Serpent Mound Discovered Within Chicago's City Limits

Serpent Mound Discovered Within Chicago's City Limits

The Serpent Mound is located in Thatcher Woods outside of Chicago, Illinois.  The Serpent is believed to have been constructed by the Winnebago Sioux Indians that were part of the Hopewell mound builders that constructed burial and effigy mounds in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Smaller, Oto Sioux Earthen Circle Discovered at the Strawtown, Indiana Works

Smaller, Oto Sioux Earthen Circle Discovered at the Strawtown, Indiana Works

History of Hamilton County, Indiana 1915

The Fort and Mound

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

IPFW archaeologists determined that this Hopewell earthen circle was affiliated with the Oto Sioux. Additional Oto Sioux burial mounds and earthworks have been identified at the Mann Site in Pozsey County, Indiana. More on the Oto Sioux

History of Hamilton County, Indiana 1915

The Fort and Mound

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.

South of the large circle this earthwork was discovered.  It is believed that these embankments are the smaller 50 foot diameter circle.

Oneoto Sioux Earthwork at Merom, Indiana (Sullivan County)

Oneoto Sioux Earthwork at Merom, Indiana (Sullivan County)

Earthwork placed on the highest bluff of the Wabash River was believed to constructed by the Oneoto Sioux.

The Strawtown earthwork was excavated by IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana and their conclusions were that the earthwork was Oneoto Sioux in origin. This earthwork had been plowed for many years and its original contours diminished. The archaeologist replaced the earth when finished; leaving no apparent signs of an excavation. The earthwork at Yorktown, Indiana looks similar in design to Strawtown, also on the White River and may also prove to be Oneoto in origin.

    The large mounds found in the southwestern portion of the State represent some of the largest mounds ever constructed by the Hopewell.  Eli Lilly had made the suggestion that Murphy, Bone Bank and the Indian “citadel” at Merom, on the Wabash in Sullivan County, were indicative of a Siouan      relationship, equating the three with the Oneoto culture. Moorehead said of the Murphy site that the platform pipes represented “early Siouan.”

The 8 Deities of the Sioux Indians and the Ohio Hopewell Earthworks

The 8 Deities of the Sioux Indians and the Ohio Hopewell Earthworks

Wankan Tanka - The Great Spirit that created everything. He governs all.

The number 8 is prevalent in the Ohio Hopewell earthworks. The octagon at Newark was constructed to venerate these gods.

The center column represents the Great Spirit, Wankan Tanka.  He symbolized here as the Tree of Life.  The 4 earthen columnsn on each side represent the 8 lesser deities.



Wi -  The most powerful Sun god
Shkan - The sky god
Maka - The Earth Mother
Inyan - Rock and immovable things

Hanwi - Goddess of the Moon - wife of Wi
Tate -  god of the winds
Wohpe - The falling star or meteor
Wakinyan - Thunderbird

Wi, The Sun God, was represented by circular earthworks or henges.

Maka, The Earth Mother was represented by the square. The largest circle may represent Shkan, the sky god

Stone walls on hilltop ceremonial works were dedicated to Inyan

Tate was the god of the 4 winds.

Wohpe - The falling star or meteor

Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and Tennessee Shell Mounds Were Early Dakota Sioux Hopewell

Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and Tennessee Shell Mounds Were Early Dakota Sioux Hopewell

  Pre-Hopewell are called the Shell Mound Tradition. Shell mounds are found most extensively in southern Ohio and Indiana and in northern Kentucky. In Louis F. Burns book “The History of the Osage” he writes, “Recent archaeological findings seem to indicate that both the Dhegiha Sioux and Chewere Sioux were the Indian-Knoll and Shell Mound culture of Kentucky and Tennessee.” Skeletal remains found in these shell mounds are identical to the later Hopewell showing that they had inhabited the Ohio and Wabash Valleys for hundreds of years. The shell mounds in the interior reveal Laurentian type artifacts, however, they were different skull types than the shell mounds in the coastal regions, the Dakota Sioux having long heads and the Laurentian/Adena round.

According to Native Americans, the only people that have claimed heredity to the Hopewell mounds and earthworks are the Dakota Sioux Nations. The descendants of the Hopewell are the Dakotan or Siouan family comprised of these known Nations. The Winnebago, Omaha, Osage, Issati, Mandan, Missouri, Dakota, Iowa, Ottoe, Hidatsa (Crow), Blackfeet, Ogala, Ponka, Assinboin, Akansea, Kansa and others. There is also evidence that the Cherokee and the Iroquois may have a common origin with the Dakota. No records and only one tradition exist of war between the Iroquois and the Sioux, west of the Alleghenies, but both of these people maintained bitter and hereditary war against the Algonquin. The prehistoric Siouan people were neighbors in the Carolinas of the prehistoric Iroquois, and the two people more or less allied in language and having similar customs.

Indiana Archaeologists Determine Hopewell Earthwork at Strawtown, Indiana is Oneoto Sioux

Indiana Archaeologists Determine Hopewell Earthwork at Strawtown, Indiana is Oneoto Sioux

The Srawtown henge is discernable from the circular elevated platform seen on the left encircled by a ditch with the outer wall also still visible. Despite being plowed for years what may be a gateway is evident on the southeast section. Traces of additional embankments were discovered several hundred yards south of the earthwork. The Strawtown earthwork is located on the high ground overlooking the White River as it bends to the south.

The larger size of this henge is comparable to others found at the Highbank Works at Chillicothe, Ohio and Yorktown, Indiana. The henges around Piqua Ohio also include a work 300 feet in diameter along with a spoked burial. A spoked burial was also discovered in Madison County Indiana near the works at Mounds State Park. IPFW archaeologist excavated parts of the earthwork and concluded that the artifacts they found were culturally affiliated with the Oneoto Sioux. Strawtown is the anchor to Indiana’s magical 50 miles that reveals by going back upriver to the east the circular henges at Mounds State Park, the henge in Delaware county, the large mound at Windsor and the Winchester works.  

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 measured; 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 'spoked burial' is found throughout the Ohio Valley associated with both the Adena and Hopewell.

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.  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 Delaware’s 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.

Circle of Sacrificed Victims Skulls Discovered in Sioux Burial Mound in Minnesota

Circle of Sacrificed Victims Skulls Discovered in Sioux Burial Mound in Minnesota

    

A painting was done by George Catlin of Mandan Sioux Indian skulls in a circle.  This tradition of placing bodies or skulls in a circle dates back thousands of years.  The following account may not represent human sacrifice but Sioux Indian's burial tradition.  


History of Winona County, Minnesota 1883
     No other mode of burial would satisfy their ideas of a proper sepulture, but after a time the example set by the white people of burying their dead had its influence, and in modern times, except among the wildest bands, the Sioux began to bury their dead soon after their demise. The body of Chandee, son of Wah-kon-de-o-tah, the war- chief of Wah-pa-sha, was buried upon my brother's property at Homer by special request of his relatives. His sister, Shook-ton-ka, the champion girl racer of the band, and some children of Wah-pa- sha, were buried near the site of the Huff house. After the treaty was decided upon by the band, many bones of the dead were removed and buried in secret places at night, lest they should be disturbed by white settlers, whom the Indians knew would eventually occupy the country. Some of the ancient mounds have been used by modern tribes as receptacles for their dead, but in such cases the fact is readily discernible, as no regard has been paid by the modern Indians to the strata of earth, clay, and sand, or gravel, of which the burial or sacrificial mounds have been composed. It is believed by some that the circle of skulls found in an ancient ossuary at Minnesota City were the crania of victims to some religious sacrifice around the altar-pole, or else of captives slaughtered and left, as puppies are left in modern times, with heads to the pole, which might account for the position the skulls were found in. At Bluff Siding, opposite Winona, along the wagon-road to Galesville, a number of mounds may be seen, occupying an admirable position for defense.

Photographic Tour of Ohio's Hopewell Sioux's Blood Spring Necropolis.

Ohio's Blood Spring Necropolis.

    The mound builders constructed hundreds of burial mounds at this site.  Tales of disembodied voices on this site are notorious. Blood Spring was a place where the living could commune with dead. 

A literal river of blood runs from this natural spring.  This would have been the Holy of Holies to the Mound Builders who interpreted Iron Oxides as the blood of the Earth Mother.

It is not known if the steps were constructed by the park employees or by the ancients.  A burial mound is located just beyond the top of the steps.

Springs were interrupted as a portal to the underworld.  The serpent was the consort of the Earth Mother in the underworld who acted as a protector of the dead.

Drinking from Blood Spring.  1000s of the ancients may have come to this site to drink and be cleansed by these waters.

Chunks of Red Ocher are found in great abundance around Blood Spring. It is very likely that much of the red ocher found in the Hopewell Sioux, burial mounds in the Ohio Valley came from this Holy site.

Behind Blood Spring is this Hopewell Sioux, burial mound.  It is left overgrown in the summer months and hard to see.  Park employees are clueless to the spiritual importance of this site.

Hundreds of small mounds once dotted the landscape around Blood Spring.  Antioch College destroyed many of the burial mounds.

A few yards from Blood Spring is this natural rock formation I've dubbed, "Skull Rock."

This is the spring that gives "Yellow Springs" its name.  This spring is high limonite that that leaves a yellowish cast to the adjoining rocks.

Hopewell Sioux Mound Builders Earthworks Discovered in Chillicothe, Ohio

Ancient American, Sioux Mound Builders Earthworks Discovered in Chillicothe, Ohio

A Hopewell Sioux Earthwork has been discovered in Chillicothe, Ohio.  The earthworks was one of four that were all 250 feet in diameter.  Henges of 250 were generally aligned to the the Equinox sunrise.

Henge group located of a terrace of a hill above Water Street in downtown Chillicothe, Ohio. A thorough  investigation of the city has yet to be done, but it is believed that there are more remnants of earthworks in the City.

Remnant of one of the small 250 foot diameter henges is still visible in this lawn overlooking Water Street.

Another group of Hopewell Sioux henges located in Chillicothe, Ohio that were 250 feet in diameter. This group has not been located, but may still be visible.  Many other works around Chillicothe were also 250 feet.  Certain evidence that the Ancient American Mound Builders were using mathematics to construct the many works in this area.

Article is from "The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley."