Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan Oto Sioux Burial Mounds

Reconstructed Hopewell burial mounds in downtown Grand Rapids. It has been suggested that the Hopewell mound builders were of Sioux origin.  The Oto Sioux had been the dominate mound building culture whose burial mounds and earthworks extend as far south as southwest Indiana.

Another view if the reconstructed Hopewell burial mounds in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Get Directions to the Hopewell Burial Mounds in Michigan

Newaygo County, Michigan Oto Sioux Hopewell Burial Mound

Newaygo County, Michigan Oto Sioux Hopewell Burial Mound

Burial mound photographed near White Cloud, Michigan

Oto Sioux Hopewell Indian Mound in New Harmony, Indiana (Posey County)

Indian Mound in New Harmony, Indiana (Posey County)

Several mounds were photographed within the city of New Harmony, Indiana in Posey County, Oto Sioux have been identified as the builders of the mounds and earthworks in the county. More on the Oto Sioux

Oto Sioux Burial Mounds on Lake Maxinkuckee in Marshall County, Indiana

Oto Sioux Indians once inhabited northwest and southwest Indiana. More on the Oto Sioux in Indiana

Two Oto Sioux burial mounds are still visible on the east shore of Lake Maxinkuckee

A little south of the last mounds is this single mound overlooking the lake.

Hopewell Oto Sioux Earthworks Photographed in Hamilton County, Indiana

Hopewell Oto Sioux Earthworks Photographed in Hamilton County, Indiana

Historic map showing the locations of burial mounds and Earthworks in Hamilton County, Indiana

Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History (Fourteenth Annual Report), 1884

       But Strawtown has an antiquity evidently higher than the days of the Delaware Indians. The mound builders have left their footprints in this vicinity by the numerous relics of the Stone Age that have been picked up by the present inhabitants. A little west of the present village there is a burial mound about six feet high; it has been plowed over for a number of years, so that not only its height has been reduced, but its base rendered so indistinct that its diameter can not be accurately measures; it is, however, between seventy and eighty feet. It was opened in 1882 by Judge Overman, of Tipton, and four skeletons were found lying on the original surface of the ground, with their heads together and their feet directed to the cardinal points of the compass.

This type of burial was symbolic of the mound builders Sun god.  This type of burial occurs frequently with the Adena and proto Iroquois and Sioux of the Ohio Valley, whom archaeologists call the Hopewell.  This is consistent with reports from the excavations of this site by IPFW archaeologists who assigned this work to the Oto Sioux.

      At a distance of 150 yards southeast of this mound is a circular embankment, now about three feet high, and twelve feet on the base. It has a ditch on the outside, which evidently furnished a portion of the earth for the embankment. The diameter of the circle, measured from the bottom of the ditch on each side, is 315 feet. There is a doubt as to what period this work should be referred. A tradition among the “old settlers” claims that the remains of palisades that once formed a stockade, were standing on the embankment when the early immigrants settled here. This tradition is strengthened by the fact that in 1810 a stockade was built by the Delaware Indians somewhere near this spot, as a protection against their Miami neighbors north of White River. Moreover, it was not the custom of the mound builders to make a ditch on the outside of their embankments. On the other hand, the regularity of the work, and the perfect form of the circle, is hardly compatible with the idea that this is the work of modern savages. It is possible that the circle dates back to the period of the mound builders, and that the Delawares took advantage of it to build their stockade on, and made the ditch to strengthen their palisades. The ditch was been filled, and the embankment reduced much by cultivation.

