Showing results for "Mound-Builders" in All Categories

The Mound Builder Myth is the first book to chronicle the attempt to recast the Native American burial mounds as the work of a lost white race of “true” native Americans. Thomas Jefferson’s pioneering archaeology concluded that the earthen mounds were the work of Native Americans. In the 1894 report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Cyrus Thomas concurred, drawing on two decades of research. But in the century in between, the lie took hold, with presidents Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln adding their approval.

In the 18th century, when Europeans first came upon the giant mounds and earthworks dotting the North American landscape, they couldn't imagine that the Native Americans they came into contact with were capable of producing such advanced technology and masterful engineering. In fact, when President George Washington sent Rufus Putnam to survey land in southeastern Ohio, Putnam reported that he'd discovered an impressive walled earthwork complex, which was obviously the work of some long-forgotten ancient civilization.

Native American Mound Builders During the Early and Late Woodland Periods the early Native American tribes built mounds, mostly in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. There are no written records about the purpose of these mounds, so the reasons for building them remain largely speculative. Adena and Hopewell Culture and Mounds People of both the Adena and later Hopewell cultures inhabited the White River region of Mounds State Park. They constructed several mounds on the bluffs above the river. The mounds are well preserved due to the efforts of some of the earliest American settlers ...