Skulls from the Colbert County, Alabama shell mound with protruding brow ridge and a sloping forehead. From the Smithsonian Institution's,
Bureau of Ethnology 44th Annual Report.
By 2000 B.C the shell mounds become more numerous within the interior of the eastern continent.
The tribes known as the Sioux, Cherokee and Iroquois are defined from of the early Maritime peoples.
Their historic homelands are established at this early date. The Iroquois in the northern Great Lakes
region, the Sioux, ranging from the Atlantic to the Ohio Valley and west to the Mississippi and the Cherokee in the southeast.
Maritime Origins of the Hopewell Sioux and Cherokee Mound Builders
“According to Native American traditions, the only people that have claimed heredity to the
Hopewell mounds and earthworks are the Dakota Sioux Nations.” was reported in the The Prehistoric
Aborigenes Of Minnesota And Their Migrations, N. H. Winchel, Popular Science Monthly, September,
1908. “The Dakota, or Siouan, family comprised the following Indian nations, arranged approximately
in order of apparent derivation: Biloxi, Tutelo, Waccon, Catawba, Huron Iroquois?, Cherokee?,
Winnebago, Omaha, Osage, Issati, Mandan, Missouri, Dakota, Iowa, Ottoe, Hidatsa (and Crows),
Blackfeet, and numerous subtribes, viz.,Ogala, Quapaw, Ponka, Assinboin, Akansea, Kansa, and
others.”
There is considerable evidence that the Cherokee and the Iroquois have a common ancestral origin
with the Sioux. Linguistically, the Iroquois, Sioux, and Cherokee are similar, along with many of their
customs. In “A Brief History of the Cherokee,” Mary Evelyn Rogers writes, “Linguistic studies show
the Cherokees had been separate from the Iroquois, their closest linguistic relative, for at least 3500
years, based on a 1961 report per Duane King in introduction to “The Cherokee Nation.”
The historic locations of the Iroquois in the northeast and the Cherokee in the southeast are legened to
be their ancestral homeland. This would account for the unhindered trade of the Hopewell and the
diffusion of cultural traits across such a wide expanse. The Sioux, Iroquois and Cherokee all share
similar legends that their earliest homelands were in the northeast. According to Chief Attakullakulla's
speech to the Cherokee Nation in 1750, “we traveled here from rising sun, before the time of the stone
age man.” The Cherokee have in their language, names for whales and sea serpents; to which it can be
conjectured that they once lived on the shores of an ocean.
Siouan Tribes in the Ohio Valley, American Anthropologist, 1943
“All of the traditions [of these tribes] speak of a movement from east to west covering a long period
of time. The primordial habitat of this stock lies hidden in the mystery that still enshrouds the
beginnings of the ancient American race; it seems to have situated, however, among the Appalachian
mountains, and all their legends indicate that the people had knowledge of a large body of water in the
vicinity of their early home. This water may have been the Atlantic Ocean, for, as shown on the map,
remnants of Siouan tribes survived near the mountains in the regions of Virginia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina until after the coming of the white race.”
These traditions can be supported by the cultural similarities with the Maritime Archaic, dating as
early as 6,000 B.C., with more considerable evidence found in the Late Archaic. The “Late Archaic”
dates from, 3,500-1,000 B.C. This is when populations increased, trade routes were established and
secured across the continent, seasonal camps became more permanent and the mortuary practices and
artifacts of the Maritime Archaic spread across North America. The period around 1,500 B.C is when
the Iroquois and Cherokee split and become linguistically distinct.
The people of the Maritime Archaic are also the first people to build mounds over their dead, dating
as early as 5,500 B.C. at L’Anse Amour, located on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, close
to the Quebec-Labrador border. The L’Anse Amour mound was a circular, covered with large
flagstones, which contained the skeleton of a boy. Within the burial mound were stone and bone
spearheads, adzes, gouges, axes, pyrite fire kits, slate tools, chipped stone, antler and bone, swordfish
bills, ulus, gouges, harpoons, ceremonial paint objects, a bird bone whistle and plummets. The Morrill
mound near the mouth of the Merrimack River dated to 5200 B.C. while another burial mound located
in southern Labrador dated to 4900 B.C.
Watson Break
The earliest mound and earthwork combination are located at Monroe Louisiana at the Watson
Break site. This 135-foot diameter earthen circle connects eleven mounds, several exceeding twenty
feet in height. Watson Break has been dated between 3,400 and 3,000 B.C. Many of the strait
stemmed biface spearheads are similar to those of the northeast. The most persuasive evidence that ties
the Watson Break to the Maritime Archaic are the plummets, found within the mounds.
Plummet uncovered at Watson Break mound and earthwork site.
Poverty Point
Another earthwork that occurs prior to the “Woodland Period,” (1,000 B.C-500 A.D) is at Poverty
Point Louisiana, dating 1,500 B.C. The enormous earthwork consisted of six concentric rings in a C
shaped design, cut by five avenues that are believed to be celestially oriented.
Artifacts recovered from Poverty Point are similar to the Laurentian or the
Maritime Archaic who had moved from the coastal areas in to the interior.
