Central Illinois’ Ogden-Fettie mounds mark the location of a 2,000-year-old community. Who Were These Mound-Builders?

Story by Alan Harn and Michael Wiant

n Illinois, cemetery mounds are the most visible reminder of pre- historic Native American culture. About 4,000 years ago, Native Americans began the

I ) practice of heaping earth over the grave . m u e

of an individual, a practice that became s u M

more complex over time. Two thousand s d n u o

years ago, during the Middle Woodland M n o s

period, Native Americans built tombs k c i D ,

with log walls and earth graded up to the n o s p

edge of the tomb. The remains of the m a S n i v

deceased, eventually perhaps several l e K

individuals, were placed on the floor, a y B o t o

roof added and earth piled over the h P ( tomb. This process may have been repeated many times, creating an The Ogden-Fettie site contains pearl, bone and shell beads; copper increasingly larger mound. nearly 30 burial mounds implements; hundreds of grizzly bear On a terrace in the flood plain of the canine teeth; an unusual stone gorget; a constructed during the Middle Spoon River just below Dickson Mounds 25-pound nugget of lead; and, a stone Museum is the Ogden-Fettie site. Here, Woodland period. platform pipe. the remains of some Today, the great Ogden Mound 30 Middle Woodland The Dickson family excavated sever- stands in silent testimony to this extraor- burial mounds and al of the Ogden-Fettie mounds, includ- dinary Native American culture. an extensive village ing the great Ogden Mounds, in the mark the location early 20th century. Tunneling into the At Dickson Mounds Museum, Alan Harn of a 2,000-year- Ogden-Fettie interior of the great mound in 1928, Mar- Mounds serves as the curator of anthropology old community ion and Ernest Dickson discovered the and Michael Wiant as the director. and its cemetery. remains of an ancient passageway, Aerial photographs shored with light logs and matting, which

indicate a pentagonal- led to the central tomb. ickson Mounds Museum is located shaped ditch or linear Inside, the Dicksons found crematory Dbetween Lewistown and Havana, depression—possibly a basins filled with burned ashes of many Illinois, just off Illinois route 78/97. For moat, but it has yet to be individuals. Nearby, on a red-painted further information, visit www.museum. investigated—enclosing 10 acres and fiber mat, were the skeletal remains of a state.il.us/ismsites/dickson/homepage. htm or call (309) 547-3721. five of the central mounds of this group. man of considerable social importance. Entombed with him were necklaces of January 2006 OutdoorIllinois