Indian Mounds Regional Park is a public park in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...
, United States, featuring six prehistoric Native American
burial mounds
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
overlooking the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
. The oldest mounds were constructed 1,500–2,000 years ago by people of the
Hopewell tradition
The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...
. Later the
Mdewakanton
The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan (also spelled ''Mdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'' and currently pronounced ''Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'') are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota ( Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake (Dakota: ''Mde Wà ...
Dakota people interred their dead there as well.
At least 31 more mounds were destroyed by development in the late 19th century. They were the tallest Native American mounds in Minnesota and Wisconsin (except for the unique
Grand Mound outside
International Falls, Minnesota), and comprise one of the northwesternmost Hopewellian sites in North America.
Indian Mounds Regional Park is a component of the
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is a and protected corridor along the Mississippi River through the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro in the U.S. state of Minnesota, from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, to just downstream of H ...
, a unit of the
National Park System
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
. The Mounds Group is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
. The 2014 nomination document provides a description of the archaeology and the context.
Early history
There were once at least 19 mounds, plus another 19 a short distance to the northwest directly above
Carver's Cave, known as Wakan Tipi in the Mdewakanton language and considered a sacred place by the Dakota.
The mounds of the second group were all quite small, under high.
Anthropologists ascribe the oldest mounds to
mound builders
A number of pre-Columbian cultures are collectively termed "Mound Builders". The term does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks erected for an extended period of more than 5 ...
of the Hopewell Tradition, but later cultures also added to the mounds.
No evidence of habitation has been found among the mounds, so the builders lived elsewhere nearby, probably in a village below the bluff.
The Dakota village of
Kaposia
Kaposia or Kapozha was a seasonal and migratory Dakota settlement, also known as "Little Crow's village," once located on the east side of the Mississippi River in present-day Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Kaposia band of Mdewakanton Dakota was est ...
was established at the foot of the bluff before 1600
CE. English explorer
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver (April 13, 1710 – January 31, 1780) was a captain in a Massachusetts colonial unit, explorer, and writer. After his exploration of the northern Mississippi valley and western Great Lakes region, he published an account of his exp ...
described the site in 1766 and visited the recent burial of a Dakota leader among the mounds.
Excavation
Burial mounds were first excavated by
Edward Duffield Neill
Edward Duffield Neill (1823 – 1893) was an American author and educator.
Neill was born in Philadelphia. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania for some time, he enrolled at Amherst College and graduated from Amherst in 1842, then st ...
in 1856, followed by a dig sponsored by the
Minnesota Historical Society.
In 1879
Theodore H. Lewis conducted a more thorough investigation.
Both mound groups revealed a variety of burial styles. At least three mounds were built around log tombs, and two others contained multiple
cist
A cist ( or ; also kist ;
from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...
s made of limestone slabs.
Hopewellian
grave goods
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.
They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...
included nothing but
mussel shells in the simplest and most common burials, but
projectile points
In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...
, perforated bear teeth, and copper ornaments in others.
One burial contained a child's skull with clay pressed onto it in an apparent recreation of the individual's features.
No other such
death mask
A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It ...
s have been documented in contemporaneous Native American burials.
Human remains in
funeral bundles found in the upper parts of some mounds were interpreted as burials from more recent cultures.
The early archaeologists exhumed around 20 mostly complete skeletons (though many were missing their skulls) and fragments of perhaps another 30 individuals.
Since the burials were likely made over several generations, only a relatively small number of individuals were marked with mounds. Who was chosen for mound burial, and what was done with the rest of the dead, are unknown.
These 19th-century archaeologists, "some of them amateurs in their day, all of them amateurs by today's standards,"
may have destroyed as much information as they preserved. Theodore Lewis was a sophisticated researcher for his time, but worked hastily — once excavating seven mounds in one day — and did not make detailed descriptions of his finds.
Most of his artifacts have since been lost, so it is impossible for modern archaeologists to identify more certainly the cultural affiliations and periods of the various mound users.
In the late 19th century the bluff-face was successively demolished to widen the
rail yard
A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
at its foot, destroying several mounds as well as the outer chamber of
Carver's Cave.
In a time "when digging into a mound was a respectable Sunday pastime,"
locals also repeatedly looted and vandalized the mounds.
The mound site received a modern
archaeological field survey in 1981 from the Minnesota Historical Society.
Park development
Interest in preserving the open land along the blufftop arose in the 1880s as the local population boomed. The City of Saint Paul struggled to buy the land from its various private owners, as some proved unwilling to sell and others sold to real estate speculators first. Enough property was assembled by 1896 for the city to begin
landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following:
# Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal ...
and building visitor amenities.
In sharp contrast to modern practices, 11 mounds were leveled on the grounds that they blocked the view of the river.
Only the six largest mounds were left.
The park was expanded to in 1900, and in 1914 a still-standing brick pavilion was built to house a refreshment stand, restrooms, and space for open-air concerts.
Indian Mounds Regional Park received a major restoration in the 1980s using state and federal funds for developing the
Great River Road. The pavilion was restored, new amenities added, and houses and a road were removed. The Dayton's Bluff Community Council raised funds and placed decorative fences around the mounds as a protection from visitors.
Airway beacon
![Indian Mounds Park Airway Beacon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Indian_Mounds_Park_Airway_Beacon.jpg)
Adjacent to the mounds is a
airway beacon
An airway beacon (US) or aerial lighthouse (UK and Europe) was a rotating light assembly mounted atop a tower. These were once used extensively in the United States for visual navigation by airplane pilots along a specified airway corridor. ...
built in 1929 as part of a national network to aid pilots delivering
airmail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be t ...
.
The Indian Mounds Park "Airway" Beacon, as it is officially known, helped mark the route between Saint Paul and Chicago. There were once over 600 of these beacons, but electronic
navigation system A navigation system is a computing system that aids in navigation. Navigation systems may be entirely on board the vehicle or vessel that the system is controlling (for example, on the ship's bridge) or located elsewhere, making use of radio or othe ...
s rendered them obsolete. Restored to its historical black and chrome-yellow color scheme in the mid-1990s, the Indian Mounds Park beacon has been kept operational and flashes its rotating light every 5 seconds.
It is one of the few remaining airway beacons in the United States.
Recreation
Indian Mounds Regional Park provides two electrified picnic shelters which can be rented by private groups. Other visitor amenities in the park include a playground, barbecue grills,
fire ring
A fire ring is a construction or device used to contain campfires and prevent them from spreading and turning into wildfires.
A fire ring is designed to contain a fire that is built directly upon the ground, such as a campfire. Fire rings have ...
s, restrooms and a drinking fountain, paved trails, and a ball field and
tennis court
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...
s.
See also
*
List of Hopewell sites
This is a list of Hopewell sites. The Hopewell tradition (also incorrectly called the "Hopewell culture") refers to the common aspects of the Native American culture that flourished along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern United States fr ...
*
List of burial mounds in the United States
This is a list of notable burial mounds in the United States built by Native Americans. Burial mounds were built by many different cultural groups over a span of many thousands of years, beginning in the Late Archaic period and continuing through ...
*
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is a and protected corridor along the Mississippi River through the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro in the U.S. state of Minnesota, from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, to just downstream of H ...
*
References
External links
Indian Mounds Regional Park
{{authority control
1893 establishments in Minnesota
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Dakota
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Hopewellian peoples
National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Mounds in Minnesota
National Register of Historic Places in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Native American history of Minnesota
Parks in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Protected areas established in 1893
Protected areas on the Mississippi River
Regional parks in Minnesota
Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America