Trempealeau County, Wisconsin - Chapter 3: Archaeology, 1917

It is so rarely the case that our present poUtical divisions correspond closely with the outlines of any of the older tribal domains, or habitats, that when such happens to be the case, it is not only a matter of interest, but it furnishes a peculiarly satisfactory theme for the writer.

The lack of correspondence between political divisions and archaelogical provinces is due to the fact that the latter were determined far more by topographic conditions than are the former, and the fact that Trempealeau County furnishes an exception is due to the circumstance that the Trempealeau Prairie constitutes the major portion (the adjoining portions of La Crosse County making up the rest) of a peculiarly compact and sharply defined area which we may judge to have been very attractive to the Indians.

There are several reasons why it should have been so. It is a region of unusual beauty and charm. This was due not alone to the bluffs, for the prairie with its rolling grassy hills, free from woods or brush ; the park-like aspect of the "oak openings," and the picturesque outlook, all tended to impress themselves on the senses and enthral the imagination of those who came under their spell.

There was an abundance of productive and easily cultivated soil. The bordering streams and lakes yielded ample supplies of fish and water fowl, and the back country the larger game. For them it might well have been a veritable "Garden of Eden," such as one of our local writers has pictured.

Broadly speaking, the earthworks, which may be taken as indicating approximately the locations of the village sites, were disposed in a curving - band running from Marshland along the margin of the river terraces to Trempealeau Bay, then from Trempealeau Village along the terrace fronting the Mississippi to Black River, ending with a number of groups on the Black River below and above the mouth of Beaver Creek, and a couple of groups further up the latter stream near Galesville.

These several groups have suffered from cultivation and other agencies of destruction in varying degrees, those along the Mississippi front, perhaps the most ; it is doubtful if more than one in ten of those once existing is now in recognizable condition.

Those on the Black, south of Beaver Creek, have also suffered severely. The larger ones are still recognizable as artificial, but the forms cannot be determined. The best preserved are the groups along the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, at what is known as Pine Creek siding, and at Trempealeau Bay, and the one on Black River near Decorah's Peak. The the largest of a group of large mounds. Distinguished as to form, the mounds may be classed as (a) conical, mounds having a circular or approximately circular base. They may be of all sizes from a few feet in diameter and a few inches high to those a hundred feet in diameter and a dozen feet high. They may also vary widely in the degree of convexity.

(c) True linear - those several to many times as long as wide. While the length of these may vary greatly from less than a hundred up to several hundred feet, their height and width varies but little. They are always as straight as the topography will permit. They are often in series, end to end, the intervals seeming to be often little more than passageways.

(d) Taper Hnear - these, as the name indicates, are straight, elongate mounds, usually varying from a hundred to near three hundred feet in length, which show a regular taper from the large end to the vanishing point. The rate of taper is approximately the same in different examples. i. e., the base subtends nearly equal angles. It follows that in the larger examples the large end is broaded and higher than in the smaller.

(e) Effigies - mounds made to represent various birds and animals. Wisconsin probably contains more of this type than all the rest of America. A great number of forms have been described, those most common in this vicinity being birds - apparently two or three species are shown - bear, deer, and a form rather doubtfully referred to the panther type of the eastern part of the state.

The simple "conical" mounds have from the first been recognized as having been mortuary monuments, but their authorship was ascribed to an unknown race, while both the purpose and authorship of the more complex mounds were among the unsolved puzzles of a haK century ago; the unknown race which was assumed to have built them being conveniently called "Mound Builders." The studies of the past thirty or forty years have, however, wrought a pretty thorough revolution in our knowledge of the subject. It is now definitely established, though once the contrary was held, that many of our Indian tribes were in the habit of building mounds. Articles of European manufacture have been found in some mounds, and even the building of mounds witnessed by whites.

Having settled the more general question of authorship, we were placed in a fair way to settle the more specific ones, as to the particular tribes concerned, and the purpose. It has also been long recognized that in the effigies, linear and taper linear, Wisconsin possessed a peculiar assemblage of forms but little developed elsewhere. We have also learned that even in Wisconsin this type was confined to a somewhat sharply defined area extending through the south central part of the state. When the whites first entered the region the area was claimed by, and in part occupied by, the Winnebago tribe, the members of which appear to understand the significance of the effigies. They are simply visible representations of the clan or gens totem. The gens, 'perhaps even more than the tribe, was the social unit which most profoundly influenced the life, not only of American Indians, but of barbarous races throughout the world, and the object, natural or imaginary, which was assumed as the guardian patron of the gens, was its totem. But few of the tribes made visible representations of it. Those which our Alaskan tribes carve from wood offer another example. The purpose of the linears and taper linears is not as well determined as of the effigies. It is conjectured that the taper linears were conventionalized effigies, and that the linears served in some way in the games and rituals of the tribe. No very direct evidence seems as yet to be available.

These three forms, effigies, linears, and taper Unears, are so closely associated that we must regard them as the work of the same tribe, and their distribution furnishes us a good criterion for determining the actual limits of the territory held by that tribe. What we may regard as the state south of Green Bay, exending as a narrow band down the Wisconsin, main body is that taking up the greater share of the eastern part of the but showing only slight evidences along the Mississippi until we reach the rich development of the Trempealeau Prairie, above which it ceased entirely. Both the conical and elongate mounds were built by other tribes besides the Winnebago, so that their distribution is far more general. Outside of Trempealeau Prairie, as above outhned, mounds are not numerous. A group once existed between Arcadia and Independence, and two mounds still exist at Independence. So far as I have been able to learn none have existed above that. But, while earthworks are lacking, artifacts, in the shape of arrow and spear points, also celts, have been found in all parts of the country, Mr. Risinger of Winona having a particularly fine collection, nearly all made from the county.

It might seem that in selecting these for special notice I was giving them undue prominence, but, when it is realized that they are by far the most massive earthworks in the county, and exceeded by few, if any, in the state, or in the Northwest ; that they embody novel features, being in this respect practically "sui generis" ; that neither their purpose nor authorship is determined, it will, I think, be conceded that such prominence is not unwarranted.

They are easily chief among the features of historic and prehistoric interest, of which Trempealeau is the center, although it would not be far wrong to say that the attention they have received from the archaeologists of the country has been rather in inverse proportion to their real importance. Description: The group (see Fig. 1) consists of three platforms ranged along the crest of the hill, which jutting out toward the village, has its foot on Main street. One platform is on the extreme point, being partly produced by digging off a portion of the crest of the hill but mainly by filling. There is an interval of about seventy-five feet between this and the next, which is a level place produced by filling sufficiently to bring it to the level of the crest. The next and principal platform immediately adjoins this and is built up to a level seven feet higher than the crest of the hill. Owing to a certain amount of settling and wash around the sides, the level surface was somewhat greater than at present, apparently about sixty-five by eighty feet. The gi-eatest length is transverse to the direction of the hill crest, a circumstance which added very materially to the amount of fill required, the west base being about eighteen feet below the produced surface. The material of which they were constructed was obviously obtained, in the main, from the large holes closely adjoining to the northward ; however, an excavation carried down to the base revealed the interesting fact that at least some material had been carried up the hill, the nearest source of that kind of material being somewhere in the vicinity of Woodmen's Hall. Gravel also occurs on the corner of the middle platform, brought from somewhere below, either with studied design or else incidentally.

I have also made numerous measurements, transverse, longitudinal and diagonal, and from these have calculated the cubic contents: Large platform, 93,000 feet; middle, 2,000 cubic feet; on point, 18,000 cubic feet; total, 113,000 cubic feet. The massive character of the construction may be best brought out by some comparisons. The Nicholls mound, the largest conical mound remaining, and at least one of the largest at any time in this vicinity, contains about 38,000 cubic feet. A mound of medium size, say 40 feet in diameter and four feet high, contains some 1,800 cubic feet. One of the pure linear mounds may be taken as having a cross section approximating 18 square feet. The material in the platforms would be sufficient to build a linear of that cross section over 6,000 feet long. These figures will, I think, bear out my assertion as to the pre-eminence of the platforms in the matter of mere size.

