When the whites arrived in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions , thousands of burial mounds dotted the landscape. Today, most have been destroyed as a result of development, looting, and natural forces. Archaeologists have assigned the mounds to various prehistoric cultures based upon their shapes and artifacts contained within. Scholars have debated the origin of these mounds. The Smithsonian Institution investigated them and conducted excavations in order to determine their origins . The mounds were apparently built by a series of prehistoric Indigenous American cultures spanning thousands of years.  

[See Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations  ]

Other Indian Legends report two distinct races of unusual peoples that pre-existed their culture. The first was a slender bodied race with long narrow heads.. The other was a race with a massive bone structure and short heads. The first race, labeled by some as the Archaics were living in the Ohio River Valley around 1000 BC.  The second race, labeled the Adenas moved into the area from the South at a later date and claimed control of the territory.. A great war was fought in which the Archaics were destroyed by the more advanced Adenas.  It is believed that the Adena were related to the tribes of ancient Mexico. DNA testing has found no specific match between the Adena and any existing Native American group of the region, but does show a relationship to the tribes of ancient Mexico. [ Adena People by William S. Webb, Charles E. Snow ]

Many burial mounds have yielded remains of relatively Giant Human Beings, as well- artifacts and randomly discovered remains have lent much support to the Indian legends.  The Indians know nothing of the origins of these mounds, as per the Scientific American when an investigator asked an aged Indian in the 19th Century what his people knew of these ancient grave yards. He answered: "We know nothing about them. They were here before the red man." 

 It is believed that the practice of mound building was established by the Adenas.  These "mounds" were burial mounds in which the remains of many native American remains have been discovered over the years.  What is unusual about these remains is that they support the Indian legends of Giants as the remains are frequently of people  8 to 12 feet tall.    In addition to their height there are at times other physical anomalies which would tends to point to the fact that they are not of the same race as the current peoples labeled "native Americans".  Findings such as Red hair, and double rows of teeth, not found in the known indigenous populations .

 The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee  , describes "very large" bones in stone graves found in Williamson County, Tennessee. Author John Haywood describes "very large" bones in stone graves found in Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1821. In White County, Tennessee, an "ancient fortification" contained skeletons averaging at least 7 feet in length.

In Braton Tennessee footprints believed to be human were found in solid rock 33 inches log and one foot wide. These  have six toes each.
 

1829. During the construction of a Hotel in  Chesterville. Workers digging up a mound discovered a large human skeleton. The local doctor examining the skeleton said that the skull could have easily fit over a normal man's head , In addition , the skeleton had more teeth than modern man.

1845 "On the Wappatomaka have been found numerous Indian relics, among which was highly a finished pipe, representing a snake coiled around the bowl. There was also discovered the under jawbone of a human being (says Kercheval) of great size; and, what is more remarkable the teeth stood transversely in the jawbone. It would pass over any man's face with entire ease."  ...Historical collections of Virginia;: Containing a collection of the most interesting fact, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c., relating ... sketch of the District of Columbia

 

A decayed human skeleton claimed by eyewitnesses to measure around 3.28 metres (10 feet 9 inches tall), was unearthed by laborers while ploughing a vineyard in November 1856 in East Wheeling, now in West Virginia. Forbidden land by Robert Lyman


1872  Seneca Township, Noble County, Ohio, 3 skeletons , all were at the very least eight feet tall , with bone structure in proportion to their height. These skeletons all had double rows of teeth.

1875  Workmen were constructing a bridge near the mouth of Paw Paw Creek at Rivesville. While digging through heavy clay soil they were astonished to uncover three giant skeletons strands of reddish hair clinging to the skulls. A local doctor was called to examine the remains.

J.N. DeHart, M.D. found vertebrae "larger than those of the present type" in Wisconsin mounds in 1876.

W.H.R. Lykins uncovered skull bones "of great size and thickness" in mounds of Kansas City area in 1877.

1878 Ashtabula County, Ohio. Mounds were excavated on land belonging to Peleg Sweet, yielded a skull and jaw large enough that the skull would cover Sweet's head and the jaw could be easily slipped over his face. Excavating further, they discovered these mounds contained the graves estimated between two and three thousand. Many of the other skeletons found were of gigantic proportions.

In 1879, a 9'8'' skeleton was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana by George W. Hill, M.D.,  . A mica necklace still hung around the giant's neck. The bones, which were stored in a grain mill, were swept away in the 1937 flood. .....Indianapolis News, Nov 10, 1975  ....  "The giant skeleton was examined by scientists from Indiana and New York, and it remained in the possession of Mr. Robinson, who owned the land on which the mound stood. Unfortunately, the curious bones were washed away in a flood in 1937."


1880 "A skeleton which is reported to have been of enormous dimensions" was found in a clay coffin, with a sandstone slab containing hieroglyphics, during mound explorations by a Dr Everhart near Zanesville, Ohio. (American Antiquarian, v3, 1880, pg61).

1880  An excavation in Brush Creek Township, Muskingurn County yielded the bones of men and women, buried in couples . The length of their skeletons exceeding eight and even nine feet! The excavation was started in early December 1870. The Brush Creek Tablet was found among skeletons of people over 8 and 9 feet tall in Muskigum County, Ohio, in the early 1880's. The whereabouts of the Tablet today are unknown.

