Indian Mounds...

[5fish]

I found this while looking for mass graves... The Shiloh National Park is also the home of pre- Columbian Indian mounds and village site...


Shiloh National Military Park not only interprets the battlefield's historic role during the Civil War, but it is also the site of the pre-Columbian remains left by American Indians who once inhabited the Tennessee Valley. Today, the park's seven Indian mounds and a dozen houses allow visitors to learn about the history of America's aboriginal inhabitants and their way of life before European contact changed their world. Shiloh's Indian mounds survived western colonization and the destruction of the Civil War to remind visitors of the role of the earliest peoples in the nation's history and their continuous influence on American culture.
A pre-Columbian village occupied the eastern edge of Shiloh hill for over 800 years. Archeologists characterize Shiloh's American Indians as belonging to a "Chiefdom" society. Within this structure, the Indian community considered the chief the most influential political and religious leader, followed by the council elders and the chief's family. Villagers not in the council of elders or part of the nobility were mostly farmers who harvested corn, squash, and sunflowers. The people also ate fish and hunted deer, raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels. Other sources of nutrition included wild plant foods, such as hickory nuts and acorns.

Archeological evidence demonstrates that there were other mounds and neighboring chiefdoms near the Shiloh site in present day Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Studies of these chiefdoms indicate that although some neighbors were hostile toward the Shiloh society, other chiefdoms exchanged "prestige goods" with it to legitimize political alliances between chiefs. Since 1899, archeological excavations of Shiloh's Indian mounds have found a number of "prestige goods" or tokens of friendship, among them a significant large stone pipe in the shape of a kneeling man that archeologists believe the Cahokia chiefdom of St. Louis gave to the Shiloh society.

Expired Image Removed

Shiloh Indian Mound
Courtesy of Allen Gathman through Flickr's Creative Commons

A 1934 excavation uncovered a dozen houses, which visitors can see today at Shiloh. The evidence demonstrates the advanced lifestyle of this pre-Columbian society, whose people had adobe fireplaces in their homes. Shiloh National Military Park is one of the few sites in the United States with visible remnants of pre-Columbian homes. The park honors and interprets these early American Indians while preserving what remains to illustrate their way of life.

link... http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/cultural_diversity/Shiloh_National_Military_Park.html

 

[diane]

Thanks for putting this up! I have a very strong connection to Shiloh - one of my great-uncles was killed there - but there was always the feeling of a closer connection. Of all the battlefields, that's the one I want to go to most. Some of my father's people lived in that area forever and there's always been a connection with those mounds.

 

[Patrick H]

I can relate to this. I grew up in an area full of them. I'm sure many of you did, too. These remnants of ancient cultures are fascinating and they, too, are sacred ground. Pre-Columbian burial mounds can be found along many waterways. Here in Boonville, there are four in our largest city park. There is another in a back yard overlooking the Missouri River on High Street. The fur trader, William Ashley, is buried in another not far upstream at the confluence of the Lamine and the Missouri. Just across the river in Howard County I know of another and I am sure there are many more. Very near the First Battle of Boonville site, there are two more. They straddle Highway 98. Overlooking the nearby village of Wooldridge (a bit downstream) I could show you another. There are three more overlooking a farmer's lake where I used to fish and hunt. These that I've just named are all burial mounds and I have no idea how many individuals are buried in each. Those who came before us occupied this land for thousands of years before we came along.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks for putting this up! I have a very strong connection to Shiloh - one of my great-uncles was killed there - but there was always the feeling of a closer connection. Of all the battlefields, that's the one I want to go to most. Some of my father's people lived in that area forever and there's always been a connection with those mounds.

Have an uncle who is buried there, too. The National Park Service people are awfully approachable, mine is one of 11 unidentified Illinois soldiers although he'd been at the time of burial. Those battlefield burials must have been beyond impossible to keep track of, so chaotic and bloody. Didn't mean to turn this into ' Me', meant to say have to turn this over in my head for a long time, that our fallen there share their Peace with Native Americans, can't wrap my head around that. So significant in a way I do not have words for.

I'm pretty happy a lot of burial mounds haven't been investigated by archeologists. It's all very good and well to ' need' to study ancient cultures. The thing is, bottom line they are still the graves of people who were buried with ceremony and sorrow no matter how long ago, just like we buried any of our family members in the recent past. Or George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or people our culture venerates. This thing where we get to dig up bones and stare at them just because they're a different culture gives me the willies.

Pretty sure a lot of our ancient, sacred History is safe anyway. Thankfully. I remember one place I lived, article in the local paper years ago, old guy showed one of those local reporters around the woods? Showed him exactly this kind of thing along with ancient monoliths, etc. Reporter scoffed at them, said it was all made up stuff, stone piles were campers looking for shelter. Point being, you could hit the professionals on the head with what's out there, they won't believe anyone anyway. Kind of nice.

