Note 155 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.
Reading edition
Footnote 155: For original researches in the mounds one cannot do better than consult the following papers in the Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology:—1. by W. H. Holmes, "Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans," ii. 181-305; "The Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley," iv. 365-436; "Prehistoric Textile Fabrics of the United States," iii. 397-431; followed by an illustrated catalogue of objects collected chiefly from mounds, iii. 433-515;—2. H. W. Henshaw, "Animal Carvings from the Mounds of the Mississippi Valley," ii. 121-166;—3. Cyrus Thomas, "Burial Mounds of the Northern Section of the United States," v. 7-119; also three of the Bureau's "Bulletins" by Dr. Thomas, "The Problem of the Ohio Mounds," "The Circular, Square, and Octagonal Earthworks of Ohio," and "Work in Mound Exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology;" also two articles by Dr. Thomas in the Magazine of American History:—"The Houses of the Mound-Builders," xi. 110-115; "Indian Tribes in Prehistoric Times," xx. 193-201. See also Horatio Hale, "Indian Migrations," in American Antiquarian, v. 18-28, 108-124; M. F. Force, To What Race did the Mound-Builders belong? Cincinnati, 1875; Lucien Carr, Mounds of the Mississippi Valley historically considered, 1883; Nadaillac's Prehistoric America, ed. W. H. Dall, chaps. iii., iv. The earliest work of fundamental importance on the subject was Squier's Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, Philadelphia, 1848, being the first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.—For statements of the theory which presumes either a race connection or a similarity in culture between the mound-builders and the pueblo Indians, see Dawson, Fossil Men, p. 55; Foster, Prehistoric Races of the United States, Chicago, 1873, chaps. iii., v.-x.; Sir Daniel Wilson, Prehistoric Man, chap. x. The annual Smithsonian Reports for thirty years past illustrate the growth of knowledge and progressive changes of opinion on the subject. The bibliographical account in Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist., i. 397-412, is full of minute information.[Back to Main Text]