Several of the stemmed bi-faces discovered were identical to those found at the
Morrill Mound in Maine dating to 4,000 B.C. Great quantities of plummets were
found and picked up around the earthwork. Steatite bowls were also found similar
to what were found in shell mounds on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
Plummet from Poverty Point Similarities exists between the Early Woodland earthen henges in the Ohio Valley and the Late
Archaic shell rings found along the southern Atlantic and Gulf coast. At Sapelo Island Georgia, the
diameter of the shell ring is 210 feet. This is significant because 210 feet diameter or a circumference
of 660 feet is the most common size of the henges attributed to the Allegewi in the Ohio Valley. The
coastal shell rings may represent the earliest astronomical temples in North America.
Also found within historic Cherokee homelands is this mound and earthwork complex that featured a henge 210 feet in diameter or 660 feet in circumference at Camden, South Carolina. John Bullick, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 180, 1961, proposed that the Cherokee culture in the Southern Appalachians had been in that region for more than 2000 years.
In northeast Florida along the St. Johns River were numerous sand and shell
Plummet from the Crystal
River mound
mounds. The two mounds at Tick Island and Mt. Royal were 555 feet in
circumference. Mound internments in this area were similar to the Ohio Hopewell,
with burials found in a spoked or sun burst position along with Hopewellian artifacts
of triple tubes of copper, copper crescents and plummets. Some of these burials date
as early as 500 B.C., 300 years earlier than the first Hopewell burial mounds in the
Ohio Valley.
Shell mounds in Florida continued to be constructed into the Woodland Period,
with artifacts also resembling the Ohio Hopewell. Shetrone reported i
n The Mound
Builders, 1941 that the gulf coast shell mound at Crystal River, Florida had plummets that were found
with burials throughout the mound. “It is significant that a deposit of plummets or pendants comprising
similar materials and forms was taken from the Seip Mound of the Ohio Hopewell culture.”
Similarities between the Maritime Archaic and the Hopewell were noted in,“Bone Implements from
Shell Heaps around Frenchmans Bay, Maine,” Hadlock, 1943, “In all the Shell Heaps worked by the
Robert Abbe Museum, artifacts similar to those of the so-called Red Paint Culture have been found
throughout numerous levels. In most instances they were in a poor state of preservation and showed
evidence of extensive use. The presence of these artifacts in the shell heaps shows that the inhabitants
were familiar with their use and manufacture, and these implements are not a culture other than the
Eastern Woodland Indians.”
Series of plummets found within Fairfield County, Ohio and diagrammed in the History Of Fairfield County, Ohio 1905.
The first evidence of the Ohio Valley Sioux is within the Late Archaic as the Maritime people began
moving into the interior and the earliest people known in western New York, called the Lamoka
Focus. The Archeology of the Northeastern United States, 1952 Richard S. MacNeish, writes,
“Various authors have pointed out the relationship of this focus [Lamoka] with those of the shell
mound people in the central part of the United States, and fairly large number number of specific
resemblance occur with the McCain site in Dubois County, Indiana, as well as the lower levels of the
Annis Mound in Butler County, Kentucky”
In The History of the Osage, Louis F. Burns added, “recent archaeological findings seem to indicate
that both the Dhegiha Sioux and Chewere Sioux were the Shell Mound Culture of Kentucky, [Indiana]
and Tennessee.” Skeletal remains found in these shell mounds are identical to the later Hopewell. The
shell mounds in the interior reveal Maritime-type artifacts, and substantiate a connection with the
Atlantic coastal area.
The earliest evidence of the Hopewell Sioux in the Midwest are the shell mounds that are found most
extensively in southern Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Shell mounds within these areas date
from 3,500-1,000 B.C. One of the larger shell mounds was described in the 1876, Indiana Geological
Survey, at Clarksville, Indiana, “Just below the falls of the Ohio, in Clarke County, there is a shell heap
extending for a mile up and down the river.” Shell and earthen mound are depicted in this 19th century
Indiana Geological Survey, map of Shoals, Indiana. The proximity of these two types of mounds is evidence of the transition from shell to earthen mounds by the early Sioux people.
While the early Sioux become more populous in the Ohio Valley, the Iroquois spread their emerging
culture across the northern teir of the Great Lakes. From the combined confederation of the Sioux,
Iroquois and Cherokee, the great mound building nation would be formed in the Ohio Valley. All three
of these tribes were involved and though becoming distinct, they shared a common lineage and culture that would become known as the Hopewell Culture.
Maritime Origins of the Iroquois
As another contingent of the Maritime culture spread into the Great Lakes region, they are given
another archaeological designation, the Lake Forest Tradition, which included the Meadowood, Glacial
Kame and Red Ochre Phases. Tool kits with the Lake Forest Tradition are similar to those in the
Maritime regions with bone awls, plummets, drills, pestles, stone tubular pipes, winged bannerstones
and projectile points made from ground slate and flint. The subsistence of the Lake Forest tradition
was hunting and gathering with an emphasis on fishing. This is an important aspect with the thousands
of glaciated lakes that were formed within the region of northeast Indiana, Northwest Ohio and
southern Michigan.
