Native American Netroots - Archaeology

Travelers' Rest State Park (Photo Diary)

Ojibwa — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:11:26 GMT

For thousands of years, the Indian peoples of western Montana were connected to the rest of the world through an intricate network of trade routes. The natural hub of these routes is Travelers' Rest which is today operated as a state park.

Travelers' Rest is located at the east end of the Lolo Trail. This trail crosses the Bitterroot Mountains and connected the Salish-speaking people of western Montana to the Nez Perce and other Indian nations in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

To the east, the trails led into the buffalo country of the Great Plains, a resource area whose importance increased after the acquisition of the horse in the eighteenth century.

To the north, the trails led into the rich hunting and gathering areas of the Mission and Flathead Valleys and beyond. These areas were rich in camas as well as deer, elk, and caribou. The north trails also connected them with other Salish-speaking groups (Pend d'Oreille, Kalispel, Spokan, Couer d'Alene) and the Kootenai.

While the site of today's Travelers' Rest State Park was an important and frequently used Indian camp site, the designation "Travelers' Rest" comes from the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. In September 1805, the party of American explorers known officially as the Corps of Discovery arrived in the Bitterroot Valley. They had crossed into the valley via the Lost Trail Pass which had been blanketed by the season's first snow. They were lost and hungry. As was their custom, the Bitterroot Salish (also known as the Flathead) provided the strangers with food and friendship. Indian agent Peter Ronan would later report:

"During the stay of the explorers in the Flathead camp Captain Clarke took unto himself a Flathead woman. One son was the result of this union, and he was baptized after the missionaries came to Bitter Root valley and named Peter Clarke."

Meriwether Lewis named the creek on which they camped "Travellers' Rest." On their return trip the following year, they camped here again. Today it is the only archaeologically verified Lewis and Clark campsite.

Shown above is the Lewis and Clark campsite with tent frames showing the locations of their tents. As a military expedition, they laid out their camps according to the military manual.

In 1960, Travelers' Rest was established as a National Historic Landmark in recognition of the site as a critical decision point for the leaders of the Corps of Discovery (also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition).

Archaeology:

For many years it was thought that the Travelers' Rest campsite was located at the confluence of Lolo Creek and Bitterroot River, about 1.5 miles east of the current park. In 1996, investigators came to suspect that this location was incorrect. Historical archaeologist Dan Hall used remote sensing equipment to identify places where the magnetic properties of the soil had been altered. In 2002, archaeologists excavated these anomalies and found evidence of the expedition's latrine and campfire.

Among the medications which the Corps of Discovery carried with them was Dr. Rush's Thunderbolts, a powerful purgative that was commonly used by the members of the expedition. The medication contained mercury and thus the feces deposited in the latrine by the members of the expedition also contained mercury, an element not found in American Indian feces. When the archaeologists had the soil from the latrine site analyzed, it revealed mercury vapor.

The charcoal from a hearth site was analyzed using Carbon-14 dating and provided a date range from 1785 to 1855, well within the range of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The archaeologists also uncovered a military uniform button, a blue glass trade bead, and a spilled piece of lead.

Loop Trail:

Shown below are some photographs taken from the loop trail through the park.

Ancient America: Oklahoma

Ojibwa — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 03:42:17 GMT

What is now the state of Oklahoma became the new home to many Indian nations during the nineteenth century when the American government forcibly removed these nations from their homelands. However, Oklahoma's Indian history goes much farther back in time. For thousands of years prior to the European invasion of North America, Native people lived, hunted, farmed, and built their homes and villages in what would become Oklahoma.
Climate Change:

Climate change has often impacted the human habitation in the Great Plains in general and in the Oklahoma area in particular. At about 6000 BCE, the period which archaeologists call the Archaic Period (also called the Middle Pre-contact Period by some archaeologists) began. At this time there was a climatic change and many large mammals became extinct. The climate became drier and warmer. As the bison deserted the Plains in favor of stream valleys and/or foothill areas, the Native people followed them. During this time, Indian people developed a greater reliance on plant foods, especially small seeds. They also increased hunting of smaller animals, although deer, mountain sheep, and bison continued to be important.

A thousand years later, about 5000 BCE, the Great Plains began to enter into a climate period known as the Altithermal which was a hot, dry episode that lasted for about 2,500 years. During this time, the bison had to shift their ranges and subsequently Indian people either moved with them or changed to other game. During this time, there were relatively few bands of Indians living in the area.

About 2500 BCE, the Medithermal period began with temperatures declining to modern levels. This climate period was marked by a return to cooler temperatures and a reduction in the number, intensity, and duration of drought periods. During this time, there is a gradual westward and southward return of the grasslands which means that the grasslands could support year-round grazing. As the buffalo returned to the Plains, so did the Indian people.

Stone Tools:

Stone tools are a frequent and important part of the archaeological record. Part of the reason for this is that stone survives long after other types of material culture-such as cloth, wood, fiber-have disappeared. The ancient past of Oklahoma includes many different kinds of stone tools, particularly spear points and, later, arrow heads. Many of these points have distinctive shapes and characteristics which make them easy to identify.

By 7500 BCE, Indian people were making a style of spear point with broad, shallow side-notches and an expanded base called Breckenridge by archaeologists. This point is also used as a knife. This type of point was used not only in Oklahoma, but also in Missouri and Arkansas.

At this same time, in a region to the south and west which includes New Mexico and Texas as well as Oklahoma, Indian people were using Milnesand points. These were medium-sized lanceolate dart points with convex sides and a straight basal edge.

By 6900 BCE, Indian people in Oklahoma were using a small dart point with a blade that was straight to slightly convex. Archaeologists designate this as the Palmer point. The basal edge was straight and smoothed by grinding. This type of point was also used in parts of Arkansas and Texas.

A style of point called Calf Creek by archaeologists was being used by 4000 BCE. This medium-sized point had convex sides and basal notches. Some had serrated edges and appear to be used as knives. In addition to being used by the Indian people in Oklahoma, it was also used in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.

About this same time, Indian people in Oklahoma were using Williams points which were medium-sized dart points with convex sides, broad corner notches, a convex basal edge, and an acute needle-like point. This style of point was also used in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois.

By 3500 BCE, Indian people were now making and using a stone point known as Afton. The point was corner-notched and had a short, expanded stem. The points were usually thin and well-made. Indian people in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas were using Afton points.

Refugio points appear in Texas and Oklahoma by 2000 BCE. These were large ovoid points which were used as dart points and as knives.

By 1000 BCE, archaeologists can associate some stone tool types with specific tribal groups. At this time, the Caddo were using Gary points. These points were a small to medium-sized dart point with straight, concave, or recurved stems. This point was also used as a knife.

Edgewood points begin appearing in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas about 500 BCE. Edgewood points were small dart points with an expanded stem and short barbs. At this same time, in north-central Texas and southern Oklahoma, Indian people were using Godley points. These were small dart points with corner-notches. In Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Indian people were using a corner-notched arrow point which archaeologists call Scallorn.

By 700 CE, the Caddo were making a small arrow point with a narrow rectangular stem which archaeologists call Bonham.

By 900 CE, the Caddo began making an arrow point with triangular to recurved blades and parallel-sided to bulbous or fan-shaped stems. Some of the points were finely serrated or have needle-like tips. Archaeologists will later refer to these as Alba points.

At this same time, the Caddo were using a small arrow point which archaeologists call Hayes. The point had recurved sides, barbs, and a dovetail shaped stem. They were also using a small, triangular arrow point which archaeologists call Morris. The point had straight sides, side-notches, and a basal notch.

Washita points appear about 1100 CE in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas. These were small, triangular arrow points with side notches.

About 1200 CE, the Caddo were using Howard points. These arrow points had 4 to 12 deep serrations on the edge of the blade. At this same time, the Caddo were also making and using Haskell points. These were small, side-notched arrow points.

At this same time, the Caddo were making a small, ovoid arrow point with side notches which archaeologists call Keota.

By about 1400 CE, the Quapaw were using Nodena points. These were small, willow leaf-shaped arrow points with convex sides and a rounded base.

At this same time, the Caddo were making Fresno points. These were thin, slender, triangular arrow points.

The Mammoth Hunters and Buffalo Hunters:

By the time Europeans were first entering what was to become Oklahoma, the Native peoples had been harvesting herd animals, primarily the American bison (commonly called buffalo), for thousands of years.

There are early, and controversial, indications the Indian people may have been hunting an ancient buffalo (bison latifrons) as early as 38,000 BCE. Some of the stone points left at the Burnham Site are from Edwards Chert which is found in Central Texas. This suggested either a wide migratory range or extensive trade networks.

In Farra Canyon, Oklahoma, Indian people were hunting mammoths as well as other mammals by 9550 BCE. The canyon appears to have been occupied only for short periods of time.

In 8900 BCE, Indian buffalo hunters painted a zigzag line on a buffalo skull and carefully placed it at the entrance to a kill site.

By 8500 BCE, Indian people were using the Jake Bluff site (34HP60) for killing buffalo (a sub-species of Bison antiques). The site is located on a small hill bordering the Beaver River. At least 22 bison were killed here. The site was used from mid-August to October. Butchering was carried out at another site on the west bench of the arroyo.

In addition to bison, the hunters also killed a bear. At some point during the butchering, a black bear came into the area and was killed and butchered. The bear was probably attracted to the area by the smell of the dead bison.

Most of the projectile points were made from Alibates chert which came from an area about 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the south and west.

Agriculture:

About 1500 years ago, there was the beginning of a major change: agriculture, more specifically corn (maize) agriculture, begins to appear. This brings some major changes in the Native cultures of the area.

By 750, the Indian people at the Toltec site were using corn in ritual feasting. The archaeological evidence suggests that corn was being grown initially for ritual use rather than general subsistence purposes.

By 800, the territory occupied by the Caddo included portions of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. While their settlements centered in the Red River Valley, they also extended into the western Ozarks as well as into east Texas and central Arkansas.

About this same time, Indian people began to establish permanent villages in the Washita and Canadian River Valleys. The villages were small: 3 to 10 houses. The houses were rectangular with grass thatch coverings. The exterior frame was made of poles. The roof was supported with four center poles. The people were making a variety of pottery styles. Archaeologists will later call this the Paoli Phase.

About 900, Mississippian people established the village of Spiro which would grow into a major trade center. Mississippian culture is associated with the city of Cahokia in present-day Illinois.

Shown above are some of the artifacts from Spiro.

Shown above is a reconstructed house from the Spiro site.

By 1100, trade at the Spiro site in the Arkansas River Valley intensified. At this time, populations in the Central Mississippi Valley had outstripped the local environment's ability to provide them with needed resources. Therefore people began moving into new areas.

There appear to be some connections between Mexican civilizations and Spiro: archaeologist have determined that an obsidian scraper from Spiro originated in Pachuca, Hidalgo, in central Mexico.

In 1250, Indian people established a fortified village on the North Fork of the Red River. Their economy was based on farming and hunting.

In 1265, the Zimms site was occupied by Indian people. During this time, people were living in small villages which were situated on high terraces above tributary streams. Their houses tended to be square or rectangular with a central hearth and two central support posts. The walls were plastered. The economy was based on hunting and gathering - bison, deer, cottontail, prairie dog, box turtle, and birds - and was supplemented with some farming.

