliquity so
common in the Malays and the Mongolians. The color of
the eye is almost uniformly a tint between black and
grey; but even in young persons it seldom has the
brightness, or expresses the vivacity, so common in
the more civilized races.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (1852)

Schoolcraft, who himself married a half-Indian woman,
was apparently predisposed to labeling the native
people in general as inferior. This kind of ridiculous
prejudice underscored the tone for the unbridled
continuation of the earthwork debacle. The result of
this is accurately reflected in how archaeology was
organized more than one hundred years ago, and may be
summed up in the policy of Joseph Henry, first
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Says Henry
in 1846: "The collection of data should precede
theorizing..." Unfortunately, the collection of data
seemed to have no end, and any subsequent theorizing
was (and is) in a state of transience. The
Smithsonian, playing a sort of leading role in the
massive undertaking attempting to cast light on the
inscrutable prehistory of the United States,
inadvertently collected far too many relics to ever
analyze in a comprehensive sense. Estimates of the
number of moundworks in Ohio alone-at the end of the
Colonial period- top

Differing only in the professionalism somewhat absent
from the previous seventy years of ghoulish quests,
Henry's mandate dictated emphasis on the creation of
an inclusive system of excavation, recording, and
description. Any analysis that followed had to be
based upon this criterion. But competent analysis of
anomalies rarely (if ever) came from the Smithsonian
and other institutions formally engaged in the
practice of exhumation. Given this understanding, it
is no wonder that the Smithsonian is believed by
knowledgeable people to be actively stymieing research
that would produce a more enlightened view of American
prehistory.

There is, however, some compensation for this
oversight in that the Smithsonian, like the Peabody,
and the Carnegie shortly thereafter, faithfully upheld
Henry's mandate to detail, as was feasible, their
mound "explorations." However, the present-day
inaccessibility of the bones and objects these people
removed for future study is a reflection and symptom
of the proposed "oversight." One thing that pleased us
in this research effort was the fact that there were
many skeletons of gigantic frame discovered and
reported by the Smithsonian, boosting the validity and
value of the old township diaries, as well as the
native legends. Some of these are presented below.

A Brief History of the Museum

The Smithsonian Institution, easily the world's
largest museum complex, began from the generous gift
of James Smithson, an English scientist, in 1829.
Believed born a bastard (especially in the eyes of his
later detractors), Smithson was a "diligent young
student," receiving a Master of Arts from Pembroke
College, Oxford, in 1786. He became a distinguished
scientist. The gentle man passed away in 1829,
bequeathing his fortune to nephew James Henry
Hungerford with the stipulation that if this man died
without an heir, the remainder of the fortune would go
to the United States. It seems he felt that the United
States was the future of Britain. Perhaps Smithson saw
the "New World" as fertile, worthy, intellectual
territory.

Hungerford died in 1835. Although there was some
controversy in the interim, the finding of the
Smithsonian, based upon the more than a half
million-dollar gift, took place officially in 1846.
His legacy to the American people was, in his own
words, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge."
Since that time, the museum's collections have
increased considerably, with problems in the
cataloging and location of stored finds developing due
to changing standards of administrations over the last
150 years. Analogous to the Vatican with its antique
cache of confiscated, problematic treasures, the booty
of the Holy See may pale in comparison to the
Smithsonian's boatload of diffuse evidence. Pity of it
is that Smithson's request has gone into a different
mode of interpretation. Instead of diffusing
knowledge, it has unwittingly become confused with the
problem of sprawling storage.

Powell and Thomas
Grave a, a stone sepulcher, 2½ feet wide, 8 feet
long, and 2 feet deep, was formed by placing steatite
slabs on edge at the sides and ends, and others across
the top. The bottom consisted simply of earth hardened
by fire. It contained the remains of a single
skeleton, lying on its back, with the head east. The
frame was heavy and about seven feet long. The head
rested on a thin copper plate ornamented with
impressed figures...