The Meadowood, Glacial Kame and Red Ochre phases, represent different tribes of Iroquoians.
Robert Converse writes in The Glacial Kame Indians, “Glacial Kame “phase” are associated with a
burial cult which includes two other cultures, the Red Ochre “phase” (Wisconsin, Northern Illinois,
Northern Indiana and the central lower Peninsula of Michigan) and the Meadowood “phase” (Western
New York and Southern Ontario) There are areas of overlap.”
“Common among all three (Glacial Kame, Red Ochre, and Meadowood) copper beads, shell beads, tubular pipes, birdstones, trapezoidal gorgets, pop-eyed birdstones and objects of bone and antler.”
Bar amulets are often associated with the transitional “Turkey Tail Phase” of the Late Archaic Red
Ochre Culture.”
Throughout northeast Indiana and extending into southern Michigan in the lakes region, Meadowood points and pop-eyed birdstones are found. This birdstone called “Old Ringneck” was uncovered in Steuben County, Indiana, near Alvarado. Also near this site was once a circular earthwork.
Meadowood habitation sites have been dated as early as 1,250 B.C. Seven habitation sites of the
Meadowood people have been found in the Maritime Provinces. In Nova Scotia, Meadowood-style
arrows have been identified on Lake Kejimkujik and the Mersey River. In this region, eel weirs have
also been discovered. These eel weirs are a series of triangular-shaped, stone fish weirs along the
Mersey River which were used to capture eels in the fall. A similar weir is located in Laketon, Indiana,
on the Eel River.
Fish weir on the Eel River in Laketon, Indiana. From The Nephilim Chronicles, A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley. 2010.
Meadowood Iroquois artifacts are found from the Maritime regions through northwestern New York
and west into lower Canada and the Great Lakes regions of Northwest Ohio, Southern Michigan and
Northern Indiana. Along the shores of lakes within this region, were mound pods, consisting of 3 or 5
mounds in a group which are usually small and domed shaped. The mounds along the lake shores may
represent some of the earliest burial mounds in the Great Lakes region. All of these have been
destroyed except for one mound pod in Williams County, Ohio, at Nettles Lake and another at Croton
Dam in Michigan. These two sites were similar in that five, domed shaped mounds were on the south
side of the lakeshores, with conical mounds nearby. Croton Dam's 5 domed shaped mounds have been
nearly erased, with the two larger conical mounds still visible despite recent university archaeological
destruction.
Early Iroquoian, conical mound at Croton Dam in Newaygo County, Michigan after being excavated. In these mounds were found subsurface cremations, copper spear points, stemmed points, copper beads, beaver incisors, stone drills, copper needles, red ochre, fire kits, and a child’s burial accompanied by a dog. Burial traits and artifacts resemble the Late Archaic more than the subsequent Woodland period. From The Nephilim Chronicles, A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley. 2010.
Evidence of the Maritime people moving into the interior lakes region can be found in the
similarities of artifacts. Mark Schurr from Indiana University conducted an archaeological survey of
Lagrange County, in northeast Indiana and concluded that prior to 1,500 B.C., the cultural influence of the county was from the northeast. Cameron Parks, a local collector of artifacts in Northeast Indiana
submitted “Slate Artifacts from Dekalb County, Indiana” to the Indiana Historical Society. Parks
photographed several slate points, and realized that they were identical to points found in the northeast,
associated with the Maritime or Red Paint people.
The slate points on the left are from Maine and were illustrated in The Lost Red Paint People of Maine, by Walter Brown Smith, 1930. To the right are identical slate points found in Dekalb County, Indiana that were photographed by Cameron Parks.
Typical Red Paint or Maritime graves were described n Maritime Antiquities of the New England
Indians with Notes on the Ancient Cultures of the Adjacent Territory by Charles C. Willoughby
“The soil of the burial places at Bucksport and Orland was a coarse gravel while that at Ellsworth
was a finer gravel with area of sand which showed quite distinctly the outlines of the graves, an
enabled accurate cross-sections to be made. These show three methods of the disposition of the body.
The usual method was to dig a basin-shaped hole about five feet in diameter at the top, and
approximately three to four feet deep. In this the body was placed in a flexed position, together with
fire-making outfit, a bag or package of red ochre, adzes and other implements. The grave was then
filled with earth, and a fire built over it. This fire apparently did not come in contact with the body,
otherwise carbonized bone doubtless would be found. Another type of interment the body was not
flexed, but laid horizontally in a grave twenty one inches deep in the sand. In a few graves a small
amount of buff colored powder was found which showed a decided reaction when acid was applied.”
The act of burning an area prior to burial, or building fires over the grave was also evident in many of the burial mounds in the western Great Lakes region. Ashes and burnt earth was found at the base of
mounds that have been excavated in northeast Indiana. Reports also described mounds where a mantle
of earth had been burnt brick hard with a layer of ashes over this. It was believed that the cremation
fires had been covered with earth, followed by the surrounding structure being lit and collapsing over
the mound area.
The Meadowood, Glacial Kame and Red Ochre Phases are followed by the Early and Middle
The Nephilim Chronicles: Fallen Angels in the Ohio Valley Page 8
