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The Mysterious Indian Mounds Of MichiganAs Europeans settled Michigan they crowded out the native Indian populations, destroying ancient burial sites and raiding them for treasures and artifacts. They were particularly fascinated by the burial mounds scattered throughout the state. Even the Native American Indians claimed not to know who the Yamko Desh or Mound Builders were. Some recalled old legends that their ancestors had conquered and ousted an ancient evil civilization which had dug for copper and built mounds. This work of a prehistoric artist was found on a farm near Cass City in Michigan. On the 16th of August 1956 an article appeared in the Traverse City Record Eagle about an amateur archaeologist called Clair Reynolds who told of an elderly Ottawa Indian who refused to guide him to one of the ancient mound sites, warning: "It is not good that you go to the place of the Yamko Desh." The Ottawa Indian insisted that ghosts of the Yamko Desh, the Ottawa name for the Mound Builders meaning "the Prairie People" still roamed the site. As they migrated into what is now Michigan, Ottawa legends told of finding the Prairie People who were "thicker than the leaves on a tree." It is believed that the Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatamis formed an alliance to exterminate them becasue according to these tribes these were "giants" and "demons". Some archaeologists believe, based on uncovered artifacts, that the Mound Builders had a high level of intelligence and traded with the Aztecs and Maya and could well have been Lyrae Atlan or even another Maya tribe. The prehistoric people left more famous mounds in other states, such as the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, and other constructions in the south and in western states. On the 12th of May 1925 a University of Michigan Professor called Doctor Wilbert B. Hinsdale, surveyed the lower peninsula and listed Michigan mounds by county. Seven counties had more than 20 mounds. There were 57 mounds in Clinton County, Macomb had 25, Wayne 12, Oakland only two. Doctor Wilbert B. Hinsdale published his work in the 1925 book, Primitive Man in Michigan in which he wrote, "There are fully 600 mounds still to be seen in the state and at least 500 more must have been destroyed within the last 150 years. The enclosures, usually known as 'Indian forts,' but probably having no connection with military usage, are also vanishihng rapidly. It is the duty of the state to locate, measure, photograph and chart these structures before they disappear entirely," Doctor Wilbert B. Hinsdale insisted. Many mounds along the Detroit River and Rouge River had been leveled in the previous century to make way for development. One called the Great Mound on the Rouge in Delray at the junction of the Rouge River and Detroit River, captured the fancy of early historians. It was 400 feet long, 200 feet wide and 40 feet high. It was so packed with bones that they were easily exposed by wandering cattle. This skull found in a Michigan Great Serpent Mound reportedly suggests that the early inhabitants of the state were performing brain surgery well before the birth of Jmmanuel Ben Joseph. Early French explorers note the exisitence of the mound but by the 30th of January 1880, "pot hunting," the bane of archaeologists, had taken its toll. No trace of the mound remains today. Doctor Wilbert B. Hinsdale lamented the loss but wrote of a smaller structure still within the grounds of Fort Wayne. "Whereever these have been investigated," he wrote, "they have proven to be burial sites arising, perhaps from an ancient custom of the Canadian Hurons who thus met to honor the bones of their dead every 10 or 15 years. "Generally a number of skeletons in various positions have been found and with them, arrow and spear heads, stone tools, pottery vessels and in the upper strata, iron, copper and brass kettles, glass beads and now and then silver crosses, indicating the visit of a Catholic missionary." On the 26th of June 1926 a local collector of Native American Indian relics, Newell E. Collins, said of the smaller mound at Fort Wayne, "Numerous Indian bodies were exhumed on the 4th of February 1870. Many arrow-heads, of course, were overlooked and I was lucky enough to be on the ground, not so long ago, when such remains still rewarded the patient seeker." Newell E. Collins continued, "One early witness tells how the red men used to try to fool the spirits of the departed. After they had deposited the body in the mound at Springwells Street the friends of the dead man went into the river and waded about in a zig-zag course for some time until the spirit had departed on its long journey. "The object of this custom was that the spirit might not be able to follow their track in the sand. According to the current superstition, the soul of the deceased lingered for several days, unwilling to quit his earthly belongings. As a ghost cannot cross water, the ruse resorted to get the spirit out of touch with his freinds and he hereupon gave up his intention of staying near his familiar scenes and companions and started off for the happy hunting grounds." As late as the 30th of November 1937, Joseph Karmann recalled a tale his mother told him about their farm near the Rouge River being an Indian burial ground. When Ford Motor Company excavators began digging near Airport Drive and Dearborn Road, Karmann and his 81-year-old father went to the site with shovels. They unearthed two perfect skeletons of men about five foot six with exceptionally broad shoulders and well preserved teeth and black hair about 9 inches long. Huron County Conservation Officer Andrew J. Neering demonstrates an ancient mortar and pestle found in an Indian mound in his county. The pestle was probably attached to a young sapling with a thong. Contant pounding wore a six-inch-deep cup-shaped depression in the mortar. Joseph Karmann turned the skeletons over to the Ford Motor Company. Doctor Wilbert Hinsdale also studied pottery and carvings found in the 22 mounds located in Sanilac County in the Michigan Thumb and found a skull that showed evidence of successful brain surgery. Between the 1st of January 1924 to the 30th of November 1928 archaeologists speculated on how Native American Indian Tribes arrived on the two continents. Obviously the Illuminati are not going to mention the Procyonians in North America.Doctor Henriette Mertz, in her book The Mystic Symbol (1986) speculates that the ancient Phoenician mariners traveled to Upper Michigan and the Great Lakes region to mine the extremely pure and abundant copper lodes to satisfy the demands of the ancient Khemi and Greeks. The mines of the Sinai Plain she says "had been played out by that time,and those of Crete were too meager". Records spoke of an alien "red-skinned people linked with the import of copper" and that it took three years for the ocean vessles to return with their copper. Doctor Henriette Mertz cites tablets found in Michigan with Hieroglyph and Cuneiform writing, often dismissed as forgeries, as evidence of later contact with the Mediterranean. Doctor Wilbert Hinsdale lamented that "It is really astounding how little we know of the many peoples and cultures which the coming of the White Men have caused to vanish". Doctor Wilbert Hinsdale goes onto say "In Indian mounds, in forts or enclosures, in the old pits and on ancient camping sites we find many a relic for which the archaeologist had no classificaiton, and the use of which he is ignorant. When in doubt we take refuge in the term 'ceremonial' and express the belief that the arcicle of carving had something to do with the religious ovservance of the tribe." The copper mine in Ontanagon prouduced a huge boulder, later called the Ontanagon Boulder, a 6000 pound copper rock. Detroiter Julius Eldred headed north on the 20th of April 1841 to buy the copper boulder from local Ottawa Indians. He had to buy it again from a group of tough miners who also claimed it was theirs. After much time and effort Julius Eldred got it to the water and onto a barge and floated it to Detroit where he planned to charge the citizens 25 cents a peek.
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