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(Cyrus Thomas' investigations of Etowah)

Plat of the Etowah Group, Bartow County, Georgia.
Grave A (found in the largest mound of the group)
contained a seven-foot skeleton having a heavy frame.

In 1882, after some thirty-six years of growth and
sound management, Smithsonian executive John Wesley
Powell (of Grand Canyon exploration fame 1869-1872),
hired Cyrus Thomas. Powell wanted this man to head up
the fieldwork for the Smithsonian's newly created
Bureau of Ethnology, specifically the Eastern Mound
Division. Thomas was a minister and an entomologist
whose broadened interests included archaeology. He
was, inotherwords, a bible-advocating, insect-adept
archaeologist who believed in the mystery of a lost
race at the time of his being recruited. Powell, who
was much in sympathy with the plight of Native
Americans, having lived among them for a length of
time, believed that there was no lost or mysterious
race of mound builders. He desired to credit the
downtrodden native people with the worthy and gentle
arts associated with the ancient mound building
societies. Subsequently, and in light of other politic
considerations marking the era, Powell sought to enact
th ese

There was apparently an important decision made at
this time concerning the facilitation of an enveloping
theory-so necessary to create order where chaos
loomed. Before discharging a book, one logically
creates an outline to guide one's thoughts. This was
to become a hierarchical arrangement that would decide
the angle of vision for the categorizing of the finds
that would be made. On one hand, the belief that
others discovered North America before Columbus (such
as Phoenician, Egyptian, Hebraic, Greek, Roman, Celt,
Scandinavian, or even Asian mariners) was explored. On
the other hand, the idea of the continent having been
isolated from outside influences was put on the table.
It was perhaps because of Powell's deference to the
native kinship that the latter idea-i.e., screening
out any extra-continental visitors-was adopted.
Needless to say, this was an extraordinary assumption,
and one that has affected decision-making right until
the present day. On the positive side it

Powell's decision regarding isolation was in reality a
two-edged sword. While it was a meaningful step that
fostered a meager though important harmonic between
the federal government and the native people, it was
regrettably based upon a false notion. An example of
its contradiction is found right in the 12th Annual
Report itself. Again and again Thomas and his
operatives came up with anomalous evidence directly
questioning Powell's sweeping suppositions.

Cave burials occur in this district in the following
counties: In Grayson, Hart, Edmonson, Barren, Warren,
and Fayette counties; Kentucky; Smith, White, Warren,
Giles, Marion, and Fentress counties, Tennessee, and
Bartow county, Georgia. These localities lie mostly in
a belt extending in a north and south direction
through the center of the district.

In most of these caves, both in Kentucky and
Tennessee, the bodies appear to have been laid on the
floor of the cave, sometimes in beds of ashes,
sometimes on a pavement of flat stones. There are,
however, some instances in which the bodies have been
found incased in stone slabs, and afterwards imbedded
in clay or ashes. In Smith and Warren counties,
Tennessee, and in Warren and Fayette counties,
Kentucky, the flesh of the bodies was preserved and
the hair was yellow and of fine texture. In some cases
the bodies were enveloped in several thicknesses of
coarse cloth with an outer wrapping of deer skin. Some
of the bodies were wrapped in a kind of cloth made of
bark fiber, into which feathers were woven in such a
manner as to form a smooth surface. In two cases the
bodies, placed in a sitting or squatting posture, were
incased in baskets. In one of the caves in Smith
county th

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(explorations in the Tennessee District)

Armed with a self-created doctrine powered by ample
funding, and with a little help later from the one-way
door to the Smithsonian's inaccessible catacombs, the
years that followed saw Powell and his underling
nearly succeed in the obliteration of the last notions
of the legendary, mysterious, and antique class of
mound building people, and for that matter, any people
that didn't fit into the mold of his theory. Did
Powell intentionally overlook some of the archaeology
so as to focus on his own special agenda?

