Part 37

At the edge of the mound was a box grave 51/2 by 21/2 by 21/2 feet, the longer axis on a radial line. It was made of small flat stones built up like a wall, the only grave of which I could learn that had any resemblance to the vault graves farther down the Missouri. In the grave were two skulls and some other bones, all bunched in the northern end.

NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE NEMAHA RIVER

Lewis and Clark, in their journal, mention that when camped near the mouth of the Nemaha, one or both of them went to an Indian village about 2 miles up the stream. He, or they, climbed a low ridge near the river and stood on a mound which commanded a fine view of the surrounding country. There is a dispute as to the site of this mound; but the journal plainly says it was on the lower (east) side of a little creek which comes in here. Two miles farther up is a larger mound on higher ground which is generally supposed to be the one meant by the explorer; but this is on the other side of the creek and at some distance from the Pawnee village which was located near the mouth of the creek, on the lower side. The ground where this village stood is covered over a space of several acres with the ordinary debris of an Indian settlement; and it is significant that all the relics found are so similar to those which are called "ancient" when found in the lodge sites, that no one could determine from inspection which kind came from which place. Unless it may exist in the markings in the pottery, no distinction can be made between these specimens and similar ones from other localities.

The Pawnees lived here until 1837, when the Iowas and Otoes made a sortie upon the unsuspecting inhabitants and killed all of them they could overcome. Two women of the Iowa tribe who were living on the reservation in 1914 remember seeing dead bodies lying around wherever the invaders could find and kill a resident.

A short distance below the explorers carved their names on a rock which projected into the stream. Accounts as to this spot differ; it is generally stated that in making a road around here, the rock containing the names was blasted away; but a man in the neighborhood who claims to know the exact spot says the blasting did not extend quite so far and that the names are covered by a mass of earth and rock which slid from the bluff many years ago. If this be true, a thrill awaits the man who finds the names some centuries from now, when the river has washed away all this accumulated material.

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VICINITY OF TROY, KANSAS

Near the mouth of Wolf River is a village site on which Dr. R.S. Dinsmore, of Troy, has counted 125 tipi sites. Relics are very abundant here, especially the small chert "thumb-scrapers," which outnumber all other specimens.

MOUTH OF MOSQUITO CREEK

Four miles east of Troy, on a ridge so steep that its top is inaccessible from either side, and so narrow that a wagon would make a track on each slope, is a little mound worn down until its true nature would not be suspected. Dr. Dinsmore was on this ridge one day and noticed a flat limestone rock. Knowing that it had no place in the loess, he began digging to ascertain the reason for it being there. At a depth of a few inches he found bones, and soon unearthed a number of skulls, with only his hands or a stick. Coming back later with tools, he found, in all, 56 skulls. Afterwards he found others, and persons in the neighborhood have exhumed many more. The deposit represents a communal burial, from a village which probably stood on the level creek bottom not far away. A few skeletons showed an attempt at orderly arrangement. These were probably of individuals who had not been dead long at the time of the general burial. Most of the bones, however, skulls and others, were piled in the smallest possible area, as if gathered up in sacks or baskets from previous burials and carried here for reinterment. The soil is so loose as to be easily dug with the hands, like sand; but at the same time so fine and close packed as to shed water almost like a roof. Owing to the steep slope at every point, except toward the summit of the ridge, there must be some erosion, and consequently the age of the burials can not be great. Yet, the same conditions prevail in other places where a great antiquity is claimed for the remains. Frost necessarily disintegrates the soil to some extent; the wind or rain carries away the loosened portions; and this process is continuous. The shape of the mound shows that when the burials were made the ridge was essentially identical in form with its present aspect. The bones also are comparatively fresh in appearance, and it may be considered certain that they can not date back many generations.

On the top of a hill rising from the opposite side of Mosquito Creek Dr. Dinsmore found a low mound, which, like that just described, would not have been suspected as such but for a stone projecting from the surface. Under this stone, with 8 inches of earth intervening, was a skull so completely mineralized that it appears to be carved from a block of limestone. No other portions of the body to which it belonged remained, though traces in the surrounding earth showed that at least the larger bones and perhaps the entire skeleton had been deposited. Bones in other parts of the mound were in their natural condition; that is, they were not altered from their ordinary appearance, although only in fragments. It is remarkable that this entire cranium should thus change while all the other bones, even the jaw, had disappeared. The description of this find is from Dr. Dinsmore, who has the skull in his office. Possibly he may be in error in stating that traces were found of other bones belonging with it. These may have belonged to another individual. The soil is ordinary sandy loess, containing lime but not in such quantity as to account for this alteration. Perhaps the skull may be from an older burial somewhere, the petrifaction having taken place before it was buried here.

