g them to have been
fortifications, others the burial-places of the Indians. That they have
lately been used by the Indians as burial-places there is no doubt; but
I suspect they were not originally raised for that purpose. A Mr
Taylor has written an article in one of the periodicals, stating his
opinion that they were the burial-places of chiefs; and to prove it, he
asserts that some of them are thrown up in imitation of the figure of
the animal which was the heraldic distinction of the chief whose remains
they contain, such as the beaver, elk, etcetera. He has given drawings
of some of them. That the Indians have their heraldic distinctions,
their _totems_, as they call them, I know to be a fact; as I have seen
the fur trader's books, containing the receipts of the chiefs, with
their crests drawn by themselves, and very correctly too; but it
required more imagination than I possess to make out the form of any
animal in the mounds. I should rather suppose the mounds to be the
remains of tenements, sometimes fortified, sometimes not, which were
formerly built of mud or earth, as is still the custom in the northern
portion of the Sioux country. Desertion and time have crumbled them
into these mounds, which are generally to be found in a commanding
situation, or in a string, as if constructed for mutual defence. On
Rock River there is a long line of wall, now below the surface, which
extends for a considerable distance, and is supposed to be the remains
of a city built by a former race, probably the Mexican, who long since
retreated before the northern race of Indians. I cannot recollect the
name which has been given to it. I had not time to visit this spot; but
an officer showed me some pieces of what they called the brick which
composes the wall. Brick it is not--no right angles have been
discovered, so far as I could learn; it appears rather as if a wall had
been raised of clay, and then exposed to the action of fire, as portions
of it are strongly vitrified, and others are merely hard clay. But
admitting my surmises to be correct, still there is evident proof that
this country was formerly peopled by a nation whose habits were very
different, and in all appearance more civilised, than those of the races
which were found here: and this is all that can be satisfactorily
sustained. As, however, it is well substantiated that a race similar to
the Mexican formerly existed on these prairie lands, the whole questio