xt76q52f7x09 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt76q52f7x09/data/mets.xml Young, Bennett Henderson, 1843-1919. 1910 books b92-47-26953325 English J.P. Morton, printers, : Louisville, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Mound-builders Kentucky. Kentucky Antiquities. Prehistoric men of Kentucky : a history of what is known of their lives and habits, together with a description of their implements and other relics and of the tumuli which have earned for them the designation of Mound builders; a paper preparepared to commemorate the silver anniversary of the Filson Club / by Colonel Bennett H. Young. text Prehistoric men of Kentucky : a history of what is known of their lives and habits, together with a description of their implements and other relics and of the tumuli which have earned for them the designation of Mound builders; a paper preparepared to commemorate the silver anniversary of the Filson Club / by Colonel Bennett H. Young. 1910 2002 true xt76q52f7x09 section xt76q52f7x09 COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG Member of The Filson Club This page in the original text is blank. FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS No. 25 THiE PREHISTORIC MEN OF KENTUCKY A History of description which what is known of their Lives and of their Implements and other Relics have earned for them the designation of Habits, together with a and of the Tumuli Mound Builders A Paper Prepared to commemorate the Silver Anniversary of The Filson Club BY COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG Member of The Filson Club 3lluotratto LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, JOHN P. MORTON COMPANY (Incotporsted) PRINTER5 TO THE FILSON CLUB 1910 COPYRIGIIT, 1910, BY THE FILSON CLUB All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS PAG9 Confidential Foreword...... . .. . . V-xIII Theories and Traditions as to who were the Prehistoric Men of Kentucky . . . . . . . . . . . I Beginnings of Archeological Research in Kentucky I2 Period in which These People Lived in Kentucky . 9 Stone Grave Burials ... . .. . . . . . . 22 Mounds and Mound Burials ... .. . . . . 31 Earthwork and Stone Fortifications and Enclosures . . 5o Kentucky's Largest Fort ... .... . . . . 75 Imaginary Battle Scene ... .... . . . . 85 Stone Structure in Nelson County . .... . . 96 Prehistoric Dress. . ..o.o.... . . . i00 Needles, Awls, and Thread . . . . . . . . . . i09 Weapons and Manner of Use .. .. . . ... I14 Axes, Celts, Pestles, and Mortars.. . . .. .. 122 Pottery Ware and Implements .. ..1.. . . . I43 Chipped Stone Implements . ... . . . . . . 147 Ceremonials of Polished Stone. ... . . . . . 194 Pierced Tablets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Tubes ................ . 207 Boat Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Copper Implements and Ornaments . . . . . . . 224 Ornaments and Other Objects of Hematite . ... 233 Engraved Gorgets and Other Objects of Shell . . . 235 Stone Beads and Rings ... . . . . . ... 247 Fishing and Fishing Implements .. ..... . 250 Drills, Drilling, and Fire Making... .... . 259 Images and Idols .... . . . ..... . 262 Pipes and Smoking .... . . . ...... . 270 Discoveries in Kentucky Caves ... .... . 294 1 iii ] This page in the original text is blank. A CONFIDENTIAL FOREWORD IN i890 the author was induced to begin the collection of prehistoric implements. Thomas G. Went, a learned and intelligent antiquarian, who was for many years Chief Assistant in the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, at Frankfort, first in- duced me, by the gift of a small and well-selected cabinet, to enter upon what was to become a delightful and per- manent study and pursuit. When a member of the Constitutional Convention of Kentucky, in September, i890, a delegate incidentally mentioned to me that Mr. Went had some beautiful arrow- heads, and that they w)uld well repay a visit and inves- tigation. This was done on the following day, and these specimens were found to be marvels of beauty. Few comparatively in number, but which had been selected by a careful, discriminating, and enthusiastic student, they were worthy of all the admiration that could be felt or expressed in their examination. During the conversation he inquired if his visitor were a member of the Constitutional Convention. Having received an affirmative reply, he remarked that there was one member of the Convention from Louisville he was extremely anxious to meet-Bennett H. Young. The response came that the visitor knew the gentleman well and had a great affection as well as regard for him, and would be glad to bring him over on the day following, [ v ] A Confidential Foreword and twelve o'clock was fixed as the time for the call of this Louisville visitor. Promptly at the hour the author appeared at Mr. Went's desk. The venerable student raised his eyes when saluted, but a shadow of disap- pointment passed over his face as he saw the author alone. In response to his inquiry why Young did not come, I waved my hand and smote upon my breast, and with some degree of pleasure and also pride, said, "Mr. Went, I am he!" This naive and somewhat uncere- monious introduction pleased the reserved and laborious educator and collector, and, in recognition of some slight favors done, he shortly afterward presented me his entire cabinet. When a mere lad, on my father's farm in Jessamine County, Kentucky, while plowing, hoeing, planting, and harvesting with my brother, I had picked up some b)eauti- ful arrow-points and a few stone axes, and placed them in a small box as my most valued treasures. College life, war, exile, and the experiences of an eventful and busy professional career, coupled with that strenuousness which faced all Confederates after the end of the struggle, had buried the memory of the flints and axes. The gift of Mr. Went awoke a slumbering admiration which for forty years had remained dormant, and with a well fixed, increasing yearning I at once set about gathering a store of these stone implements and remains. Like a tiger, the taste of blood only enlarged the desire, and soon my researches, as well as my demands for specimens, became a torment to my friends and acquaintances. Opening a school of correspondence, by incessant inquiry the best fields in the State were soon located. Kentucky had been largely neglected among archeologists. [ vi ] 4 Confidential Foreword Something had been written, but it had not permeated the public mind. It was something new in Kentucky, at that period, to have a really earnest, aggressive col- lector. In a little while my home became an exaggerated junk shop. It does not take one long to recognize the fact that a great collector must confine his work to a single line, and to attain preeminence, unless extraordi- nary outlays be made, to a limited territory. Kentucky to Kentuckians has generally appeared to be large enough for reasonable ambition, and so my collection was made a distinctly Kentucky aggregation. Here and there some stranger specimen of rare beauty from the outside crept into the cases, but the main purpose was to confine the museum to Kentucky archeological art. Persistent work, untiring patience, unflagging enthusiasm, and moderate out- lay resulted in gathering together what some antiquarians are pleased to consider one of the world's best collections. The leading scientists of this country have not hesitated to say that in some respects this Kentucky cabinet has no superior among the best public and private collections of its kind, a fact which appeals very strongly to one's honest pride. Long since the desire for mere numbers of specimens has passed away, and for the last decade only those things which are of highest excellence have been considered or sought. The pleasure and joy of massing such a multi- tude of prehistoric remains aroused a yearning and resolve to know all that could be learned of the people who created and used these implements, and induced a study of that which would give some account of those who, in the ages past, called Kentucky home, and who, hundreds and maybe thousands of years ago, lived and loved, toiled, [ vii ] A Confidential Foreword battled, and builded along its water courses, in its val- leys, on its hillsides, and over its mountain heights. None who considered all that pertained to this van- ished race could doubt that, in centuries gone by, a vast population had lived in the bounds of Kentucky; that they who constructed the fortifications, erected the monuments, and tilled the soil within the limits of the Commonwealth had been industrious, ingenious, brave, and thrifty, and that among the nations of their day and generation they had been leaders, ranking high in nationhood, and had stood for much that was bold, wise, and progressive. The publication of my investigations, explorations, and discoveries from time to time in Kentucky prints and elsewhere, and lectures before intelligent audiences along such lines, have always called forth surprise and created a deep and abiding interest. Cultured people never fail to be fascinated and interested with the remarkable facts that the prehistoric remains of Kentucky furnish, and all who hear the story connected with the finds of archeological pursuits long to hear more of what these indestructible and inanimate witnesses have to tell of those who in the long "long ago" made Kentucky their abode. This appreciation of the work done in opening the graves and revealing their secrets, in measuring the mounds and locating and investigating the forts and describing the implements of peace and of war, aroused the desire to put into some permanent form, with adequate illustra- tions, that which had been learned of these wonderful people; and so, when Colonel R. T. Durrett, the President of the Filson Club, asked me to write for [ Viii ] A4 Confidential Foreword that organization the twenty-fifth volume of its publi- cations, and thus commemorate its silver anniversary, I consented to prepare this book. Its conclusions may not always meet those of many of its readers. Its reasonings may not always be logical, but it represents truly the things seen by him who writes, and may at least prove helpful to him who in after years, on a larger scale, with better facilities and more learning, undertakes to make a record of those who inhabited Kentucky centuries before Columbus turned the prows of his ships toward the setting sun, or found in the New World the verification of his deductions, which his fellows classed as the dreams of a sentimental theorist. This work is written without any technical or scien- tific plan or purpose. Its object is not to