In 1300, Spiro was now the principal town in the Caddoan region. The burials at Spiro show that important people were interred with treasures of pearls and ocean-shell beads, red pipestone effigy pipes, carvings, repoussé copper plates probably ornamenting headdresses, stone ceremonial axes, bundles of delicately chipped flint-tipped arrows, ceramic pots from all over the Southeast. Archaeologists have also found fragments of what may have been finely-woven cloaks, some with feathers twined into the cloth.

In 1450, the economy of the villages on the North Fork of the Red River changed. While farming continued to be important, there was a greater emphasis on buffalo hunting and on trade with the Pueblos in New Mexico. From the Pueblo people they acquired polychrome glaze pottery, turquoise, and obsidian.

Ancient Mesoamerica: The King of El Zotz

Ojibwa — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:32:10 GMT

About 350 CE, the Maya city of El Zotz was founded in what is now Guatemala. The Maya name for the city is Pa'Chan which is translated as "Split Sky" or as "Citadel Sky." The designation "El Zotz" comes from the many bats living in the caves on the site: zotz is the Maya term for bats.
El Zotz is located about 20 miles (12 kilometers) from the major Maya center of Tikal and about 16 miles (26 kilometers) from Uaxactun. The emblem glyph for El Zotz associates it with the Maya city of Yaxchilan in Chiapas, Mexico and may indicate that the Yaxchilan royal dynasty originated in El Zotz.

The hieroglyphic texts associated with El Zotz suggest that the site was founded by the enemies of Tikal who wanted to exploit a period of weakness in this important Maya city. El Zotz was strategically located between two rival Maya kingdoms: Tikal and the alliance of El Perú and Calakmul. There is a possibility that El Zotz was established as an outpost for the El Perú/Calakmul alliance.

There are two major ceremonial sites at El Zotz: one at the central core of the city and one on the western edge. The western ceremonial center has been designated as El Diablo (The Devil). The pyramid at El Diablo rises 623 feet (160 meters) above the valley floor. The solid platform base of the pyramid is 76 feet by 85 feet (23 meters by 26 meters) and above this are two or three narrower terraces with a temple on top. The sides of the pyramid are very steep. When the site was occupied by the Maya, this pyramid, painted a saturated red, would have announced the presence of an important center. During the rising and setting sun, a time when the painted pyramid was brightest, it would have been visible for about 15 miles.

Archaeological excavations at El Diablo carried out in 2008 revealed stucco masks along the façade of the structure representing the various guises of the Maya sun god. The façade identified the structure as the Temple of the Night Sun. The shape of the building and its polychrome decoration are similar to the Rosalila Temple of Copán.

For the Maya, the sun was closely associated with kingship and symbols of the sun were often associated with the names of kings and their dynasties. The word for "day" is the same as the word for "sun" and the sun symbols on the Temple of the Night Sun suggest that it might be associated with the beginning of a royal dynasty.

A smaller building stands in from of the great temple. When archaeologists sank a test pit into the floor of the chamber of this building, they uncovered blood-red ceramic bowls which were filled with small packets of fingers and teeth. In one bowl the archaeologists found the remains of a partially burned baby. When archaeologists probed the floor of the chamber, they found a sealed chamber beneath the floor. Because this chamber had been sealed so tightly that air and water could not enter, the organic materials-wood, painted stucco, cord, textiles-within it had been well preserved.

The sealed chamber proved to be a royal tomb measuring about 12 feet (4 meters) by 4 feet (1.2 meters) by 6 feet (2 meters) high. In addition to the remains of an adult male, the tomb was filled with ceramics, textiles, and other ritual offerings. Also found in the tomb were the remains of six children (four of whom were infants) who appeared to have been killed in a ritual sacrifice and then placed as offerings in the tomb.

Human remains provide archaeologists with important clues about life in the past. The bones of the man in the tomb show that he was in his 50s when he died. His joints were arthritic and probably caused him some pain. Jewels had been embedded in his teeth, a sign of high rank.

For burial, the body had been dressed in the costume of a ritual dancer. This included an elaborate headdress (placed by his head) and small bells of shell with dog canine clappers which had been arranged around his waist and legs. Interpreting the symbolism of burial clothing is always problematic for archaeologists. On one hand, the costume could be an indication that he had been a ritual dancer in life. On the other hand, the costume could have been intended to help him in the next life and not be related to his past life.

The man was also laid out with an obsidian blade in his hand. While this may have been a sacrificial knife, analysis of the traces of red on the blade ruled out blood. This suggests that it may not have been actually used in sacrifices. A mirror buried with him may provide some additional clues about him: the glyphs on the back of the mirror can be translated as either "Red [missing] Turtle" or as "Great [missing] Turtle."

So who was this man? The elaborate burial goods and the jeweled teeth suggest that he had a high rank. The proximity of his tomb to the Temple of the Night Sun, however, have led archaeologist to hypothesize that he was the founding ruler of El Zotz. They also suggest that the Temple of the Night Sun had been constructed to venerate this dead ruler. Once the burial rituals had been completed, the tomb had been sealed, a platform constructed above it, and a roofed sanctuary over it. Archaeologists found traces of burning in the sanctuary suggesting that rituals had been frequently performed at this site. A doorway through the sanctuary leads to the Temple of the Night Sun which may have been built to venerate the founding ruler. The El Diablo Pyramid was later built over the top of the temple.

It was a common practice in the Maya world to build new structures over existing structures. For archaeologists this means that digging down through existing structures often reveals earlier structures. In 2012 archaeologists began the task of uncovering and understanding the Temple of the Night Sun. They found that the Maya builders had packed it in earth and small rocks in an attempt to preserve the earlier structure before constructing the pyramid.

Archaeologists found a frieze that wrapped around the structure. About 14 masks are included in the frieze. These masks depict a number of celestial entities including the sun. For the Maya these masks were living beings.

The Maya sun god, K'inich Ajaw, has been identified in three of the masks. Each of these masks represents the sun god at a different time of day. They are placed along the frieze relative to the time of day when the sun would have illuminated them. In the morning, the rising sun is associated with the Caribbean waters to the east. At about noon, the sun would illuminate a fearsome, blood-drinking creature and then in the evening a jaguar. In general the images in the frieze seem to represent the sun's passage through the sky.

With regard to the importance of the stuccos, archaeologist Stephen Houston says:
http://news.brown.edu/pressrel...

"The stuccos provide unprecedented insight into how the Maya conceived of the heavens, how they thought of the sun, and how the sun itself would have been grafted onto the identity of kings and the dynasties that would follow them."

El Zotz continued to exist for only a few generations after the death of its founding ruler.

Ancient America: Mesoamerican Art

Ojibwa — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:37:06 GMT

Prior to the European invasion, Mesoamerica was the home to many highly developed civilizations. Geographically this is a region that extends from central Mexico to South America. Shown below are some of the items from these ancient Mesoamerican cultures which are on display at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Shown above are some labrets: these are plugs which are inserted in a hole in the lower lip.

Shown above is a piece from the Omec.

Ancient America: South American Art

Ojibwa — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:47:57 GMT

Prior to the European invasion, South America was the home to many highly developed civilizations. Homo sapiens have lived in South America for at least 15,000 years and possibly longer. By 2000 BCE some highly developed civilizations had emerged in the region. There was a dramatic increase in population during this time and the economies became more dependent on stable, intensive agricultural systems.
The Inka Empire was the dominant state at the time of the Spanish conquest. The Inka had expanded out of their home in Cuzco to control an empire which spread from modern Ecuador in the north to central Chile in the south. The expansion of the Inka Empire began about 1438 and grew by military conquest.

The ancient civilizations of South American are well-known for their metalwork, particularly their work in gold which the Spanish often melted down; their pottery, which includes realistic portrayals of men and women (including men and women engaged in sexual intercourse); and finely woven textiles. Shown below are some of the items from these ancient South American cultures which are on display at the Portland Museum of Art.

Shown above are clothing pins.

Ancient America: The Southern Plains Villagers

Ojibwa — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:05:27 GMT

Southern Plains Villagers is a culture that occupied the Southern Plains from 800 CE to 1500 CE. These Indian people had agricultural economy which they supplemented by hunting and gathering wild plants. With regard to hunting, the bison was an important animal and was also important in the religious life of the people. Overall, the Southern Plains Villagers had a rich and varied subsistence base.
The Southern Plains Village sites were relatively small, ranging from a half an acre to as large as four acres. They were usually located on major streams or tributaries. These were sites where the fertile sand-loam soils were well-suited to their corn-based agriculture.

Several small communities would often be clustered fairly close together which suggests a rural community composed of several family groups. In some instances, a larger site would serve as the central community for a number of smaller sites which would be located up and down the river valley.

Southern Plains Village houses tended to be square or rectangular made with central support posts. Upright logs placed in postholes were used to form the walls. The walls of the houses were plastered. The houses were roofed with grass thatch. Houses averaged 23 feet long by 14 feet wide.

The Southern Plains Villagers made flaked stone tools from both locally available materials and from materials which had been traded through some distance. They are using arrowheads which archaeologists classify as Fresno, Washita, Ellis, and Edgewood types.

The Plains villagers used a variety of ground stone tools, including grinding stones. They also used different types of abrading stones. The sandstone abraders which they used were similar to graded sandpaper. They would be used in making bone tools. Coarse abraders would be used for the initial or rough out work. Then the toolmaker would switch to the medium abraders for intermediate steps. Finally they would use the fine grade for finishing work or re-sharpening.

Using stone tools for grinding corn and plant seeds meant that there was a large amount of grit in the food. This resulted in tooth wear.

The Southern Plains Village people also made pottery. Some of the pottery was made using a limestone temper while some was made using a shell temper. In general, the pots were made for everyday use and tend to have little or no decoration. In addition to pots and bowls, they also made pipes and figurines from clay. The clay figurines were used in fertility ceremonies and the clay pipes were used in tobacco smoking ceremonies.

Shown above is an example of Custer Phase Pottery (800 to 1250 CE) from Oklahoma.

Shown above is an example of Washita River Pottery (1250 to 1450 CE) from Oklahoma. Both of the photos above are from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey files.
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/D/...

The Plains Village people used cache pits for storage. These were dug into the ground to a depth of about 4 feet and they were slightly more than 3 feet in diameter.

During the Turkey Creek Phase (1250 to 1450) in Oklahoma, there were trading networks which connected the Southern Plains Villages to the Pueblo villages in the west and the Caddoan groups to the east and northeast.

About 1500 CE, the Southern Villagers appear to have abandoned their heartland and become more dispersed. In some areas of the Southern Plains, the number of sites decreases and there is a substantial increase in the size of the remaining villages. It is possible that climatic conditions forced the people to move eastward where water supplies were more reliable. Some of the Southern Villagers were the ancestors of the historic Wichita. Intrusive groups, such as the Kiowa, began to appear at this time.