Peculiarities: In the emplacement and the apparent careful co-ordination of the platforms, they are without a known parallel in the Northwest ; indeed, nothing quite parallel has been reported from any part of the country; but platforms are of somewhat frequent occurrence in the South and Southwest, and two occur in Wisconsin. These are both in the same locality, in Jefferson County, and within what appears to have been an enclosure, on the banks of the Crawfish River. (Two other enclosures with platforms on a smaller scale occur in the near vicinity.) They are now nearly obliterated by cultivation, but in 1850 I. A. Lapham surveyed them, and his plate is reproduced by G. A. West in an article in the Wisconsin Archaeologist (Vol. 6, No. 4, 1907, facing page 242). Of the two platforms one is given as sixty by sixty-five feet on the level top, the other supposed to be fifty-three feet. The height, unfortunately, is not given. The smaller platform is said to be the highest point in the enclosure and to averlook the wall. The wall is said to be from one to five feet high. The other we may pei-haps assume not to have been higher than the wall. I have calculated the contents on the assumption that one was five and the other six feet high, giving about 23,000 and 25,000 cubic feet respectively. These calculations have, of course, little value, but seem

Purpose and Authorship - That a construction of such size and built at the expenditure of so much labor was intended to serve a public function is so self-evident that attempted proof would be superfluous ; but, whether this function were civil or religious, and who were the builders, are questions in regard to which there is a divergence of opinion.

My own opinion, based on apparent adaptation, is that the purpose was religious, that of sun worship. If this view is correct it involves certain corollaries as to authorship. The other view, held by many who have not made a personal study of the remains, would assign to them a civil purpose and a different authorship. In any line of investigation, when other sources of information are lacking, apparent adaptation is regarded as important evidence. In the study of palaeontology, for example, it is relied on to determine habits of animals long since extinct, and, as is believed, with a good approximation to accuracy. It would seem to be equally applicable in the domain of archaeology.

It may be stated as a broad generalization that it is in their religious constructions chiefly that the idealism, mysticism and mythology of a people find expression, and when we find a variety of adjustments having no apparent explanation from the purely utilitarian standpoint, there is justification for the belief that they were made in conformity to some religious idea. When in addition we find that all the features combine to render the construction peculiarly suited to a certain form of religious observance, the presumption is greatly strengthened. Both of these suppositions find exemplification in the Trempealeau platforms. There are several adjustments which give evidence of careful planning and appear as though designed for the accommodation of a rather complicated ceremonial. If designed for sun worship the location was surpassingly fine, and the evident orientation (toward the position of the sun at the summer solstice, not toward due east), evidenced in the placing of the longer axis of the platform transverse to the hill crest, and in other features, would find its explanation. As the site of a council house, or of a chief's house, the only alternative function that can be suggested, they would have been isolated from the body of the tribe, inconvenient of access, remote from supplies, and open to attack. We may conceive of tribes whose government had become so centralized and separated from the people, that such isolation would be desirable, but this is not true, according to our best knowledge of any of the tribes found in the region when the whites first entered it. So far, therefore, as we may judge from adaptation, the evidence strongly indicates religious use and contraindicates a secular one.

The opposition to this view rests on the belief that it conflicts with certain archaeological generalizations, a belief which, in my opinion, is based on misconceptions. I have already alluded to the fact that archaeological opinion has undergone a great change in the last half century. The ascription of our American antiquities to an unknown, and long vanished race, having been quite displaced by that which ascribes them to tribes identical with, or at least of the same general stock, as those that we know. Coupled with this earher beUef were numerous rather fanciful hypotheses, based on careless observations which, in the light of more careful recent study, seem almost childish. This whole matter is treated at considerable length and much ability by G. A. West in an article entitled "Indian Authorship of American Antiquities" (Wis. Arch., Vol. 6, No. 4, 1907). It is well worth reading by those interested in the subject. But in discussing the Aztalan (Wis.) remains (pp. 217-232) he reaches some conclusions which I do not think quite in accord with the evidence. That the remains at Aztalan and the other two smaller groups of similar character near by are notable departures from the types seen elsewhere throughout the State is indisputable. However, Mr. West is disposed to place such an interpretation on them as to minimize the unlikeness. In doing so he very justly exposes certain inaccuracies of observation, and extravagances of interpretation current for a time, such as the use of brick in the construction of the enclosing wall, the evidences of human sacrifices, and the ascription of the remains to the Aztecs. Prescot's "Conquest of Mexico" had taken a firm hold on people's imaginations, and served to bring the Aztecs into many situations where they had no place.

