Indiana's Mysterious Mounds: Legends of Advanced Civilizations and Giants

Before the first pyramid, or Stonehenge was built, a mysterious people lived in North America. They built large mounds, mostly of earth, sometimes covered in stone, and aligned them to the stars with mathematical precision. They built large cities, with walls up to 25 feet tall, and massively long, And in some of their tombs, were found giant skeletons, ranging from 6 and a half to 9 feet tall. These people dominated the landscape, and yet one day, they vanished, and no one seems to know where they went. This is the fascinating story of Indiana’s mysterious mounds, stone fortifications, and the people that built them.

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PICTURE LICENSES

(1) Temple Mound at Ocmulgee National Monument
AUTHOR: Dsdugan
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

(2) Serpent Mound
AUTHOR: Eric Ewing
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

(3) Cahokia Front view
AUTHOR: Skubasteve834
This file is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

(4) Cahokia Side view
AUTHOR: Herb RoeThis file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

(5) Cahokia illustration
AUTHOR: Heironymous RoweThis file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

(6) LSU Mounds
AUTHOR: Spatms
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

(7) LSU Mound B
AUTHOR: Spatms
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

(8) Stonehenge
AUTHOR: garethwiscombe
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

(9) Indiana State House
AUTHOR:
derivative work: Massimo Catarinella
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

(10 Henry County Courthouse
AUTHOR: PublichallThis file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

(11) Yao Ming
AUTHOR: Keith Allison
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

(12) Carter vs Gasol, Lakers vs Magic
AUTHOR: Tim Wang
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

(13) Pyramid of the Sun
AUTHOR: Mariordo
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

(14) Kukulcán pyramid on Chichén Itzá
AUTHOR: Dschwen
Creative Commons

MUSIC LICENSES

[indianahoneybee]

I live within 5 miles of one of these mounds. An elderly lady I used to work for petitioned to have this mound cored and was denied. She always wanted to know the secrets hidden beneath. Thank you for this video 🐝

[metaspherz]

We need more levelheaded channels like this that can take history and myth and put it into perspective without blowing it out of proportion by trying to advance their own agenda.
I would rather believe that our ancestors could build great cities without the help of extraterrestrials. And just because they believed in gods doesn't mean that gods did the work for them or taught them how to do it. Humans are ingenious and we all know that necessity is the mother of invention!
That's very true and the evidence is scattered across the globe.

[jimbojiveable]

i've always been fascinated by the mounds and mound builders. thanks for putting this out there.

[infernalmachine]

I used to clean the carpet at the Angle Mound Museum back in the 80’s. It was one of my most informative jobs :)

[AdventureIndiana]

My grandpa passed on a few years ago, but he was adamant that he seen the skeleton of a giant in southern indiana. He said the person would have been at least 9 foot tall. He told me stories of two places in southern indiana where giants were found. I believe he was telling the truth.

[harrowgateguy]

Abraham Lincoln referred to giants in North America when he visited Niagara Falls saying the giants buried in the mounds gazed upon Niagara as we do now.

[JohnHaroldjr]

Very well done. I live in Southern Indiana and have walked so many fields of Indian Mounds, some of which haven't been surveyed and still get farmed. Posey County has recently began the preservation and identifying process of a large number of mounds. Some of these mounds have rural gravel roads going right over top of them.

[nilahsimmons]

I grew up a few miles from Brewersville IN. The nine foot eight inch tall giant skeleton found on George Robinson's farm was said to have "double rows" of teeth. Thanks for mentioning it Robert.

[nhartigan]

Great video! I've lived in Vincennes all my life. As a child I remember sledding on Sugarloaf Mound & going to Angel Mounds for school field trips, though I remember so little about the park itself. The mounds & the giants have really interested me for years, so much mystery behind it all. I appreciate that you went over so much & left it as it is, still very mysterious, rather than trying to push opinions.

[CK-]

Thanks for the memories! I lived in Anderson, IN when I was ten (1967) and my father took us to the mounds. My brothers and I had a lot of fun wandering around. All I can recall was that they were “Indian Mounds”. THANKS for explaining them and for bringing back the memories❤ CK in California

[CptnHowdy]

I have lived in Indiana my whole life and was completely unaware of most of these!

[birdflipper]

I visited the Cahokia mounds in Illinois many times as a kid. Pretty amazing they have survived as long as they have.

[badguy]

Amazing! I never HEARD of these mounds in Indiana! YES mounds in Illinois and Ohio but never in Indiana. Thanks for bringing them to light for us! What a shame so much of this pre-history has been destroyed.

[kathysyphrit]

My grandmothers family farm in Ohio had a mound. I always knew that it was not a normal formation of this farmland because the rest of the acres were flat. It is still there. I find this very interesting. Thank You .

[martinharris]

Thanks for this excellent documentary Roger. Many people are unaware of what existed in America prior to Western colonization, they just think it was nomadic tribes following the Buffalo herds. And what a shame how these mysterious finds were treated!

[nickschweickart]

I'm from Evansville and I need to go back to Angel Mounds. Thank you for including it in this video. It's amazing just how much of our ancient past we have no knowledge of, and I suspect that some of that knowledge has been suppressed for "the greater good". Thanks again for the fantastic videos.

[danwhite]

Great video Roger! This is such a fascinating and important topic that many Hoosiers don't know about. I'm happy to see you giving it the time of day and leaving no stone unturned.

[sshumkaer]

Issue a correction from your video. My home town is Vincennes Indiana, I was born in 1982, and was one of thousands who sledding on the Indiana Mounds through the 80s and 90s. It was both established and well kwon that the mound was Indian Burial. First off my parents told us kids that indians were Buried here. Secondly back in the day the property own then privately had two signs that said burial mounds posted.

My point is thousands people sledded there for decades know they were burial mounds, the difference was we weren't taking shovels and going on private treasure hunts, being respectful to the owners wish.

Losts of great memories there in the fall they had big fires below the mounds and would host hog slaughter and roast them, and do hayrides on the history of the area, and give tours of the mounds and known history of them. Super fun.

All I'm saying is in the end after I moved away unless people became completely stupid in Vincennes and no longer could read signs or understand the stories past down from dad and mom and Grandpa and Grandma it was well known it was a burial mound.

P.S. as of 2000 my last year you could sled there. I also use to cut the grass for the old man who lived in the house from 89 to 95 for FREE. push mow the mounds. Dad would get off from work and help me. The old guy would give us Ice Tea and Lemonade with moon pies.

[dimensionalencounter]

I live outside Wickliffe Kentucky and there are mounds there. There is mounds in Alabama, Ohio, missiouri, Illinois etc. the mound people were very vast in North America at one time.

[tbone]

I might just be really stoned but i think the narrator did a good job sparking an interest. Good job man.