be learned. The sole purpose is to place in permanent form illustra- tions of some of the most beautiful and best typical remains of this ancient people, and to publish in a way to attract the general reader, and for the information and instruc- tion of the people at large, an account of those who, so many hundreds of years ago, loved Kentucky, and occu- pied it as their home. The study of these first simon-pure Kentuckians ought to be as attractive and interesting as the study of men who lived in Egypt, Hindustan, China, Europe, or Africa in the centuries past. There are both sentimental and historic reasons which should induce Kentuckians as much to search for knowledge of the prehistoric people of the State as for that of the prehistoric men of other lands. It may be truly said that no practical good can come from learning aught of these people, of whom no printed and few pictorial remains exist, but if this be true where [ ix ] 4 Confidential Foreword prehistoric Kentuckians are concerned, it is certainly equally true of those nations who inhabited other parts of the world, and of whom dim tradition, graves, and metal or stone implements alone speak to the people of the present age. There is much of human knowledge that is neither practical nor exact, yet which pleases the mind and widens the range of research and thought. It might give one more reputation among the professors and scientists to deal with these matters on different lines, and it would give more scholastic satisfaction. This book, however, is simply written for the people at large, and endeavors to tell in a way that can be fully understood and readily appreciated, in so far as can now be ascer- tained, the customs, habits, pursuits, achievements, and manufactures of Kentucky's first settlers. There are many persons to whom I must confess a very high degree of obligation; the-y are so many that it is difficult to determine where to begin naming them. First comes Mr. Samuel G. Tate, a brilliant young lawyer at the Louisville bar, whose selected cabinet, acute observations, wide reading, and enthusiastic pursuit of all that touch prehistoric Kentucky, has made him in this work to me absolutely essential. His journeys and investigations have added much to the store of prehis- toric lore, and if his life is long spared he is destined to gain a leading place in this department. Second, Professor H. Stahl, of Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia, who came and spent several months in my home, and who, by his artistic genius in arranging the plates and designing photographic positions and investigating the facts, did for me that which I could not do for myself. He, aided by his own splendid cabinet and a patient study [ x I A Co;wfidenfial Foreword of forty years, has gained for himself a well-merited promi- nence among the archeologists of the Middle West. Third, Mr. Harry L. Johnson, of Clarksville, Tennessee, a Louisville-born boy, who with his father, Captain James Johnson, has gathered more of that which is beautiful and exquisite in prehistoric art, explored more mounds, opened more graves, and handled more specimens in the archeological line than any private individual known to me of the present generation. Living on the banks of the Cumberland River, a few miles above Clarksville, in the last few years he has expanded and enlarged his explorations, and in his home on the river bluff are treasures which make archeologists turn green with envy, and of such vast extent that he himself only partly knows either their full beauty or their commercial value. His intense love for these treasures of the past, and his unlimited energy in their discovery and acquisition, have brought to him one of the most remarkable of existing cabinets. It ought to be the ambition of some possessor of great wealth to persuade Mr. Johnson to part with his treasures, and place them where wondering thousands might see their marvelous beauty. He has generously lent me for illus- tration in this book a number of Kentucky specimens, and I am indebted to him for help in many ways in getting material for this volume. I beg to acknowledge my obligations to Professor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, whose scientific attainments and great scholarship lend a charm to his delightful writings; also Professor Warren K. Moorehead, whose industry and zeal, and wide knowledge of all that concerns prehistoric man, give him worthy pre- eminence among the archeologists of this country; Gen- [ xi ] A Confidential Foreword eral Gates P. Thruston, whose "Antiquities of Tennessee" is certainly the most wonderful book from a local archeo- logical standpoint that has been published in America. This work on the antiquities of Tennessee has been an inspiration and a help to all who deal with this delightful and interesting subject. No one can deal with primitive man in Kentucky without a deep sense of obligation to Professor Lucien Carr, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, formerly connected with the Kentucky Geological Survey. His acute power of analysis, his tireless pursuit of knowledge, and his wonderful breadth of reading excite surprise and admiration. Among others who have lent me kindly and generous assistance I name Colonel R. T. Durrett, Louisville, Ken- tucky; Honorable James