Thanks for the post, 5fish, very cool!

 

[lakertaker]

Used to live in a rural area just west of Mound, Minnesota - named as such for the proliferation ancient burial sites. Hunted on the neighbor's several hundred acre woodland that had never been tilled or grazed. Could have sworn some of those unnatural looking humps of terrain looked like burial mounds, but who knows? Neighbor had two coffee cans full of partial arrowheads that he would find after heavy rains in his large garden. Partial arrowheads, because if they didn't work out, they would pitch them to the ground and start over. As a bow hunter myself, hunting those same ridges and valleys, I couldn't help but feel some connection to these ancient people.

 

[TinCan]

In Florida they have these shell mounds. Indians would harvest the oyster beds and throw the shells into a pile that grew to sometimes huge size. One is almost in the front yard of General Adelbert Ames house in Ormond Beach. Unfortunately the state government in the 20's and 30's thought these shell mounds made great highway paving material and many mounds were destroyed. It's weird when you realize your not standing on a hill but a huge mound of oyster shells.

 

[diane]

Think it was Bruce Catton who commented that the war had a peculiar way of leaning on a peaceful, quiet place. Just me, but I think the Shiloh church being in the same vicinity as the mounds isn't really a coincidence. Could be early settlers just had the same idea the early Indian settlers had - good place to farm! - or there was just a spiritual quality to it that people respond to. Battles being fought at quiet churches, like the Dunker church at Antietam, shouldn't be surprising I suppose, as those areas were usually flat and cleared like the wheat fields and corn fields, but to me there was a definite religious thread in that war. Not just people quoting the Bible or having services, etc, but something even people who didn't believe in it picked up on. For example, one agnostic inclined aide to Stonewall Jackson saw the general praying on horseback and nudged his horse closer to 'maybe get some of that'!

By the way, Forrest and a couple of his scouts climbed up on top of one of these mounds to have a look at Buell's arrival.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Think it was Bruce Catton who commented that the war had a peculiar way of leaning on a peaceful, quiet place. Just me, but I think the Shiloh church being in the same vicinity as the mounds isn't really a coincidence. Could be early settlers just had the same idea the early Indian settlers had - good place to farm! - or there was just a spiritual quality to it that people respond to. Battles being fought at quiet churches, like the Dunker church at Antietam, shouldn't be surprising I suppose, as those areas were usually flat and cleared like the wheat fields and corn fields, but to me there was a definite religious thread in that war. Not just people quoting the Bible or having services, etc, but something even people who didn't believe in it picked up on. For example, one agnostic inclined aide to Stonewall Jackson saw the general praying on horseback and nudged his horse closer to 'maybe get some of that'!

By the way, Forrest and a couple of his scouts climbed up on top of one of these mounds to have a look at Buell's arrival.

I'm certain there's a lot to that, here on this coast. Being a Pennsylvanian have a feeling Gettysburg is the same way- the tribes have different stories ( don't mean to imply what they say are ' stories' as in invented, I mean their histories as told through generations ) than the settlers, or historians, or what seems to be in a lot of the old tomes. Point being, poking around doesn't seem to be consistent information on the area meaning no one knows except who was here and they're not telling.

 

[Ole Miss]

The pre-Columbian Indian Village located at Shiloh contained over 30 mounds and they are located along the bluffs over-looking the Tennessee River. Sadly the majority of park visitors little notice or visit these landmarks.
I wanted a to share a few photos of the Indian Mounds taken by @kilroy15 on a recent visit to the Park
Regards
David

 

[19thOhio]

last fall on our third visit to Shiloh National Military Park we curiously followed the road out to the Native American site and how interesting that was. One could even imagine a bustling community around the various mounds and other sites. And the view over the Tennessee River at the bend both up stream and down stream testify as to how important the area was to early trade along the river.

And interestingly, on the trail back to the parking lot through the woods I found some beech drops (plants).

Thanks for the post.

And I forgot to add, there are similar sites along the Natchez Trace, some very large mounds are visible in the distance from various pull offs. Interesting unexpected addition to our trip.

 

[Ole Miss]

The 28th Illinois buried their dead atop an Indian Mound. The regiment suffered 29 KIA.
Regards
David

 

[A. Roy]

The pre-Columbian Indian Village located at Shiloh contained over 30 mounds and they are located along the bluffs over-looking the Tennessee River. Sadly the majority of park visitors little notice or visit these landmarks.
I wanted a to share a few photos of the Indian Mounds taken by @kilroy15 on a recent visit to the Park

Amazing -- I never heard this about Shiloh. The National Park Service says that:

"Between two steep ravines, a wooden palisade enclosed seven earthen mounds and dozens of houses. Six mounds, rectangular in shape with flat tops, probably served as platforms for the town's important buildings. These structures may have included a council house, religious buildings, and residences of the town's leaders. The southernmost mound is an oval, round-topped mounds in which the town's leaders or other important people were buried."

