So... Why haven't you heard of it?

The Smithsonian Institution had a rough/rocky start. (https://www.si.edu/about/history) but finally got off the ground officially in 1846. Part of the reason it struggled for nearly 20 yrs as a concept, is that the Europeans made what seemed to most Americans as a valid argument "What does America have to show/give to the world in the way of ancient civilizations?" - The French under Napoleon, had raided all the Egyptian tombs, and carried all the treasure back to the Louve in Paris. The British had Stonehenge and the Viking burial tombs, other countries had lead expirations to the Far East deserts (China, Babylon, Greece) --- why fund an American Museum, when we had nothing to offer?

But... that all changed when a man named Mordecai Hopewell offered to let them excavate his family farm. What they uncovered has become known as the "Hopewell" Indian culture, or the "Mound builders" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Builders)

The Smithsonian Institution's choice of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, as their very first-ever publication on any subject, is at the very least, an interesting selection. In the 1998, republication of Ancient Monuments by the Smithsonian, David J. Meltzer stated: “[the Smithsonian's future] was riding on a book devoted to the questions of the origin, antiquity, and identity of the Mound Builders.”

In the wake of Squier and Davis’s report, questions were still looming about who the people were that built such amazing earthwork structures and mounds, which provided evidence of an understanding of higher mathematics, advanced engineering, and the cosmos?

Going back as far as Hernando Cortez, the advantages of NOT noticing the culture of the natives was rewarded. Under Catholic rule, any lands that where populated by civilized people, had to have official treaties, negotiated by the king's ambassadors to join the Spanish empire. But lands populated by "savages" could be treated differently, including forced slavery by the military.

So... when Moctazuma corrected the Spanish priests about the fact that Christ was crucified, not on a "T" shaped cross, but rather upon a cross bar, that was then hoisted upon a tree... (which is the Jewish legal execution method for a "traitor to the nation") Cortez realized that he was in trouble, and simple ordered the cities library burned to the ground. Literally millions of Aztec codifies destroyed - today only a few dozen have survived. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mesoamerican_codices)

As the USA pushed westward, in pursuit of "Manifest Destiny" they kept breaking treaties with Native American populations, forcibly removing them time and again from reservations and lands the USA promised to give them "forever". Fundamentally, it appears that Americans, like the general public in Spain, will not support military removal of "Indians" who have advanced culture, mathematics, engineering & astronomical sciences... but, they will if they are simply moving "savages"...

In contrast to Powell, we have original records/accounts of the men who actually dug the mounds, which contain several testimonies of finding swords...

“In digging the Louisville canal, nineteen feet below the surface, with the coals of the last domestic fire upon them, medals of copper and silver, swords and other implements of iron. Mr. Flint assures us that he has seen these strange ancient swords.”

(Conant, pg. 111, 1879)

“The iron was considerably oxidated, and when exposed to the air, dissolved and fell into small particles of rust, leaving only the handle, which was thick, and central parts adhering together. There were four or five of these swords, if we may so call them. The handle was round and cylindrical, and encircled with ferules or rings of silver.”

(Haywood 1823 pg. 328)

“Where the makers of bricks, swords and entrenchments lived, and could not fail to have some surplus commodities to exchange for those foreign coins.”

(Haywood 1823, pg. 177)

I apologize for the obvious bias of the website, but this page has a pretty good summary of many (not all) of the quotes... [https://mormonbandwagon.com/dave/tribe-manasseh-3/]

This is actually the point on which E.G.Squire refused to budge, and got him sideways with the Smithsonian editors...

These are NOT Cimeters

This IS a Scimitar...