Ancient America: Florida BCE

Ojibwa — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 21:27:34 GMT

American Indians occupied, utilized, and developed the peninsula known as Florida for thousands of years. Our knowledge of the ancient past-of Florida, BCE-comes primarily from archaeology. Unfortunately, archaeology tells the story of the past based on material remains which means that these remains must have endured for thousands of years, then be found, and finally interpreted. As a result our picture of Florida, BCE is not complete, but rather a series of seemingly disjointed snapshots.
By 11,000 BCE, Indian people were living in northern Florida. At this time, the sea levels were 350 feet lower than present. The land mass of Florida was much larger than it is today. The people at this time were engaging in hunting and gathering wild plants for food and fiber. At this time, the Indians were hunting mastodon, mammoth, horse, camel, and giant land tortoise. Water sources, particularly those in deep springs, were important for both human habitation and for the animals which they hunted.

A thousand years later, the Indian people at the Little Salt Spring were hunting turtles and the giant land tortoise, Geochelone Crassicutata. The turtles were killed with a stake and then cooked in the shell. These people were also using an oak throwing stick or boomerang for hunting small mammals. They also had a deer-antler which had had its roots and points cut off and 28 parallel notches cut into it. This is one of the earliest examples of counting time in North America.

About 9,000 BCE, Indian people near the Wacissa River were hunting Bison antiques (skull shown above).

About 8500 BCE, Indian people living near Mineral Springs buried their dead near the edge of the springs. One was a man, 30-40 years of age, who was 5'4" tall and weighed about 110 pounds. He had worn and abscessed teeth. Another was the body of a middle-aged female. As the sea level raised at the end of the ice age, so did the water within the spring. By the time the skeletons were discovered by archaeologists, they were under water.

About 7500 BCE, there was an increase in population and new settlements were formed around freshwater sources. There was a shift in the way of life from nomadic to a more settled form. This marks the beginning of what archaeologists call the Archaic Period. At this time new types of stone tools appeared. Trade networks connected the people to other parts of the southeast. During this time, Florida's climate was growing warmer and wetter.

Among the new stone tools were the Rowan points. These medium-sized dart points had broad, shallow side notches and a concave basal edge. The basal corners were lobed or rounded and the stem edges were ground.

About 6120 BCE, Indian people began burying their dead in the Windover Bog Site. Archaeologists will later recover the remains of 177 individuals at this site. Adult males have an average height of 5 feet 9 inches. While their teeth were worn, they had very few cavities. Anthropologists managed to obtain DNA samples from some of the bodies at the site, but the mitochondrial DNA lineages which were found are not present in any contemporary American Indian populations. One of the samples, however belongs to lineage X, which is also found in European populations. This lends some support to the hypothesis that there were some migrations by boat from Europe to North America.

By 5000 BCE, Indian people were living on the dune ridges of Horr's Island in south Florida.

By 2900 BCE, Indian people began building a large mound with layers of white sand, charcoal-stained sand, and oyster shell on Horr's Island. The mound eventually reached a height of 6 meters (20 feet). The people were living in a year-round settlement and making small houses from poles and thatch.

Fire pottery is being used by the Florida Indians by about 2500 BCE. These early ceramic vessels are very similar to the earlier steatite (stone) bowls which they had been making.

There is evidence that by 2400 BCE, Florida Indians were making sea voyages to both the Caribbean Islands and South America. The people were probably making such voyages much earlier than this, but this time marks the first archaeological evidence of the voyages.

At the Summer Haven site (officially designated as 8SJ46) Indian people constructed four circular structures about 2000 BCE. The people who occupied this site were practicing cranial deformation (a deliberate modification of head shape which begins by binding the head of an infant shortly after birth). This is a practice which was common in Mexico at this time.

About 2000 BCE, Indian people living on Useppa Island in the Pine Island Sound were making fiber-tempered pottery.

A type of decorated pottery known as Tick Island was being made by Florida Indians by 1600 BCE. The Tick Island decorated pottery resembles the pottery found at Barlovento on Colombia's northern coast and this pottery, in turn, appears to be derived from the Valdivia pottery of Ecuador.

The Rollings Shell Ring was constructed in 1580 BCE. A shell ring is a curved midden made of shells which partially surrounds a cleared space. The ring is 7 meters in height (about 23 feet) and 250 meters (825 feet) in diameter. The ring was built up quickly and there were few artifacts within it.

By 1500 BCE, the Indian people at the Joseph Reed Shell Ring site (officially designated as 8MT13) were making sand-tempered pottery. This represents one of the earliest intensive uses of pottery in south Florida. The pottery is the earliest sand-tempered and chalky wares in Florida. Archaeologists Michael Russo and Gregory Heide report:

"In terms of migration/diffusion, the pottery from Joseph Reed has nowhere to migrate from. It is not tempered with fiber as is the pottery of the site's nearest contemporaneous pottery-producing neighbors to the north. Thus a direct connection cannot be made with those neighbors in terms of paste and temper (design and form, however, cannot be ruled out until more data are obtained)."

People began to occupy a site near the Crystal River in 537 BCE. The site included two large temple mounds with ramps, a smaller residential mound, a plaza, and two burial mounds. There appears to be contact with the Hopewell people in Ohio as evidenced by flint knives and other artifacts.

By 500 BCE, the Timucua began to occupy the sub-tropical areas of Florida. At this same time, the Tequesta were living in the area near present-day Miami, Florida. They constructed a number of round houses, including a chief's house or council house, using a post framework.

In 350 BCE, the Crystal River site was established as a ceremonial center. Construction began on a feature designated by archaeologists as Mound F which served as a burial mound. It would eventually rise to a height of 20 feet. About 1,000 people would eventually be buried here.

In 30 BCE, Indian people along the Crystal River began construction of a series of shell mounds which have astronomical alignments. The mounds and stone pillars could be used to observe the solstices and equinoxes.

The Archaeology of Head-Smashed-In, Alberta

Ojibwa — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:12:25 GMT

Archaeology is the study of the past through material remains. One of the goals of archaeology is discovery and description. Discovery and description, however, is only the first step: archaeologists also seek to develop explanations. Understanding the past means that we should try to understand how people lived in the past and why changes occurred. Ultimately, archaeology seeks to understand human behavior. In addition, there is also a concern, some would say an obligation, of communicating archaeological insights to the general public. One way of doing this is through displays at museums and interpretive centers. One of these interpretive centers is found in southern Alberta: the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre.

Indian people have lived in southern Alberta for more than 11,000 years. By 6,000 years ago, they were using a sophisticated hunting technique that involved driving buffalo over a cliff at Head-Smashed-In. In 1965 archaeologists began their first dig at this site which led to the establishment of the Interpretive Centre which now explains the archaeological findings. The fifth level of the Interpretive Centre, Uncovering the Past, shows the archaeology behind the displays and explains how archaeologists uncover the past.

Below the impressive buffalo at the top of the cliff there is a replica of the archaeological dig. The replica is a cast of an actual dig. Digging is often done with a trowel, the dirt placed into the bucket, which is then screened to find small items.

Shown above is the grid used to help record the context of the finds.

The idea of "dig" in archaeology often means going down many meters. In general, the farther down you go, the farther back in time you go.

Archaeology is more than just digging up pretty or exotic objects to be displayed in museums: the context of all items is carefully recorded. The photos above shows the notebooks used to record the findings.

The diorama shown above displays an archaeological dig on the right and the Indian village on the left. This shows what the site was like when it was in use and then what it looks like to the archaeologist. The archaeologists' job is to use the material remains left at the site to reconstruct what happened there. The amount of detail in this diorama is amazing.

A hide scraping tool is shown above.

A series of interactive displays (some of which are shown above) explains some of the different artifacts found at Head-Smashed-In. The displays show not only different types of artifacts, but also how they are made and used.

Ancient America: The Buffalo Hunt

Ojibwa — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:24:09 GMT

At the beginning of the European invasion of North America, there may have been as many as 75 million buffalo on the Great Plains. For thousands of years, the buffalo had been the walking supermarket of the Plains Indian people, providing them with food, clothing, tools, toys, and shelter. For most of the year, the buffalo provided the Plains Indians with most of their food, with durable hides for making tipi covers and blankets, and strong bones for making a wide variety of tools-at least 87 different tools according to one study. For the Plains Indians, hunting was not a choice, but a way of life, a strategy for survival.

Technically, the animal is a bison, but it is commonly called a buffalo, particularly by Indian people. At the present time, there are two subspecies of bison in North America: plains bison (Bison bison bison) and wood bison (Bison bison athabascae). Over the past 10,000 years, the North American bison have been gradually decreasing in size. The now extinct Bison latifrons had an overall horn spread (including horn sheaths) in excess of two metres (more than six feet) as compared with about three-fourths of a metre for today's bison. Bison at the end of the ice ages 12,000 years ago were about 25% larger than the modern animals.

Shown above are skulls from Bison latifrons.

In hunting buffalo over the past 12,000 years or so, Indian people gained a great deal of knowledge about the animal, its habits, and its environments. Despite its massive size, the buffalo is amazingly fast: over short distances it can reach speeds of 50 kph (30 mph). They also have tremendous endurance and can run at slower speeds for extended periods of time. Archaeologist Jack Brink, in Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains, notes:

"They can turn on a dime, twirling with their heads down and horns out. Many a coyote, wolf, and human hunter have been bore and flung through the air by a buffalo that just a moment before had been standing still."

For the Indian hunters, the thing that made one buffalo better than another was the amount of fat that the animal had. Thus, hunters were able to pick out the fattest animals in the herd by looking at their curves and the sheen of their coats. They also knew which animals would be fat at any given time of year. Maximizing fat meant that Indian hunters harvested cows for much of the year. Only in the summer would bulls be a preferred target.

Indians hunted buffalo in many different ways, ranging from communal hunts in which many different groups would come together to harvest a hundred animals at a single time using a buffalo jump or a pound, to solitary hunting in which only a few animals would be taken.

Indian people managed the environment to enhance the herds and to position them. Long ago Indian people had learned that if the grasslands were burned off, then it would come back greener and more nutritious as the burned grass provided fertilizer to the soil. They knew that the buffalo were attracted to these greener, freshly burned areas. In the fall and in the spring, fires would be intentionally lit so that the buffalo would be attracted into these areas.

The Buffalo Jump:

One of the ways Indian people hunted buffalo was to drive them over a cliff. Scattered across the Northern Plains are thousands of these buffalo jump sites. Many of them were used only once, while others were used repeatedly.

Buffalo jumps were communal kill sites in that many groups of Indian people had to come together and work cooperatively to make the site work. This communal hunting brought together people who did not normally live together as one group. During most of the year, the people lived in small bands of 50-70 people. For the buffalo jump, several hundred people (sometimes more than a thousand) would come together. Archaeologist Jack Brink writes:

"Not only were buffalo jumps an extraordinary amount of work; they were the culmination of thousands of years of shared and passed-on tribal knowledge of the environment, the lay of the land, and the behavior and biology of the buffalo."

The first problem in using a buffalo jump is that the buffalo herd is usually not close to the kill area. The herd must be lured over a distance of many miles to the cliff.

To help lure the herd, a young man would dress up like a buffalo calf. He would then approach the herd, mimicking calf behavior. He would have to make the calls of a buffalo calf-not just any calls, but those made by a calf in distress. Other young men, dressed as wolves and mimicking their behavior, would appear in the prairie behind the herd and create an illusion of danger. Slowly and patiently these buffalo runners would lead the herd toward the kill site. Being a buffalo runner was a hazardous occupation and many were killed or maimed.

The painting of a buffalo runner shown above is on display at the First Peoples Buffalo Jump in Ulm, Montana.

Stretching back for many miles into the prairies behind the cliff are the drive lines which will guide their herd. These are marked with stone cairns which can be used as a base for wedging in the ends of sticks and brush. This helps create the illusion, from the perspective of the buffalo's poor eyesight, of a wall or barrier.

In the drawing above, the dotted lines show the drive lines for the Head-Smashed-In and Calderwood buffalo jumps.

The drawing above, from the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, shows the drive line cairns being prepared for a buffalo hunt.

The Pound:

The buffalo pound was a way of harvesting large numbers of bison in a similar fashion to the buffalo jump. However, the final kill location was not a cliff, but rather a pound or corral made of wood. Pounds were located in the lightly wooded areas that surround portions of the Great Plains. Here the hunters could find enough wood to build the pound. Using techniques similar to those used in the buffalo jump, the herd would be lured over many miles and then driven into the pound where they would be killed with bows and arrows and spears as they milled around.

Pound is from an archaic English term for enclosure.

The wooden structure of the pound was actually somewhat flimsy by modern standards. The walls were draped with bison hides, the darker sides facing in, creating the illusion of a solid surrounding wall. Once in the corral, the animals saw only solid darkness surrounding them and no visible escape. Thus they simply circled in the confines of a structure which they could have easily destroyed.

Hunting on Foot:

During much of the year, Indian people would hunt buffalo in small groups or alone. A solitary hunter might use a disguise to get close to the herd and take an animal or two. Small groups of hunters from the same band might take five or ten animals. The camp would then move to the kill site to process the carcasses rather than transport them back to camp.

In the winter, hunters wearing snowshoes would drive the buffalo into snow banks where the animals would become mired down and thus could be easily killed. At other times they waited at watering holes where the buffalo would become less mobile because of the mud. Sometimes they would set ambushes along the well-used buffalo trails or hunt them as they swam across rivers and lakes.

Ancient America: Eating a Buffalo

Ojibwa — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:02:22 GMT

For the Plains Indians, for many thousands of years, the buffalo (more properly called bison) was a walking supermarket providing them with food, clothing, shelter, tools, and toys. Buffalo were hunted in many different ways: they were killed as they swam across rivers and lakes; they were driven into snow banks where their short legs failed them; they were driven into dead-end canyons where they were easily cornered; they were ambushed as they migrated along well-marked trails; they were herded into corrals; and they were driven over cliffs.

Butchering:

Once the buffalo had been harvested, the carcass had to be fully butchered and processed into usable food fairly quickly or it would spoil. In a communal hunt, such as a buffalo jump, processing the carcass was done with an assembly line. Removing the hide and emptying the stomach were crucial in cooling down the carcass and ensuring that the greatest amount of food could be saved for future use.

In butchering a buffalo, the tongue and internal organs were removed first. These were taken to the camp's medicine people and then eaten as delicacies. As the people butchered the carcass-a process which would go on around the clock until it was done-they would smash the big marrow bones with heavy stone hammers to extract the tasty and nutritious marrow. This would help replenish the energy of the workers.

The body would be cut into 11 pieces to facilitate transportation: the four limbs, the two sides of ribs, the two sinews on each side of the back bone, the brisket, the croup, and the back bone.

Bison meat is about 65% water, so the Indians would dry the meat to make it lighter and easier to carry. In order to get rid of the moisture, the meat would be cut into thin strips, thus exposing a great deal of the surface area to the drying effects of the sun and air. The thin strips of meat would be hung on simple wooden racks for drying. Drying the meat in very thin strips is also a method of preserving it.

The dried meat would be stored in hide containers known as parfleches. Parfleches were made from stiff, untanned hides that were folded into a large envelope. The food would be packed in the parfleche as tightly as possible to keep out as much air as possible, thus reducing spoilage. Properly cured and packaged dried meat could last for months, and even years.

The hides would be processed into robes or tanned hides for lodge covers or clothing.

Stone Boiling:

One of the common methods of cooking is known as stone boiling. A bowl-shaped pit would be dug into the hard earth. It would then be made watertight by pushing a fresh buffalo hide, fleshy side up, into the bottom of the pit. The pit would then be filled with water. Large heavy cobbles would be heated in a nearby fire until they glowed red. They would then be carried on a forked stick to the pit. By continually replacing the rocks as they cooled with hot rocks, the water would get very hot. Food would then be added and cooked.

At the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta, the local stone was not suitable for heating for this process and so the cobbles were brought in from some distance away.

This diorama at the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump shows the use of stone boiling to render fat from the bones. Notice that the material stacked up on the right is buffalo dung (commonly called buffalo chips). Since trees tend to be scarce on the Great Plains, dried buffalo dung was the standard fuel used by the Plains Indians.

This display at the First Peoples Buffalo Jump in Ulm, Montana shows stone boiling.

Grilling:

Grilling meat on a spit over an open flame was a quick, easy way to cook buffalo. It was often done, but it was not the preferred way of cooking. Native Americans viewed grilling as an inferior way of preparing meat as it resulted in the loss of much of what makes meat so great to eat: fat.

Earth Ovens:

A common way of cooking buffalo involved earth ovens. A pit-deeper and with steeper sides than the pit used for stone boiling-would be dug. In many cases this pit would be shaped like an inverted bell. Rocks would be placed at the bottom of this pit. At Head-Smashed-In, local sandstone was used for this.

In some cases the rocks would be heated before being placed in the pit and at other times a fire would be built over the rocks in the bottom of the pit to get them red hot. Once the hot rocks were ready, the meat would be added. Usually, the meat would be wrapped in a covering of either hide or local vegetation to keep the meat from getting covered in dirt. At Head-Smashed-In, the local vegetation was small branches of local willows, Saskatoon bushes, or conifers. Dirt was then piled on top of the protected meat and a fire was built over the pit. After several hours, sometimes the next day, the pit would be uncovered and the people would feast.

Personal note: I had buffalo prepared this way at the Kalispel Powwow many years ago. It was the best buffalo I have ever tasted, and I have eaten a lot of buffalo.

Pemmican:

Making pemmican out of buffalo is a way of preserving it so that it can be stored for a very long time. Once the flat sheets of meat have been thoroughly dried, they can be used in making pemmican. Using stone hammers, the meat would be reduced to almost a powder, then mixed with fat. Berries would then be added to the mixture. On the Northern Plains, Saskatoon and chokecherries were most frequently used.

Dried Saskatoon and Choke Cherry berries were mixed with finely pounded buffalo meat to make pemmican.

At times, wild Bergamont would be added to the pemmican for additional flavor.

When all of the ingredients-powdered meat, fat, berries, and other flavorings-had been thoroughly mixed, the mash was then placed in heavy bags made of buffalo hide. These bags were made from several pieces of hide sewn together to make a large sack which would hold 40 to 50 kilograms (88 to 110 pounds) of pemmican. In the dog days prior to the horse, the bags would have been somewhat smaller.

Pemmican is a dense, nutritious, storable food that often served as a staple. Later, during the fur trade era, pemmican became the staple of the fur trappers and both Indians and Métis produced it as a trade good.

Etowah

Ojibwa — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:26:40 GMT

Mississippian is a cultural complex which spread from its hearth on the Mississippi River in Illinois throughout much of the Southeast. The most spectacular characteristic of Mississippian material culture is the construction of earthen pyramids. The pyramids, usually called mounds, have a flat top which provided a space for a ceremonial building or a chiefly residence. Access to the top of the pyramid was made possible by a ramp or stairs up one side.

About a thousand years ago-approximately 1000 CE-Mississippian people established the site of Etowah in Georgia. This became a dominant regional center with massive earthen platform mounds, elaborate ritual objects, and an extensive trading network. Etowah was a planned community made possible by a productive maize-based agriculture. Archaeologists have determined that at least 140 buildings were constructed at the site. Politically, Etowah was a chiefdom with a hierarchical social organization.

Reconstruction of a house at Etowah is shown above.

One of the primary characteristics of Mississippian sites is the earthen mounds or pyramids: At Etowah there are three main platform mounds and three smaller mounds. The largest of these mounds, Mound A (sometimes called the Temple Mound) stands 19 meters (63 feet) in height and covers about three acres at its base. The construction of this mound began early in the site's history and it continued to be expanded and reconstructed over the next several centuries. There is some archaeological evidence that ritual feasting accompanied the building and rebuilding of the mound.

The summit of Mound A contained a complex of Mississippian buildings separated by open spaces. Some of these buildings were screened from public view. The largest of these buildings was 18 meters on a side. The screening of the sacred space on top of Mound A may be an indication that spiritual power was not egalitarian, but reserved for an elite group. Access to this power was controlled.

Mound A is shown above.

The earthen ramp on the front of Mound A originally had clay steps. Logs were placed on the tread of each stair. The original staircase was about 17 feet wide.

Mound B is 25 feet (7.6 meters) high while Mound C, rises to just 10 feet (3.0 meters). Mound C was created as an elite mortuary facility which emphasized the genealogical links of certain subgroups in the society.

Mound B is shown above.

Adjacent to the mounds, the Mississippian occupants of Etowah constructed a raised ceremonial plaza. This was used for ceremonies, as well as for chunkey games (which were often ceremonial in nature), and as a commercial trading area.

Some evidence of warfare or conflict can be seen in the fortification system which surrounded the town. There was both a palisade and a moat. The moat was 9 to 10 feet (2.7 to 3.0 meters) deep. The moat also functioned as a drainage system during major floods.

The palisade was built using logs. As with other Mississippian sites, the palisade was constructed by first digging a ditch and then standing logs into it. Finally it was backfilled to support the wall. The wall would have been about 12 feet (3.7 meters) high. About every 80 feet (24 meters) there were guard towers for archers.

One of the distinctive features of Mississippian culture and iconography were the distinctive paint palettes (sometimes called sun disks) which were found at Etowah. These were locally made ritual paraphernalia which were kept in sacred bundles. The palettes were generally round, about 23-33 centimeters in diameter and 2.5 centimeters thick, and made from a greenish-gray rock. All of the palettes were decorated in a similar fashion: a scalloped, notched, or rayed edge and a band of one to four lines incised on the top of the rim. These were common decorative themes in Mississippian art.

The palettes were used to mix kaolinite (a clay mineral that is pure white in color), calcite (a whitish powder obtained from burned mussel shells), hematite (a mineral known for its bright red color), graphite (a black pigment), galena (a crystalline lead ore with a shiny, silvery appearance), and resin (a yellow-brown material that was used as a liquid).

With regard to art, archaeologists have found numerous clay figurines and ten stone statues at Etowah. Some of these are paired in which there is a man seated cross-legged and a woman kneeling. The females are wearing wrap-around skirts. Both figures have elaborate hair styles. Some people interpret these figures as representing lineage founders. The stone effigies can weigh up to 125 pounds.

Etowah was abandoned about 1200 and then re-occupied just before 1300. The re-establishment of the Etowah chiefdom involved an introduction of a foreign symbol set. This included a set of copper plates depicting the Birdman. The Birdman is a decorative style and religious theme whose home probably lies at Cahokia.

The peak of building and occupation at Etowah appears to have been from 1325 to about 1375. About 1325, a residential ruler's compound was constructed on top of Mound A . The compound included four large buildings, including one 3,000-square-foot structure.

