History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

18

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

but the date of their rule of the Western World is so remote that
all traces of their history, their progress anrd decay, lie buried in
deepest obscurity. Nature, at the time the first Europeans came,
had asserted her original dominion over the earth; the forests were
all in their full luxuriance, the growth of many centuries; and
naught existed to point out who and what they were who formerly
lived, and loved, and labored, and died, on the continent of America.
This pre-historic race is known as the Mound-Builders, from the
numerous large mounds of earth-works left by them. The remains
of the works of this people form the most interesting class of
antiquities discovered in the United States. Their character can
be but partially gleaned from the internal evidences and the
peculiarities of the only remains left, the mounds. They consist
of remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temtnles, idols,
cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications, pleasure grounds, etc.,
etc. Their habitations must hlave been tents, structures of wood,
or other perishable material; otherwise their remains would be
numerous. If the Mound-Builders were not the ancestors of the
Indians, who were they? The oblivion which has closed over them
is so complete that only conjecture can be given in answer to the
question. Those who do not believe in the common parentage of
mankind contend that they were an indigenous race of the Western hemisphere; others, with more plausibility, think they came
from the East, and imagine they can see coincidences in tle religion
of the Hindoos and Southern Tartars and the supposed theology of
the Mound-Builders. They were, no doubt, idolators, and it hlas
been conjectured that the sun was the object of their adoration. Thie
mounds were generally built in a situation affording a view of the
rising sun; when enclosed in walls their gateways were toward the
east; the caves in which their dead were occasionally buried always
opened in the same direction; whenever a mound was partially
enclosed by a semi-circular pavement, it was on the east side; when
bodies were buried in graves, as was frequently the case, they were
laid in a direction east and west; and, finally, medals have been
found representing the sun and his rays of light.
At what period they came to this country is likewise a matter of
speculation. From the comparatively rude state of the arts among
them, it has been inferred that the time was very remote. Their
axes were of sto-ne.' Their raiment,'judging from fragments which
have been discovered, consisted of the bark of trees, interwoven
with feathers; and their military works were such as a people
would erect who had just passed to the pastoral state of society
from that dependent alone upon hunting and fishing.
The mounds and other ancient earth-works constructed by this
people are far more abundant than generally supposed, from the fact
that while some are quite large, the greater part of them are small
and inconspicuous. Along nearly all our water courses that are
large enough to be navigated with a canoe, the mounds are almost
invariably found, covering the base points and headlands of the