# Cherokee Indian Grave Site?



## Ozzie

Guys, while exploring a new area of our club in Ogelthorpe county this past week, I found several mounds of stacked rocks about 6 foot long and 4 foot wide along side a small creek.  The mounds are obviously man made, and have been there a long time in an undistrubed state judging by the moss on the rocks, and the way they are settled in to the ground.  

The 5 or 6 mounds are spaced equally apart and the whole thing has the look of being arranged by man, but obviously a long time ago.  I know the property owner and he is unaware of any burials on his property, but I doubt he has ever seen this area before.  What do y'all think?  Have I found some Cherokee graves?  Has anybody else ever seen anything like this in the woods?


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## jay sullivent

me and my dad were in a club in taliafero county (crawfordville) that had piles of rocks similar to what you are describing. they were on a hillside overlooking a creek. we found lots of arrowheads in areas that were clearcutted on this property. it is funny that you mention this becuse i was just thinking about those rockpiles not too long ago and wondering what we could have found out about them if we had of told the right person or people about them. we always suspected the were put there by indians.


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## ramsey

Very hard to say. Call the state archaeologist. Very helpful to me in the past.


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## DanTroop2000

It maybe were farmers stack them up when they plow years ago.


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## MOTS

Snap some pics and post them on here. Someone on here(Nic,Vernon H.etc.) may know what they are.


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## 60Grit

This area of Georgia also had a good population of Creek Indians.

Cherokee graves are usually long stone piles, with status recognized by the size of the pile.

Creek Indians did make grave sized piles, and usually put them on the eastern side of a hill or slope overlooking or near a creek.


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## Ozzie

Interesting...these piles I found are on the eastern side of the creek slope.  I'll take some digital shots next time I'm in that area.  The mounds are kind of hard to see right now because they are covered with lots of leaves.


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## 60Grit

That is some cool stuff.

We have a burial sight on our hunting land in Jones Cty. The last dated headstone was in the early 1930's. The earliest marked stone is in a granite slab inclosed square, he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
All of the other sights are just field stone markers.


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## Ozzie

Yeah, I think so too.  I'm always on the look out for sites like this while I'm out hunting and have found some pretty interesting stuff.

The graves you describe with field stones were probably slaves, although they could be white settlers who were too poor to afford a headstone.


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## 60Grit

They are all intermingled together, so I kind of think it might have been settlers too poor.


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## Hawkeye

Might be a septic tank ? You have all heard probably the fiasco with the Miami Circle ? that was found at the mouth of the Miami River, The city bought it because the circle in stone dated back 25000 years and it was supposed to have been a ceremonial place for Indians.
well it turned out to be an old septic tank area,LOL
The city paid millions of dollars for it.

Read about it:  http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/miami/index.html


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## 60Grit

Hawkeye said:


> Might be a septic tank ? You have all heard probably the fiasco with the Miami Circle ? that was found at the mouth of the Miami River, The city bought it because the circle in stone dated back 25000 years and it was supposed to have been a ceremonial place for Indians.
> well it turned out to be an old septic tank area,LOL
> The city paid millions of dollars for it.
> 
> Read about it: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/miami/index.html


 
That is too funny!!


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## DLS

might be a old still site  , sounds like a sluce also


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## Ozzie

I don't believe it's either of those.  I Know where an an old Georgia gold rush sluce site is in Cherokee county, and this looks nothing like that.  I've also seen lots of old stills and I don't think this looks anything like that either.  (You can usually tell an old still site by the old hoop barell rings laying on the ground from where the barrells rotted away and left the rings.)


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## westcobbdog

I came across a group of what I thought were graves at the headwaters of Montgomery Creek years ago trout fishing. Based on where you were my guess if they are injun they would be creeks


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## limbhanger

*Ozzie*

There numerous rock piles loacted on the eastern portion overlooking a creek on my Douglas County Lease. Glad you brought it up..


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## flintdiver

Odds are they were put there by early settlers that farmed the land. They tossed the rocks into piles to keep from plowing them up over and over again. I have seen lots of piles like this through the woods, along creeks and on hillsides. I even went to the bottom of one to satisfy my curiosity, guess what , just field rocks !


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## Handgunner

Interesting to say the least.

I wouldn't recommend digging any up though...

If they are indeed indian graves, they were put to rest, and IMO, are best left that way.

I would like to see the pictures when you get the time though!