The first scientific archaeology at Etowah was carried out in the 1880s by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. In the 1920s, excavations were carried out by Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts. Many of the artifacts were distributed to various museums throughout the United States. Both the U.S. National Museum and the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York, have exhibits of artifacts from Etowah.

In 1953, the Etowah site was purchased by the Georgia Historical Commission. In 1965, the Etowah Mounds Archaeological Area was designated as a National Historic landmark by the Department of the Interior and is considered the most intact Mississippian culture site in the Southeast. The site is considered to be ancestral to the Creek people. Today the Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The current park covers 54 acres.

The museum and some museum displays are shown above.

The Northeastern Late Woodland Period

Ojibwa — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:36:20 GMT

The time period from about 400 CE to 900 CE in northeastern North America is called the Late Woodland period by archaeologists. This was a time of major population growth and the introduction of new technology, including the bow and arrow.
While a native agriculture had developed in North America prior to this time, it was during the Late Woodland that new domesticates-maize (corn), beans, and squash (often called the Three Sisters)-diffused into the Northeast from Mexico. During this time, the Three Sisters became more important to the subsistence of Indian people.

The "Three Sisters" have a long history among Indian peoples, not only in the Eastern Woodlands, but also in the Southwest. These three crops complement each other. The beans add nitrogen to the soil, which the corn consumes and the heavy stalks of the corn provide support for the climbing bean vines. The corn also provides shade which the squash needs to reach maturity.

Subsistence:

By 450 CE, archaeologists report that Hopewell farmers along the Scioto River in Ohio were raising corn. Other elements of their diet included deer, rabbit, turkey, hickory nuts, acorns, fish, shellfish, and turtles.

Archaeologists report that by 560 CE, Indian people throughout the region around present-day Rock Island, Illinois, were cultivating the oily-seeded sumpweed and sunflower, as well as pepo squash, bottle gourd, and tobacco.

By 600 CE, maize agriculture had diffused as far north as Michigan. Indian people at the Gard Island 2 site, the Indian Island 4 site, the Sisssung site, and the Leimbach site had corn. All of these sites are located around western Lake Erie.

At this time in west-central Illinois, Indian people had an economy based on both farming and gathering. Cultivated plants included maygrass, goosefoot, knotweed, sunflower, and tobacco. Small amounts of squash and corn were also grown. The people were living in year-round villages which had earth ovens and pit storage facilities.

By 750 CE, corn had become more important in the diet of Indian people in the American Bottom Region of western Illinois. The increased importance of corn did not result in the abandonment of local seed crops. Maize required less labor, both in harvesting and processing, while providing greater yields.

Astronomy:

With agriculture there was an increased concern with astronomy as a way of predicting the seasons. Astronomy in North America, as in other parts of the world, was often incorporated into ceremonies which both marked and celebrated events such as solar solstices and equinoxes as well as stellar events.

In 492 CE, Indian people were using an underground stone chamber near present-day Putney, Vermont, for making astronomical observations.

About 500 CE, Indian people constructed a feature on a promontory overlooking an oceanic bay in what is now Rhode Island. The feature was a large rectangular enclosure which had a ditch adjacent to a bank of stone and earth. This may have been used as an observatory. While non-Indians later saw this as a fort and named it Ninigret's Fort, there is no archaeological evidence that any battles were fought here or that it was in fact a defensive structure.

About 600 CE, the underground chamber at Gungywamp in Connecticut was in use. The chamber was entered through a stone-lined tube which was aligned so that the sunlight illuminates the back wall on the equinox.

In 710 CE, Indian people constructed an astronomical observatory in the Upton, Massachusetts area. The structure, shaped somewhat like an igloo, has a ten-foot wide interior chamber which is entered through a 14-foot- long tunnel. The structure was built from stone using a corbelled arch technique. The chamber is aligned to allow for viewing seasonal constellations. A large rock cairn was also constructed on the hill to line up with the chamber's entrance. The chamber was used ceremonially in conjunction with other sites in the area.

About 800 CE, Indian people began building a structure at Cahokia in what is now Illinois which archaeologists would later dub as Woodhenge. This was a solar calendar which used a series of wooden posts placed in the ground at certain intervals. The calendar showed the first days of summer and winter, the first days of spring and fall, as well as other special festival dates related to the agricultural cycle.

Migrations:

Indian people have often migrated and the stories told by both linguistics and tribal oral traditions helps to document these migrations. A number of migrations are documented during the Late Woodland period.

About 400 CE, the American Bottom Area in Illinois was occupied by people coming in from the north. The cause of this population shift may have been due to increased population in the Illinois River valley which, in turn, caused pressure on area resources and an expansion into marginal areas.

About 450 CE, the Indian people who had settled in the upland areas adjacent to the Mississippi River flood plain in Illinois had overexploited locally available natural resources. As a result, the villages fissioned as household groups were forced to settle in more remote areas. They continued to follow the pattern of settling on ridges overlooking streams.

By 770 CE, Indian people occupied the Shantok Cove site near present-day New London, Connecticut. The people who occupied this site appear to be ancestral to the Pequot and Mohegan.

Warfare and Violence:

About 500 CE, life appears to have become more violent throughout North America. Biological anthropologists see signs of warfare in skeletal remains. Archaeologists report the presence of more defensive sites.

By 650 CE, there were fortified, moated, and defensively located sites throughout the greater Midwest area. Some archaeologists feel that the development of these defensive sites was a result of the wide-spread adoption of the bow and arrow which increased competition and warfare.

Trade:

About 700 CE, long-distance trade in southern Ohio became intensified. Coming in from the east were items made from steatite and nephrite. Pipes made from steatite were made on the Atlantic coast and then traded west in finished form. Other trade items included bi-pointed picks which came in from the north. The Indian people in Ohio were also obtaining marine shell beads and columella pendants.

Ancient America: The Birth and Death of a Pueblo

Ojibwa — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:58:58 GMT

In 1245 CE, the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloan) began construction on the Sand Canyon Pueblo in Colorado. The pueblo is located at the head of a canyon with most of the construction below the canyon rim. The pueblo would grow to 420 surface rooms, 90 kivas, 14 towers, and an enclosed plaza. A massive stone wall enclosed the village on the southwest, west, north, and east provided protection against attack and also controlled and limited access to the spring at the center of the village. The enclosing wall was at least one story tall and had very few access openings.
A number of towers abutted the outside face of the enclosing wall. These towers were in positions providing panoramic views of the landscape west, north, and northeast of the village. They also allowed villagers in the towers to safely monitor the exterior face of the enclosing wall for possible intruders. The towers also provided them with advantageous locations for launching arrows at attackers just outside the village.

It appears that the massive stone wall that enclosed the houses and public buildings was constructed first. The construction of this wall would have been a major community project. It also would have been done by people who did not yet live there.

Archaeologists feel that the construction of the town was pre-planned. Architecturally, the pueblo was laid out in 14 discrete roomblocks, each of which had residential and storage rooms associated with a kiva.

It would have an estimated population of 400-600 people. With regard to subsistence, the residents were heavily dependent on corn and domesticated turkeys. The wild animals most frequently consumed were cottontail rabbits.

In 1277, all construction appears to have stopped at Sand Canyon Pueblo. The abandonment of the pueblo had begun. The residents were now consuming less domesticated turkey and more cottontail rabbit, deer, and pronghorn. Corn was still an important part of their diet and there was no indication of dietary stress. However, the regional drought which started the year before may have reduced the agricultural yield. With crops diminishing or failing because of the drought, the villages were probably forced to consume their maize stores. Since domesticated turkeys were fed maize, the failed crops would have also led to diminished turkey flocks. Archaeologists feel that the low frequencies of turkey bone suggest that few turkeys remained near the time of village depopulation.

Many of the villagers began to emigrate, probably planning to return when the climate improved. It is estimated that from one-fourth to three-fourths of the population emigrated. Those who stayed were forced to use a hunting and gathering strategy which meant that they were now competing with other communities for these resources. Foraging parties travelled away from the village and then returned to the safety of the village whenever possible, bringing whatever provisions they had been able to procure.

In 1280, Sand Canyon Pueblo was attacked and many villagers perished. At least 35 people were killed and were not formally buried.

One middle-aged man was killed by a face-to-face blow delivered by a right-handed assailant. He was on the roof at the time he was killed. In another roomblock, an adolescent male (12-15 years old) was killed in a kiva by being struck from behind, perhaps while attempting to flee. This individual was scalped. Another man, about 20 years old, was killed on a rooftop by being struck from behind. An eight-year-old child was killed by being struck from behind and was scalped.

Many individuals may have been killed by arrows with stone projectile points that were then retrieved from victims. Wood-tipped arrows may have also been used and these would have left no visible traces for later archaeologists to find. Recent research suggests that wood-tipped arrows were widely used at this time.

Who attacked the village? Archaeologists have concluded that the attackers were residents of one or more Pueblo settlements from within the Mesa Verde region. The attack does not appear to have involved non-Pueblo invaders.

Some of the abandoned kivas were burned. This was not a simple task, but a labor-intensive process requiring a great deal of time, perseverance, and determination. The roofs of the kivas were set on fire as a part of a closing ritual. This could have been done by villagers who were away from the village when it was attacked or by a delegation of emigrating survivors who returned after the attackers had departed.

In summarizing the reasons for the abandonment of Sand Canyon Pueblo, archaeologists have concluded that these reasons include: (1) overexploitation of natural resources; (2) high population levels, and (3) overdependence on one crop. This left the Ancestral Pueblo residents of the region catastrophically vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and climate, which resulted in social turmoil, massive relocations of population, and far-reaching, permanent changes in Pueblo culture.

Ancient Michigan

Ojibwa — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:00:27 GMT

European interest in the area which would later become the state of Michigan began in the seventeenth century and was driven by two concerns: (1) to expand the lucrative fur trade with the Indians, and (2) to discover a water-based passage to the Pacific Ocean. The French expedition led by Étienne Brule reached Michigan in 1622, finding it occupied by the three Algonquian-speaking tribes of the Three Council Fires Confederacy: Ojibwa, Ottawa, Pottawatomi. In 1668 the French established a permanent settlement at Sault Ste. Marie as a base for their Catholic missions.
Between the creation of the Great Lakes at the end of the ice ages when the Laurentide ice sheet receded about 10,000 years ago and the French arrival into the area, various Indian nations had lived and prospered in Michigan. Unfortunately, the archaeological record does not provide us with a year-by-year account of what was happening in the area. What we have instead are simply hints of early life in Michigan supplemented by the oral traditions of the tribes.

Archaeological findings show us that Indian people were living in the area by 8300 BCE when a group of Indians established a seasonal camp near present-day Traverse City. The stone tools which they were using had been fashioned from stones quarried in the Saginaw Bay area, about 100 miles away. This implies that the people at this time were either utilizing resources over a fairly large area, or that they were trading with other people who had access to the Saginaw Bay quarries.

Stone tools provide important information to archaeologists. First, they are more likely to survive the ravages of time. Second, they provide information about stylistic changes in tool-making over time. And third, they provide some hints into the subsistence patterns of the people.

