"The tribe of Mandan Indians was discovered by Lewis and Clarke on the Upper Missouri, during their expedition to discover the sources of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, sent to perform that perilous duty under the presidency of Mr. Jefferson, and which embraced the years 1805-1807. They spent the winter of 1805-6 among these Indians, but did not learn their traditions. To the astonishment of Lewis and Clarke many of these savages had blue eyes, and their hair was generally silky and very abundant, and, except red and auburn, of all the colors which distinguish the tresses of the various inhabitants of England and Wales. The ethnological problem presented by their peculiarities was, I think, solved satisfactorily by George Catlin, the painter, who visited them and spent some months with them in 1832. He understood Welsh, and found in their language fifty pure Welsh words, one hundred and thirty nearly so, and many others of Welsh derivation. They used a circle of stones in the construction of the hearths of their huts; they preserved the art of making the Welsh blue beads; and they navigated the Missouri River in a canoe, like the Welsh coracle, made of willow limbs and rawhide of a peculiar construction, and used nowhere in the world except in Wales. It was a tub pulled, instead of being propelled, by a paddle. Their tradition was, that their ancestors came across the "great water" from the East; while other tribes of the United States point to the Northwest as the direction from which they migrated. Catlin verified the correctness of their tradition as having come from the East, down the Ohio, and up the Missouri, by tracing the ruins of their huts, easily recognized by the Welsh hearthstones, up the Ohio River, as far as he examined it. This interesting tribe, he tells us, was nearly exterminated by the smallpox in 1837; and their destruction, as a separate clan, was completed. soon afterward, when they were vanquished by their inveterate enemies, the Rickarees, and their remnant became incorporated with that tribe. The Tuscaroras inhabited the banks of the Yadkin, and other rivers of the northwestern parts of North Carolina, whose waters interlock with those of Green River, and other tributaries of New River, the principal branch of the Great Kanawha, which empties into the Ohio. The great forests of these regions abounded in game, and many of their valleys, and the mountain-plateaus separating them, still afford excellent hunting-grounds. The migration of these Welsh Indians up the Yadkin, and down the Ararat, Green, New and Kanawha rivers to the Ohio, was easily accomplished; and this, I think, was their route to the Missouri. Connecting these facts and examining them' properly led to the conclusion of Catlin, that the Mandans are the descendants of Madog and his followers, Imixed with various Indian tribes." During the reign of Charles II., a book known as "The Turkish Spy," was written by an Italian, John Paul Marana, who was at one time in the service of the Sultan of Turkey. This book was published in London, in 1734, and gives an interesting account of the condition of affairs of the kingdoms of western Europe. Speaking of the British possessions in North America, he says: "There is a region of that continent inhabited by a people whom they call Tuscoards and Doegs. Their language is the same spoken by the British or Welsh; and these Tuscoards and Doegs are thought to be descended from them." But it might be asked how is it these Indians are called Tuscaroras or Tuscoards, and Doegs in North Carolina, and Mandans on the upper Missouri? Catlin has given an ingenious and plausible explanation of this change of name. He says Mandan is the name of the Woodroof, or Welsh madder, used for dying red, and he thinks the Welsh gave the name Mandan to these Indians on account of the beautiful red they used in dying the porcupine-quills. It is claimed by some writers that the Cherokees, who were neighbors to the Tuscaroras, and the most intelligent and predisposed to civilization of all the North American tribes, had also a fusion of Welsh blood, but the evidence is not so complete as that of the Tuscaroras and Mandans. With reference to the mounds and mound builders there have been many learned but unreasonable theories advanced which have resulted only in "confusion worst confounded." We have reached a conclusion, and have since been gratified to find that two among the clearest and most reasonable writers on this subject, practically indorse our position in almost every detail. We refer now to J. H. Beadle, in his great work, "The Undeveloped West"; and J. D. Baldwin, in "Ancient America." The general term "Mound Builders" is applied to a people who have left evidence of extensive works in various parts of the United States, especially in the vicinity of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries. These are of three kinds: mounds, square and circular enclosures, and raised embankments of various forms. Unlike all the mounds in Mexico, Central and South America, those in our country have no trace of buildings on them. Why? We will let J. W. Beadle answer this question. Said he, "Until I visited Arizona I had no answer. There the solution was easy. In those regions stone was abundant and timber was scarce; here the reverse was the case. Our predecessors built of wood, the others of stone; the works of the latter remain to this day, while wooden buildings would leave no trace after one or two centuries, if indeed they were not burned by the savages as soon as abandoned." From what is seen in the Southern and Western States antiquarians have reached the following conclusions: 1. The socalled Mound Builders were no wandering and feeble tribes, but constituted a large population under one central government; this is shown by the extent of the works, as well as their completeness and scientific exactness. 2. A large area around their settlements was cleared of timber and cultivated, showing that they were an agricultural people. 3. As nature does not give a forest growth to abandoned fields, without a preparatory growth of shrubs and softer timber, and as forest trees have been found on their mounds showing at least six hundred years of growth, it follows that they left our country nearly a thousand years ago. 4. From the increase of fortifications northward, and the broad flat mounds, suitable only for buildings southward, it is proven that at the South they were at peace; |