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Page 47
They are _unique_. To be sure, there are in Ohio three effigies, in
Georgia two, and in Dakota some bowlder mosaics in animal form. None
of these, however, are like the Wisconsin type. The alligator and
serpent of Ohio are different in location and structure from the
Wisconsin mounds, and are of designs peculiar. The bird mound in the
Newark circle is more like a Wisconsin effigy, but is associated with
a type of works not found in the effigy region. The birds of Georgia
are different in conception, in material, and in build. The mosaics of
Dakota are simply outlines of loose bowlders.
It seems to us that the effigy builders of Wisconsin were a peculiar
tribe, unlike their mound-building neighbors in Ohio or the South;
that they were a people with a passion for representing animal
figures. This passion worked itself out in these earth structures.
That a single tribe should be thus isolated in so remarkable a custom
is no more strange than that the Haida should carve slate or the
Bushman draw his pictures on his cavern walls.
Who were the effigy builders? This is a question often asked and
variously answered. Some writers would refer them to the Winnebagoes,
or, if not to them directly, to some Dakota stock from which the
Winnebagoes have descended.
Formerly I was a frequent visitor to the Sac and Fox Reservation in
Iowa. About 400 of the tribe are left. To an unusual degree they
retain the old dress, language, arts and dances. With them lived a few
Winnebagoes. In general the lives of the two peoples are similar.
Certain arts common to both of them particularly interested me. They
are the making of sacks of barks and cords, and the weaving of bead
bands for legs and arms, upon the _ci-bo-hi-kan_. Of the bark sacks
there are several patterns, the simplest being made of splints of bark
passing alternately over and under each other. Another kind, far more
elaborate in construction, is before you. Yet more elaborate ones are
made entirely of cords. The first of these I saw was in old Jennie
Davenport's wikiup. It was of white and black cords, and the black
ones were so manipulated as to form a pattern--a line of human figures
stretching across the sack. Jennie would not sell it, as she said, "It
is a Winnebago woman's sack; Fox woman not make that kind." I found
afterward a large variety of these Winnebago sacks, and all were
characterized by patterns of men, deer, turtles, or other animals. Not
one Fox sack of such pattern was to be found, though many elaborate
and beautiful geometrical designs were shown me.
The most beautiful work done on this reservation is the bead weaving
on the ci-bo-hi-kan--woven work, _not_ sewed, remember. In appearance
the result is like the Iroquois wampum belts, but the management of
the threads is dissimilar. The Sac and Fox patterns are frequently
complex and beautiful, but always geometrical. We have seen hundreds
of them, but none with life forms. The Winnebago belts, made in
exactly the same way, frequently, if not always, present animals or
birds or human beings.
This, it seems to us, is very curious. Here are people of two tribes
living side by side, with the same mode of life and the same arts, but
in their art designs so diverse. It is a case parallel to that of the
old effigy builders, a people who have a passion for depicting animal
forms--a passion not shared by their neighbors.
If this were the only evidence that the Winnebagoes built the effigy
mounds, or that their ancestors did so, it would have no great weight.
But the claim has been made already on other grounds. This being the
case, we think that this adds something to the testimony, and we ask,
_Have we here an ethnic survival?_
At the close of the paper Dr. Starr exhibited a number of fine
specimens of Indian handiwork, including woven work, bags, belts, etc.
Dr. Newberry explained that these mounds were not sepulchral, like
many others in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Geologically
speaking, man is very recent. The early inhabitants of America may
have originally come from the East, but, if so, they were cut off from
that part of the world at a very early date. The development of the
tribes in America was complete and far-reaching. Copper and lead mines
were worked, the forests removed, and large tracts given over to the
cultivation of corn, grain, etc. This was the mound age, and the
constructions were certainly abandoned over one thousand years since.
The Pueblo Indians now existing in Arizona and New Mexico took their
origin from Central America, and spread as far north as Salt Lake,
Utah, and south as far as Chili. Their structures were permanent stone
buildings, many of which still exist in a good state of preservation.
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