Alt-History Fault Line #4 — Mound Builders: Indigenous Origin vs. Lost-Race Narrative

Mainstream Archaeology (Cyrus Thomas, 1894 Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology) definitively established Mississippian mounds as Indigenous Native American construction. Alt-history maintains 'lost white/Nephilim race' construction (Caleb Atwater 19th century origin). Engine relevance per Apex Superposition: this fault line is structurally NOT symmetric — the alt-history reading actively displaces Native agency for esoteric narrative, creating colonialism-coded political function. (a) intentional cabal vs (b) structural recurrence vs (c) collective psychology resolve here as: the mound-builder myth was operationally USED to delegitimize Native land claims (documented historical political function). Tier-3 source-integrity for the lost-race narrative; Tier-1 for Cyrus Thomas Smithsonian work. Engine framing: alt-history-as-political-function is the engine signal, not 'is the lost-race narrative true' question.