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## Just BB

I wouldn't dig into them if I were in snake country! 
We also have similar piles on our lease near Juliette and most of them are on hills beside the creek. I always thought they were probably piles from earlier farmers. I guess they could be buried injuns Always look too snakey for me to dig around but I'm going to snoop around for arrow heads next time I'm down.


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## Ozzie

I don't think farmers would go through the trouble to carry the rocks down a slope and then arrange them in eight evenly spaced, 4 foot by 6 foot piles along the creek bank.  What also makes me think this site is special is that these mounds are situated right by the only easy creek crossing for a hundred yards in either direction.  The rocks in the mounds also all appear to be roughly the same size, like somebody went through a lot of trouble to handpick the rocks to make it look nice.


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## AAADawg

Its Indian GOLD!!!! When Indians were being forced out of Georgia they would bury all their wordly possessions in the ground and mark the spot of the way to it with rock piles and trees bent etc. They did this so the white men wouldnt tale away their gold and they knew that they would one day return to re-calim their treasure, something not many were ever able to do. Ill bet theres a fortune buried near those rock piles!!!!


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## 60Grit

AAADawg said:


> Its Indian GOLD!!!! When Indians were being forced out of Georgia they would bury all their wordly possessions in the ground and mark the spot of the way to it with rock piles and trees bent etc. They did this so the white men wouldnt tale away their gold and they knew that they would one day return to re-calim their treasure, something not many were ever able to do. Ill bet theres a fortune buried near those rock piles!!!!


 


Yeah, and since every white man in the U.S. knows this rumor, I am sure there is a lot left that hasn't been looted over the last hundred years or so????


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## Ozzie

daisy said:


> I would check with your lease owner before I went to asking archaeologist for information on a site they possibly don't already know about or have listed. The owner may not like having a portion of his land tied up in a historic site where he has no control over what can be done with that portion of land or be told he can't use it for what ever reason. Too many times something small can have a big impasct on the future of a piece of property. Your lease owner might as soon you keep your mouth quiet (wink).



You are exactly right.  The lease owner is a friend of mine and the hunting is absolutely fantastic on this property, so I will say nothing to anyone.  

We have already run into this same situation on this property, I found a slave grave yard with about 50 people buried in it that he did not even know was there when he bought the land.  I'm sure the archaeologist would love to know about it, but I have to respect the right to privacy of the landowner first.  Those folks have been sleeping there a long time already, and the hunters in our club all treat the area with respect, so there's no reason to get anyone else involved.


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## Mac

Good read, enjoyed


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## carolyne

Intersting reading..sure has my curiosity going!!but...
you all know what curiosity did to the cat lol..
all kidding aside  I will be watcing for more posts here.ya all have a nice day........


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## 7mm mag 06

I have found many rocky piles on my farm like the ones yall are talkin about i have always suspected that they were built by indians. there is a TON of rocks, they r everywere there are some in piles like the 4x6 piles and then there re some just scattered around. i have found 1 real nice arrow head oon a road leading to that spot.


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## Ozzie

I stumbled on the slave grave yard when walking back to my ATV after a hunt and came upon a large flat area on top of a ridge.  I noticed some depressions in the ground, and the fact there were granite field stones in a linear geometric pattern and all of a sudden it dawned on me what it was.  

Some of the graves are in perfect condition with both head stones and smaller foot stones on each end of the depressions in the ground, and some of them have no markers at all, just the depressions.  I'm sure at one time there were head and foot stones on all of them, but the area has been logged several times in its history and I doubt the wood cutters even knew what they were standing on and probably drove heavy equipment right over the top of it.  

I'll try and remember to bring my digital camera with me next time I go to the property and take some pictures of the slave graves and what I guess are probably creek indian graves.  It's cool stuff to see if you are like me and really enjoy and appreciate history.


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## madrabbit

*still's*



Ozzie said:


> I don't believe it's either of those.  I Know where an an old Georgia gold rush sluce site is in Cherokee county, and this looks nothing like that.  I've also seen lots of old stills and I don't think this looks anything like that either.  (You can usually tell an old still site by the old hoop barell rings laying on the ground from where the barrells rotted away and left the rings.)




Ummmm...just curious.....umm.....Have you, by chance, seen any new still's???????????????


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## Ron288

*gold*

you stay out cherokee county leave our gold along.


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## 60Grit

Ron288 said:


> you stay out cherokee county leave our gold along.


 

You're talkin about liquid gold..........


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## Ozzie

madrabbit said:


> Ummmm...just curious.....umm.....Have you, by chance, seen any new still's???????????????



Yeah, as a matter of fact I just saw a still a few minutes ago.  It's a funny thing though...it says Frigidaire on the door and it's right in my kitchen.  Why there's even 12 little barrels in there...but the funny thing is they all say "Budweiser 12 ounces" on the side.


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## BassWorm

Ozzie the family graveyard at the bottom of the "L" has some civil war graves and quite a few that are unmarked and appear to be slave graves. Besides the family members of the folks that live close by.


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## Ozzie

BassWorm said:


> Ozzie the family graveyard at the bottom of the "L" has some civil war graves and quite a few that are unmarked and appear to be slave graves. Besides the family members of the folks that live close by.


Yes, I remember seeing it for the first time before the L was cut.  There's a little above ground infants tomb only about 2 foot long and the grave of a confederate soldier with the CSA emblem on top of the stone.  Someone still cares for it because 2 years ago somebody went through and put flowers on all of the graves.


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## brian chambers

gold ummmmmmmmmm  ok lets head over yonder


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## dawg2

I stumbled on this old thread.  Did the piles look like this?  I have 20+ on my property and was told they were most likely Indian graves since the rocks in the piles were all quartz.


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## hevishot

DanTroop2000 said:


> It maybe were farmers stack them up when they plow years ago.



this is probably what you found....


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## big john h

is it illegal, as a land owner who has those stones onm his property, to dig it up? might be some museum quality artifacts?


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## KDarsey

big john h said:


> is it illegal, as a land owner who has those stones onm his property, to dig it up? might be some museum quality artifacts?


  Should be if it isn't and at the very least should be 'Morally & Ethically' illegal!
  Would you want somebody digging up your Grandma?


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## Researcher31726

big john h said:


> is it illegal, as a land owner who has those stones onm his property, to dig it up? might be some museum quality artifacts?



I believe that if you suspect it is a cemetery or grave and you dig into it, the LEOs could have a long talk with you.

Offer the place the respect that the inhabitants deserve.

Sue


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## dixie

Could be graves  but I'd think they may be old house sites , we have some on our lease in Cherokee and they're on creeks also. Look around this spring for plants that don't grow wild, thats a good way to find old home sites, jonquils are easy to spot and the bulbs have to be planted.


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## 60Grit

dawg2 said:


> I stumbled on this old thread. Did the piles look like this? I have 20+ on my property and was told they were most likely Indian graves since the rocks in the piles were all quartz.


 
Take some talcum powder and a fine bristle brush. 

Dust some of the larger stones. If they were indian, there will be markings on the stones not visible from years of weathering, but the talcum powder will reveal the secret.


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## dawg2

60Grit said:


> Take some talcum powder and a fine bristle brush.
> 
> Dust some of the larger stones. If they were indian, there will be markings on the stones not visible from years of weathering, but the talcum powder will reveal the secret.[/QUOTE
> 
> What are you talking about?


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## dawg2

Researcher31726 said:


> I believe that if you suspect it is a cemetery or grave and you dig into it, the LEOs could have a long talk with you.
> 
> Offer the place the respect that the inhabitants deserve.
> 
> Sue



IF you dig it AND you find human remains then you have to call a LEO or DNR.  If you KNOW it is a grave and you dig it there are stiff penalties and fines.  I have no intention of digging in them.  That would be like going to a modern cemetery and digging up people for their gold teeth.

  We find a lot of quartz points  and tools in the pasture below every time it rains.  I leave the piles alone.  I am pretty sure they are graves and not farmer piles, because whoever did it moved them to the top of a ridge and piled up all quartz.  

And my favorite quote:
"let him [the white man] be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead did I say?  There is no death, only a change of worlds."
-Chief Seattle


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## dawg2

Here is another pic of some different piles.  There is one right in front and then if look in the woods to the left and right you can see more.


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## dawg2

sorry, had to resize the pic


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## collardvalleydeerhunter

cool , i would use a metal detector  over the area .


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## 60Grit

dawg2 said:


> 60Grit said:
> 
> 
> 
> Take some talcum powder and a fine bristle brush.
> 
> Dust some of the larger stones. If they were indian, there will be markings on the stones not visible from years of weathering, but the talcum powder will reveal the secret.[/QUOTE
> 
> What are you talking about?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 87933
Click to expand...


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## dawg2

Gotcha.  I'll look again.  SOme of the all quartz piles have one granite like rock placed right on the top.  Not sure what it means.  And the projectile points we find here are not Cherokee or Creek, they are from the Archaic period.


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## 60Grit

dawg2 said:


> Gotcha. I'll look again. SOme of the all quartz piles have one granite like rock placed right on the top. Not sure what it means. And the projectile points we find here are not Cherokee or Creek, they are from the Archaic period.


 
Check the granite for marks, usually you will need the talcum powder to see them though. 

I had a cherokee friend teach me this trick, otherwise I wouldn't have seen anything.

Nicodemus could help you out with the point mystery..

Where are you located?? or more accurately, where are the mounds located?? in terms of county.


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## Ozzie

dawg2 said:


> I stumbled on this old thread.  Did the piles look like this?  I have 20+ on my property and was told they were most likely Indian graves since the rocks in the piles were all quartz.



The mounds on our property are the same size, but the individual rocks in the piles are much smaller, and more uniform in size.  They look like somebody took a great deal of care to pick them out so that the finished mound would be neat and even looking.


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## dawg2

60Grit said:


> Check the granite for marks, usually you will need the talcum powder to see them though.
> 
> I had a cherokee friend teach me this trick, otherwise I wouldn't have seen anything.
> 
> Nicodemus could help you out with the point mystery..
> 
> Where are you located?? or more accurately, where are the mounds located?? in terms of county.



Harris county


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## dawg2

60Grit said:


> Check the granite for marks, usually you will need the talcum powder to see them though.
> 
> I had a cherokee friend teach me this trick, otherwise I wouldn't have seen anything.
> 
> Nicodemus could help you out with the point mystery..
> 
> Where are you located?? or more accurately, where are the mounds located?? in terms of county.



Tell him to look at these.  Forget about the green stone adze/celt it came from Lee County AL.


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## Vernon Holt

Liklihood is great that these are merely piles of stones which were moved by way of a hand made sled (called a stone boat) out of the field and cast in piles at the edge of the field.  

Every time the field was plowed, additional stones were brought to the surface, making for more stone removal.  This was most often winter work when folks were not involved with making a crop.

I have an old field on my place that was being cultivated by Cherokees when whites settled in what is now Gilmer Co.  The field was last cultivated in 1925.

The field now contains 30 inch in diameter pines and Yellow poplar.  One would never know that it was a field except for the piles of rocks that delineate the the field.  The rocks were placed in piles in event they were needed at some later time for building chimneys, foundations, fences, etc.


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## Nicodemus

Dawg2, I see a couple of worked pieces there. I know very little about Native American graves, other than the fact that I ain`t gonna mess with em. I like Mr. Vernons idea of how and why the stones were placed there. There are fields down here where the farmers have them piled 10 feet high for over 100 yards to get them out of the fields. I also see them in big woods off the sides of the right of ways some too. Most likely they were piled up in places like I see for the same reason.


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## dawg2

Vernon Holt said:


> Liklihood is great that these are merely piles of stones which were moved by way of a hand made sled (called a stone boat) out of the field and cast in piles at the edge of the field.
> 
> Every time the field was plowed, additional stones were brought to the surface, making for more stone removal.  This was most often winter work when folks were not involved with making a crop.
> 
> I have an old field on my place that was being cultivated by Cherokees when whites settled in what is now Gilmer Co.  The field was last cultivated in 1925.
> 
> The field now contains 30 inch in diameter pines and Yellow poplar.  One would never know that it was a field except for the piles of rocks that delineate the the field.  The rocks were placed in piles in event they were needed at some later time for building chimneys, foundations, fences, etc.



Only one problem.  It is not a field.  The piles ONLY occur on the face of a hill and stop at the top and they are all on the eastern side.  Some are just a few feet away.  Additionally, every rock in the pile is milky quartz.  There is no large milky quartz on my property. most of the rock here is granitic looking rock.  So why would a farmer take all the effort to carry only white quartz to the top of a hill and make nearly identically sized piles a few feet apart from each other all the way across a ridge line?  Also, nearly every single projectile point, scraper, tool, axe head found around my house is quartz or quartzite.  I had someone look at some of them and they are a mix of Archaic and Woodland Period pieces.  A lot of people may have farmer rock piles, and a lot more may be tearing up ancient artifact to border thier flower bed.  The Archaic and more so the Woodland Indians built a lot of rock piles.  ome are graves and others may only be a marker of some kind. White quartz was a very special/holy rock to the for the piezo electric qualities (go outside and rub to pieces of quartz together at night and you will see what I mean) and they built ahuge effigy mound (Eagle Rock) in GA completely out of quartz.  But I would say if you find them, it would be better to err on the side off caution and not go tearing them up.

After having done a little research on "rock piles" after finding mine, An Archaeologist told me if it is on a ridge or hill, facing EAST (Land of the living), overlooking a valley that usually has water/ creek, it is most likely a prehistoric gravesite and usually well before the Creek Indians. More likely Archaic or Woodland.


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## Kawaliga

At Big Lazar Creek WMA, there are numerous piles of the same type rocks on several hills at the mouth of the creek where it flows into the Flint at Hickman Island.These piles are in a series of rows, coming together at the top of each hill. These hills are too rocky and steep for any farmer to have even considered planting a crop.If they are graves, there are a lot of dead Indians on those hills.I always wondered if it had some type of ceremony associated with it.


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## big john h

#1 I wasn't saying I'dig it up - just asking. 
#2 That is not a grave site. It has a name but for lack of my memory I'll call it a supply pile. usable stones were carried from fields and creeks/rivers and piled high - like the back lot of a Home Depot. Then individuals could take them and use them as they saw fit.


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## Jeb

What about these rockpiles on a mtn top , facing NE. Sorry about the picture quality , I took them Sunday evening with my cell phone.
                             Jeb


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## dawg2

When I found mine, I did a bunch of research.  Yours look similar.  Up the East Coast, there are groups  ( http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2007_06_24 _archive.html )dedicated to marking these piles as pre historic and they have a lot of pics.  GA has a lot of rockpiles.  But from what I have read, there is a big debate as to whether they are graves, ceremonial locations, monuments to fallen warriors, battle ground markers, so on.  Some of my mounds face NE, but there are none on the western side of the hill.  But there is one big marker cairn made completely out of granite looking rock with one single piece of white quartz stuck in it.  From that pile is a trail of white quartz chunks about 10' apart leading you to the big area of rock piles, which is why I do not believe it ha sanything to do with a farmer.  We find a lot of artifacts int the pasture below, but none from more modern Indians (i.e.- Cherokee).


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## Polk County Hillbilly

W.P.A.


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## fatboy84

Here are some graves I found at a friend's new lease....

No Indian graves but from the 1800....Headstones said some were in the GA Infantry..


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## fatboy84

Another one


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## h20fowlin

Hey Dawg2----

I'd say that is a machette in your picture. Not sure what era, but i'm pretty sure that's what you go there. Looks to be in real good condition though.


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## dawg2

h20fowlin said:


> Hey Dawg2----
> 
> I'd say that is a machette in your picture. Not sure what era, but i'm pretty sure that's what you go there. Looks to be in real good condition though.



It is.  I keep one in the hunting house, the garage, and I have one in the woods too, it was from the 60's.  Now if I can just find it in the woods.  They are great to have in the woods.


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## fish hawk

they look like farmers put them there i am pretty shure there not a burrial site


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## Ozzie

Some folks have been PM'ing me asking for some pics of the grave sites. I was hunting this weekend and stopped by the old slave grave yard and took these pics with my camera phone.  Sorry the quality isn't the best, next time I'll take a real camera and get some better shots.  

These pictures don't begin to tell the whole story when you are there.  There are approximately 60 of these graves lined up on the ridge top.  I tried to pick some representative samples.  In the big picture, you can see the headstone and the footstone and the depression in the ground from where the coffin has collapsed.  The first picture of the headstone might have some kind of engraving on it, but it's illegible.  I'll try and get some pictures of the Creek Indian graves I mentioned earlier one of these times.


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## Big Country

WOW I just wonder how many times i have walkd past some of these and never noticed them


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## Ozzie

Big Country said:


> WOW I just wonder how many times i have walkd past some of these and never noticed them



Yep, the property owner did not know they were there, and this hunting club I am in has been together about 6 years and no one noticed them before I joined last season.  It just struck me one morning as I climbed out of a creek bottom and crested the ridge, that the stones and depressions in the ground were in a definite geometric pattern.  There are 10 rows of 6 to 8 graves each.  It is very old because there are some big trees growing up right through the middle of some of the graves.     

