'Mound Builders' called Lenawee County home centuries before the familiar native tribes

When the first French trappers and traders passed through Lenawee County, they encountered tribes of people who had been here for centuries. These were the people we know as the Potawatomi, Ottawa, Chippewa, Iroquois, Miami, Sauk, Fox, Mascoutens and Huron. These are the tribes we commonly call Indians or Native Americans. In Canada, they are referred to as First Nations and were the subjects of this column last week. None of these monikers is 100% correct.

Many centuries — perhaps even millenia — before the familiar native tribes arrived, there were dwellers in the land whose names we do not know and who left no written records. All we know about them we learn from the relics they left behind. Our only sources of information about them are their earthworks, mounds and parapets, filled with the remnants of these ancient people. Archeologists refer to them by the descriptive, but not very original, name of “Mound Builders.” The Mound Builders were the first known organized culture in Michigan.

Mound Builders constructed earthen mounds in all sizes and shapes. They range in height from just a few feet to 60 or 70 feet and are found all across the country from New York to Nebraska and from Florida to the south shore of Lake Superior. At one time, dozens of these mounds dotted the county although none of the large mounds have ever been found here. They are mostly gone now, settlers of the 19th century plowed them into farmland long before they knew what they were.

Several different types of mounds are known to have been built. Archeologists classify them as sepulchral, sacrificial, temple and mounds of observation or defense. There are other types, but these are the ones found in Lenawee County.

Sepulchral mounds are usually pyramid shaped. They are the burial mounds and often contain a large number of skeletons along with personal belongings presumed to have been the property of the dead.

Sacrificial mounds are exactly what the name implies. Human sacrifice has never been documented and these mounds contain primarily animal remains along with beads, pottery and sculpture, assumed to be offerings of some sort. These mounds also contain evidence of altars of burned clay or stone located in the center of the mound and resting upon the original earth upon which the mound was constructed.

Mounds of observation, sometimes referred to as mounds of defense, are also what the name implies. They tend to be either taller or located on higher ground than the sepulchral or sacrificial mounds. They are typically arranged in a regular pattern marking out what may have been the perimeter for a settlement. Many of them have the remains of what are assumed to be beacon fires.

Stone relics, like tools and arrowheads, are common and are still found today. There must have been millions of them in use during the time of the mound builders, whose existence spanned thousands of years. There are even some copper implements. Copper is not found in this part of the state, so its presence indicates either migratory patterns from the north country or trade with northern groups living in the same time period. It also provides evidence of prehistoric mining in the north, which may have been limited to finding copper laying around on the ground.

Ancient people had the same basic needs as the later native tribes and 19th century settlers. Water, wildlife and tillable soil all dictated where settlements — both temporary and permanent — would be located. As such, it should come as no surprise that many of the mounds in Lenawee County were in and around Tecumseh.

Unfortunately, none of the few mounds found in Lenawee County has been properly opened and investigated. This really isn’t anybody’s fault; it is just a fact of rural life in the 19th century. Farmland was needed and settlers were trying to establish lives for themselves and their families. They were not looking to do scientific archeological research, that came much later.

One historian said, “Since the year 1832, the plow and the cultivator have leveled the historic work of the Mound Builders.”

Many historians believe that many of the trails that criss-cross the land, and that were used by the later tribes, were originally carved through the wilderness by the Mound Builders. It is not uncommon to find later tribal people using some of the Mound Builder tools, which they likely found as they pursued an agricultural lifestyle.

The mounds in Lenawee are long gone now but there are still a few undisturbed ones in Ohio that you can visit.

Bob Wessel is vice president of the Lenawee County Historical Society and can be contacted at LenHist51@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Mound Builders lived in Lenawee County centuries before native tribes