Mormon History
Fascination With Ancient Indians - 1822
Republican Advocate – October 18, 1822
To
the editors of the Louisiana
Republican.
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.
Gentlemen:
--
In the course of my observation & travels through several parts of the United
States, I have kept minutes of the most remarkable events which have occurred
under my own observation, extracts from which I design, occasionally, to submit
to you, and if you think them worthy of insertion in your useful paper, you are
at liberty to use them accordingly.
All accounts extant, relative to the size of the ancient settlers of our
country, agree that this race of beings must have been larger than the present;
but none that I have seen give any evidence of this fact. From my own
observation, I have evidence at least of one person of gigantic stature.
In the year 1810, I opened, with several other persons who accompanied me for
the purpose, one of the flat mounds common in the western country. It was built
of regular layers of flat stones, and covered lightly with earth. This was 4
miles west of the town of Worthington, in Ohio, and within a few rods of the
banks of the river Scioto. -- In this mound we found the skeletons of a number
of bodies, some of a very large size, they were deposited directly due east and
west, the heads to the west; precisely as is the practice in Christian burials.
After several hours fatigue in opening & examining this mound, we retired to a
house of a Mr. Miller, about 200 yards from the spot, who informed us that he
had taken a skeleton from the mound adjoining the one we had examined, which was
supposed to be, when living, a man of at least 7 feet 4 inches. He stated that
such was the opinion of all who had seen the bones in his possession -- that the
bone of the leg, which had lost a little at each end, was then longer than the
bone of the tallest man in the settlement, measuring from the heel to the cap of
the knee.
Mr. Miller stated that he had also in his possession, the jaw bone of this
skeleton, which he said, would cover loosely the face of any of his neighbors;
and that, when he found the skeleton, he picked from one of the joints of the
neck bone, (which was also much larger than any he had seen before,) a stone
arrow point; from which circumstances, it was thought his death had been
occasioned. I made many inquiries of Mr. Miller, who seemed to be a very
intelligent man. He informed me that he had been living at his residence on the
Scioto, for many years; -- that when he first settled there, he was told by all
the old Indians that these mounds existed at a period beyond the recollection of
the oldest of them, and that the tribe of Indians before them could give no
account of the mounds, other than that they were burying places before they
inhabited the country.
From these circumstances, together with some others, which have come under my
observation, I have been of opinion, that the bones frequently found in these
mounds, must have been the skeletons of a race of beings inhabiting the country,
of whom the Indians had no knowledge. The most remarkable circumstance stated by
Mr. Miller was, that when ploughing his field, he traced plainly the remains of
an ancient building in the form of a house, as there was a manifest difference
in the appearance of the earth; and pointing at the same time to the hearth
stone in his fire-place, he observed "the hearth-stone which you see there, I
took myself from the place where I suppose the fire-place was in the ancient
building of which I speak." The Indians, he added, gave him the same account of
the appearance of this old building as they had of the mounds; that it existed
before their time. During the war, and while on my way to Detroit, I intended
calling on Mr. Miller, for more particular information, but upon my arrival at
Worthington, I learned that he was dead.
Every information tending to prove the existence of a vast ancient population of
any part of our country, ought to be preserved -- but few persons can or will
afford to spend time and money to the attainment of such an object. I have
occasionally noted what had passed under my observation since the year 1807 in
the western country; and, as I find leisure, will transmit them to you to be
filed away through the medium of your paper, till better proof can be obtained
of the existence of a vast ancient population of our country.
It would, in my opinion, be a very laudable act in the general government to
encourage or authorize some competent person to collect the most important facts
in relation to this subject. And the present state of profound peace and
tranquillity of our country is, perhaps as favorable as any other in the history
of our national affairs for such an undertaking. A TRAVELLER.
Note 1: This article was also reprinted in the Oct. 30, 1822
issue of the Palmyra Herald and Canal Advertiser, along with an article
on Mordecai M. Noah's scheme for a gathering of Israel in America.
Note 2: Early settlers moving into the western country once frequently
encountered burial mounds and graves containing the bones of such
ancient giants, but evidence of these exceptionally tall and robust
Indians is rarely uncovered today. The prevalence of these reports
during the 1820s and 1830s lead some Americans to speculate that their
land had once been inhabited by a civilized (perhaps white) race of
"mighty men of yore." Mormon writers have often pointed out the
evidence of these large skeletons as supporting the story of the
Jaredites or Nephites in the preColumbian Americas. LDS author Phyllis
C. Olive, on pages 30-34 of her 2001 book, The Lost Tribes of the Book
of Mormon, sets forth her evidence that the Book of Mormon people were
not only the "Mound-Builders," but that they were also a "large and
mighty nation living in the near vicinity of the Hill Cumorah and
throughout the entire mound building region -- the giant, Mound
Builders so long sought for; a people who bear remarkable similarities
to those described in the Book of Mormon." See also the same writer's
1998 book, The Lost Lands of the Book of Mormon, where she expresses
the same ideas. The thought does not seem to have occurred to these
Mormon writers, that pre-1830 reports of American antiquities could
have influenced the writing of the Book of Mormon itself.