Roy B.

 

[Ole Miss]

Well if no one else learns about this hidden aspect of Shiloh I feel it was worth the effort to bump this thread.
Regards
David

 

[Patrick H]

I was glad to see the Indian mounds. In my area there are mounds along nearly every good-sized creek and certainly along the Missouri River. I know of at least five within the city limits of Boonville (there used to be more, but some have very unfortunately been lost to development.) I can think of many more in the nearby area that I have visited many times. It's not unusual to see country cemeteries around and sometimes over Indian mounds, so I am not surprised to read that those soldiers were initially buried on top of one of the Shiloh mounds.

 

[Ole Miss]

Prior to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, the Park's museum had on display a beautiful pipe carved by one of the residents of the mound village but it along with other objects are no longer on display.

As a kid I remember vsiting a a univeristy lead excavation of a burial mound and being fascinanted by what was unearthed. I had no idea that this was offensive and culturally devastating to Native Americans.

So is it a good thing that NAGPRA was passed yes.
Regards
David

 

[James N.]

I only scanned the posts above and may have missed it, but I don't believe anyone has mentioned yet that in his historical novel Shiloh author Shelby Foote places Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest atop the tallest of the mounds watching downriver as steamers bring Buell's reinforcements the night of April 6.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I only scanned the posts above and may have missed it, but I don't believe anyone has mentioned yet that in his historical novel Shiloh author Shelby Foote places Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest atop the tallest of the mounds watching downriver as steamers bring Buell's reinforcements the night of April 6.

Yes, ( of course ) Diane brought it up. Who else?

Glad to think some states acknowledge these mounds. I've always had an idea some ( like ours ) do not exactly because the NAGPRA was passed. They'd have to actually protect these sites. I could walk a few hundred yards from my house and see several. What you're supposed to do, according to the state when ' finding ' this stuff is tell someone? That's always fun. We quit after the first 10 years. What you get is OHHH no, nothing like that in Pennsylvania! Or say, a pre-Columbian relic, stone tool, etc, that's just a rock. Seems a dreadful shame. Must have 207 ax-head, scrapers, whatever shaped just-a-rocks.

 

[James N.]

Yes, ( of course ) Diane brought it up. Who else?

Glad to think some states acknowledge these mounds. I've always had an idea some ( like ours ) do not exactly because the NAGPRA was passed. They'd have to actually protect these sites. I could walk a few hundred yards from my house and see several. What you're supposed to do, according to the state when ' finding ' this stuff is tell someone? That's always fun. We quit after the first 10 years. What you get is OHHH no, nothing like that in Pennsylvania! Or say, a pre-Columbian relic, stone tool, etc, that's just a rock. Seems a dreadful shame. Must have 207 ax-head, scrapers, whatever shaped just-a-rocks.

Thanks; I had missed it since it wasn't in the body of her post. (I wasn't sure the incident really happened or Foote just made up the part about the mounds.) The three mound culture sites I best remember are Chucalissa (sp.?) Village in south Memphis near the Mississippi border; Ocmulgee in North Georgia near Etowah; and Spiro Mounds State Park near Spiro, Oklahoma. As I recall, Chucalissa is an excavated townsite on Choctaw tribal lands right alongside the Mississippi River and run by the tribe - it was weird to be wandering around in the darkened display area hearing the staff talking in their native tongue! I believe Ocmulgee is a Georgia State Park. (I've also visited one or two in the Midwest but remember little about them, including their names.) Here's a link to an old thread that includes information about Spiro Mounds:

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/le-flore-county-oklahoma-scene-of-the-real-true-grit.126784/post-1380144

 

[mofederal]

Sounds like a Mississippian, the village could have been a village aligned with Cahokia, of course it could have been the Natchez. It is not so far from where I went to field school at Wickliffe Mounds. It is hard to say without more research. We had a major site at one time where I live, but it is gone now. Where I am from we have Woodland Mounds, much smaller than Mississippian sites. I have also seen houses built on top of Mounds here in Southeast Missouri. Not my idea of an ideal spot, but it might have been dry when it flooded. I remember seeing the Shiloh Mounds when I visited the park for the 1st time, and I remember the Mound display. It is ok to show artifacts, but not bones. I have been to Mound sites where they used plastic or plaster bones in lieu of the real remains, this was done to show how an open mound would look that has been excavated. Many mounds were long ago excavated.

 

[Ole Miss]

Where else would Forrest have stood? That man had such a skilled eye for military terrain that had to be innate!
Good job bringing this matter up!
Regards
David