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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Letter of the Day: October 19

Fort Sisseton, D. T. [Dakota Territory]

October 19, 1880

Sir:

I have the honor to inform you that I have this day turned over to the Post Quartermaster for transportation to the Army Medical Museum a box containing the pelvic bone of a mound builder (male) from a tumulus near this fort. These bones were found near the centre of the mound and about six feet three inches from its surface. No other human remains have I been able to discover. A few flint chips and a very peculiar heart shaped stone pierced with numerous small holes and a broken flint arrow head I found just beneath the surface of the mound. I have forwarded these articles to Professor Putnam of the Peabody Museum of American A & E [Archaeology and Ethnology] at Cambridge Mass.

over

The Port Quartermaster's receipt will be forwarded as soon as I can obtain it.


I am Sir
very respectfully
Your obdt [obedient] servant.

August Gecks
Hospital Steward, U. S. A. [United States Army]

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