By 7500 BCE, some of the Indian people in Michigan were using a type of stone tool which archaeologists have designated as a Thebes point. These points, which were used as both dart points and knives, have broad diagonal notches squared at the inner end. They have a broadly expanded stem. These points are also found in archaeological sites in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. This does not mean that a single tribe inhabited this area, but that there was an interchange of ideas and goods among the various peoples in the region.

A Thebes point and a map showing the distribution of Thebes points are shown above.

At this same time (7500 BCE), some Indian people were using a stone tool which archaeologists call Hardin points. These points, which were used as both dart points and as knives, have straight or convex sides with straight to expanded stems. The points usually have pronounced barbs. These points are also found in archaeological sites in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Trade has always been important to American Indians. Some of our earliest evidence of trade among the Indian people who lived in Michigan actually comes from a site in Illinois. By 6500 BCE, a group of about 25 Indian people was living at the Koster site. The people at the Koster site were trading to obtain hematite beads from northern Michigan.

While it is common to stereotype ancient Indians as a "stone age" people, this stereotype is not accurate. By 5000 BCE, the Indian people in the Great Lakes area were making tools, weapons, and ornaments from copper. Indians, called the Old Copper Indians by archaeologists, maintained copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale. Here they dug thousands of mining pits. Some of the mining pits were up to 20 feet deep. With hammerstones, birchbark buckets, and a system of levels, the miners extracted the copper from the earth. The metal was then taken back to their villages where it was shaped by cold-hammering and annealing. The tools formed by the Old Copper Indians included leaf-shaped knives and spear-points, fishhooks, harpoon points, gouges, chisels, awls, wedges, punches, needles, drills, and axes.

By 1500 BCE, there is more evidence of long distance trade. At this time, the copper beads manufactured by Michigan Indians had found their way into Poverty Point, a large site in Louisiana.

Burials provide archaeologists with a great deal of information. The bones of the ancestors speak, telling us about their diet, their daily lives, and some of the illnesses which they encountered. They also provide some insights into religious practices. By 1000 BCE, Indian people began burying their dead at the Riverside site. Burial goods suggest that the people had well-developed trade networks with the Ohio River Valley, the Gulf Coast, and the Great Plains. Included in the graves were obsidian from the Yellowstone National Park area of Wyoming, marine shells from the Gulf or Atlantic seacoast, flint from North Dakota, and stone tools from other parts of the Midwest.

Tobacco is important to American Indians, and one of its uses is as a smoking material. By 1000 BCE, Indian people were using tubular-shaped pipes for smoking tobacco. The pipes were flared on the tobacco end and narrowed on the mouth end.

Another common stereotype of American Indians sees them as nomadic hunters and gatherers whose lifestyle was focused on hunting big game animals. Yet, at the beginning of the European invasion, most Indians obtained most of their calories from agricultural crops. One of the important domesticated plants was corn, which had been originally domesticated in Mexico. One of the questions asked by archaeologists is when corn agriculture reached the Great Lakes area.

The first evidence of corn in Michigan is found at the Eidson site: by 240 CE the Indian people at this site had corn. By 600 CE, there is evidence of corn at the Gard Island 2 site, the Indian Island 4 site, the Sissung site, and the Leimbach site. All of these sites are located around western Lake Erie. By 850 CE, Indian people at the Birch Run site had 8-row corn.

While corn certainly marks the beginning of change for many Indian cultures, there was no overnight shift from a hunting and gathering form of subsistence to agriculture. Many groups continued the old ways. In 600 CE, for example, archaeologists report that the economy of Indian people in west-central Michigan was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering with seasonal migrations. Archaeological findings suggest a mixed economic strategy which included fishing in the spring, summer, and fall. In the fall and winter the people hunted deer and other mammals.

One of the largest and most complex Native American civilizations was Mississippian which was centered at Cahokia near present-day St. Louis. By the eleventh century, the Mississippian cultural complex was evident in Michigan. By 1000 CE, Mississippian people were beginning to enter southwestern Michigan.

During the eleventh century there were a number of large village agricultural sites, some of which were indigenous and some of which were influenced by Mississippian culture. These include a large agricultural village on the Kalamazoo River known as the Nordhoff site and Moccasin Bluff. Agriculture at this time included a number of cultigens other than corn, including squash, tobacco, and sunflower.

Permanent villages which are occupied for long periods of time give archaeologists insights into cultural changes. By 1100, the Indian people at the Moccasin Bluff site were using both grit-tempered Moccasin Bluff ware and shell-tempered Berrien ware (pottery). Archaeologists interpret this change in pottery as reflecting an indigenous culture which was heavily influenced by Mississippian. About 1150, there was an increase in population at Moccasin Bluff. There was also a change in the type of pottery being used: shell-tempered, cordmarked pottery decreased while grit-tempered pottery, both cordmarked and plain, increased.

By the thirteenth century, the Indian people in Michigan had economies that included agriculture, hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. In 1200, Indian people built a small fortified agricultural village in the upper Muskegon River Valley, known as the Boven earthwork to archaeologists. The people were using cordmarked ceramics. The fortifications found there are an indication of inter-group conflicts.

About 1210, Indian people established a summer fishing and farming village along the Lake Michigan shore north of Grand Traverse Bay. This shows that these people were using agriculture to supplement their subsistence, rather than relying on it exclusively. Instead of permanent villages, they are using summer villages and winter villages, based on available resources.

By 1250 the weather in the lower Great Lakes area was starting to change. The climate was now characterized by decreased rainfall and cooler temperatures. This meant that agriculture became less dependable.

Archaeologists are able to associate some fifteenth century sites with specific tribal affiliations. The ancestors of what appear to be the Fox and Sauk abandon their village at the Fosters site about 1400.

In the fifteenth century, the tribes of the Three Council Fires--the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi- moved south to Lake Huron. The Ottawa stayed at the mouth of the French River and Lake Huron Islands while the Ojibwa and Potawatomi occupied the shoreline to the Mackinac Strait.

A century later, several tribes displaced by the Ojibwa expansion into Michigan and Wisconsin south of the Great Lakes began to migrate. This included the Menominee, who were pushed south and formed an alliance with the Winnebago. The Cheyenne and the Arapaho began to move west. At this time, the Potawatomi began a migration to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. This set the stage for the Indian nations which the French fur traders would find when they moved into the area in the seventeenth century.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Ojibwa — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:34:01 GMT

By 7000 BCE, American Indians were living in Arizona's Verde Valley. While these earliest inhabitants of the area had a hunting and gathering subsistence, by 700 CE there were farmers, called the Southern Sinagua people by archaeologists, living in the area. At this time they were growing crops similar to other Southwestern peoples: corn, beans, squash, and cotton. By 1000 CE their population had increased and they had begun to build cliff dwellings. Life in the Verde Valley, however, was interrupted in 1064 when the Sunset Crater volcano erupted, spreading a half billion tons of ash across 800 square miles. The Southern Sinagua people temporarily abandoned the valley.

Shown above is the excavation of a pit house that was occupied during the Camp Verde phase (900 to 1125 CE). The photograph is from the 1958 excavation of the site.

When the Sinagua people abandoned the Verde Valley, they simply moved to the nearby hills where they sustained themselves on agriculture dependent on rain.

By 1100 the Southern Sinagua people were returning to the Verde Valley and by 1130 they had started construction on a cliff dwelling which would later be called Montezuma Castle. This was a twenty-room, five-story dwelling located in a limestone cliff about 100 feet above Beaver Creek. The natural overhang shades the rooms and shelters them from the rain. This structure is estimated to have housed about 50 people. By 1300, there were an estimated 6-8,000 people living in small villages in the well-watered area.

Like their Hohokam cousins to the south, the Sinagua people used an irrigation system to bring water to their fields. About 11 miles away from Montezuma Castle is an immense sinkhole that was formed when an underground cavern collapsed. It is about 55 feet deep and 368 feet in diameter. An estimated 1.4 million gallons of water flow through the well daily. The Sinagua people dug irrigation ditches to channel this water to their fields.

Montezuma Castle was abandoned by the Sinagua people about 1425 CE. According to Hopi oral traditions, the Sinagua people migrated to the north where they become incorporated with the Hopi. Archaeologists do not know why the Sinagua people left the area, but the hypotheses include warfare, drought, and clashes with the newly-arrived Yavapai people.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the abandoned pueblo was "discovered" by Americans who arrogantly assumed that such a complex and elaborate structure could not have been built by the "primitive" Indians of North America and thus believed that it had been built by the Mexican Aztecs. They named it Montezuma Castle based on this belief, naively unaware that the structure predated the rise of the Aztecs in Mexico. Caring little about its historical significance, the Americans then mined it for any artifacts that they might find, often destroying parts of the structure in their greedy quest. In some instances they used dynamite to destroy walls so that they could gain entrance to rooms in order to loot them.

Following the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt declared four sites of historic and cultural significance as the first National Monuments in the United States. One of these first four was Montezuma Castle, which the President identified as "of the greatest ethnological value and scientific interest." Montezuma Castle National Monument encloses 826 acres.

Shown above is an early photograph of the site.

The T-shaped doorways shown in the photograph above are similar to those found in Ancestral Puebloan sites such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.

One of the first advocates for the creation of Montezuma Castle National Monument was Edgar Lee Hewitt who had worked on the drafting of the Antiquities Act. Hewitt felt that this was an archaeologically significant site that was being imperiled by aggressive pot hunting. The creation of Montezuma Castle National Monument was relatively uncontroversial and caused few complaints. The site was small, remote, and not being exploited by agriculture in the vicinity.

Montezuma Castle National Monument soon became a destination for America's first car-bound tourists. While the early tourists who visited the National Monument were allowed to climb a series of ladders up the side of the limestone cliffs, public access of the ruins was discontinued in 1951 due to extensive damage from the visitors.

During the 1930s, there was more archaeological focus on the valley. Earl Jackson, a graduate student under Byron Cummings at the University of Arizona and the son of the Montezuma Castle custodian Martin Jackson, conducted an archeological survey of the entire Verde drainage area for his master's thesis. In this work, Jackson specified the location of numerous sites and made comparisons of sherds, burials, and artifacts that he discovered. In 1933, archaeologists excavated Castle A, another 45-50 pueblo on the Monument. The findings from this excavation provided more detail about the Sinagua people who lived along Beaver Creek.

Shown above are photos from the excavation of Castle A. These are from a report by Martin L. Jackson entitled "Report on Montezuma Castle C.W.A. Work, Federal Project No. 5."

In 1947, the National Park Service acquired Montezuma Well, a place which is sacred to a number of tribes, including the Yavapai and the Hopi. According to Yavapai tradition, Montezuma Well is the hole through which the Yavapai entered this world. Once they had entered this world, the hole filled with water. After acquiring the administration of this property, Park Service personnel noted that Yavapai, Apache, Hopi, and Navajo people frequently visited the site for spiritual reasons.

In 1949, Albert Schroeder, the first full-time archaeologists assigned to Montezuma Castle National Monument, visited with Hopi priests. He showed them sketches of the ruins near Montezuma Well. He reported:

They reminded me of a legend that had formerly been related to me of how the Snake arose from a great cavity or depression in the ground, and how, they had heard, water boiled out of that hole into a neighboring river. The Hopi have personal knowledge of the Well, for many of their number have visited the Verde Valley, and they claim the ruins there as the home of their ancestors. It would not be strange, therefore, if this marvelous crater was regarded by them as a house of Paluluken, their mythic Plumed Serpent.

The National Park Service at Montezuma Castle National Monument has facilitated visits by tribal members and groups for spiritual purposes. They allow Native people to collect water from Montezuma Well for spiritual purposes and provide them with private access to portions of the Monument for the performance of spiritual ceremonies.

In 1966, Montezuma Castle National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This means that all of the prehistoric sites within the Monument are considered as contributing properties. Monument administration is thus required to consider the potential impacts of its undertakings on historic and prehistoric resources.

After the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) in 1978, the Monument collaborated more closely with the tribes to insure that tribal perspectives and interpretations are included on issues ranging from development plans to interpretive museum labels.

In the 1970s the National Park Service at Montezuma Castle National Monument began working with the Yavapai-Apache tribe to develop a tribal cultural information center. In 1981, the Yavapai-Apache completed a regional visitor information center, a gasoline station and convenience store, and a one-hundred-unit RV campground. The National Park Service began leasing roughly six thousand square feet of the information center building from the nation to serve as the administrative headquarters and visitor orientation center for Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments. In 1995, the tribe also opened Cliff Castle Casino and the Monument's administration moved to Camp Verde.

After the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, the Monument removed from museum displays all artifacts associated with human remains or burials and those considered to be sacred objects.

About 350,000 tourists visit Montezuma Castle National Monument each year. The visitor center at the Monument includes a museum and, of course, a gift shop.

The Antiquities Act

Ojibwa — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:16:09 GMT

Interest in a scientific understanding of the history of North America prior to the European invasion and a desire to obtain legislation to protect our ancient heritage from looting and vandalism began to coalesce in the late nineteenth century with the formation of several groups and government agencies. The groups included the Archaeological Institute of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Anthropological Association of Washington (which would later become the American Anthropological Association). The primary government agency concerned with antiquities was the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnography.
In 1879, the Archaeological Institute of America was established by Charles Eliot Norton, a professor of art history at Harvard, and a group of his friends. The purpose of the Institute was to promote and direct archaeological research, both classical archaeological research and research in the Americas. With regard to the Americas, it was felt that an understanding of aboriginal America was essential to the understanding of humans and it was important to understand the human conditions on this continent prior to the European discovery.

Charles Eliot Norton is shown above.

With regard to American archaeology, the Institute turned to Lewis Henry Morgan for advice and assistance. By 1898, the Institute had affiliated groups in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Madison, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. The members of these groups generally came from influential circles and therefore had significant influence on Congress and on Congressional concern for preserving antiquities.

Frederic W. Putnam of the American Association for the Advancement of Science helped establish a committee to work for legislation to protect antiquities on federal lands. In 1894, Putnam was placed in charge of the anthropology program of the American Museum of National History in New York City.

Frederic W. Putnam is shown above.

In 1879 Professor Otis T. Mason of Columbian College and others assembled at the Smithsonian Institution and founded the Anthropological Association of Washington which would later become the American Anthropological Association. The AAA provided crucial support for the American Antiquities Act in 1906.

Otis T. Mason is shown above.

Noting the destruction of ancient sites in the Southwest, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes wrote in 1896:

If this destruction of the cliff-houses of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona goes on at the same rate in the next fifty years that it has in the past, these unique dwellings will be practically destroyed, and unless laws are enacted, either by states or by the general government, for their protection, at the close of the twentieth century many of the most interesting monuments of the prehistoric peoples of our Southwest will be little more than mounds of debris at the bases of the cliffs. A commercial spirit is leading to careless excavations for objects to sell, and walls are ruthlessly overthrown, buildings town down in hope of a few dollars' gain. The proper designation of the way our antiquities are treated is vandalism. Students who follow us, when these cliff-houses have all disappeared and their instructive objects scattered by greed of traders, will wonder at our indifference and designate our negligence by its proper name. It would be wise legislation to prevent this vandalism as much as possible and good science to put all excavation of ruins in trained hands.

J. Walter Fewkes is shown above while working at Mesa Verde.

In 1901, Dr. Walter Hough, working in northeastern Arizona for the National Museum, wrote:

"The great hindrance to successful archaeologic (sic) work in this region lies in the fact that there is scarcely an ancient dwelling site or cemetery that has not been vandalized by 'pottery diggers' for personal gain."

In 1899, the American Association for the Advancement of Science established a committee to promote a bill in Congress for the permanent protection of aboriginal antiquities on federal lands. At this same time the Archaeological Institute of America established a Standing Committee on American Archaeology. The two committees combined their efforts to seek preservation of American antiquities.

In 1902, the Records of the Past Exploration Society was formed and started publishing a journal, Records of the Past. The new society recommended the establishment of a national antiquities law. In 1904, the journal's editor Rev. Henry Mason Baum, whose primary interest was in Biblical Archaeology, testified before the Senate:

"...two years ago I visited the mounds of the Mississippi Valley and the more important pueblo and cliff ruins of the Southwest. One of the objects I had in view was to ascertain how the antiquities on the Government domain could best be protected."

Baum and his associates prepared a draft of a bill intended to preserve America's antiquities. The bill, introduced by Representative William Rodenberg of Illinois, would place all historic and prehistoric ruins, monuments, archaeological objects, and antiquities on the public lands in the custody of the Secretary of the Interior with authority to grant excavation and collecting permits to qualified institutions.

In 1904, Senator Shelby M. Cullom and Representative Robert R. Hitt, both of Illinois, introduced bills which had been carefully worked out by the Smithsonian Institution. These bills defined antiquities as:

"...mounds, pyramids, cemeteries, graves, tombs, and burial places and their contents, including human remains; workshops, cliff dwelling, cavate lodges, caves, and rock shelters containing evidence of former occupancy; communal houses, towers, shrines, and other places of worship, including abandoned mission houses or other church edifices; stone heaps, shell heaps, ash heaps, cairns, stones artificially placed, solitary or in groups, with or without regularity; pictographs and all ancient or artificial inscriptions; also fortifications and enclosures, terraced gardens, walls standing or fallen down, and implements, utensils, and other objects of wood, stone, bone, shell, metal, and pottery, or textiles, statues and statuettes, and other artificial objects."

Following the conflicts between the two bills in Congress-one championed by Baum and the other championed by the Smithsonian), Commissioner W. W. Richards of the General Land Office had Edgar Lee Hewitt, the former president of New Mexico Normal University, review the entire antiquities preservation problem on federal lands. Hewitt had done archaeological work in the Southwest and was active in the American Anthropological Association. He studied at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and received his Ph.D. in anthropology. Hewett's unusual combination of western background, farming and teaching experience, first-hand knowledge of ancient ruins on federal lands in the Southwest, and experience as an archaeologist and administrator, enabled him in this period to enjoy alike the confidence of members of Congress, bureau chiefs, staffs of universities and research institutions, and members of professional societies. Hewitt produced a memorandum which provided the Land Office and Congress with a detailed description of the antiquities in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Following Hewitt's recommendations Representative John Fletcher Lacey of Iowa and Senator Thomas M. Patterson of Colorado introduced new legislation to preserve American antiquities.

Edgar Lee Hewitt is shown above.

In 1906, Congress passed an Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities which makes it a criminal offense to appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy historic or prehistoric ruins or objects of antiquity located on federal lands. The bill was motivated in part by reports of looting in the Southwest, particularly at sites such as Chaco Canyon, as well as by an increasing interest in the indigenous past of North America. The bill also reflected President Theodore Roosevelt's passion for conserving and studying natural history, protecting America's past, and ensuring continued access for a fast-growing scientific community.

As with most legislation regarding American Indians, there was no Indian involvement in the creation of the bill, no testimony by Indian leaders. There was, in fact, no suggestion that Indian people might have any legitimate affiliations with the past. There was still a strong feeling among politicians and among academics that Indian people were a disappearing people and that they were supposed to have vanished by the twentieth century. The fact of their continuing presence did not deter many non-Indians from assuming that they no longer existed.

In addition, many people still felt that Indian people had never been capable of great civilizations and thus the great ruins which were found throughout the Americas must have somehow been built and/or designed by non-Indians. A century later, people would be crediting aliens from other planets with many of the works done by American Indians.

There was no concern that living American Indians might have religious, spiritual, or historic connections to the sites which were to be preserved under the Antiquities Act. With the Antiquities Act, Congress declared that the American Indian past belonged to the general public in the same way as Yellowstone National Park. It was now the responsibility of the federal government, not the Indians, to protect and interpret the nation's archaeological and historical resources. Under the permit system stemming from this act, protection and interpretation of the American Indian past was given to the scientific community rather than to the people whose ancestors had been responsible for its creation.

Under the Antiquities Act, amateur access to America's past-whether by Indians or non-Indians-was now prohibited. Permission to examine ruins, excavate archaeological sites, or gather objects of antiquity is limited to people who were deemed

"properly qualified to conduct such examination...for the benefit of reputable museums, universities, colleges, or other recognized scientific or educational institutions."

Human remains of Indians who had been interred on what were now federal lands were to be considered archaeological resources and thus were federal property. As federal property these human remains were to be stored in facilities for further research.

It has now been more than a century since the passage of the Antiquities Act. The looting and vandalism of American Indian sites has continued on federal lands, state lands, and private lands. With regard to the preservation of antiquities, the United States Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has passed the National Historic Preservation Act (1966), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (1970), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978), and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990). Indians now have more of a voice in protecting their past.

Ancient Minnesota

Ojibwa — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:07:19 GMT

When the first French fur traders arrived in Minnesota in the 17th century, they found that the area was occupied by Indian nations from two different language groups: Algonquian (primarily Anishinabe or Ojibwa) and Siouan (primarily Sioux). The French found that the Ojibwa (Chippewa) and the Yanktonai Sioux were engaged in a war.
At the time the French first entered the region, the First Nations had an economy that was based on a combination of farming (corn, beans, squash, and tobacco), hunting (deer and moose were most important), fishing, and gathering wild plants. Agriculture was of less importance to these tribes than to the tribes farther east because of climatic conditions: there was a relatively short growing season in many areas.

Like other areas of North America, the region that would later become Minnesota had been inhabited by American Indians for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived. American Indians were not-and are still not-a static people with unchanging cultures. In the millennium prior to the arrival of the French, American Indian cultures in what would become Minnesota had undergone many changes.

By about 650 CE, the cultural tradition which archaeologists call the Blackduck Complex was developing in what is now Minnesota and Manitoba It was a cultural complex based on the exploitation of a number of resources, including sturgeon, moose, black bear, beaver, turtle, snowshoe hare, wolf, clams, martin, and muskrat. In the southern portion of the Blackduck range, people also collected wild rice.

The Blackduck people manufactured pottery which had a round base and a constricted neck with flattened and thickened lips. The pottery was made with a paddle and anvil technique. Some of the pots were decorated. Decorating techniques included cord-wrapped stamping, comb stamping, punctuation of various kinds, and vertical brushing.

Blackduck pottery is shown above.

Archaeologists tend to feel that the Blackduck Complex was associated with Algonquian groups.

