Edward Palmer's Arkansaw Mounds

451 Pages·2010·35.085 MB·English

by  Marvin D. Jeter, Marvin D. Jeter

Edward Palmer’s
Arkansaw Mounds
A Dan Josselyn Memorial Production
Edward Palmer’s
Arkansaw Mounds
Edited by
Marvin D. Jeter
Contributions by
Ian W. Brown, Ann M. Early, Mary Farmer,
Dan F. Morse, Martha Ann Rolington, and Bruce D. Smith
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 1990 by Marvin D. Jeter
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
(cid:39)
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Palmer, Edward, 1829–1911.
[Arkansaw mounds]
Edward Palmer’s Arkansaw mounds / edited by Marvin D. Jeter ; contributions by Ian W. Brown
. . . [et al.].
p. cm.
Originally published: Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 1990.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8173-5612-5 (paper : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8173-8334-3 (electronic) 1.
Indians of North America—Arkansas—Antiquities. 2. Mound-builders—Arkansas. 3. Mounds—
Arkansas. 4. Arkansas—Antiquities. 5. Palmer, Edward, 1829–1911—Travel—Arkansas. 6.
Arkansas—Description and travel. 7. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology.
Mound Exploration Division.—History. I. Jeter, Marvin D. II. Brown, Ian W. III. Title. IV. Title:
Edward Palmer’s Arkansas mounds.
E78.A8P35 2010
976.7’01—dc22
2009036278
To the memory of
Edward Palmer and Henry Jackson Lewis,
who preserved some of the heritage
of the American Indian for the future.

Contents
Figures ix
Tables xiii
Preface and Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 3
PART ONE Contexts, Personalities, and Beginnings 5
CHAPTER ONE The Mound Survey and Its Contexts 7
CHAPTER TWO Edward Palmer and H. J. Lewis 38
CHAPTER THREE The Early Stages of the Mound Survey 80
CHAPTER FOUR Archeological Concepts and Arkansas Prehistory 91
PART TWO Palmer in Arkansas 97
CHAPTER FIVE Editor's Introduction to the Documents 99
CHAPTER SIX Arkansas Reconnaissance, 188 1-8 2 120
CHAPTER SEVEN Intensive Investigations in Arkansas, 1882-83 157
CHAPTER EIGHT Mopping Up, September-November 1883 and July 1884 318
PART THREE Results 357
CHAPTER NINE Publicity: The Arkansas Press and Frank Leslie's 359
CHAPTER TEN Aftermaths, Retrospects, and Prospects 363
Notes 373
References Cited 397
General Index 4 I 5
Index of Places and Archeological Sites 4 I 9
Figures
1.1 Spencer Fullerton Baird IO
1.2 John Wesley Powell I4
1.3 John Wesley Powell with an Indian Guide I6
1.4 William Henry Holmes 2I
I. 5 Cyrus Thomas 24
1.6 Eastern United States counties from which collections
were made by the Division of Mound Exploration 36
2.1 Edward Palmer 40
2.2 Edward Palmer in his Union Army uniform 44
2.3 Edward Palmer soon after the Civil War 47
2.4 The 1883 flood at Troyville, Louisiana, showing the
prehistoric mounds (engraving, after a sketch by
H. J. Lewis) 77
2·5 H. J. Lewis (self-portrait) 79
5.1 Palmer's note summarizing his October 13, 1882, trip to
the B. F. Jackson Mounds, northeast Arkansas IOO
5.2 Scribe's version of note describing Palmer's work at the
B. F. Jackson Mounds I 03
5.3 Scribe's version of note, interrupted by Palmer's
handwriting I04
6.1 Map of Palmer's itinerary for the 1881-82 field season
in Arkansas I22