H. Mulligan, Lexington, Kentucky; Miss Belle Bennett, Richmond, Kentucky; Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, Louisville, Kentucky; Honorable T. E. Pickett, Maysville, Kentucky; Honorable C. L. Searcy, Waco, Kentucky; J. Wesley Griffin, Esq., Warsaw, Ken- tucky; Honorable J. S. Brown, Warsaw, Kentucky; Miss Ora Hazelip, Brownsville, Kentucky; Honorable Thomas G. Stuart, Winchester, Kentucky; Honorable M. J. Holt, Louisville, Kentucky; L. B. Handley, Esq., Hodgenville, Kentucky; Stanley Frost, Esq., and C. J. Ogg, Esq., Berea, Kentucky; Reverend Cary F. Moore, Cynthiana, Kentucky; Doctor W. P. Taylor, Fulton, Kentucky; J. E. Pilant, Esq., Fredonia, Kentucky; Charles O'Neill, Esq., Frankfort, Kentucky; Major W. A. Elliott, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky; Miss Sallie L. Hazen, Glasgow Junction, Kentucky; Mrs. Ellen Rogers, Cadiz, Kentucky; Captain John W. Tuttle, Monticello, Kentucky; Doctor W. E. Baxter, Frankfort, Kentucky, Honorable B. F. Proctor, [ xii ] A Conxidenhfal Foreword Bowling Green, Kentucky; Miss Annie L. Gullion, Carroll- ton, Kentucky; Honorable J. M. Richardson, Glasgow, Kentucky. There are many others whose kindly co- operation has placed me under lasting obligations. These pages have been written while the author was either trying or preparing a lawsuit, every working day of the week. Many errors must have crept into the text, and the author in advance confesses the reason- ableness of all fair criticism, and pledges himself, when the duties of life are less exacting, to prepare a new and enlarged edition, which shall exhibit his appreciation of the suggestions of all those who think he has made mistakes. BENNErr H. YOUNG. Louisville, June I, I9IO. i xiii ] This page in the original text is blank. THE PREHISTORIC MEN OF KENTUCKY This page in the original text is blank. THE PREHISTORIC MEN OF KENTUCKY THEORIES AND TRADITIONS AS TO WHO WERE THE PREHISTORIC MEN OF KENTUCKY. IN all ages of the world there has been a universal interest in the study of mankind. No sooner do we hear of a race than there arises a desire to know something of their condition, their manner of living, and the source of their origin. One of the first questions that comes up in connection with the prehistoric race in Kentucky is, Who were they Were they the Indians rendered more ingenious, mechani- cal, and skillful by concentration in large communities, or were these prehistoric men of a different race, descend- ants of a different people, with differing characteristics and methods of living It was several hundreds of years after the white people came to America and settled this continent before any thorough investigation was made of the antiquities which existed in this land. Those who came in personal contact with the Indians inquired of them what they knew of the antiquities of which this book treats. The answer almost without exception was that they knew nothing of the people who were [ 1 ] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky engaged in the building of these mounds, how they were erected, whence the people came who made them, or whither they had gone. No human memory has revealed and no hand has detailed that which occurred to these primitive people into whose past we attempt to throw the light of research. Before all who undertake to investigate this question there is a mysterious past, and the silent and mute vestiges erected in stone and earth are all that reach the eye of him who would penetrate into the secrets of this vanished people. Along the tributaries of the Missis- sippi may be found the imprint of many things of this mysterious race, whose mounds and whose temples, and whose forts built of indestructible material, testify that in the valleys and the prairies and on the rich hillsides of this vast and fertile territory there was once a people who had a history, and who in war and peace must have been brave, patriotic, and industrious. The scant mate- rial at the command of the inquirer renders his task difficult and sometimes burdensome. Traditions here, mounds there, forts elsewhere, temples of worship scat- tered all through this territory, are the sources from which information must be secured and on which deduc- tions must be based. The Delawares have a tradition that, many centuries ago, a warlike race emerged from the West and started upon a course of conquest. But this mighty host, when it approached the territory contiguous to the Mississippi River, found as a bar to its progress a valiant, aggressive, and resourceful people. These traditions have been so beautifully told by Doctor Thomas E. Pickett, one of the most charming writers that Kentucky has ever pro- [ 2 ] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky duced, that we can not forbear quoting from his pamphlet entitled "The Testimony of the Mounds." He says: "The two nations thus confronting each other upon the banks of the Mississippi measured the situation with a civilized eye-the Lenni-Lenape diplomatically par- leying for the right of passage, and the subtle Allegewi hypocritically affecting to hear. As a result of these diplomatic negotiations, the Lenni-Lenape were treacher- ously assailed in an attempted passage, and driven back, though not utterly destroyed, by their perfidious foe. But the tradition further relates that there was