The two features of Aztalan which are peculiar are the encircling wall and the platforms. Their peculiarity is seen in the fact that while there are scores of mound groups showing the characteristic assemblage of Winnebago forms, efligies, linears, and taper linears, nothing at all similar to the enclosures is found outside the Aztalan region (a few small inclosures are reported, but they are so obviously different in aU essential respects that they cannot justly be placed in the same class) and nothing similar to the platforms save there and at Trempealeau. We are obliged to assume in explanation, either that there was some special reason, the seat of a centralized government, for example, why the tribe used a type of construction there which they deemed needless elsewhere ; that some small subdivision of the tribe developed a type of construction markedly different from the others; or that it was built by some quite distinct tribe having very different ideas and building requirements.

Mr. West finds in the linear groups of mounds common in certain topographic situations a parallel to the enclosing wall assuming that the separate mounds of such a group are connected. But such connection is rare, so rare as to be negligible, and even if it were otherwise would fall short of a full explanation. He assigns to the platforms a secular function - the site of the chief's house, or or the council house, and cites as examples some described in the account of De Soto's expedition, but those which he encountered were certainly not used by the Winnebago, nor by any other tribe of the same stock, and there is some reason to believe that one in northern Georgia belonged to a tribe kindred to the Natchez, with whom the chief was both the civil and rehgious head of the tribe, and where in consequence the platform combined both a civil and religious function. Some of those noted were probably in Florida, a region where, as has been said, "they have hard work to keep their feet out of the water," and where a platform had a decidedly utilitarian purpose.

the inclosure, which are, no doubt, of Winnebago authorship. The artifacts found in the vicinity are also said to be of the type common in the State, though some of a better quahty are hinted at. Because they are indistinguishably commingled all are assumed to be of the same authorship. There is, however, no necessity for such an assumption. If a region has been occupied by different races, a commingling of their artifacts and construction must almost inevitably happen. Mingling of white and Indian remains is not unusual.

However, I have been able to show that at Trempealeau a tji^e of pottery, almost identical with a type common south of St. Louis, but very rare north of that place, occurs quite unmixed with the common type of the region. We may say, therefore, that both the platforms and the pottery find their nearest counterparts in what we may broadly speak of as the Arkansas region.

This fact offers at least a suggestion as to probable authorship. Mr. West remarks in referring to that conjecture that a colony of Mexicans (Aztecs) had built the inclosure and platforms, "Such conclusions are no longer permissible. No such colony ever penetrated to within a thousand miles of Wisconsin." In this assertion he is no doubt correct. There is to my mind nothing to suggest Aztec influence, and I have never for a moment entertained such an opinion. But he ignores the fact that the valley of the Mississippi has been entered, and for a long time occupied by another race, which, on the basis both of language, and their own traditions, has been referred to the Maya stock of Central America. These were the Natchez, and cognate tribes. Their wanderings had carried them considerably more than a thousand miles from their original seat, and to considerably less than a thousand miles from Wisconsin.

There is considerable ground for the belief also that they were in their decadence when they first became known to the whites, and that the area occupied by them had become greatly restricted from what it had once been. That, during their expanding and aggressive stage, offshoots from them should have passed still further up the great river, is more in accord with inherent probability than that they did not. It should be noted m this connection that the Arkansan (from whom the state took its name), a tribe of the same stock as the Winnebago, is, on the basis of Indian tradition, assigned a rather late entry into the region, apparently about the last of that stock to pass into the trans-Mississippi region, and the curtailment of the Natchez territory might in part have been the result of that invasion. Among the Natchez the chief was held as a superior being, a child of the sun, the religious as well as the civil head of the tribe. The sun was the object of worship, the worship involving a complicated ceremonial on the platform, on which a perpetual fire was kept burning. The chief, as a sacred being, also had his residence on the platform.

While we should not suppose that all the tribes had identical customs, we should look for strong family resemblances, and such family resemblances would seem to be indicated by the remains at Trempealeau and Aztalan.

perhaps not to be hoped for. It, however, offers a solution of the problem which violates no inherent probabihty or well determined fact ; is, on the contrary, rather probable and in accord with such facts as we know.

Synopsis of the Argument Regarding the Platforms - 1. Their size, and the thought and labor bestowed on them, clearly indicated a public purpose. 2. That purpose, judging from adaptation, was religious - sun worship. 3. They do not belong to the recognized type of Winnebago constructions - are indeed so unhke other constructions of the Northwest as to constitute a type in themselves. 4. The nearest parallels are found in the "Aztalan" groups. 5. These groups are also rather notable departures from the typical Winnebago type. 6. The arguments whereby it is sought to bring them into harmony with Winnebago types are pertinent as showing their Indian authorship, but not as showing their Winnebago authorship. 7. Disproof of their Aztec authorship was uncalled for, since I have never believed in such authorship. 8. A group of tribes of Central American origin were living on the lower Mississippi when whites first entered the region. Their civil and rehgious beliefs and customs offer a rather striking parallel to what, on the basis of adaptation, we should judge to have been those of the builders of the plaftorms. 9. The pottery found at Trempealeau is almost identical with that they are known to have made. 10. It is inherently rather probable that offshoots from these tribes should have ascended the Mississippi.

A find made at Trempealeau Bay during the past season - 1917 - renders it desirable that something be said on the subject. The find consists of a flat stone, a trifle over three inches long, somewhat under two wide and about one-half inch thick. It is of moderately hard sandstone, unworn, save that at each end there is a carefully-made notch, as though to permit a cord to be fastened about it. The symmetrical position, and the care used in making them, places their formation by any other than human agency quite out of the question. It was taken out of the mud in which it was closely embedded. The mud had been taken from under the west pier of the bridge at a depth somewhere betweeen fifty-four and sixty feet. The mud in which it was embedded was part of an unbroken deposit of similar material containing an abundance of shells and vegetable material, and extending from fifty-four feet to the bottom at sixty-eight feet. From fifty-four feet upward to forty feet the mud alternated to some exent with sand. The deposit gives every evidence of being interglacial. Obviously this would indicate the existence of man anterior at least to the last glacial period. Yet, while the evidence seems clear, and difficult to invalidate, it is best to receive it with caution.

It must be borne in mind that the antiquity of man as a denizen of the world is quite a distinct question from that of the date of his arrival on this continent. In Europe, and adjoining portions of Asia and Africa, evidences have been found indicating his existence practicafly throughout the Pleistocene period. But in America the evidences are much more

A few examples will serve to show the nature and limitations of the evidence. Some half century ago a human skull was found in the auriferous gravels of California under a lava bed. This seemed to carry man back into the tertiary, but the opinion finally prevailed that the lava bed was a displaced mass which had slidden to its present position. Some years ago human remains were found along the Missouri River nearly a hundred feet down. But Professor Chamberlin showed that the bed of that stream is extremely unstable, being rapidly cut away and refilled to great depths, with obvious consequences. For a number of years archaeologists have been finding flint chips in the glacial gravels at various places, notably near Trenton, New Jersey, and near Washington. But it is claimed that these might have been produced by natural agencies, and Professor Chamberlin gives cuts of two groups, one from the above sources, the other from a source where human agency is not presumed. I think that no one could pick out, with confidence, the natural from the supposed artificial group. More recently human remains have been discovered in Florida associated with the remains of extinct animals of the Pleistocene. But it appears that they occur in a Uttle valley which had been partly refilled with wash derived from the surrounding Pleistocene, whereby objects not really contemporaneous are brought into apparent relationship. It will be seen, therefore, that the evidence thus far obtained lacks considerable of being conclusive.

