Breaking for Indian Mounds
August 18, 2009
One under-appreciated fact about Wisconsin is that the southern half of the state was once the center for effigy mound building (see my video here). Effigy mounds are low mounds that take the shape of various animals—although sometimes which animal is not entirely clear. It's thought there is some connection between these mound shapes and clan organization among the Native American builders. Wisconsin once had thousands of these effigy mounds, but many have been plowed under or otherwise destroyed. You can see in the image above of the Nitschke Mounds County Park how the rich line of mounds abruptly ends at the top as they run into a field of corn. That's the general story for these effigy mounds: plowed under whenever they come into conflict with someone's plans for a rectangular field.
My current interest revolves around the presentation of these mounds. How does one present them to visitors in a way that makes them interesting? The usual approach is to plant the mounds with grass and then mow along the edge of the mound to achieve a kind of tonsured effect. The mound stands out visually, and so that counts as success. The downside to this approach is that there is nothing authentic or historical about this presentation of the mounds. We don't know how the Native Americans kept up these mounds, but we know they weren't lawn mowing the edges.
Inevitably in the presentation of the mounds comes the sign that gives an outline of what one is looking at. This can be quite humorous as in the midst of all the growth it can sometimes bm's Antiquities of Wisconsin (text here, definitely worth a look) e impossible to make out any kind of design.. let alone a clear bear or turtle. It makes me want to read Increase Lapham to see exactly how he made out these shapes.
The need to make the mounds visible for visitors leads to an effort to clear trees and growth. This mounds park is in the process of creation, so it's possible to see the extent of the re-working of the landscape that has to happen. In the above picture you can see the stumps and the cut wood.. all to make that water spirit mound more clear to your eyes.
These mounds are related to a nearby spring that feeds this shallow pool. The effigy mounds were never randomly strewn across the landscape, but built onto meaningful places. Roads and cars dominate our mental map of the landscape.. but the mental map of Native Americans was structured by resources and natural sites.. and those sites they in turn marked with their social system of clan symbolism.
Moving on from this fledgling mounds park, I arrived in the city of Horicon ("City on the Marsh"). I was surprised to that this small town has a lot of John Deere buildings. It turns out that John Deere makes Lawn and Garden Tractors, Gator Utility Vehicles, and Golf and Turf Reel Mowers right here.
It was a contrast to move from Indian Mounds just beginning to gain visibility to a town dominated by a corporation that literally is dedicated to moving earth. It's because we have grown accustomed to massive modern earthworks that we so easily pass by the much more modest earth constructions of Native Americans who lived a millennium or more ago. Increase Lapham a century and a half ago knew a landscape in which there were no real constructive competitors to these mounds.. that is hard to imagine. Could humble mounds once have caused a crisis in faith, as Melville described? (see here).
Near the John Deere factory on the outskirts of Horicon I stopped and took this panoramic video clip. Note the heavily landscaped quality of the scene and the well cut grass on all sides. There's nothing natural to be seen. I notice these industrial parks outside many small towns that I drive through. There will be a quaint and even historic downtown and then a strip of land where the jobs must be.
