Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/67

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 37 articles, of every kind whatsoever, that have thus far been taken from the mounds. Indeed, I might even go further, and as the result of some years of work, as well in the field as in the library, venture the assertion that not only has there not as yet been any- thing taken from the mounds indicating a higher stage of de- velopment than the red Indian of the United States is known to have reached, but that even the mounds themselves, and under this head are included all the earthworks of the Mississippi val- ley, were quite within the limits of his efforts. All that I intend to assert is, that, admitting everything that can be reasonably claimed by the most enthusiastic advocate of the superior civiliza- tion of the Mound Builders, there is no reason why the red In- dians, of the Mississippi valley, judging from what we know, historically, of their development, could not have thrown up these works. This proposition is not as complete as could be desired, and yet it probably embodies all that can ever be proven on this subject." I quote from Marquis de Nadaillac's article, "The Unity of the Human Species," pp. 1-2. The arrow heads of the Dakota, Apache, and Comanche Indians show curious resemblance to those discovered on the borders of the Seine and Thames ; the nuclei of Scandinavia compare w r ell with those of Mexico, and if one exchange the hatchets or the knives of flint from Europe with similar objects from America it is difficult for even experts to separate them, however well they may be versed in petrograph and prehistoric archaeology, and it will be extremely difficult to distinguish the races to which they belong. Pottery from widely separated regions is made in the same form and by the same processes of fabrication, and even with the same ornamentation. The spindle whorls in stone, bone and pottery, found in settle- ments succeeding each other on the hills of Hissarlik, recall those of the Swiss lake dwellings. Those of Peru, Mexico, and* even those in present use among the Navajos. are the same as in our museums, whether they come from Italy, Germany, the south of France, or the north of Scandinavia." Thomas La Blanc, a half-breed Sioux, has told of the separa- tion of the bands of Wacoota, Bed Wing and "Wabasha, in the vivid terms of Indian tradition. While this narrative, containing a story of the forceful removal of a mountain, must be regarded as fanciful, it is doubtless as near the truth as anything else, in which we have only tradition to rely upon. After telling of a general war,, after which Wacoota, whom he describes as a young libertine, was made chief, La Blanc says, in "Bunnell's History of Winona County": "Wah-cou-ta was left at his newly-selected camp-ground at Kaposia, while an older chief, afterward called Rem-na-chee,