In the case of Trempealeau, Professor Chamberlin, in response to my first letter, was disposed to apply the same explanation as in the case on the Missouri, scour and fill ; but, the conditions here are such as to definitely exclude that explanation. It may be said that the weak point in the evidence is that the object was not seen in its actual position in the bed. Still, considering that from fifty-four feet downward the material retained substantially the same character, and quite evidently had not been subject to scour and fill, the lack does not seem to seriously invaMdate the evidence.

It is best, however, to be a little conservative in such matters, and reserve one's opinion until the evidence has been studied from all angles.

1 - In calculating the volume of conical mounds, I have assumed them to be cones of the given diameter and height, making the diameter equal to the furthest limit to which artificial fill can be traced. It is, of course, not strictly accurate, but gives a reasonably close approximation.

Trempealeau Township. - (a) Mounds and earthwork near the Mississippi, opposite Homer. Reported by L. H. Bunnell, Smithsonian Seport, 1871, p. 430. Large group of mounda on the Gladsten property, south of Pine Creek, near Pine Creek Station.

(b) Mound west of Mr. Booher's residence at Trempealeau. Several mounds in close proximity to the Baptist church at Trempealeau. (G. H. Squier says there was but one.)

(c) Other mounds on the ridges of the bluffs not far from Trempealeau. Human bones and vessels found in them. Mentioned by L. H. Bunnell, Winona and Environs (Winona,

1S07), pp. 84, 37 and 89. Oval mound on Wm. Nicholls' place at Trempealeau. Tabular mound on the south side of Third street at Trempealeau. (Identical with third item.) Series of three platforms on the crest of a hill at Trempealeau. Mounds and fireplaces near the former location of Fort Perrot. Scattered bones found in some of the mounds.

(d) Group of conical mounds near the southeast corner of Mt. Trempealeau. Also single mounds nearby. Described and mentioned by 6. H. Squier, Wisconsin Archceologist, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1905), pp. 25-34. The tabular mound briefly described by L. Kessinger, History Buffalo County, pp. 75-76. "Pictograph" rock bearing Indian carvings, on an exposed sandstone ledge on Trempealeau river, 2Vi miles northwest of Trempealeau. Described by T. H. Lewis, American Naturalist, September, 1889; mentioned by C. E. Brown, ll'isconsin Archeeologist, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1905).

Gale Township. - (d) Effigy mounds at Galesville and vicinity. Mentioned by (Jeorge Gale, Th-e Upper Mississippi (1867), p. 14; and by L. H. Bunnell, Winona and Environs (1897), p. 87, also in Galesville Transcript, Nov. 25, 1860. (e) Rock shelter at Galesville, the sides of which are covered with carvings representing snakes, birds, mammals and men. Reported by T. H. Lewis, August, 1905; mentioned by C. E. Brown, Wisconsin Arclueologist, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1905), p. 218.

Tlie list as given is a correct bibliography of the subject as far as I am aware. I have indicated above such as are duplications or were based on incomplete knowledge. (G. H. S.)

(b) This was originally a large conical mound like the Nicholls mound. The top was scraped away some time in the late fifties or early sixties, by Richard Towner, now dead.

This, that near the Baptist church, and others of which 1 have seen traces, made up a considerable group once occupying the site of Trempealeau.

(c) Although not numerous, there are mounds in several localities on the bluffs. On Trempealeau Mountain, Brady 's Bluff, on hill Viack of Fort Perrot, on the main bluff, and on a lower space of Liberty Peak. These were so scattering that they could not well be plotted, as was done for the Pine Creek group, those at tlie bay and others.

(e) Unless the one in the park from which the spring issues is intended, I do not know to what he refers. That Indians may have used it for shelter and left markings in it is not improbable, but even in the late sixties when I first visited it, these had been largely supplanted by the work of the whites.

Judge Gale's work approached nearer to a systematic study of the archeology of the county than any of the others. His acquaintance was very wide. It is unfortunate that he left so few notes to aid in locating the features he mentions. Mr. Bunnell was a keen observer, but his work was only incidental. Mr. Lewis spent a few days in the vicinity, giving considerable attention to the archseology.