352 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
EAGLE EFFIGY.
Largest Indian mound of its type in
Wisconsin.
Body 131 feet. Wing spread 624 feet.
Marked by the Wisconsin Archaeological
Society,
July 30, 1910.
ADDRESS OF REV. F. A. GILMORE.
Archaeology and theology have sometimes
been grouped together,
since both are said to deal with
subjects of no interest to modern men.
As a theologian I should be glad to
refute this idea: but though I know
you are all eager to hear me discourse
on theology, you must bear with
me if I disappoint you. Suffice it to
say that theology or the attempt to
answer the ultimate questions which life
puts to us, can never become
obsolete.
Archaeology is by no means a useless
branch of learning. It is, to
be sure, the study of things that lie
far behind us, "in the dark back-
ward and abysm of time"; but these
things have to do with the life.
of humanity. These mounds are the
records and symbols of human
thought. Hence we think that every
cultivated man should know some-
thing about them. For what is culture?
It is the knowledge of what
the race has thought and done. Much is
claimed in these days for prac-
tical studies such as farming,
engineering and the like. But these can
never replace such subjects as language,
history, philosophy, art and
archaeology for it is these that give us
insight into our vast human
inheritance. By them we enter the life
of the race. Archaeological
studies may not butter anyone's bread
(unless it be Secretary Brown's)
they do give us the key to the evolution
of man.
Effigy mounds are found in several parts
of the United States-by
far the greater number are in Wisconsin.
Here was an epidemic of
mound building. In the early days they
were thought to have been built
by the ten "Lost Tribes of
Israel"; or by a prehistoric race far superior
to the Indians in civilization; or by
the Aztecs before they migrated
to Mexico. The "consensus of the
competent" now pronounces them
to have been the work of the Winnebago
Indians, probably a few cen-
turies before the landing of Columbus.
It is a curious fact that the French
missionaries and fur traders
who were in Wisconsin as early as
1634-only fourteen years after the
settlement of Plymouth, Massachusetts-
make no mention of the mounds.
The Indians of that time did not make
effigy mounds and seem to have
lost all knowledge of them. They did not
reverence them for they built
their villages, planted their corn
fields and buried their dead in them.
The Wisconsin Archaeological
Society. 353
These mounds belong to a class of
venerated objects called Totems.
Totem is a word of Wisconsin origin and
comes from the Chippewa
language. It has now passed into general
use in the terminology of sci-
ence. It means, "my protector"
or "my familiar patron". Totemism is
found among primitive people as far
apart as Australia and Africa,
India and aboriginal America. A Totem
may be a vegetable or an animal,
a war club or other object, and even the
elements like the rain or sun-
shine. These objects were tattooed or
burned on the body, scratched on
the walls of caves, painted on the
wigwam, the canoe or paddle, cut upon
poles and erected in front of the
dwelling. With certain Indian tribes
the Totem was formed in effigy, notably
by the Siouxan tribes. Some-
times they were formed of stones laid
out in the outline of a gigantic
animal or bird. Among the Winnebagoes, a
branch of the Siouxan stock,
it was the fashion to form them out of
the earth.
There are individual Totems, sex Totems,
and Clan Totems. These
mounds are of the latter class. A clan
Totem was some bird, animal or
fish or weapon regarded as the dwelling
place of a spirit or divinity.
This divinity was the ancestor of all
the members of the clan. The clan
members were thus bound together in a
common blood relationship.
They regarded each other as Brothers,
and looked to the deity repre-
sented by the Totem, for protection and
help. Marriage was generally
forbidden within the clan. Children in
some tribes were of the father's
Totem; more often of the mother's. When
a clan grew in numbers it
might divide, the new formed clan taking
a Totem allied to the original
one. Thus the turtle clan among the
Iroquois comprised the mud turtle
clan, the snapping turtle clan, the
yellow turtle clan, etc. This group of
clans is sometimes called a phratry. A
large Indian tribe would thus be
formed of several phratries and these of
several clans.
The clan was the unit of the tribal
life, on the march and in the
arrangement of the village. When the
Omahas marched a certain clan
order was observed, and when they camped
the twelve clans took pre-
scribed places in the circle like the
figures on a clock dial. We might
think of the Totem as the Stem and the
religious customs and the
social laws of the tribe, as the
branches growing out of it. Or using
another figure we may call the Totem
idea the tissue of the common
tie which made a unit of the clan or tribe.
Religious customs connected
with the Totem.
The Totem figured in the ceremonies at
the birth of children.
In the deer clan of the Omahas the
infant was painted with spots to
imitate a fawn. Young lads had their
hair cut out to imitate the horns of
a deer, the legs and tail of a turtle or
other Totem. At puberity there
was an important ceremony initiating the
youth into the clan membership.
Members of the clan dressed to imitate
the Totem, danced and mimicked
the actions and voice of the animal.
Sometimes the novice was clothed
Vol. XIX. -
23.
354 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
in the animal's skin and laid in a
grave; the name of the Totem was
then shouted aloud. At this name the
youth arose from the grave,
signifying his new life as a clan
member, the passing from youth to the
higher estate of manhood; or perhaps
that the Totem had power to
give him life beyond the grave. In some
tribes there seems to have
been a certain formula of words and
gestures as a part of this ceremony.
This may have been a secret sign by
means of which a person could
pass from clan to clan and find
entertainment and fellowship, even where
the language was different. In
Australia, by means of this Totem
formula, a man might travel for a
thousand miles and find friends of the
same Totem.
Death ceremonies. The buffalo clan of
the Omahas wrapped the
dying man in a buffalo robe and said,
"You are now going to your
ancestors the buffaloes. Be
strong." We find the burial mounds placed
close to the Totem effigies as if for
protection.
The custom of taboo spring out of
veneration for the Totem.
The red maize clan of the Omahas will
not eat of that grain. It would
give them sore mouths they say. Members
of the deer clan in the same
tribe will not use the skin of a deer
for robes or moccasins nor its oil
for the hair, but may eat the meat for
food. The Totem animal was
sometimes kept in captivity and
carefully fed. In Java the red dog clan
had a red dog in each family and no one
might strike it with impunity.
A dead Totem was properly buried. In
Samoa a man of the owl clan
finding a dead owl will mourn for it as
for a human being. This does
not mean that the Totem is dead; he
lives in all the other owls. This
is a characteristic of Totemism, to
reverence the species; whereas
reverence for a single animal or object
is a characteristic or Fetichism.
When the Totem was to be killed for food
apologies were made to it.
Or flattery would be used, as when the
fisherman before setting his lines
to catch the Totem fish would call to
them, "Ho! you fish, you are
all chiefs." The Totem helped in
hunting; also in sickness. The medi-
cine man imitated the motions and voice
of the Totem to drive out
the sickness.
Omens came from the Totem. An eagle
flying toward a war party
was a sign to go back; if it flew with
them it was a sign to go on.
A curious ceremony took place among the
Omahas. A turtle was deco-
rated with strips of red cloth tied to
its head, legs and tail, tobacco was
placed on its back and it was headed
toward the south. This ceremony
was intended to drive away the fog! The
logical connection between
cause and effect would puzzle a Whately
or Jevons to discover; but it was
doubtless there to the Indian mind.
When running foot races the Indians
often carried an image of the
Totem on the breast or back. In signing
treaties the Totem was affixed
as a signature,
The Wisconsin Archaeological
Society. 355
Before drawing the conclusion from these
facts I wish to say a
word about the art of these mounds and
their date. The Indian builders
certainly had an artistic sense. We find
that land animals such as the
bear, deer, panther, etc., are always
formed with the legs on one side,
and with rare exceptions the legs are
never separated. Amphibious
creatures, the turtle, lizard, etc.,
have the legs spread out, two on each
side. Birds have the wings wide spread
or curving and the feet do
not appear. The attitudes of the animals
is not the same for all. There
is artistic variety. Sometimes they are
standing still, again they are
prowling. In several localities in this
state two panthers are built
close together and their attitudes shows
them in combat. In other
places they are guarding caches of food
or the village enclosure.
We have no clear light as to the date of
these works. They were
erected when the land features were
about the same as now. About the
same distribution of forest and prairie,
level of soil and depth of
streams and lakes. There were the same
animals. Neither extinct nor
domestic animals are represented in the
effigies. After the days of the
mastodon, and after the present
topographical features were established,
with the same fauna and flora as found
by the white men at the time
of their first contact with the Indians,
but before the white men came
these mounds were built.
Sometimes we find several similar
effigies in the same locality. This
may mark some favorite gathering place
of the aborigines, as at Lake
Koshkonong where several clans having
the same Totem gathered for
fishing. Again they are found in maple
groves where the Indians came
for the sugar. Madison and the region of
the four lakes, called
Tycoperah by the natives, was a favorite
locality. Here are five eagle
mounds, several bears, panthers,
squirrels, etc. We may imagine the
region to have been a sort of capitol in
prehistoric days--giving laws
and knowledge to those who stayed at
home as it does today.
The old Greek mathematician quite
confounded his contemporaries
when he measured the distance from the
shore to a ship in the offing
without leaving the land. In somewhat
similar wise we can pretty closely
approximate the distance from us of the
mound builders and get a fairly
correct idea of the folk themselves. By
the help which we get from
archaeology and the study of Indian life
since the advent of the whites,
and particularly the institution of
Totemism, we can reconstruct that
vanished life.
This region was occupied by a
homogeneous people, probably the
Winnebagoes, its various clans and clan
groups spread from the Wis-
consin, river to the Illinois line, and
from Lake Michigan to the Mis-
sissippi. They were not harried and
driven by their enemies, but
lived in comparative peace. The clans
moved about, in Spring settling
in some sugar grove, in Summer moving to
a fishing place, in Winter
remaining at the regular villages. At
all these places they made their
356 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Totems in the soil. Certain spots, as at
Aztalan and Lake Horicon
were the seats of large permanent
settlements with earth walls and
raised earth platforms for the council
house or medicine tent. They
had corn fields and garden beds but no
domestic animals. Their mode
of life, clothing, houses, implements,
their religious ideas were those
of the Indian at the time of Columbus.
They belonged to the stone
age but had passed out of the lowest
stage of barbarism to the some-
what settled life of communities with
agriculture. Quite certainly the
mounds where we now stand marked the
site of a community. Secretary
Brown with Mr. August Roden and myself
dug into a refuse heap a few
rods west of this spot, where we found
clam shells, bones and pieces of
pottery. These effigies, the buffalo,
deer, squirrel and eagle were the
clan Totems of that viilage. Here were
held the clan dances and cere-
monies; here the youth were initiated
into clan membership, and given
the secret words which assured him a
welcome in other clans with the
same Totem. Here the young
"eagle" wooed the maiden of the deer
clan, for he might not marry one of his
own Totem.
This eagle mound is a clan Totem of that
village. A populous clan
it must have been to erect so huge a
work. The eagle has always
been admired for its strength and
courage. Wheeling far aloft or
resting on motionless wing it is an
impressive sight. And when, seeing
the fish hawk rise with its prey it
pursues it, and falling like a thunderbolt
snatches the dropped fish ere it touches
the water, it suggests the
supernatural even to a modern mind.
The eagle has been widely used as an
emblem. It was perched on
the Roman standards. It is the national
emblem of Russia, Prussia,
Austria and the United States. When in
1782 Congress chose the eagle
to be our national emblem it did not
realize that it had been used in the
same way in this country centuries
before. Wisconsin had a celebrated
eagle carried to the front in the civil war
by one of its regiments,
and known to every school child as
"Old Abe, the war eagle of Wis-
consin". May we not believe that
"Old Abe, captured in the forests of
Wisconsin was a lineal descendant of
that majestic, pristine bird whose
image is outstretched here at our feet?
There are five eagle mounds in the
vicinity of Madison; others are
found in different places in the state.
One at Mauston has a wing
spread of 325 feet; one in Sauk county
spreads 400 feet; one at the
southeast end of Lake Monona reaches 450
feet. This one before us is the
mammoth of them all; its wings extend
624 feet from tip to tip and is the
largest in the state, as well, I
believe, as in the world.
John Fiske has reminded us that in the
American Indian as he
was at the coming of the Europeans, we
have the man of the stone
age. That period of human development
which preceded civilization
in Europe, and which is only known by
its scattered vestiges in caves
and river beds-was greatly prolonged on
this continent. Indian cul-
The Wisconsin Archaeological
Society. 357
ture, Indian social life, religion,
mythology, art, etc., reproduce and
preserve for us the features of that
savage state which lies so far back
in Europe-beyond all written history. It
was a culture like that of the
mound builders out of which arose the
civilization of Greece and Rome.
This is the great value of archaeology
and fully justifies the interest we
take in Indian remains and our efforts
to preserve them. A large lizard
mound which once stood on the capital
park has been destroyed. This
was an "unpardonable sin", and
could only happen because of the gen-
eral ignorance. It proves how,
"Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart."
It is told of a teacher from another
state, that seeing the mounds
where we now stand he took them to be
bunkers on a golf course!
Doubtless he imagined them to be some of
the improvements to the
hospital made under the superintendency
of Dr. Gorst.
We take great satisfaction in unveiling
this tablet marking the
hugest mound of its type in existence.
This tablet is presented by Mr.
James M. Pyott of Chicago, who has been
a member of the Wisconsin
Archaeological Society for many years
and has always taken a deep
interest in its work.
At noon a fine picnic dinner was served
by a committee of
the Madison ladies upon tables placed
beneath the trees upon
the lawn. After its conclusion, Mr.
Stout conducted the visi-
tors to the various mounds upon the
grounds and giving in-
formation as to their character and
dimensions. At 1:30 P. M.,
the launches were again boarded and a
trip of several miles
across the water made to Morris Park, a
well-known beauty
spot upon the north shore of the lake.
At this place ample time
was given to view under the guidance of
the Messrs. A. B.
Stout and Prof. Albert S. Flint, a
considerable number of
burial, linear and effigy mounds. The
latter include a single
bird effigy and a number of large
effigies of the panther type.
The conical mounds located here include
some of the most
prominent and best preserved about the
Madison Lakes,
A plot of Indian cornhills located at
the southeast cor-
ner of the property greatly interested
the pilgrims. Morris Park
has recently been laid out in summer
resort lots by a Madison
real estate dealer. The Society is
making a determined effort
to save the mounds.