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as old Marksman of the Chippewa whom, I was told was "over eighty winters"
shoot a rabbit with deadly accuracy at fifty yards, run over with the agility
of a youth to reach it, and hold it up grinning, showing all of his white
teeth while he flung his dark braided hair from his face. However, the red
man does not fare so well in our cities. He ages the same as we do. Asked
why, he will usually remark: "'The air stinks, that is why." The elderly
man was intrigued with the drawings Pidgeon was making. Finally using his
poor command of English, he asked: " Why do you draw pictures when your people
destroy?" Pidgeon answered simply that there would come a time when men would
want to know about these giant mounds. "I want to put it down in a book for
that time. A book talks on paper," he explained. "'It goes on talking after
I am dead. I wish to talk to the people who live after the time of the
destroyers." (I do not have the book before me and am quoting from memory,
but in general, this is the thought he conveyed.) The old man nodded his
interest and asked Pidgeon to follow him. This turned out to bean invitation
to have dinner and meet his tribal friends. That night Pidgeon learned that
his new friend was Decoodah, the last living man of the extinct Elk nation
of the Algonkins. He was the keeper of the histories which went back for
over a thousand years. His sons had died in the Black Hawk war fighting the
white invaders. He had found no youth among the red men who was worthy of
receiving the traditions, so he had intended to take the chants to the grave
of his people. Pidgeon decided right there and then that he would learn the
old man's language and try to learn more than he could at the white universities.
So he invited Decoodah to go with him as he continued to "map the earthworks".
Decoodah accepted, and for four months they wandered through the forests
together. Decoodah led him to the most important mounds, sketched for him
the parts which had been eroded away by streams, and then began to explain
the meanings. Finally after the "time of waiting and know ing", Decoodah
ceremonially took young Pidgeon for his son and began to give him the histories.
He learned that Decoodah's detailed knowledge of these past civilizations
was due to the fact he was "reading the mounds". They were indeed histories,
to be read from the center outward, and the story of that city had been ended
with "the mound of extinction". Each animal pictured stood for a tribe of
people. One mound, or rather set of mounds in
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Wisconsin, was a capitol city whose historic dynasties had a past as brilliant
and checkered as that of London - where Incidentally, Pidgeon finally published
his book over a hundred years ago. Decoodah began to tell his" son" of the
people who lived in peace along the rivers, the mound builders, trading even
with distant nations In their longboats. Their religion was peaceful, since
it had been brought to them by a long-dead saint. Together with what he told
and what one can learn from some of the explorers who first talked to such
extinct nations as the Natchez of the Mississippi river, and the tribes of
Louisiana, one can picture these cities very well. They were built in the
shape of a wheel with streets for spokes. The government buildings were on
the central mounds. When the city was captured by enemies, those mounds were
closed and the mark of extinction added. They were never destroyed. In them
were the tools and the clothing and utensils used at that time. -These large
buildings were built of hewn whole logs, painted or gilded. The grounds about
them were covered with strawberry bushes as today we use grass. Some trees
were used for shade and some for their good nuts or fruits. Built thusly,
the pyramids extend all the way into the land bordering Mexico. About the
year 700 A. D., a tremendous invasion took place from the south up the
Mississippi. Four (the sacred number) tribes came up the river. The Turtle
(the Dacotah) was leading the Snake (Iroquois) and probably the southern
tribes such as Choctah, Chickasaw, Creek Cherakee (ra meaning sun), or Muskogian
speaking and perhaps the Caddoan speaking tribes. Today we classify them
as the Atlantic tribes. They had cities on islands in the Caribbean sea which
were being devoured by the ocean. Also, one of their group were setting
themselves up as "Lords" and capturing the others as slaves (Aztecs?). They
were originally the "seven families who fled from the old red land in the
destruction" the Dacotah tell as a supplemental story to fill out the picture.
They fled north, preferring to learn the knowledge of the woods to living
in slavery. They were fire worshippers. They remembered a sacred dragon and
giant caves where he had once lived. Was he the personification of lava?
Perhaps. They brought with them the memory of pyramids and of ancient writings.
They carried fire in their long boats which they burned out of a single giant
tree trunk. They carried their history in the form of chants and sometimes
in the knotting of colored threads. They held sacred the memory of a giant
bird who had a tuft
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