Page 81 (unnumbered in text)

THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

CHAPTER V.

PREHISTORIC MAN IN IOWA.

IN common with the larger portion of the vast area comprising the United States, there exist, scattered throughout Iowa, the evidences of a race, or races of men, who antedated the Indians of our history. We may infer something as to the attainments, social and domestic habits, and perhaps religious ideas of those ancient people, from the remains of their works, which, after the lapse of unknown centuries, challenge the wonder of the archaeologist and the antiquary. In the valleys of our rivers, and upon the higher lands, covered with the forest growth of centuries, are mounds and earth-works, of the origin of which the Indians had no tradition, and could give no account. Though no very thorough explorations have been made, yet from a number of mounds have been taken stone implements and other relics, corresponding in character and design with those found in the eastern hemisphere, connected with deposits as ancient as the close of the Drift