Powell and his associates at the Bureau were quite
certain that people had arrived in the Americas only
sometime after the first Egyptian dynasty-less than
4500 years ago! They also believed that the
Mississippi Valley was sufficiently isolated from the
Ohio Valley to warrant the simultaneous flourishing of
quite distinct cultures over a long period. Since
carbon dating was not yet discovered, Thomas used
stratigraphic (after Lyell) analysis and, following
the rest of the mandate, included detailed record
keeping and documentation whenever appropriate. His
findings were broadly accepted, and are still
referenced.

Underneath the layer of shells the earth was very dark
and appeared to be mixed with vegetable mold to the
depth of 1 foot. At the bottom of this, resting on the
original surface of the ground, was a very large
skeleton lying horizontally at full length. Although
very soft, the bones were sufficiently distinct to
allow of careful measurement before attempting to
remove them. The length from the base of the skull to
the bones of the toes was found to be 7 feet 3 inches.
It is probable, therefore, that this individual when
living was fully 7½ feet high. At the head lay some
small pieces of mica and a green substance, probably
the oxide of copper, though no ornament or article of
copper was discovered.

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(explorations in Roane County, Tennessee)

But Thomas' time was limited because of the large
territory he was to explore. Under such working
conditions, anomalies were put aside for future
research-to be, as it has turned out, forgotten.
Thomas was forced to rely on the accounts of
operatives in many cases. Evidently, some of these
people discerned between "Indian" burials and the
burials of the Mound Builders, perhaps challenging the
patience of Powell.

No. 5, the largest of the group was carefully
examined. Two feet below the surface, near the apex,
was a skeleton, doubtless an intrusive Indian
burial... Near the original surface, 10 or 12 feet
from the center, on the lower side, lying at full
length on its back, was one of the largest skeletons
discovered by the Bureau agents, the length as proved
by actual measurement being between 7 and 8 feet. It
was clearly traceable, but crumbled to pieces
immediately after removal from the hard earth in which
it was encased....

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(mounds at Dunleith, Illinois)

Mound Group, Dunleith, Illinois.
"Near the original surface, 10 or 12 feet from the
center, on the lower side, lying at full length on its
back, was one of the largest skeletons discovered by
the Bureau agents, the length as proved by actual
measurement being between 7 and 8 feet."

Regarding the problem of "intrusive" Indian burials,
what kind of a time gap were these men looking at
between the original burials and the later ones? As
his agents uncovered the physical evidence for
powerful men of towering stature, Thomas held the
position that any and all skeletal remains represented
the direct ancestry of the present day people. Was it
not plausible to consider an extended "family" or
hierarchical group of very tall folk who served with
the people? Were they selective enough in their sexual
associations to appear, overall, as a race with its
own peculiarities and even physical characteristics?
The findings that didn't fit in to the guideline
established by his superior were summarily recorded
and forgotten by Thomas-a legacy we have inherited
today.

An old Indian mound has been opened on the farm of
Harrison Robinson, four miles East of Jackson, Ohio,
and two skeletons of extraordinary size and a great
quantity of trinkets have been removed. Some years ago
a party of relic hunters, supposed to have been sent
out in the interest of the Archeological society
visited the Robinson farm, and after a few days search
removed a great collection of stone hatchets, beads
and bracelets, which were packed and shipped to an
Eastern institute, and until this recent accidental
discovery it was supposed that everything had been
removed by the relic hunters. It is thought by many
that more relics are to be found and preparations are
being made for a through investigation.

The Adair County News
January 5, 1897
(Kentucky)

What has become of all the evidence? Again and again,
only a single long skeleton or two was found among
those of normal size. The understanding of tall,
ruling chiefs and their wives was not developed at
all, as is evident in these examples.

The other, situated on the point of a commanding
bluff, was also conical in form, 50 feet in diameter
and about 8 feet high. The outer layer consisted in
sandy soil, 2 feet thick, filled with slightly decayed
skeletons, probably Indians of intrusive burials. The
earth of the main portion of this mound was a very
fine yellowish sand which shoveled like ashes and was
everywhere, to a depth of 2 to 4 feet, as full of
human skeletons as could be stowed away in it, even to
two and three tiers. Among these were a number of
bones not together as skeletons, but mingled in
confusion and probably from scaffolds or other
localities. Excepting one, which was rather more than
7 feet long, these skeletons appeared to be of medium
size and many of them much decayed...