Map showing the location of the henge at Strawtown. IPFW university determined that this site was constructed by the Early Native American Oto Sioux who were the Hopewell Indian mound builders

History of Hamilton County Indiana, 1915

The Fort and Mound

The work of the Mound Builders found in Hamilton county is not as extensive or varied in character as in other counties in our state, but nevertheless the Strawtown Mound is very interesting tot he residents of Hamilton county and in some ways is distinctive and different from mounds in general. The Strawtown Mound is situated on the Roy Castor farm in White River township in the southeast part of the northwest quarter of section 3, township 19 north, range 5 east, near the center of the section. In 1875 the state geologist, Professor E.T. Cox, made a visit to the mounds and gave the following description of his trip: “Through the kindness of General Moss and William M. Locke, I obtained the skull and ornaments for the state collection. I was taken by General Moss and Mr. Locke to Strawtown, seven miles from Noblesville, to see some prehistoric earth works. They are now in a cultivated field owned by J.R. Parker. The corn and weeds were so thick it was impossible to make an accurate or even satisfactory examination of the works. The main work is a circle about three hundred feet in diameter, thrown up in the center, but apparently level and surrounded by a ditch that Mr. Parker says was about six feet deep when he first saw it. Fifty yards to the south of the large circle is a lesser circle about fifty feet in diameter and now almost obliterated. The site of these works is on the second bottom of White River about a quarter of a mile from the bank and thirty feet above the overflow. Between the earth enclosures and the river there is a mound which commands an extensive view up and down White River. The large enclosure is one of the very few in the Mississippi Valley that has the ditch on the outside, and it therefore is worthy of more careful study.”

The earthwork at Strawtown is best described as a 'Henge' that is defined as a circular earthwork with a outer wall and interior ditch with a gateway that is aligned to a solar event. The gateway is slightly visible on the southeast side that may have aligned to the winter solstice sunrise.

     Later, accurate measurements were made of the mound. It was found that the principle enclosure is situated about seven hundred feet west of the river on an elevated point of land extending in a northwesterly direction into the bend of White River. This elevated point of land overlooks a strip of low bottom land varying in width from four hundred feet on the east to three thousand feet on the west, with a similar view north and south. The principal mound is a circle with a diameter measuring two hundred eighty feet from side to side. From this point the outer slope to the middle of the ditch surrounding it is about twenty feet, the ditch originally having been about thirty feet wide and nine feet deep, the earth and gravel therefrom forming the mound in the center. Inside the enclosure the middle area was originally, no doubt, of equal elevation with the surface outside. There is very little doubt that the purpose of this mound was for defense, the ditch outside being designed to resist assault. From time to time various specimens of bones, pottery, flint, arrowheads, etc., have been found, though no thorough and systematic search has ever been made of the contents of the mound. In the spring of 1914 some men were plowing over that part of the field included in the ancient mound and they unearthed about two bushel baskets full of human bones. At various times in the past such discoveries had been made but this was the first disclosure of this sort for several years. The ditch surrounding the fort is becoming less and less distinct as the years go by, and though it still be plainly seen, in the course of a few more years the hand of Father Time probably will completely obliterate it.

Additional embankments can still be seen to the south of the earthwork that were not reported in the previous histories, nor found by university archaeologists.

There are 85 burial mound and earthwork sites in Indiana. Get photos and directions along with 140 more sites in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan

Oto Sioux Burial Mounds in Marshall County, Indiana

Oto Sioux Burial Mounds in Marshall County, Indiana

Historic Map showing location of Early native American Indian burial mounds in Marshall County, Indiana

“One Township’s Yesterdays”, The History of Union Township, Marshall County

      Beginning at another beginning, this time concerning the earliest man in what is now Union Township, we run into a real problem. Who was the first man to reside in the township? What kind of being was he? Was our earliest human inhabitant a so-called Mound-Builder? It is true that mounds have been found in the township. But were they the work of those little-known aborigines, or merely of later comers, the Indians? We cannot answer. So far, the mystery of the mounds of Union Township remains unsolved.. and doubtless will remain forever without a satisfactory explanation.

      Those mysterious people of the past, the Mound-Builders, are said on good authority to have been inhabitants of certain sections of Indiana, and it is reasonable on our part to claim at least a small portion of their population for Union Township. We shall do that. Assuming that they were here.... how long ago, we cannot conjecture... we must give them at least passing mention in our history.

      Let us first turn the clock back again... a long, long way. We find ourselves ... in another flight of imagination ... at the beginning of the great Ice Age. “Vast ice-flows march down upon northern American.” The clock ticks, seconds for year, or more likely for centuries, or for ages. We have little idea what extent of time our fanciful seconds should represent. But time flies, for now “appears man, hunter and savage, fighting for his life on the edge of the retreating ice.” The history of mankind beings.

  It was about six thousand years ago that the written record of history began... and enough has been written since then to make some mighty big mounds /// we have been unable, to date, to find a single word mentioning the Mound-Builders of Union Township. This may have been an oversight. At all events, their place in the history of mankind is hidden behind a very dark cloud of doubt. But we do know that the Mound-Builders were a terribly ancient race and a very industrious race to have built “the mighty mounds that overlook the rivers, or that rise in the dim forest crowded with old oaks.” Since that race lived and died, there have been many and sundry ”footsteps on the prairies.” And says Bryant, “I think of those on whose rest he tramples,” the rest of the dead of other days.

     Little we know, and we may wonder greatly. Let them. The dead answer our questions. Let them tell us the secret of the mounds. A race, that long since has passed away, built them:--a disciplined and populous race heaped, with long toil, the earth while yet the Greek was rearing the Parthenon. So says the poet. Finally, the red man came, the roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, and the Mound-Builders vanished from the earth.

Homes on High Land

    The Mound-Builders were said to have built their homes on high points of land. They left mounds of sundry shapes and sizes, representing serpents, elephants (it seems that they must have known the mammoth or mastodon after all), various other animals, and what-not. Their history is sealed: we have learned little about them. It is said by some writers that traces of them were left in Union Township. These traces have been carefully investigated, and we shall let our readers know just about all we know about them, which is scarcely anything to crow about.

       On the “Burr Oak Flats,” mounds were discovered many years ago on what was then the J.S. Garver farm, located south of Burr Oak community. The portion of the farm on which the mounds were standing is that which includes the original Garver homestead. It is now, in 1934, the William Lake farm. Daniel McDonald reported, in 1881, “There are three what are called Indian Mounds near Maxenkuckee Lake, on the farm of John Garver, on the “Burr Oak Flats.” He said they were not over two hundred or three hundred feet apart and were situated in a triangular position from each other. They were probably thirty feet in diameter, and when first discovered were about six feet in height above the surface of the ground. Since the settlement of this part of the country, they have been cut down and plowed over until, even in 1881, they were not more than half as high as originally.

Indian Mounds on Maxenkuckee Lake

     Excavations were made in one or these mounds in the 70’s or thereabouts, and some human bones were discovered, from which it was conjectured that a battle at some time had been fought there, and the mounds had been made in burying the dead. This, however, was more or less guess-work.

Mounds on Garver Land

     J. S. Garver, in the 70’s, had property on both sides of the road connecting Burr Oak with Lake Maxinkuckee. The homestead, still standing, is sought of the Hibbard cross-road and on the east side of the Burr Oak road. Mr. Gaver had rather extensive lands. He had one parcel east of the Franklin Overmyer property and north of the Hibbard cross-road. The mounds are situated south and east of the old Garver farmhouse. The mounds are situated south and east of the old Garver farmhouse, a couple of hundred feet or more from the Burr Oak road. They are in the southeast corner of the present Lake farm, which takes in only a portion of the much more widespread Garver lands as originally owned.

     In describing the mounds, Minnie H. Swindell says that at one time their tops rose to a height of about six feet and they were about seventy-five feet across. Upon them grew trees and shrubbery. John McFarlin and Henry Grube of Plymouth remembered when the mounds were very high; but since the settlement of this region, they have been plowed under until very little trace of them remains. They were supposed to have been burial places. Grisly skulls covered with mold, and other human bones were found when the mounds were excavated. Near the bones were tools and implements of stone, iron, pottery and copper. These showed that the tribe they represented was somewhat advanced in civilized methods. According to this historian, they built their homes on high ground as a protection from roving Indians, and where spring floods could not reach them. Also, during such floods, animals took refuge on high ground: thus the inhabitants had an abundance of food. They were clever people; instead of permitting the elements to do them harm, they turned such would-be menaces to account.

    Wilbur Brown and other old residents remember when the mounds on the Garver farm used to be conspicuous, while today they are barely distinguishable, having been greatly leveled in the cultivation of the fields. Anyone not already familiar with their location, would have considerable difficulty in finding the old mounds today, since they are now so unassuming. The erosion brought about by wind and rain, added to the leveling-off due to cultivation of the soil, has about obliterated the original contour of the mounds. They now appear like natural waves or swells on the surface of the land, and much like the rolling ridges so common to the countryside in this region. On close observation, however, the mounds can be discerned in their triangular formation, the larger mound of the three being the easternmost.

Find Relics

     A visit to the former Garver farm by the writer was without what may be called success, insofar as supplying further evidence to help solve the enigma: who built the mounds? Some proofs of Indian or other early occupation of the territory were found in the form of chips such as are cast aside by the ancient arrowmakers. These chips were invariably of white or greyish flint. On the mounds and near by were some pieces of granitic stone, broken off apparently from primitive implements, such as grinding stones and tomahawks. Some of these fragments were of serpentine, the technical name for a greenish grey granite, a hard solid rock that was a favorite with the Indians for the make of certain utensils and weapons. Other debris indicated that an antique race once frequented the spot. Fossils and geological specimens were also found in the glacial drift near the mounds. Today there are no trees or shrubbery directly on the mounds, but between one of them and the dry bed of a former pond to the east is a clump of quick-growing trees.

In his later history, published in 1908, Daniel McDonald speaks of the Mound-Builders leaving traces since the days of the mastodon. These strange people are supposed to antedate the American Indian, he said. Mr. McDonald examined two mounds situated close together, on the “Burr Oak Flats.” “Digging a considerable distance into them,” he wrote, “nothing unusual was found.” In a comparatively level country, the height of the mounds indicated to him that they had been built for some purpose by human hands, but as they were composed of solid earth with nothing in them to show why they were built, it was difficult to figure out what they were for. A mile or so farther west from these mounds, he found quite a large mound which seemed to have been investigated, for there had been considerable digging in and around it. He knew of no discovery in this mound of anything that would indicate its purpose or use. Mr. McDonald could not say whether these were the work of Mound-Builders. “They were here, however, long before the Indians came to this part of the country.” He wrote, “as trees and shrubbery grew on some of them and were of considerable size when they came. These mounds were supposed to have been intended as burial places for the dead, as, in excavating in some of them, human bones were found as well as tools and implements of stone, pottery, iron and copper.”

Another Large Mound.

     In the early days quite a large sized mound existed on the west side of Lake Maxinkuckee, on or very near Long Point. It was dug into more than half a century ago, and from time to time since then many curious investigators repeated the process. Some human bones were found. Also charcoal, stone arrow-points and other trinkets and relics. The discovery of these vestiges seemed to indicate that this was a burial place of Mound-Builders or of Indians of a later period, most probably the latter. Practically the same conclusion may be advanced regarding several small mounds at “Pashpo” as originally known, located west of the Michigan Road and three miles south of Plymouth. Investigation of the Pashpo mounds was also made at an early date.

History Varies

      The pliocene skull that Bret Harte versed abut, was said to be a remnant, not only of the earliest pioneer of California, but the oldest known human being. A geologist thought that man existed contemporaneously (a contemptible word) with the mastodon, but this fossil was said to prove that he was here before the mastodon was known to exist.  The Mound-Builder has various reputations. He was said to be of gigantic height, and a cannibal,

Wheels of Time, Ervin Stuntz

    We now walk east past a few waterholes. About one quarter mile, we came to another wooded area with a ridge running diagonally through it from the northwest, located in the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 12 West Township. About in the center, we find two trenches of breastwork. These are about fifty feet apart and nearly 100 feet long.

Stuntz says Burr Oak mounds were in Section 5 Union Township and also mounds in Section 17.

Section 17, Green Township, in the west center used to be a mound, according to Frank Cowen, age 93.