Mound Builder myth and the Smithsonian mound surveys

Record summary

The nineteenth-century Mound Builder myth claimed that the earthworks of the eastern United States were built by a vanished non-Indigenous race rather than by ancestors of living Native peoples. Smithsonian investigators, including Cyrus Thomas, surveyed and excavated many sites and published evidence connecting mound construction to Indigenous societies. The controversy matters because it shows how racial assumptions shaped archaeological interpretation and how systematic fieldwork challenged a popular historical narrative. It also provides context for later claims about Israelites, Egyptians, Vikings, and other supposed mound builders.