Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/54



The first inhabitants of Iowa and the Mississippi Valley of which we have any evidence are called the “Mound Builders.” Stone and copper implements found indicate that they had made progress in the scale of intelligence. Whether they cultivated the soil, erected comfortable dwellings and built towns is not known; but that they made cloth is proven by samples found in mounds, strangely preserved through the innumerable ages that have elapsed. The numbers, color, habits, customs and forms of government of these people, as well as the manner in which their mounds were constructed, the purpose for which these enduring earthworks of various forms



Fig. 2—

were used, and a thousand interesting details of the history of these inhabitants of Iowa must forever remain unknown. Whence they came, how long they possessed the land, from what cause they were exterminated, are problems that will never cease to have an absorbing interest to succeeding races and generations. We can only call them the “Mound Builders,” in absence of almost all knowledge of their history.

Evidences of the work of these people are found in many of the eastern states and as far south as Tennessee in great abundance. The mounds are numerous along the Mississippi Valley in Iowa, extending from Dubuque at