Volume 15 , Issue 16

Indian Mounds To Be Dug Up (04/20/1913)

One hundred years, April 1913, sunday, The Tulsa Daily World, page 16, was reporting: "Indian Mounds To Be Dug Up." Professor Rogers arrived at Claremore to start exploration work back then. It was reported as a "Great Scientific Work," armed with chart supposed to show inner buildings of Ancient pile of stone.

Claremore, Oklahoma, April 19 (1913) (Special) -- Professor H. Emerson Rogers, scientist who for many years had devoted himself devoutly to the study of the aboriginal tribes of various parts of the globe and who was recognized as a leading authority along these lines, arrived (mid-April 1913)in Claremore for the purpose of obtaining from the interior of the famous Claremore Mound the secrets it had guarded for centuries. Secrets that would perhaps startle the scientific world back in 1913.

During the twenty-seven years that Professor Rogers had been engaged in this work, he had visited many parts of the world making research, and had made many discoveries.

Prof. Rogers spent some time in Arizona several years before April, 1913, with a party of scientists who were endeavoring to locate the seat of the Montezuma, at which time they revealed the truth so often told by the Pima Indians, that Montezuma lived and for many years reigned over that tribe in a great city which was lost many centuries ago long before columbus thought of his famous expedition in the search of another land. After this he visited the Archipelago, where in Sumatra, all, Madura, Banea, Pornco and Colebes he made further research with startling results. He was first impressed with the similarity of the language of these people to that of the Pima Indians of Arizona. Not only the language, but their habits customs and features.

There was no doubt in the mind of Prod. Rogers that these people were once highly civilized. Of course their civilization dates back many thousand years, but he had positive evidence that they at one time fully understood the laws of navigation, to the extent that he believes they visited this country and other countries where he had been able to find trace of them by going into their mounds which were built centuries and centuries ago, probably back to where the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.

In these mounds he found strange records and relics that were hidden away long before the dawn of our present civilization. He had not as yet, back in 1913, made public the real import of his discoveries; but as soon as he opened up the Claremore mound where he believed he would be able to duplicate some of the records found in the Archipelago, thereby verifying his theory, he would reveal to the world the secrets he had obtained by all these years of patient toll and research.

Professor Rogers was an independent scientist, and in most of his research work had worked alone and had paid his own expenses which at times had been enormous. he once discussed his plans with J. Walter Fowkes and Father Ketchum, the head of the Catholic Missions in Washington. They laughed at his ideas, and this reticule served to give him theories. His most important discovery, the one which led him to more strenuous efforts was the fact that the Pima Indians were the real aboriginal tribe perhaps the only extant.

Prof. Rogers attended one of their religious ceremonies in Borneo, which consisted in dancing around a tent in which several hundred deadly reptiles were placed, ready to be gathered up by the dancers at a certain signal. They believed that rain can be induced by these dances, and Prof Rogers knew it was considered a most sacred ceremony by them. He watched young men and boys handle diamond rattlers like we would pert kitten, and it was a very rare thing to hear of one being bitten by a snake. When bitten, they had a sure cure for it -- just what if was Prof. Rogers could not say, but it did the work all right.

Before the Dance

Before the dance began a hole was dug by the tent, and boards were laid over this hole, and as the men and boys marched around the tent, singing, they step on the boards and up and down three times, making a dreadful noise. This was done, they declared to warn the dead that all was in readiness. As they passed over the boards each one takes a few jumps, which kept up until all are nearly exhausted. Then at a signal format he high priest, a string is pulled which releases the sides of the tent. At this signal every matcher rushes under the tent and catches a snake. I saw them gathering them in their arms and caressing them. As they got a snake well in hand they return to he line of march, all the while the snake is dangling down their necks. The music of the snake rattles filled the air.

Snake Bit Medicine

After a certain number of rounds were made, carrying the reptiles in this fashion, each marcher was escorted into an underground temple and given a swallow of a potion distilled from certain herbs and roots. This, they declare, purges them from sin, and also prevents rattle snake poison from injuring them in the event one should be bitten during the dance.

After this potion had been administered and the high dignitaries of the tribe had finished their work, each snake was taken to a spot nearby and released. They would not kill one for any amount of money, as they were regarded as sacred creatures. The Pima Indians were also worshipers of snakes, and Prof. Rogers had witnessed the same things at Casa Grande and other places, not only among the Pimas, but the Mojaves near Florence, Arizona. Among the Mojaves the ceremony was somewhat different.

Cherokees Had Sam Customs

Professor Rogers declared that the Cherokees, that is, the aboriginal tribe had the same customs, something similar to the Atapascatts in Alaska, and the Apaches, Navajos and Lippens in the United States; but after coming in contact with the early white settlers and rapidly absorbing their customs, they gradually dropped their barbarous customs.

Claremore Mounds

The Claremore Mound was built hundreds of years prior to the discovery of America, and was several years in the course of construction. Its architectural construction was according to certain proportions and rules determined by its future appropriation. It bears different denominations according to the purpose to which it was applied. In India the ancient architecture of the minds consisted of subterranean excavations similar to the mounds of America, where they actually lived. But in America especially this part, they used the mound for a different purpose altogether, and that purpose was pretty near, if not wholly the same as the present time of 1913 day banks. All the treasure and valuable records of the were deposited therein for safe-keeping. No one knew of the secret passage except the chief. This knowledge was handed down generation after generation for centuries, the archimandrite passing from father to son.

Chart of Mound

The newspaper reported back in 1913, "When Professor Rogers goes into the mound and obtains all these old records, etc., he says he will be able to establish the exact relation between the Cherokee and Pima Indians, and he hopes to establish the connecting link between the Pimas and the Eastern Archipelagoes." He believed he had an exact chart, showing the subterranean passage ways of the mound, together with the secret entrance. He did not claim that the mound was constructed by the Cherokees, but by the people from whom the Cherokees descended.

Prof. Rogers began the work on the mound a few days later. After he made arrangements which would give him every exclusive right. He would report his progress, so he sated, from day to day after he commenced for the benefit of this interested.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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