The grand mound is by far the
LARGEST MOUND
on Rainy River. It is likewise at the mouth of the Bowstring River,
which is its largest tributary and affords the readiest means of
access from the Mississippi up which the Toltecan flood of emigration
was surging. My theory is that here in their new homes, for three
centuries they multiplied, cultivated the soil, and built the mounds
which are still a monument to their industry. Here they became less
warlike because more industrious, and hence less able to defend
themselves. I have already stated that the
AZTEC WHIRLWIND OF CONQUEST
swept into Mexico from the Northwest about the twelfth century. The
sanguinary horde partly destroyed and partly seized for its own use
the civilization of the Toltecans. We have specially to do with an
Aztec wave that seems to have surged up the valley of the Mississippi.
As the great conquering people captured one region, they would settle
upon it, and send off a new hive of marauders. Indian tribes, numerous
but of the same savage type, are marked by the old Geographers as
occupying the Mississippi valley. It was when one part of the northern
horde came up the valley of the Ohio, as the Savage Iroquois, and
another up the head waters of the Mississippi as the Sioux, the tigers
of the plains, that we became familiar in the sixteenth century with
this race. The French recognized the Sioux as the same race as the
Iroquois and called them "Iroquets" or little Iroquois.
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