I suspect that there was an old log church there at one time because churches and graveyards usually go together, and at one end of the rows of graves there is a level area where the church might have stood.


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## davisdole

*Hall county indian pile*

I have found a pile of rocks 4X6 on a very steep and east side of the hill overlooking a creek. I have found about 30 arrowheads on my land in the last twenty years. Makes me wonder as well.


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## crokseti

Our cabin is out on a side ridge that faces East and theres 2 rock piles further out the ridge.
 Mostly quartz stones.
 I walk around them when goin thru.


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## decoyed

I see very few actual artifacts and a bunch of old farm rock piles in this thread.


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## dawg2

decoyed said:


> I see very few actual artifacts and a bunch of old farm rock piles in this thread.



See, that is where you are wrong.  One of the piles I have had been vandalized and there were artifacts.


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## CAL

Not saying the rock piles are not Indian graves but around me are several grave yards with rock piles in them marking grave sites.These were from people marking there love ones site that didn't have money for a fit marker.They are very old too.I think from the early 1900's.Some of what different members are posting could also be the same.As far as the sites facing the east,we Christians believe that when Jesus returns He will come from the east. All graves around my home town face the east.The rock sites could be from the early settlers also.Just some thoughts to consider.


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## BoneHunter77

grab a shovel.


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## dawg2

BoneHunter77 said:


> grab a shovel.



Not cool and you may want to read up:  

http://www.ibsgwatch.imagedjinn.com/learn/laws.htm


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## jason4445

There was a property I went to years ago in Cohutta, Ga. that in a field around the sides of a ridge were not stone piles, but stone pits sort of.  Circles about 30 feet  in diameter covered with stones averaging the size of a football/ basketball.  The center of the stone circle was about four feet lower than the edge.  The owner said that one day he and some friends started to remove stones form the center, got down about 8 feet and there were still stones- they put the ones removed back and never fooled with it again.


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## jcinpc

if those are graves more than likely any bones would have since disolved except for the teeth, enamel is the hardest substance in out body. Not all indian were burial laying stretched out, alot were bundle burials put in the hole after the bones were cleaned in the charnel house. there were hundreds of thousands of people here before us, they had to be put to rest somehwere and most places today have no resemblence to what it looked like that long ago.

Also note, not all indians were buried with riches and pots and gorgets or even plain ole arrowheads.They just dies and were interred. Down here in Florida our soils are so acidic bones dont last. Late Paleo and Archaic indians buried the dead in ponds and lakes here, they covered and staked them to the bottom and it would be used for thousands of years until the mound builders came along in the woodland times.

you want a great read?? check out the link of the Windover site, this has the best preservation of 7,000 year old human brain and tissue and these "savages" even cared for a 14 year old boy with SPina Bifida and made cloth shirts like we wear from palmetto fibers, 26 strands to the square inch.

http://www.nbbd.com/godo/history/windover/

I have found some bundled, staked burials before when the lakes go down. I have given the Arch`s some sites but they dont need them all, all they would do is take any related artifacts and it goes in to a box in a drawer  somewhere for eternity. I know of at least 6 mounds that arent documented and they will remain that way until a developer comes along and bulldozes it.
The Seminoles have no say over any remains discovered here, they arent true Florida indians, they are a mixture of creek and cherokee and freed slaves . 

See what is in one of those piles to fill your curiosity and if it is a burial cover it back up and now you know.


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## Citiboy287

Interesting read and topic I love local history  here is a link about a site up in Dahlonega  http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=9451  also read the last paragraph of this one  http://www.cherokeegold.net/stonepilegap.html


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## Capt Quirk

Handgunner said:


> Interesting to say the least.
> 
> I wouldn't recommend digging any up though...
> 
> If they are indeed indian graves, they were put to rest, and IMO, are best left that way.


Dig them up, and if you find remains, move them. Then build a house there. They do it in the movies, and it seems like an interesting time


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## Throwback

BoneHunter77 said:


> grab a shovel.



go to jail!

T


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## Throwback

I think tomorrow I'm going to get a shovel, a pry bar, a hammer and a pair of pliers and go up the road to the city cemetery and start digging up people and sell whatever I find in the grave on ebay. 

Maybe I'll sell the casket for scrap metal, too. 


T


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## dawg2

Throwback said:


> I think tomorrow I'm going to get a shovel, a pry bar, a hammer and a pair of pliers and go up the road to the city cemetery and start digging up people and sell whatever I find in the grave on ebay.
> 
> Maybe I'll sell the casket for scrap metal, too.
> 
> 
> T



I never undertsood why people think it is OK to dig up indian graves.  It's no different than doing the above and gathering up all the gold and silver crowns and selling them.


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## JustUs4All

In the name of science, religion, and morbid curiosity much harm has been done.


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## dawg2

JustUs4All said:


> In the name of science, religion, and morbid curiosity much harm has been done.



You left our GREED.


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## chief1941

*grave markers*

do not loose the sight of how many  pore folks white and black that have been buried here. the vast majority of farms had a cementary on tthem. there were not many large plantations,just one and two hose farms with houses every hundred yards to half mile or so.


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## Al Medcalf

fatboy84 said:


> Here are some graves I found at a friend's new lease....
> 
> No Indian graves but from the 1800....Headstones said some were in the GA Infantry..



Fatboy, Are these graves in Lamar Co?  They look like the ones another SCV member and myself marked a few years ago.  One Confederate and one War of 1812.


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## grouper throat

dawg2 said:


> I never undertsood why people think it is OK to dig up indian graves.  It's no different than doing the above and gathering up all the gold and silver crowns and selling them.



I know where several Native American grave sites are in our lease and my buddy and I find alot of artifacts in the area. People should have some respect for the dead and don't be surprised if the indian spirits come to haunt you


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## grouper throat

I know where several Native American grave sites are in our lease and my buddy and I find alot of artifacts in the area. I wouldn't dare touch a grave site though. I know where several undocumented shell mounds are also but those secrets are well kept. 

People should have some respect for the dead and don't be surprised if the indian spirits come to haunt you if you dig up their grave


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## graveleye

we had (and I say _had_) a nice rockpile on some land I help manage in Bartow Cty. I suspected it to not be a burial, but a workshop. There are lots of flakes and debitage around it, as well as preforms and an occasional point. I figure the indians had them a pile of good usable chert and jasper there and some big chunks of limestone to sit on while they worked.

Well someone got into that pile with a backhoe while no one was watching and dug it up. I got in there and poked around and didn't find a thing and I bet a nickel the jerks that dug it up didn't find anything either.  (I hope they didn't anyway). I reckon that even if they found some bones, they probably wouldn't have taken them. They couldn't do anything with them anyways.

Wish I knew who did it though.


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## CreekChub

Kawaliga said:


> At Big Lazar Creek WMA, there are numerous piles of the same type rocks on several hills at the mouth of the creek where it flows into the Flint at Hickman Island.These piles are in a series of rows, coming together at the top of each hill. These hills are too rocky and steep for any farmer to have even considered planting a crop.If they are graves, there are a lot of dead Indians on those hills.I always wondered if it had some type of ceremony associated with it.



I hunted that WMA several years back and it is covered up
with graves. Some even have markings scratched deep
into the headstone like rock. Maybe there was a battle
or a disease outbreak or something.
One thing is for certain, people have been buried under
rock piles for up to 40,000 years before we sailed over
here. Maybe longer, who knows.


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## Bo Webb

My Grandfather was a Creek Injun, he was also a sharecropper on Gene Tallmadge's  farm. At some point he told Gene about the mounds between Macon and Perry.  Then later Showed them to him. They have since been destroyed (turned into a park/ historical site) I can't say that this was Eugene's fault, But pawpaw never showed him anything else....... but he showed me..... and I have stood on top of a mound in the middle of a South Georgia swamp that was higher than the pines and so covered in pottery shards and points that you could scoop them up by the doubled handful. (but I did not).Those stone plies may be sacred, but are most likely not. I would do some more research and if found to be sacred then most defiantly do not tell anyone or someone will dig em' up and ruin your hunting spot.


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## sgtstinky

I found a suspect rock pile this weekend, it was situated over a small creek which had cut through the bed rock in a very defined manner indicating the age of the creek. The pile was on the west side of the creek and was aligned from west to east. The pile was about 10 feet long and maybe 4 feet wide, it was about 3 feet high. The rocks were predominately quartz, the area was rich in quartz but I believe that the pile was not representative of the natural distribution of quartz, it was over 2/3 rds quartz. The creek side, or east side of the pile had a deep hole, this could be from a long ago tree, or from excavation? If this site was aligned to face east this would be the head stone area of the pile. 

