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Mass Burial Pits and Battlegrounds
Mass Burial Pits and Battlegrounds
Two thirds of the Book of Mormon is about wars between the Lamanites and Nephites. In the last battles Mormon states that bodies of the Nephites were heaped into piles (Mormon 2:15).
Dickson Mounds is a Native American settlement site and burial mound complex near Lewistown, Illinois. It is located in Fulton County on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River. It is a large burial complex containing at least two cemeteries, ten superimposed burial mounds, and a platform mound. The Dickson Mounds site was founded by 800 CE and was in use until after 1250 CE. The site is named in honor of chiropractor Don Dickson, who began excavating it in 1927 and opened a private museum that formerly operated on the site.[2] Its exhibition of the 237 uncovered skeletons uncovered and displayed by Dickson was closed in 1992 by then-Gov. Jim Edgar.[3]
Mass Graves - "The “bone pits” which occur in some parts of Western New York, Canada and Michigan, etc., have unquestionably a corresponding origin…. They are of various sizes, but usually contain a large number of skeletons. In a few instances the bones appear to have been arranged with some degree of regularity. One of these pits discovered some years ago, in the town of Cambia, Niagara County, was estimated to contain the bones of several thousand individuals." - E. G. Squier: Antiquities of the State of New York: (1851), p. 98
Dickson Mounds is a Native American settlement site near Lewistown, Illinois
“Showing the interior of the house erected over the burials in a portion of the mound. More than 200 skeletons have been carefully uncovered, care being taken to leave them in the original position. It is thought that some epidemic caused these burials as there are groups of 8 or 9 skeletons in one place,
apparently an entire family. ”
PUBLISHER Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
New York State:
“It was called the “Bone Fort,” from the circumstance that the early settlers found within it a mound, six feet in height by thirty at the base, which was entirely made up of human bones slightly covered with earth… The popular opinion concerning this accumulation is, that it contained the bones of the slain, thus heaped together after some severe battle.”
(Squier 1849)
“The bones were of individuals of both sexes and of all ages. Among them were a few fetal bones. Many of the skulls bore marks of violence, leading to the belief that they were broken before burial.”
(Squier 1849)
“Human bones have been discovered beneath the leaves; and in nearly every part of the trench skeletons of adults of both sexes, of children, and infants, have been found, covered only by the vegetable accumulations. They seem to have been thrown together promiscuously.”
(Squier 1849)
“Among them may be mentioned the “bone-pits,” or deposits of human bones. One is found near the village of Brownsville, on Black River. It is described as a pit, ten or twelve feet square, by perhaps four feet deep, in which are promiscuously heaped together a large number of human skeletons.”
(Squier 1849)
Kentucky:
“Half a mile from this place, at the foot of the mountain, in a large cave full of human bones, perhaps several wagon loads; some of which are small, and others very large”
(Haywood 1823 pg. 153)
Illinois:
“Mr. Ramey, the owner of the mound, speaks about digging in one part of the field and finding heaps of bones eight feet deep, and says that the bones are everywhere present.”
(Peet 1892 pg. 163)
This land was granted to New York in the 1786 Treaty of Hartford.
Robert Morris, original signer of the Declaration of Independence, purchased the land in 1791 - then sold it to the Holland Land Company.
This locality was visited and examined by Mr. O. Turner, of Buffalo, in 1823. The account of this gentleman is published in his history of the “Holland purchase,” page 27 as follows: “The location commands a view of Lake Ontario and the surrounding country. An area of six acres of level land seems to have been occupied; fronting which, upon the circular verge of the mountain, were the distinct remains of a wall. Nearly in the center of the area was a depository of the dead. It was a pit excavated to a depth of four or five feet, filled with human bones, over which were piles of sandstone. Hundreds seem to have been thrown in promiscuously, of both sexes and all ages. Numerous barbs or arrow-points were found among the bones and in the vicinity. It has been conjectured that this had been the scene of some sanguinary battle, and that these are the bones of the slain.” - [E. G. Squier: Antiquities of the State of New York: (1851), p. 98]
Mass Graves - The “bone pits” which occur in some parts of Western New York, Canada and Michigan, etc., have unquestionably a corresponding origin…. They are of various sizes, but usually contain a large number of skeletons. In a few instances the bones appear to have been arranged with some degree of regularity. One of these pits discovered some years ago, in the town of Cambia, Niagara County, was estimated to contain the bones of several thousand individuals.
"The author having been one of a party that mad a thorough examination of the spot soon after its first discovery in 1823..."
- Mr. O. Turner in his history of the “Holland purchase,” page 27 - he continues
" ...covered paths, or rather the remains of them, lead from many of these ancient fortifications... The Senecas have a tradition that here was a last decisive battle between their people and their inveterate enemies the Kah-Kwahs"
However, it was first necessary to extinguish the Indians' pre-emptive right to the land. Chief's Red Jacket and Cornplanter spoke strongly against selling the land, but the Treaty of Big Tree was signed Sept. 15, 1797
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Mound_II
The Bone Mound II is a Native American mound in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. At a height of 4 feet (1.2 m) and a diameter of 50 feet (15 m), it is believed to have been built by people of the Fort Ancient culture. Although it has never been excavated...
Morris Purchase, 1804
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