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American Indian Oral Traditions and Ohio's Earthworks
Ohio History Connection Archaeology Blog ^ | August 25, 2014 | Brad Lepper

Posted on 08/28/2014 6:21:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

...So, while my Journal of Ohio Archaeology paper concludes rather pessimistically that there are no documented early American Indian traditions that speak reliably to the original purpose and meaning of the ancient earthworks, there is no reason to believe that traditional stories of contemporary tribes with historic roots in the eastern Woodlands could not include themes and elements that echo, if faintly, traditions of the Hopewell culture. And if that’s conceivable, and I think it is, then it would be worthwhile to look for them...

One reason why it’s important to take seriously what American Indians have had to say about the earthworks is that they may offer explanations for these sites that might not have occurred to archaeologists, but which can be treated as hypotheses to be tested against the archaeological data. As an example, one of the most common interpretations for earthworks in the list of oral traditions I’ve compiled is that they were fortifications. That was a popular idea among early antiquarians, but there hasn’t been much if any archaeological evidence to support it. Relatively recent investigations at the Pollock Works, however, may provide confirmation that at least one of these ancient earthworks actually did, for a brief time, serve as a fort. And, as I suggest in my paper – “even a brief military episode at such a site, regardless of its broader socio-political impact, might have figured prominently in the oral traditions of the group much as the exploits of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie have loomed so large in the history of the Alamo Mission.”

(Excerpt) Read more at apps.ohiohistory.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: americanindians; godsgravesglyphs; hopewell; illiteracy; illiterates; ohio

“In the good old times,” before any European had landed on their shores, the Lenape had “a string of white wampum beads…which stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and on this white road their envoys traveled from one great ocean to the other, safe from attack.” Rev. Albert Seqaqknind Anthony, Delaware Indian, 1890

“In the good old times,” before any European had landed on their shores, the Lenape had “a string of white wampum beads…which stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and on this white road their envoys traveled from one great ocean to the other, safe from attack.” Rev. Albert Seqaqknind Anthony, Delaware Indian, 1890

1 posted on 08/28/2014 6:21:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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Early Historic American Indian Testimony Concerning The Ancient Earthworks Of Eastern North America
Bradley T. Lepper
http://ohioarchaeology.org/volume-3/early-historic-american-indian-testimony-concerning-the-ancient-earthworks-of-eastern-north-america.html

Indigenous people knew little about vast ancient American earthworks
Bradley T. Lepper
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2014/08/24/indigenous-people-knew-little-about-vast-ancient-american-earthworks.html


2 posted on 08/28/2014 6:23:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

3 posted on 08/28/2014 6:24:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

4 posted on 08/28/2014 6:32:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I love ancient and honored traditions. Especially ones that are made up as you go along.


5 posted on 08/28/2014 6:41:35 PM PDT by Random Access
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To: SunkenCiv

Those of us that have been to Ft. Ancient have little doubt it was a hill top fort by the Hopewell People. Who did they fear? South Americans come to mind as well as some southern United States cultures. I once read where the Miami Indians (historical) talked of the ancients ones being giants (Adena culture) which is before Hopewell. The few grave-sites excavated by archaeologist suggest this as being true, not giants but somewhere near seven foot.


6 posted on 08/28/2014 6:54:35 PM PDT by OftheOhio (never could dance but always could kata - Romeo company)
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To: SunkenCiv

The people who built the Serpent Mound were long gone before the current Native American population arrived.


7 posted on 08/28/2014 7:32:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Scott Wolter fan?

:)


8 posted on 08/28/2014 8:41:10 PM PDT by Salamander (People will stare. Might as well make it worth their while.)
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To: SunkenCiv

There are 1500+ mounds in western NY State and 300 more along the St. Lawrence River area surrounding Potsdam and other areas. Mohawk tradition says that when their ancestors arrived the mounds were already there. [My ggggrandmother was Mohawk. Many e.g., Fort Plain were actually described by the dutch as being old forts upon which Iroquois built their stockade villages.
There are about 1500 ancient sites in Western New York, most of these the Archeologists know of, however there are many that they are not aware of. Some of these the Archeologists have labeled Iroquios, but others they classify Hopewell and yet some others with state sponsored markers say, pre Iroquois occupation.

