Pembina Mounds

I have never noticed mounds in my hometown area, but then, I wasn't aware of them until recently. Unless you are very observant, you would miss them in all likelihood. I have a feeling some of the older settlers would have seen them. Even some of our older farmers might remember seeing something...

Tribes and even bands differ in their conjectures with regard to them. In conversing with an intelligent French gentleman, who, as a trader, resided near the Pembina settlement on the Red River of the north, upon the subject of the antiquities of that region, related a circumstance, which, it would seem, throws a glimmering light upon the origin of one class of these ancient works. After the termination of a battle between the Chippewas and Sioux Indians, (in which in self-defence it became necessary for him to participate), the women and children of the former, who were the victorious party, in celebrating the achievement, created a mound, from the adjacent surface, about five feet in height, and in diameter eight or ten feet, upon the summit of which a pole ten or twelve feet in length was planted, and to this pole tufts of grass, indicating the number of scalps and other trophies achieved, were tied; around this mound, the warriors, with their usual ceremonies, indulged in mirth and exultations over the scalps of their ill-fated foes.

FROM:
Wisconsin Democrat, page [1], vol. 1, iss. 19
Publication Date: February 28, 1843
Published as: Wisconsin Democrat
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Headline: Description of Ancient Remains Ancient Mounds and Embankments