a coincident migration of the warlike Iroquois from the far West on a higher line of latitude, and that this people were seeking to effect a passage of the same stream at another point. The Lenni-Lenape, speedily rallying from their repulse, strike a military league with the Iroquois, proclaim a war of extermination against the Allegewi, reduce their strong- holds, desolate their lands, and drive them southward in disastrous retreat-their chosen seats being abandoned to the conqueror in tumultuous haste, and themselves becoming a nation of wanderers upon the shores of the stream which they had perfidiously attempted to defend. But this tradition of the Delawares does not stand alone. That the prehistoric inhabitants of Kentucky were at some indeterminate period overwhelmed by a tide of savage invasion from the North, is a point upon which Indian tradition, as far as it goes, is positive and explicit. It is related, in a posthumous fragment on 'Western An- tiquities,' by Reverend John P. Campbell, M. D., which was published in the early part of the present century, that Colonel James Moore, of Kentucky, was told by an old Indian that the primitive inhabitants of this State [ 3 1 The Prehistoric Men of Ken/ucky had perished in a war of extermination waged against them by the Indians; that the last great battle was fought at the Falls of the Ohio; and that the Indians succeeded in driving the aborigines into a small island below the Rapids, 'where the whole of them were cut to pieces.' The Colonel was assured that the evidence of this event rested upon facts handed down by tradition, and that he would have decisive proofs of it under his eyes as soon as the waters of the Ohio became low. When the waters of the river had fallen, an examination of Sandy Island was made, and 'a multitude of human bones was dis- covered.' There is a similar confirmation of this tradition in the statement of General George Rogers Clark, that there was a great burying-ground on the northern side of the river, but a short distance below the Falls. According to a tradition imparted to the same gentleman by the Indian chief Tobacco, the battle of Sandy Island decided finally the fall of Kentucky, with its ancient inhabitants. When Colonel McKee com- manded on the Kanawha (says Doctor Campbell), he was told by the Indian chief Cornstalk, with whom he had frequent conversations, that Ohio and Kentucky (and Tennessee also is associated with Kentucky in the prehistoric ethnography of Rafinesque) had once been settled by a white people who were familiar with arts of which the Indians knew nothing; that these whites, after a series of bloody contests with the Indians, had been exterminated; that the old burial places were the graves of an unknown people; and that the old forts had not been built by Indians, but had come down from 'a very long ago' people, who were of a white complexion and skilled in the arts. [ 4 ] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky "In addition to this traditional testimony, various and striking traces of a deadly conflict have been found all along the Ohio border. To say nothing of the vast system of fortifications covering exposed and important points, and evidently designed as a general barrier against hostile incursions, there are significant traces of former conflicts in the old 'battlefields' of Bourbon, Pendleton, and Bracken counties, which, clearly indicating occur- rences beyond the pale of the historic period, confirm in some measure the traditional theory or belief of a pro- tracted and desolating struggle for the possession of this borderland. And doubtless the familiar appellation of 'the Dark and Bloody Ground' originated in the gloom and hor- ror with which the Indian imagination naturally invested the traditional scenes and events of that strange and troubled period. General Clark declares that Ken-tuck-e in the language of the Indians signifies 'the river of blood.' "It is not improbable, judging from the frequency with which fortifications occur upon the banks of water courses, that the bloodiest battles were fought upon the banks of navigable streams. Ken-tuck-e, to the Indian, was a land of ill repute, and, wherever a lodge fire blazed, ' strange and unholy rumors' were busy with her name. The old Indian who described to Colonel Moore the san- guinary and decisive battle of Sandy Island expressed great astonishment that white people could live in a country which had been the scene of such conflicts; and an ancient Sac, whom Colonel Joe Hamilton Daveiss met at St. Louis in i8oo, gave utterance to similar expres- sions of surprise. Kentucky, he said, was filled with the ghosts of its slaughtered inhabitants; how could the white man make it his home " [ 5 ] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky While the early authorities questioned the connection of the American monuments with the arts and science and culture of the European, yet they all admit that these things, found in America when the white man came, have intrinsic evidence which demonstrates conclusively that they were constructed hundreds of years before. How little the early wise men of America knew of these antiq- uities has in the last fifty years been fully and thoroughly demonstrated. Doctor Benjamin Franklin, in reply to a learned man who made inquiries concerning