“T. Apoleon Cheney notes (in “Illustrations of the
Ancient Monuments of Western New York”) that a twelve-foot high elliptical mound above Cattaraugus County’s Conewango Valley held eight big skeletons. Most crumbled, but a thigh bone was found to be 28” long.
Exquisite stone points, enamelwork, and jewelry (like that of Mexico or Peru) were also unearthed in the area. The mound looked like those of the Old World. “

http://skeptoid.com/episode.php?id=4144#bottom


“Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York”
E.G. Squier. 1849, 193 pp., $18.95p
With the help of 72 figures and 14 large plates, Squier details the abundant aboriginal works found in New York and elsewhere. Included are chapters on mounds and other earthworks as well as implements and ornaments. The long appendix leaves New York and delves into the fortifications of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, the aboriginal use of copper,and some ancient works found in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. “

“These consist of arrow and spear heads axes chisels and domestic utensils A stone mortar and pestle were found by the early settlers. The great Ox bow seems to have been a spot beloved by the Indians/ The remains of an Indian fort
were found upon the Ox bow by the settlers These relics of a departed race possess a singular and mysterious interest. Some mounds along the meadows in Haverhill have been thought to be the work of Indian hands But the few who lingered here after the white men came were degenerate
and soon disappeared”
“History of Newbury, Vermont: From the Discovery of the Coös Country to ...”
edited by Frederic Palmer Wells,p7 coos meadows area-1902

“In Ossipee is a large mound of earth forty five or fifty feet in diameter perfectly round and about ten feet high It is one hundred rods from the western shore of Ossipee Lake in a large meadow The trees which covered this mound were cut off not many years since the stumps of some of them measuring a foot in diameter Extensive excavations have never been made in this mound and yet there have been taken from it by only digging from the top three entire skeletons One of these was full grown in a sitting posture with a piece of birch bark over his head Tomahawks and many pieces of coarse earthen ware have been
p46

Incidents in White Mountain History: Containing Facts Relating to the ...
By Benjamin Glazier Willey

In Fryburg there are many mounds and other indications of their ancient encampments At one place there the mounds are five in number and situated near together The principal one is sixty feet in circumference and within this is a smaller in which a tree of considerable size formerly stood There are four others extending out from the centre one so as to form eight angles
p47


9 posted on 08/28/2014 8:42:07 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 ("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione.")
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To: SunkenCiv

I just moved to Tiltonsville, Ohio and there is a mound in the middle of town.


10 posted on 08/28/2014 11:11:33 PM PDT by Nowhere Man (Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
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To: OftheOhio

Not sure about Fort Ancient, but most like Cahokia look to be ceremonial centers. Fortifications are usually compact rather than spread out and have post holes from a palisade like, say, Iroquoian forts of the immediate pre-Columbian era.

It’s fascinating because it sure does look like American Indian civilization was actually declining when Europeans first came. Cahokia was flourishing...what around 1200-1300...and after that started to disintegrate. DeSoto just barely caught the tail end of Mississippian cultural complex on his march through the South.

Maybe as the civilization was declining, the Cahokians/Fort Ancient people were being attacked by other tribes the way that Rome was being picked apart by the Vandals and Goths. And that’s what got remembered in a garbled way as fortifications.


11 posted on 08/29/2014 3:15:39 AM PDT by Claud
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To: SunkenCiv

Lekson’s rules:

Everybody knew everything
Distance was not a problem

bert’s rule:

The kids moved away
The old folks died

Southwestern archeology truged along in the darkness until the locals were quizzed about what happened. It seems that after two decades or so, that might be happening in the east


12 posted on 08/29/2014 4:20:58 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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