1881 "In digging the cellar of the house, nine human skeletons were found, and, like such specimens from other ancient mounds of the country, they showed that the Mound Builders were men of large stature. The skeletons were not found lying in such a manner as would indicate any arrangement of the bodies on the part of the entombers. In describing the tomb, Mr. Albert Harris said: "it looked as if the bodies had been dumped into a ditch. Some of them were buried deeper than others, the lower one being about seven feet below the surface." When the skeletons were found, Mr. Harris was twenty years of age, yet he states that he could put one of the skulls over his head, and let it rest upon his shoulders, while wearing a fur cap at the same time. The large size of all the bones was remarked, and the teeth were described as "double all the way round."  ... History of Medina County

 

1883  "Two miles from Mandan, on the bluffs near the junction of the Hart and Missouri Rivers, says the local newspaper, the Pioneer, is an old Cemetery of fully 100 acres in extent filled with bones of a giant race. This vast city of the dead lies just east of the Fort Lincoln road. The ground has the appearance of having been filled with trenches piled full of dead bodies, both man and beast, and covered with several feet of earth. In many places mounds from 8 to 10 feet high, and some of them 100 feet or more in length, have been thrown up and are filled with bones, broken pottery, vases of various bright colored flint, and agates ... showing the work of a people skilled in the arts and possessed of a high state of civilization. This has evidently been a grand battlefield, where thousands of men ... have fallen. ...Five miles above Mandan, on the opposite side of the Missouri, is another vast cemetery, as yet unexplored. We asked an aged Indian what his people knew of these ancient grave yards. He answered: "We know nothing about them. They were here before the red man."  The Scientific American
 

Ten skeletons "of both sexes and of gigantic size" were taken from a mound at Warren, Minnesota, 1883. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 23, 1883)

A skeleton 7 feet 6 inches long was found in a massive stone structure that was likened to a temple chamber within a mound in Kanawha County, West Virginia, in 1884. (American Antiquarian, v6, 1884 133f. Cyrus Thomas, Report on Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology, 12th Annual Report, Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91).

In Minnesota, 1888, were discovered remains of seven skeletons 7 to 8 feet tall. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 29, 1888). 7 skeletons, placed in a sitting position, were uncovered from a burial mound near Clearwater, Minnesota. The highly unusual skulls had double rows of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws. It was also noted that the foreheads were low and sloping, compared to "normal" human skulls.

1892  "Where Proctorville now stands was one day part of a well paved city, but I think the greatest part of it is now in the Ohio river. Only a few mounds, there; one of which was near the C. Wilgus mansion and contained a skeleton of a very large person, all double teeth, and sound, in a jaw bone that would go over the jaw with the flesh on, of a large man; The common burying ground was well filled with skeletons at a depth of about 6 feet. Part of the pavement was of boulder stone and part of well preserved brick."  Ironton Register

1895 A mound on the outskirts of Toledo, Ohio, yielded 20 skeletons, seated and facing east with jaws and teeth "twice as large as those of present day people," each skeleton had a large bowl with "curiously wrought hieroglyphic figures." (Chicago Record, Oct. 24, 1895; cited by Ron G. Dobbins, NEARA Journal, v13, fall 1978).
 

The skeleton of a huge man was uncovered at the Beckley farm, Lake Koronis, Minnesota; while at Moose Island and Pine City, bones of other giants came to light. (St. Paul Globe, Aug. 12, 1896).
 

In 1903, at Fish Creek, Montana, Professor S. Farr and his group of Princeton University students came across several burial mounds. They unearthed the skeleton of a man about 9 feet long. Next to him lay the bones of a woman, who had been almost as tall  Roy Norvill, Giants : The Vanished Race Of Mighty Men

 Kentucky folklore writer  Michael Paul Henson (1984) relates how he actually examined a body dug out from under a large rock ledge along Holly Creek in east-central Kentucky. In 1965, a landowner, was building cattle stalls when he found a "perfectly preserved skeleton" which measured 8 feet, 9 inches in length when reassembled.  "...The arms were extremely long and the hands were large. By comparison, the feet were very small." The skull was "30 inches in circumference. The eye and nose sockets were slits rather than cavities, and the area where the jaw bone hinges to the skull was solid bone. It would seem that the person could not have opened his mouth."  The skull was  30 inches in circumference.  A powdery white substance covered the skeleton, but no tools, weapons, or other human implements were found with the bones. The body was buried approximately five feet underground. The skeleton was assumed to be that of a large, deformed Indian.  White reburied the bones rather than taking them to a university for examination. Henson died in 1995, and any further notes he may have had on this fascinating story are unavailable
 

"... three skeletons were found at the mouth of the Paw Paw Creek ... some men were digging for a bridge foundation and found these bones at the lower end of the old buffalo wallow. She thought it was Dr. Kidwell, of Fairmont, who examined them and said they were very old, perhaps thousands of years old. She said that when the skeletons were exposed to the weather for a few days, their bones turned black and began to crumble, that Squire Satterfield had them buried in the Joliffe graveyard (Rivesville). All these skeletons, she said, were measured, and found to be about eight feet long.  Now and Long Ago-A History of the Marion County Area by Glen Lough

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the place of sepulture raised by the Mound Builders from the more modem graves of the Indians. The tombs of the former were in general larger than those of the latter, and were used as receptacles for a greater number of bodies, and contained relics of art, evincing a higher decree of civilization than that attained by the Indians. The ancient earthworks of the Mound Builders have occasionally been appropriated as burial places by the Indians, but the skeletons of the latter may be distinguished from the osteological remains of the former by their greater stature. ...History of Logan County, Illinois

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