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RULO, NEBRASKA

Particular attention was paid to conditions a mile north of Rulo, where it is reported that human skeletons were found in the Kansan drift. It was not the intention of the discoverer to have it understood that these remains were in undisturbed drift, but such is the impression that has gained credence.

At the settlement of the country by whites the road constructed across a ravine here, on the section line nearest the river about three-eighths of a mile away, followed the natural contour and the crossing was made without difficulty. Since then a deep washout has worked its way to some distance above this point, making a long bridge necessary. From the head of the washout to the Missouri River the banks are vertical, or nearly so, on each side of the little stream. It was in the bank on the south side that the bones were found. It is stated they were 7 feet under the surface; if so there must have been a mound above them, for the lowest excavation does not reach over 5 feet below the present level of the ground, and at that extends slightly below the bottom of the grave.

Within 40 years the Missouri River, which is now more than a mile away toward the Missouri shore, flowed at the foot of a slight bluff terminating the slope from the high land toward the west; there was formerly a steamboat landing on the upper side of the ravine. On the lower side is a triangular area of about an acre, bounded by the bluff, the river bank, and the ravine. This was an excellent location for an Indian village or camp. A narrow level strip extends from the mouth of the ravine to a point near the bridge, some distance above where the remains were found. It is quite clear that the skeletons were the remains of individuals who had died at the camp on the river's bank and had been carried here for burial. This may have occurred within the last hundred years or in fact at any time while the Indians were still living in this vicinity.

The flood level of the Missouri is not more than 15 feet lower than the level space along the sides of the ravine. The little intermittent stream has cut down this depth through a deposit which is composed of river sediment, wash from the hills on each side, and material carried from higher levels by the brook itself in rainy seasons. At only one point is there a real glacial deposit, and this does not extend for more than 50 feet horizontally, and does not reach to the top of the bank. It is at some distance from the graves, and may be due to a lobe of the ice or to an iceberg. However formed or deposited here it has no relation whatever to the skeletons. In a sense, the material in which they were buried is "Kansan drift"; but it is drift which has been redistributed and has come into its present position within a few centuries at the most.

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NEAR HOWE, NEBRASKA

Mr. Sam P. Hughes, who lives near Howe, has done considerable excavating in that vicinity. He is an intelligent man and an ardent student, but his ideas in regard to the age of his discoveries need much revision downward. His chief work has been done north of Howe at a place 9 miles from the nearest point on the Missouri River. Here is a small level area at the end of a ridge sloping away in every direction except at the narrow isthmus connecting it with the fields beyond, which are at a level only slightly higher. Thus there is no chance for any accumulation from the adjacent surface. On this ridge are a few lodge sites which Hughes has excavated. In every respect they are similar to lodge sites reported from other localities in this region. The walls, the depression, the floor, the fireplace, are all the same. The depressions are filled with earth to a depth of 18 to 22 inches above the level of the old floor; and Hughes reports that wherever he has dug on this ridge he has found flint chips, charcoal, fragments of pottery, and scraps of bone to about the same depth. Next below the soil is the Kansan glacial drift; but the assertion that objects found at this depth are of the same age as the drift is not necessarily or even presumably correct.

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PERU, NEBRASKA

On various hills in the vicinity of Peru are lodge sites, some of them circular, some rectangular, some with straight sides and rounded corners. Most of them have been dug in at random; in every case after a certain depth of accumulated earth and trash is passed through, there is a layer of clay which formed the roof, and beneath this the hard earth floor with fireplace usually in the center but sometimes a little toward one side.

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PAPILLION, NEBRASKA

At the time of my visit, Dr. Frederick H. Sterns, of the Peabody Museum, was working near here. He described himself as "the man who is extremely anxious to find a glacial or other very ancient man, but so far has not succeeded in getting track of him." Dr. Sterns did not claim a period antedating the Indian for anything he had then unearthed--meaning the known Indian tribes.

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VICINITY OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA