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It was still a sort Offsetting the carefully recorded diaries of the rural folk, there of wilderness in were popular writers who creatively developed the more contem- many rural areas porary histories and folk legends, leaving to cursory treatment the right until the mid- deeper accounts of North American antiquities. These authors, dle 1800s. In this, while having captured the essence of the public perception of the each discovery was noble native tradition, were not reconciled to the antique body of "unique"—only to legend. The pens of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) and end up in the stacks Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) relate virtually noth- of old township ing of the tall ones. Native Americans, as we know, were dis- libraries to be com- couraged from writing, although some, such as David Cusick, cir- piled later as cumvented the bias using Christian names. Fortunately, early curiosities—if they missionaries gathered oral traditions from the tribal elders con- survived at all. The cerning men of giant stature. following account But even the most informative or entertaining accounts could originated around not instill enough respect for the native people to put an end to the Dancing figures found on a copper plate in the year 1800: further destruction of the sacred sites. The attitude of the white Union County, Illinois. "There were race in general towards the red race was an abomination, totally mounds situated in the eastern part of the village of Conneaut lacking in mercy and compassion. Many of the Native American and an extensive burying-ground near the Presbyterian skulls were compared with European skulls, but selectively so as church, which appear to have had no connection with the to depict the current native populace as being of inferior intelli- burying-places of the Indians. Among the human bones gence. Almost without resistance, the black seeds of racial bias found in the mounds were some belonging to men of gigantic were forming in the uncorrupted soil of prehistoric interpretation. structure. Some of the skulls were of Take, for example, the words of an impor- sufficient capacity to admit the head of tant government official and popular writer, an ordinary man, and jaw bones that Henry Schoolcraft (1793-1864): might have been fitted on over the face "The Indian has a low, bushy brow, with equal facility; the other bones were beneath which a dull, sleepy, half- proportionately large. The burying- closed eye seems to mark the ferocious ground referred fo contained about for Some of the skulls passions rat are dormant pithin. The acres and, with the exception of a slig| ss acute angles of the eyes seldom present angle in conformity with the natural were of sufficient the obliquity so common in the Malays otancblongsquse. Ir appearedohave | C@PACHty to admit the | ooo err stunitonny stint between been accurately surveyed into lots head of an ordinary black and grey; but even in young per- running from north to south, and man, and jaw bones sons it seldom has the brightness, or exhibited all the order and propriety of arrangement deemed necessary to constitute Christian burial..." Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes, by Henry Howe, LLD (1888) expresses the vivacity, so common in that might have been the more civilized races." fitted on over the face Bureau of Indian Affairs (1852) with equal facility; the other bones were proportionately large. Schoolcraft, who himself married a half-Indian woman, was apparently predisposed to labelling the native peo- ple in general as inferior. This kind of ridiculous prejudice underscored the tone for the unbridled continuation of the earthwork debacle. The result of this is accurately reflected in how archaeology was organised more than one hundred years ago, and may be summed up in the policy of Joseph Henry, first secretary of the Although not regarded by the govern- ment as reliable, the oral traditions of the native people in the eastern US aver the existence of possibly two races of giants, one supplanting the other by violent means. Here we have the first inkling of some very remote prehistory, preserved through the tradition of the Chippewa, Sandusky and Tawa tribes (members of the Algonquin language group), of the existence of giant, bearded men. Smithsonian Institution. Said Henry in 1846: "The collection of "In this connection I would say that Mr Jonathan Brooks, data should precede theorising..." now living in town, stated to me that his father, Benjamin Unfortunately, the collection of data seemed to have no end, Brooks, who lived with the Indians fourteen years and was and any subsequent theorising was (and is) in a state of transience. well-acquainted with their language and traditions, told him The Smithsonian, playing a sort of leading role in the massive and others that it was a tradition of the Indians that the first undertaking attempting to cast light on the inscrutable prehistory tribe occupying this whole country was a black-bearded race, of the United States, inadvertently collected far too many relics very large in size, and subsequently a red bearded race or than it could ever analyse in a comprehensive sense. tribe came and killed or drove off all the black beards, as they Estimates of the number of moundworks in Ohio alone, at the called them." end of the Colonial period, topped ten thousand. Today, less than "Memoirs of Townships", by Wm H. Crane, in one-twentieth of these exist, and, moreover, they exist in a The Firelands Pioneer, Vermilion, Ohio (November 1858) reconstructed form. Dancing figures found on a copper plate in Union County, Illinois. capacity to admit the head of an ordinary man, and jaw bones that might have been ce on es | Sa with equal facility; the other bones were "Memoirs of Townships", by Wm H. Crane, in The Firelands Pioneer, Vermilion, Ohio (November 1858) JUNE — JULY 2003 NEXUS = 51 Some of the skulls were of sufficient fitted on over the face proportionately large. www.nexusmagazine.com