Let me tell you the story about a haunted place called Aztalan that I visited to do research for the second book of my children’s series, The Library Kids The Serpent of Rock Lake.
Aztalan is a mysterious place near Rock Lake (Lake Mills, Wisconsin). The site was abandoned and no one knows why to this day. There are stories of fights between the inhabitants and Red Horn of the Ho-Chunk. Aztalan state park is Wisconsin’s most important archaeological site. The remains are from a Mississippian peoples’ village that existed between A.D. 900 and 1300. This time period is consistent with the time period of an apparent Viking colonization of America between 800 and 1300 AD.
I decided to visit this mysterious place during the winter and see for myself what the place looked like. I went to the main park and got out to see the Crawfish River. I saw the large pyramid mounds, next. There were 3 of them as the brochure had mentioned. No one was there and the place was absolutely peaceful. It felt like home, to me. The layout was consistent with other sites I later visited which included a city-complex next to a river or main water source, pyramids/mounds laid out as a calendar, and fortification.
I walked through the snow, to the large pyramid and walked up the steps. I walked to the top where the snow had melted and I looked around. I felt as if I had been there before. I noticed the stockade fence and wondered what it was like for the inhabitants who lived there.
Next I drove to the Princess Mound. The Princess Mound contained the body of a woman who was in her twenties when she died. She was buried with 3 shell belts that contained various shells. Some of them came from the Gulf of Mexico. It was an unusual burial and the woman was thought to be some one of importance or perhaps someone who had died under a unique condition because her burial was away from the other burial mounds and her belts were elaborate. Perhaps this woman was murdered.
I got out and again, no one was around. There were no animals and the museum was closed. There was some snow on the ground there as well. I began to take pictures of the princess mound and then I heard it.
Behind me was a rattling type noise that came from no where. I turned around, but could see no one or anything that was causing this noise. I turned back around and began to take another picture. And then the rattling noise came back, right behind me. I turned around, but nothing was there. I looked at the trees behind the grave to see if there were any animals. But there were none.
I looked all around, but there was nothing.
I turned again and took one more picture and then the noise came back again, right behind me.
Again for the 3rd time, I turned and could find nothing that had caused the sound. At this point, I decided it was time for me to go.
Perhaps that mound is haunted as others have said it is. And the sound I heard was from the shell belts of the Princess who didn’t want me to be alone at the mound.
She let me know that she was still there.
After this visit and some visits to other Mississippian sites, I was able to locate a scholarly paper on Aztalan that described scientific evidence that some of the members of Aztalan were related to some of the people who lived at the ancient site of Cahokia in Illinois. This paper was written by T. Douglas Price, James H. Burton, and James B Stoltman and was entitled, Place of Origin of Prehistoric Inhabitants of Aztalan, Jefferson Co., Wisconsin. The paper was published in American Antiquity, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Jul., 2007), pp 524-538.
The paper describes a test done using strontium isotopes found in human teeth and bone. Researchers were able to determine that remains of individuals found in Aztalan were related to some remains of individuals found at Cahokia. No DNA tests were ever done and probably will ever be done on remains at Aztalan or Cahokia. Per the paper:
“The isotopic signal for some of the foreigners matches values from Cahokia, but does not prove that this was their place of origin.”
Some think the site was related to the Aztecs of Mexico. Brick was made by burned clay daubs. The paper further states that other connections between Aztalan and Cahokia were observed in the prehistoric artifacts and architecture found at both sites.
I further visited the Milwaukee Public Museum and observed some of the artifacts from Aztalan on display:
Notice the spiral design?
It is further reported that evidence of cannibalism was not found at Aztalan but was admitted to by the Ho-Chunk:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/17/4394405/picnic-with-cannibals-wisconsins.html
Siouan (includes Ho-Chunk people) legend tells the tale of red-haired giants who “oppressed” them, until one red-haired giant helped them out. He was called Red Horn due to his long red-hair. It is said that Red Horn also mated with a native woman and the union produced a son with red-hair who fought and killed the “evil” red-haired giants that were against them.
So you can see that within the time frame of 800 to 1300 AD, there is ample evidence that Vikings appeared to have created settlements along the Mississippi River (and probably the Colorado River, too). They probably interbred or lived with some of the Asiatic natives and got along with some of them and others they did not. The Ho-Chunk admit that ritual cannibalism was performed by their tribe to “take” the energy from their enemies.
It is my theory that these pyramid/mound complexes that sprung up around the 800 to 1300 AD time period in America, Mexico, and Peru were all related and were started by red-haired Vikings who were bred out, killed, and forced to stop immigration due to the Black Plague that swept through Europe. I believe this evidence is being suppressed because these red-haired people were part of the Jotunn and not of the people/bloodlines involved in the Cult of Jupiter Sabazios. Their spiral designs indicate a matriarchal society or at least one observant of the sacred feminine and is a symbol found in many Celtic societies (the Celts have many stories of red-haired giants in Ireland). Lastly, mound building and pyramid building was prevalent in Europe as well as effigies and burial mounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Horn_%28Siouan_deity%29
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6tunn