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(Pike County, Illinois)

No. 11 is now 35 by 40 feet at the base and 4 feet
high. In the center, 3 feet below the surface, was a
vault 8 feet long and 3 feet wide. In the bottom of
this, among the decayed fragments of bark wrappings,
lay a skeleton fully seven feet long, extended at full
length on the back, head west. Lying in a circle above
the hips were fifty-two perforated shell disks about
an inch in diameter and one-eighth of an inch thick.

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(Kanawha County, West Virginia)

Spring Hill Inclosure, Kanawha County, West Virginia.
In the bottom of Mound 11 (upper left) was found a
skeleton "fully seven feet long."

Largest in the collective series of mounds, the Great
Smith Mound yielded at least two large skeletons, but
at different levels of its deconstruction by Thomas'
agents. It was 35 feet in height and 175 feet in
diameter, and was constructed in at least two stages,
according to the report. The larger of the two
skeletons represented a man conceivably approaching
eight feet in height when living.

At a depth of 14 feet, a rather large human skeleton
was found, which was in a partially upright position
with the back against a hard clay wall...All the bones
were badly decayed, except those of the left wrist,
which had been preserved by two heavy copper
bracelets...

Nineteen feet from the top the bottom of this debris
was reached, where, in the remains of a bark coffin, a
skeleton measuring 7½ feet in length and 19 inches
across the shoulders, was discovered. It lay on the
bottom of the vault stretched horizontally on the
back, head east, arms by the sides... Each wrist was
encircled by six heavy copper bracelets...Upon the
breast was a copper gorget...length, 3½ inches;
greatest width 3¾ inches...

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(Kanawha County, West Virginia)

A Section of the Great Smith Mound, Kanawha County,
West Virginia.
This cone-shaped mound rose 35 feet high and measured
175 feet in diameter at its base. The interior of the
mound contained a vault made of timber measuring 12
feet by 13 feet. It was positioned within the mound 20
feet above surface level.

The pressure of the time schedule doubtless made it
inconvenient to seriously consider the possibility of
an ancient lineage of leaders taking the form of very
tall people. The fact of gigantic stature never
settled in as a clue to a greater mystery, and the
evidences of very tall, ruggedly built men
vanished-and often enough into the Smithsonian's
temporary charnel house of pre-Columbian miscellany.

Three feet above...the skeleton of a large, strongly
built man lay extended at full length with the face
up, the head toward the east...The skull was obtained
almost entire. Under it were thirteen water-worn
quartz pebbles. The femur measured 18½ inches...

   12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894)
(Union County, Mississippi)

Group of mounds in Union County,
Mississippi.

A femur (thigh bone) exceeding eighteen inches would
indicate a man of above average height, perhaps
approaching seven feet. Femurs exceeding twenty inches
have been found however.

Though hindsight is said to be 20/20, Thomas'
methodology was little better than a
government-sanctioned dissolution of the sacred burial
places. He dismantled the sanctuaries and charnel
houses with the fervor of a man whose first priority
was to impress his employer. From Florida to
Nebraska-including twenty-three states and Canada's
Manitoba region-over the next seven years he and his
agents worked like men possessed of a deadline.

A large Indian mound near the town of Gastersville,
[Gastonville?-Ed.] Pa., has recently been opened and
examined by a committee of scientists sent out from
the Smithsonian Institute. At some depth from the
surface a kind of vault was found in which was
discovered the skeleton of a giant measuring seven
feet two inches. His hair was coarse and jet black,
and hung to the waist, the brow being ornamented with
a copper crown. The skeleton was remarkably well
preserved...On the stones which covered the vault were
carved inscriptions, and these when deciphered, will
doubtless lift the veil that now shrouds the history
of the race of people that at one time inhabited this
part of the American continent. The relics have been
carefully packed and forwarded to the Smithsonian
Institute, and they are said to be the most
interesting collection ever found in the United
States.

