While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The thirty or forty mounds
discovered up to this time in this region of
the Takawgamis have, so far as examined, a
uniform structure. Where stone could be
obtained there is found below the surface of
the ground a triple layer of flat limestone
blocks, placed in an imbricated manner over
the remains interred. In one mound, at the
point where the Rainy Lake enters the Rainy
River, there is a mound situated on the
property of Mr. Pither, Indian agent, in
which there was found on excavation, a
structure of logs some 10 feet square, and
from six to eight feet high. In all the
others yet opened the structure has been
simply of earth of various kinds heaped
together. It is possible that the mound
containing the log erection may have been
for sacrifice, for the logs are found to
have been charred. One purpose of all the
mounds of the Takawgamis was evidently
sepulture; and in them all, charcoal lumps,
calcined bones and other evidences of fire
are found. It would seem from their position
that all the mounds of this region were for
the purpose of observation as well as
sepulture. The two purposes in no way
antagonize. For the better understanding of
the whole I have selected the largest mound
of the Takawgamis yet discovered, and will
describe it more minutely.
It is situated on the Rainy River, about 20
miles from the head of Rainy River. It
stands on a point of land where the
Missachappa or Bowstring River and the Rainy
River join. There is a dense forest covering
the river bank where the mound is found. The
owner of the land has made a small clearing,
which now shows the mound to some extent to
one standing on the deck of a steamer
passing on the river. The distance back from
the water's edge is about 50 yards. The
mound strikes you with great surprise as
your eye first catches it. Its crest is
covered with lofty trees, which overtop the
surrounding forest. These thriving trees,
elm, soft maple, basswood and poplar, 60 or
70 feet high now thrust their root tendrils
deep into the aforetime softened mould. A
foot or more of a mass of decayed leaves and
other vegetable matter encases the mound.
The brushy surface of the mound has been
cleared by the owner, and the thicket
formerly upon it removed. The circumference
of one fine poplar was found to be 4 feet 10
inches; of another tree, 5 feet 6 inches,
but the largest had lately fallen. Around
the stump the last measured seven feet. The
mound is eliptical at the base. The longest
diameter, that is from east to west, the
same direction as the course of the river,
is 117 feet. The corresponding shorter
diameter from north to south is 90 feet. The
circumference of the mound is consequently
325 feet. The highest point of the mound is
45 feet above the surrounding level of the
earth. As to height the mound does not
compare unfavorably with the celebrated
mound at Miamisburg, Ohio, known as one of
the class of "observation mounds," which is
68 feet high and 852 feet around the base.
In addition to its purpose of sepulture,
everything goes to show that the "Grand
Mound" of Rainy River was for observation as
well.
Two former attempts had been made to open
this mound. One of these had been made in
the top, and the large skull before you was
then obtained. A more extensive effort was
that made in 1883, by Mr. E. McColl, Indian
agent, Mr. Crowe, H. B. Co. officer of Fort
Frances, and a party of men. Their plan was
to run a tunnel from north to south through
the base of the mound. They had penetrated
some ten or fifteen feet, found some
articles of interest, and had then given up
the undertaking. Having employed a number of
men, settlers in the neighborhood, I
determined to continue the tunnel for a
certain distance through the mound, all the
way if indications were favorable, and then
to pierce the mound from the top. The men in
two parties went industriously to work on
the opposite sides, working toward each
other, making a tunnel about eight feet in
diameter. The earth though originally soft
soil had become so hard that it was
necessary to use a pick axe to loosen it for
the spade. A number of skeletons were found
on the south side, but all I should say
within ten feet from the original surface of
the mound. As we penetrated the interior
fewer remains were continually found. The
earth gave many indications of having been
burnt. At one point the pick-axe sank ten
inches into the hard wall. This was about
fifteen feet from the outside. The excavator
then dug out with his hand from a horizontal
pocket in the earth eight or ten inches wide
and eighteen or twenty inches deep, a
quantity of soft brown dust, and a piece of
bone some four inches long, a part of a
human forearm bone. This pocket was plainly
the original resting place of a skeleton,
probably in a sitting posture. As deeper
penetration was made brown earthy spots
without a trace of bone remaining were come
upon. The excavation on the south side was
continued for thirty feet into the mound,
but at this stage it was evident that bones,
pottery, etc., had been so long interred
that they were reduced to dust. No hope
seemed to remain now of finding objects of
interest in this direction, and so with
about forty feet yet wanting to complete,
the tunnel, the search was transferred to
the top of the mound.
Beginning on the crest of the mound, the
mould was removed over a considerable space,
and though some trouble was found from the
presence of the roots of the growing trees,
yet three or four feet from the surface
human bones and skeletons began to occur. In
some cases a complete skeleton was found,[Pg
6] in other cases what seemed to be a circle
of skulls, buried alongside charred bones,
fragments of pottery and other articles.
Several different excavations were made on
the mound surface, and it was found that
every part from the base to the crest
contained bones and skeletons, to the depth
of from six to ten feet as already said;
bones and articles of interest were found
thus far; deeper than this nothing. I shall
now describe the articles found in this
mound, and refer in some cases to what has
been found in the other mounds of the
Takawgamis.
1. Bones. Of the bones found, the skulls
were the most interesting. In some cases it
would seem as if they alone of the bones had
been carried from a distance, perhaps from a
distant part of the mound builders'
territory, from a battle field or some other
spot. In some cases this was proved, by the
presence in the eye-sockets and cavities of
clay of a different kind from that of the
mound, showing a previous interment. The
mound was plainly a sacred spot of the
family or sept. Before you are pieces of
charred bone. Of the bones unburnt some were
of large size. There are before us two
skulls, one from the grand mound, the other
from the Red River mound opened by the
Society in 1879. The following are the
measurements of the two skulls which I have
made carefully; and alongside the average
measurements of the Brachycephalic type
given by Dr. Daniel Wilson, as well as of
the Dolichocephalic:
Average Dolichocephalic
Rainy
River Skull
Red
River Skull
Average Brachycephalic
Longitudinal diameter
7.24
7.3
in.
6.7
6.62
Parietal diameter
5.47
5.8
5.5
5.45
Vertical diameter
5.42
6.2
5.8
5.30
Frontal diameter
4.36
4.2
3.7
4.24
Intermastoid Arch
14.67
15.3
15.6
14.63
Intermastoid line
4.23
5.8
4.3
4.25
Occipito frontal Arch
14.62
17.0
13.8
13.85
Horizontal circumference
20.29
22.3
19.6
19.44
From this it will be seen
that the Red River mound skulls agree with
the Toltecan Brachycephalic type; and the
Rainy River skull while not so distinctly
Brachycephalic yet is considerably above the
average of the Dolichocephalic type.
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