One of the most pervasive and intriguing aspects of local history is a theory that a more advanced race of humans existed here even before the Iroquois Indians came.
The theory stems from a series of huge mounds discovered from New York state to the Mississippi Valley. These mounds, according to archeologists, were used as forts and as burial grounds.
Relics discovered indicate that these forts were built by a highly advanced race of non-Indians. But the speculation is confused because later Indians also used these mounds and left plenty of relics.
Prominent 19th century scholar, statesman and governor DeWitt Clinton, who had traveled over the portage of Niagara, subscribed to such a theory. Clinton, who stayed with Judge Augustus Porter on his trip here, was governor from 1817 to 1823 and again from 1825 to 1828.
Known as the Father of the Erie Canal, Clinton presented a written paper on the subject at a talk before the New York Historical Society in 1811. He began his discourse by saying, "Previous to the occupation of this country by the progenitors of the present race of Indians, it was inhabited by a race of men much more populous and much farther advanced in civilization."
Probably the most popular theory is that humans migrated from the colds of Siberia across the glacier to Alaska and then down the continent into South America. This migration is believed to have occurred about 10,000 years ago. A recent PBS program on the beginnings of man traced a human gene through people living today from Africa to middle Europe and up to northern Siberia, bolstering the migration theory.
Clinton said he personally inspected several of the mounds, which were from two to six acres in size in the form of an irregular ellipsis. The earth breastwork was up to eight feet tall.
Clinton commented, "These fortifications, thus diffused over the interior of our country, have been generally considered as surpassing the skill, patience and industry of the Indian race, and various hypotheses have been advanced to prove them of European origin."
Some hold to the theory that Europeans came to this country following the Iceland and Greenland route of Leif Erickson, but centuries before Erickson made his trip to the new world.
In Niagara County, these mounds have been discovered on the Tuscarora Reservation in a section once known as kienuka, on top of the escarpment and in the Town of Cambria, near Lockport, one between Lewiston and Niagara Falls and another on Tonawanda Island in North Tonawanda.
Clinton said it was clear these forts "were not the work of the Indians," because the Senecas "did not pretend to know anything about them." Also, he said, "the erection of such prodigious works must have been the result of labor far beyond the patience and perseverance of our Indians and the form and materials are entirely different from those which they are known to make."
And, Clinton added, ditches often protected these ancient fortifications. The Indians, he noted, used palisades for protection, not entrenchments.
The escarpment, Clinton said, extends 78 miles from Rochester to Lewiston and was once the shoreline of Lake Ontario. All of the mounds discovered, he pointed out, are south of the ridge, because in ancient times the lake encompassed the area north of the ridge, indicating the forts were constructed in antiquity before Lake Ontario receded.
Clinton said this ancient race probably migrated from Asia, but centuries before the present Indians came. He said, "The first stream of people that flowed into America must have remained free from external pressure for ages."
In a period of tranquility, he said, these ancient people "would devote themselves to the arts of peace, make rapid progress in civilization and acquire an immense population." But eventually, he said, discord and war broke out, and "at last they became alarmed by the eruption of a horde of barbarians who rushed in like an overwhelming flood from the north of Asia."
These "barbarians," he conjectured, overran the country and wiped out nearly all signs of the previous civilization, with only the mounds remaining.
Lockport newspaper editor and historian Orsamus Turner, in his 1850 book "Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase," said he viewed one such mound "at the head of a deep gorge a mile west of Lockport." The later Indians also used these mounds. Archeologists have found arrowheads, clay pipes and many other Iroquois relics, including human bones.
Turner, more than a century and a half ago, pondered over this supposed ancient race, and we are but little closer to positive proof today. Turner wrote, "The mystery of this pre-occupancy is far from being satisfactorily explained. It is an interesting, fruitful source of theories, enquiry and speculation."
And so it remains today.
Editors' note: While Bob Kostoff has accurately depicted the thinking of early 19th century American scholars on the topic of who built the mounds, it should be noted that two centuries of subsequent research have shown the mounds to be of Native American origin, constructed by a series of different cultures from about 1000 B.C. to historic times.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | September 26 2006 |