American Antiquarian, 7:52, 1885

Could this special burial have been another kingly
individual? In these increasingly hasty intrusions
into the native burial grounds' inherent sanctity, the
holocaust delivered its zenith under the officialdom
action of former Union Major Powell. This man who in
his youth had lived among the "Indians," somehow was
insensitive to the sanctuary of their graveyards. But
others came later to do a fair share of damage as
well, all in the name of information gathering. The
prehistory of eastern North America is not what we
have been asked to accept from the efforts Cyrus
Thomas, nor from the subsequent authorities who based
so much of their work upon his, and the reason is
worth repeating-many or most of the oldest mounds and
subterranean burial acreages were promptly destroyed
long before any focused "scientific" effort came on
the scene.

Apart from the disregard of the settlers' records, the
other part of the problem is the labyrinthine
mausoleum that is the Smithsonian bone and artifact
collection. In sum, we today are deprived of the real
knowledge of the more ancient lineage. The early
settlers observed that the giants of old may have
passed on their grand stature to the later native
people, for there were individuals among their later
progression who were of a size and build that goes
beyond our current notions of Native American
physicality.

The Telling of the Bones
It is difficult not to understand the probability of
an elite lineage of tall men and women who propagated
their own genetic inheritance. These people lived,
worked, and bred together. Were their marriages
arranged to ensure the continuance of the grand
stature in roles of leadership and protection? In his
classic Red Earth, White Lies, Vine says:

From talking with elders of several tribes, my
understanding is that the Indians were and are
describing people of more than average height. In
fact, some elders as a routine matter have reported
that the Indians themselves were much larger and
taller.

The question has been raised asking whether there was
giant stature among the Native American people in
earlier historic times. From Hardesty's History of
Monroe County, Ohio, we discovered this:

He further told me of the killing of a big Indian at
Buckchitawa, about the time of the settlement at
Marietta. The Indians had a white prisoner whom they
forced to decoy boats to the shore. A small boat was
descending the river containing white people, when
this prisoner was placed under the bank to tell those
in the boat that he had escaped captivity, and to come
to the shore and take him in. The Indians were
concealed, but the big Indian stuck his head out from
behind a large tree, when it was pierced by a bullet
from the gun of the steersman of the boat. The Indians
cried out Wetzel, Wetzel, and fled. This was the last
ever seen of the prisoner. The Indians returned next
day and buried the big Indian, who, he said, was
twenty inches taller than he was, and he was a tall
man. When Chester Bishop was digging a cellar for
Asahel Booth, at Clarington, many years ago, he c ame

The Mound at Marietta Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
Howe stated this mound was "of a magnitude and height
which strike the beholder with astonishment." It's
base had a diameter of 115 feet; it's height reached
up 30 feet. It was surrounded by a ditch four feet
deep and fifteen feet wide.

And again this:

A large quantity of human bones was discovered in a
fissure in the limestone near the United States Coast
Guard lighthouse. A crude tomb of black stone slabs,
of a formation not known on the island, was found many
years ago beneath the roots of a huge stump. Eight
skeletons were found, one measuring over seven feet in
height.

Sketches and Stories of the Lake Erie Islands
by Theresa Thorndale, Sandusky (1898)

Some of the settlers and their descendents may have
seen clearly, but the representatives of the
Smithsonian and other sanctioned institutions, in
spite of good intentions, lacked the kind of
thoroughness in their analyses that included a
broadened field of vision. We have felt heartily from
the beginning of this research that the Smithsonian is
the recipient of mandates put into place well over 100
years ago. It is virtually exempt from NAGPRA (Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), for
the reason (say they) of there being too much data to
finish analyzing to prepare for repatriation.