I was a vistor to this property so I do not know any of the history, the owner was not present. I passed along my suspicions to the fellow I was with and he will pass it on to the owner. The property was an old farm and the pile could also be from clearing the fields, although it looked to me that someone spent a lot of time collecting quartz.

Any thoughts on this?? The pile was located in Harris county.


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## caughtinarut

there is a place out from thomaston close to the flint where along the hillsides are many and I mean many of these gray rocks in 6-7 feet sections like graves as you were mentioning before. it is a couple of hundred feet away from the river.


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## caughtinarut

Bump


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## burresse

Check the stones for cut lines where harrows or plows have hit them Before they were piled.


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## Artfuldodger

This was one of those threads about rocks we were talking about in Putnam County.
I would agree with Vernon in post 53 that most are just farmers clearing long gone fields. But if the rock piles are in a particular place and type of stone, such as on the side of a hill facing east over a creek, it may be more than just field clearing.
I've read that Appalachians would carry the dead to a mountain top for burial year ago so maybe something related to death and the afterlife of Native Americans and their beliefs.


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## antharper

Great old thread ! Very interesting also , I see these same type rock piles in the woods often and just set back and imagine who or why they were put their


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## Shadow11

DanTroop2000 said:


> It maybe were farmers stack them up when they plow years ago.


This was my 1st thought. When I was a kid i found a few of these on family property in northern habersham. I thought sure they were old Indian graves, but all the old folks told me it was just where the farmers piled up some rocks long before. I'm still not 100% convinced, though. They look just like graves.


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## PCNative

Back in the day I found several piles of rocks approximately 6 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high on my property and I too had heard they were piled there many years ago by farmers. I decided to check one of them out and discovered the rocks went about 3 feet deep into the ground. I don't think a farmer would have dug a hole to put the rocks in. And no I did not find any bones, If I had I would have stopped immediately and covered the hole.


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## stonecreek

I have found old gravesites in many places while hunting over the years. The one that stands out was a squirrel hunt about 30 years ago near Burma road in Andersonville. Dog treed pretty deep in the middle of of nowhere and suddenly I’m in a graveyard. A big one probably 200 graves the closest road was 500 yards. Some graves had ole timey markers some were just depressions in the ground. Checked with an old black guy later that said it was a slave graveyard that was originally used during the plague that about wipeout Oglethorpe a couple centuries ago. He said they actually still used the graveyard up until the 60s. Found out recently that a historic group went in there in early 2000s and mapped it out.


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## longrangedog

Early farmers generally did not clear and farm hillsides. The level bottomland was more suitable for farming and they did clear the rocks out but probably would not have carried them to a distant hillside.


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## Fletch_W

longrangedog said:


> Early farmers generally did not clear and farm hillsides. The level bottomland was more suitable for farming and they did clear the rocks out but probably would not have carried them to a distant hillside.



That depends heavily on the tract of land. If a farmer didn't have much bottomland, or the bottomland was too swampy, he'd absolutely clear hills and plant on them.

But I agree he wouldn't clear rocks from a bunch of bottomland and then carry them up the hill. They'd be on the edge.


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## Shadow11

PCNative said:


> Back in the day I found several piles of rocks approximately 6 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high on my property and I too had heard they were piled there many years ago by farmers. I decided to check one of them out and discovered the rocks went about 3 feet deep into the ground. I don't think a farmer would have dug a hole to put the rocks in. And no I did not find any bones, If I had I would have stopped immediately and covered the hole.


No they would not have dug a hole, but if a hole was already there, from an uprooted tree that fell at some point, or a reason such as that... then they would have chosen that spot to pile their rocks.


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## Mike 65

Our hunting club in Lamar co. has several piles like described and the land owner told us it’s from farming the land.


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## bluemarlin

What ever you do... Don't get any archaeologist or state agency involved.


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## westcobbdog

Was at my Hancock club yesterday and installed a ladder overlooking a creek bottom. In prior trips noticed what I thought were 3-4 large piles of white quart rocks at the edge of the ridge and the bottom were really maybe 10 or more piles of stones. 
Some huge piles some smaller. Someone worked their tail off to pile up all these rocks.


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