these remains, sagely suggested that the works in Ohio had been con- structed by De Soto, and so wise and learned a man as Noah Webster, after hearing Franklin's theory, undertook to defend and prove it. Subsequently, however, he abandoned the views which he had then set forth, and concluded that they were the work of the Indians. Other authorities insisted that while these remains were not constructed by De Soto and his followers, yet they be- longed to an age that antedated the discovery of the country, and they vigorously assert that these wonderful antiquities were not the product of Indian industry or skill, but of another people who were not savage, but who had some knowledge of arts and sciences and also some well-defined ideas of political organization. Early in I8oo, there appeared in these discussions two very im- portant characters, Reverend Thaddeus M. Harris, of Massachusetts, and Bishop Madison, of Virginia. It is said of these two archeologists that they were among the first who united opportunities of personal observation with the advantages of scientific culture, to impart to the public their impressions of Western antiquities. They represented the two classes of observers whose opposite [ 6] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky views divided the sentiment of the country. The first class saw no evidence of art beyond what might be expected of existing tribes with the simple difference of more numer- ous population and consequently better defined and more permanent habitations; the others found proofs of skill and refinement to be explained, as they believed, only upon the supposition that a superior native race, or more probably people of foreign and higher civilization, once occupied the soil. Bishop Madison was an advocate of the first theory and Doctor Harris undertook to make good the claims of the second, and urged with great vigor that the Mound Builders were Toltecs who, after residing for a time in the regions of the Mississippi Valley, moved south into Mexico. These two views were pressed with great force and earnestness by many learned and careful observ- ers in later years. As has been said, on this subject two opinions are held and strongly advocated; the first, that the people who constructed these remains were of a different and superior race to the Indian. Those so holding contend that the remains found in the shape of mounds, teocallis (or places of worship), fortifications, implements of various kinds, indicate that these people were a race of superior culture to the Indians; that these remains point conclu- sively to the fact that those who constructed them were an agricultural people of sedentary habits, and lived in organized communities; that the works themselves bear evidences of mathematical and engineering knowledge which the Indian never possessed or exhibited; and that the fortifications show that these people were at war with other nations, and that in such warfare it became neces- sary for these Mound Builders to erect stone, wooden, [ 7 ] The Prehistoric Men of Ken/ucky and earthen defenses, and that the evidences show that these were displaced by more aggressive and warlike foes. They also insist that the Indians themselves declared that they knew nothing of the people who builded these structures, and that they were concluded ages before even the red men found them, and that they could tell nothing concerning the origin or use of these monuments. There are some who insist that these monuments must have been erected by a people different from the American Indian, yet they do not attempt to tell who the Mound Builders were. They hold no opinion upon the racial and ethnical relations of those who constructed these monuments, but declare that the Indian was not capable of doing the work which was required in their construction. The second class insist that there is nothing in these monuments to indicate greater genius, greater skill, or greater patience than the American Indian has exhibited along many other lines; that it is established beyond all question that in historical times the Indian constructed mounds and fortifications, and further, that their burials are similar in most respects to those of the Mound Builders. They say that the mere fact of structures being erected for military purposes demonstrates nothing, because the different Indian nations were themselves constantly at war with each other, and were known to make long marches in order to punish or destroy other Indian nations who had inflicted upon them some real or imaginary wrong. They say further, that there was scarcely a tribe from the Atlantic to the Western plains that did not have some capital or fixed location in which large numbers of their people resided, and that these subsisted upon the prod- [ 8 ] The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky ucts of agriculture. They insist that De Soto found all the tribes he visited were successful in cultivating maize and various vegetables, and that the early voyagers along the Atlantic shores found the same thing true from Florida to Massachusetts, and that John Smith and his colony depended largely for subsistence upon the products raised by the Indians. Champlain, La Salle, and Mar- quette all observed that the Indians were engaged in suc- cessful agriculture, and, instead