Concealing evidence that conflicts with accepted
theory is common scientific skullduggery. For years
the Smithsonian Institution has been accused of hiding
in storage vaults things it doesn't like. In 1968 two
Neanderthal-like skulls with low foreheads and large
brows were found in Minnesota. As for dating,
University of Minnesota scientists said they were
reluctant to destroy any of the material, although
carbon-14 testing only requires the burning of one
gram of bone. They were sent to the Smithsonian. Later
Dr. Lawrence Angel, curator of physical anthropology
at the institution, said he had no record of the
skulls there, although he was sure they were not lost.
We have a right to wonder whether some professional
scientists mightn't find a really early date for the
bones distressing.

American Indian Myths and Mysteries
Vincent H. Gaddis (1977)

Why distressing? Because no true Neanderthal remains
have ever been recognized by any Federal authorities
as originating on the North American continent, what
to say of the Americas in general. Is there yet today
a conflict between established theory and what has
been physically discovered? Is the "ghost" of Powell
yet haunting the halls of the Museum?

So what is the policy of the Smithsonian? Does the
institution intentionally withhold information? Is the
fact of a race of giant warriors and chieftains
threatening to the closed, internal doctrine of
American archaeology? That there was a race of men and
women possessing an unusually tall and strong
physicality living over an extensive area North
America has become a forgotten fact.

There are other examples, and names like the Gungywamp
Society of Connecticut, Ed Conrad, and others have
bizarre stories to relate about the ineptitude or
simple prejudice of the Smithsonian when dealing with
their materials. In these examples, there is growing
appreciation for an actual cover-up.

Another grotesque twist is the Army Medical Museum's
collection. According to the ABC News special
"Skeletons in the Closet," the United States
government acquired a real interest in Indian corpses.
The Surgeon General, in post-Civil War 1868, requested
that the army collect the skulls, utensils, and
weaponry of Native Americans "as far as you are able
to procure them." According to the report, these were
to be sent to Washington, D.C. as part of a program
that studied the effects of modern bullets and other
weaponry on human bodies. The collection of such
remains, estimated at 4,000, was taken mostly from
grave and battle sites. What was left over became part
of the Smithsonian collection estimated at 18,000
individuals, and this by way of the Army Medical
Museum.

The objects here collected which have not been given,
or acquired by exchange, have been purchased for the
use of the museum by order of the surgeon-general...
There is a skeleton of a giant, who, in life, measured
seven feet, prepared by Auzoux and mounted by
Blanchêne's method, which, if I may use that term, is
really a beauty. It is as white and clean as new
fallen snow, and the brass joints and screws which
keep it together are bright, and of the latest style
and finish...

"The Army Medical Museum in Washington" by Louis
Bagger
Appletons' Journal: A Magazine Of General Literature
Volume 9, Issue 206 (1873)

Today however, bones are no longer as good a source of
information as they once were thought to be, and for
several good reasons. Bone, while composed dominantly
of the metallic calcium, yet is made up of organic
molecules. Depending on moisture and temperature, it
will decay, break down with time, and return to the
condition of the soil after a certain number of
centuries. Bone evidence has created over-emphasis on
certain periods of prehistory, in this region the
so-called "Hopewell" and "Fort Ancient"
(Mississippian) people. Thus, a great proportion of
the Archaic and early Adena bones discovered were
decomposed beyond preservation. Due to a lack of
skeletons other more antique periods have not received
the same kind of recognition save from the better
scholars affecting the interested public's view of the
ancient world. Ironically, the holocaust of giants,
while deadening our sense of the past, may well serve
as a lesson for the future.

Recommended Reading:

Red Earth, White Lies : Native Americans and the Myth
of Scientific Fact by Vine Deloria, Jr. (Fulcrum Pub;
ISBN: 1555913881; 1997)

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politics of Status Quo at the Smithsonian will hand the scolarly keys to the study of the Past to other nations. Perhaps that is why China and Russia are so active in the archaeology and anthropology fields.