By 700 CE, the culture which archaeologists refer to as the Effigy Mound Culture had spread through Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. Effigy mounds occurred in groups situated on elevated terrain overlooking streams and lakes. Groups of up to 20-30 mounds were fairly common, but isolated mounds are occasionally found.

Eight effigy mound types are generally recognized: panther, bear, bird, deer, buffalo, turtle, canine, and beaver. About 5 human figures have been identified. However, archaeologists point out that the current naming designations for the mounds probably do not accurately reflect the intentions of the mound builders.

Very little is actually known about the lifestyles of the Indian peoples who constructed the effigies. Their material culture included the use of cord-marked pottery (pottery which had been decorated by pressing cords into the wet clay prior to firing) and triangular stone spear points. In general, the Effigy Mound Culture was based on hunting and gathering with some agriculture. The seasonal cycle involved harvesting nuts and deer in the late fall, winter, and early spring; then a concentration of lowland resources, including aquatic resources, in the late spring, summer, and early fall. Gardens were planted in late spring. While Effigy Mound people tended to live in small seasonal camps with some small wide-spread villages, there are a few sites with substantial occupation. Mounds were constructed during the summer.

Construction of the mounds involved more than just heaping dirt on the ground. The mound construction began by digging out a precise intaglio of the effigy which was to be constructed. The mounds were built up over time with successive layers of different colored earths, termed "ceremonial earths" by archaeologists. In between there would be fire- blackened strata which appear to demark different periods of construction.

About 800 CE, the Blackduck culture was beginning to replace the earlier Laurel culture at the Grand Mound site. The Blackduck people were now using the bow and arrow instead of the atlatl. They were also more dependent on wild rice.

By 900 CE, a couple of regional cultural variations are seen in Minnesota. In some areas of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa, Indian people were building villages which were located on the edge of a first terrace immediately above the floodplain or shallow lake. These villages were not fortified, indicating that there was little endemic warfare. Archaeologists call this the Great Oasis Phase.

Great Oasis ceramics were generally globular-shaped jars with rounded shoulders and bottoms. The exterior of the ceramics tended to be smooth, or smoothed over cord-marks. With regard to subsistence, corn was important at many of the sites. In addition, the people hunted a wide variety of mammals including buffalo, deer, ground squirrel, beaver, wolf, and rabbit. Birds and fish were also important in the diet. Their only domesticated animal was the dog.

In Minnesota, the main Great Oasis sites are the Great Oasis site (for which the phase was named) and the Big Slough site. The Great Oasis site appears to have been intensely occupied.

At this same time, the Oneota culture began to develop in southern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota. One of the characteristics of this culture was the use of red pipestone (catlinite). The Oneota people lived in large villages with long houses. These people were making a number of products from pipestone, including pipebowls, which were traded to other tribes. In addition to corn and other food crops, they also cultivated tobacco.

Oneota ceramics are also distinctive. The Oneota potters were using a shell-tempered paste in creating their ceramics. Shells were broken up and mixed with the clay to temper it. The most common vessel form was a squat jar that often had trailed designs on the shoulder.

One example of an Oneota site in Minnesota is the Bartron site which was established about 1050. This village, located on a low island in the Mississippi River flood plain, covered 7 to 10 acres and was palisaded.

Oneota culture is ancestral to the Chiware which, in turn, is ancestral to the Iowa, the Oto, the Winnebago, and the Missouri. Over the next several centuries this culture spread throughout the region. By 1300, the Oneota culture could be found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Illinois. By 1300, archaeologists feel that Oneota was associated with the Siouan-speaking peoples, particularly the Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Winnebago, and Kansa.

By 1000 CE, the central forests of Minnesota were supporting a large population of wild-rice gatherers. In fact, the wild rice subsistence base appears to have supported a larger population than did the corn-based agriculture found to the south. This wild-rice based culture, called Psinomani by archaeologists, lived in large, semi-permanent, palisaded villages. The use of palisades around the villages is an indication of inter-group conflicts. Sites used for gathering wild rice and for fishing are commonly associated with Psinomani.

Psinomani pottery is shown above.

The Psinomani also engaged in seasonal buffalo hunting in the prairie near Red River. One of the sites near the Red River which was used for buffalo hunting was the Shea site. While the main subsistence activity at this site was buffalo hunting, archaeologists have found evidence showing that other animals were also hunted and that the occupants engaged in some corn agriculture. The village was surrounded by a palisade. The Shea site appears to have been a seasonal site occupied during the warm months and then abandoned during the winter. It was in use until about 1460.

Psinomani is a Dakota word which means "wild rice gatherer." Psinomani is generally felt to be ancestral to the Santee Dakota.

In north-central Minnesota, the Wanikan Complex (seen by some archaeologists as a variation of Psinomani) began about 1100. This complex is associated with pottery which includes varieties with smooth surfaces, with vertical cord marks, and with check stamping. Other traits include burial mounds, and triangular projectile points. The people were gathering wild rice and living in seasonally occupied sites. While bison hunting was the main form of subsistence in the plains area, there was also some corn agriculture. It is believed that the Wanikan Complex was associated with the Assiniboine and Santee.

Also at this time-about 1000 CE-a phase which archaeologists call Cambria begins in southwestern Minnesota. The sites associated with this phase are located along the trench of the Minnesota River from near Cambria in the southeast to around Lake Traverse in the northwest. Cambria has distinctive pottery which includes globular jars with constricted necks, pronounced shoulders, and smooth surfaces. Ceramics are made with a grit temper.

Four different kinds of sites are associated with Cambria: large village sites on terraces; secondary villages located near the large villages; small upland prairie-lake and riverine sites; and burial sites. The Cambria site is a large horticultural village which covers about 3.5 acres. It is located on the southwest side of the Minnesota River about 15 miles northwest of present-day Mankato. The Price site is a smaller site located near the Cambria site. Hunting appears to have been more important at this site.

The different kinds of Cambria sites suggest a seasonal subsistence pattern that involved agriculture at the large village sites, bison hunting on the prairies, and the exploitation of many different plant and animal resources.

With regard to burial practices, the Cambria phase people used earthen burial mounds. Such mounds are associated with most of the villages.

One of the largest and most complex Native American civilizations was Mississippian which was centered at Cahokia near present-day St. Louis. Mississippian spread over a wide area and by 1125 Mississippian people were occupying the Byran Site in Minnesota.

About 1190, Indian people established a large village and earthen burial mound complex at the Byran site. The site was situated on a high terrace overlooking the Cannon River not far from its juncture with the Mississippi River. The people built square to rectangular houses. A log palisade, 10-12 feet high, surrounded the village. The people at the Byran site were raising corn. The pottery at this site is Mississippian, but the stone, bone, and antler tools at the site show a connection with Plains cultures to the west.

Some archaeologists feel that the intrusion of Mississippian cultural traits into Minnesota may have been the result of a Cahokia sphere of economic and religious influence. There may have been a Mississippian network which expanded into the area for the purpose of resource extraction. Acting as traders to groups farther west, the Minnesota sites may have been able to provide the people of Cahokia with buffalo robes, dried meat, and other items.

By 1200, there were many changes occurring among the tribes who inhabited Minnesota. The influence of the Mississippian cultures to the south fades and the dominant influence in Minnesota following this time appears to have been Oneota.

In the centuries just prior to French exploration of Minnesota, there had been a number of migrations and tribal expansions. As the fur trade with the Europeans became more important to the eastern tribes, there was an expansion westward resulting in dislocations, warfare, and migration. Part of this was caused by the Ojibwa expansion westward which pushed the Menominee south and helped to create an alliance between the Menominee and the Winnebago. During this time, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and various Sioux groups begin their migrations from the eastern woodlands out onto the northern plains.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park

Ojibwa — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:28:25 GMT

More than a thousand years ago, the Ancestral Puebloans constructed a number of larges pueblos in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The ruins of these ancient pueblos came to the attention of the Americans shortly after the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848 which gave the United States governmental jurisdiction over much of what is now the Southwest. While the United States claimed that it was acquiring this territory in order to bring peace and stability to the region, the intrusion of the Americans into the region actually increased the cycles of violence with the Navajo. In 1849, Lieutenant Colonel John M. Washington led a putative expedition against the Navajo. On a detached reconnaissance, topographical engineer Lieutenant James H. Simpson entered Chaco Canyon and located ten ancient Ancestral Puebloan pueblos.

The map of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park is shown above.
The Initial Discovery:

As Lieutenant Simpson led his reconnaissance expedition through Chaco Canyon, he noted the characteristics of the pueblos and, with the help of his Navajo and Mexican guides, he gave them names. Lieutenant Simpson was actually the first to designate the canyon as "Chaco" which appears to be from the Spanish transliteration of the Navajo name for Chacra Mesa which was Tzak aih meaning "white string of rocks."

Pueblo Pintado (Spanish for "painted village) was named by their Mexican guide Carravahal. Others in the party suggested naming it Montezuma's Pueblo, Red Pueblo, Great Pueblo, and Pueblo of the Rats. Lieutenant Simpson counted 54 "apartments" on the ground floor and estimated that it must have originally been three stories high. Archaeologists would later find that the L-shaped pueblo had 135 rooms, 19 kivas ceremonial underground structures), and 1 great kiva.

The name Montezuma's Pueblo reflected the idea that these large structures must have somehow been built by the Aztecs under the leadership of Montezuma. The mistaken idea that Aztecs under Montezuma built many of the ancient villages in the southwest continues to persist, even though the archaeological findings show that these villages were built long before Montezuma.

Wijiiji (named Weje-gi by Carravahal which means "Greasewood House" from the Navajo word for the greasewood plant) which measured nearly 700 feet in circumference.

Wijiiji is shown above.

Pueblo Una Vida (Spanish for "One Life") measured 994 feet in circumference. Archaeologists would later determine that the pueblo had about 160 rooms and that construction began sometime in the 800s. The pueblo also has four kivas and two great kivas.

Una Vida is shown above.

Hungo Pavi (the meaning of this name is unknown) measured 872 feet in circumference.

Hungo Pavi is shown above.

Chetro Ketl, a name which Carravahal said means Rain Pueblo. The pueblo measured 1,300 feet in circumference and Lieutenant Simpson felt that it was once four stories high.

The large kiva at Chetro Ketl is shown above.

Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for "Beautiful Village") which was 1,300 feet in circumference and was once four stories high. Archaeologists would later determine that this pueblo was inhabited from the 850s through the early twelfth century. Over a million sandstone blocks were carved for its construction.

Pueblo Bonito is shown above.

Pueblo Bonito has over 350 ground rooms, 32 kivas, and 3 great kivas.

Pueblo del Arroyo (Spanish for "Village by the Wash") which Lieutenant Simpson estimated at 1,000 feet in circumference. It differs from the other great houses in Chaco Canyon in that it was not built near the northern cliff face and is oriented to the east rather than to the south. The building was originally four stories high and had 125 ground floor rooms and 17 kivas. Archaeologists would later determine that initial construction began about 1060.

Pueblo de Peñasco Blanco (Spanish for "Rocky White") which was 1,700 feet in circumference. According to Lieutenant Simpson:

"there is a regular alternation of large and small stones, the effect of which is both unique and beautiful."

This is the westernmost great house in Chaco Canyon. Archaeologists would later identify irrigation canals and a system of fields associated with this site. The oval ground plan is unlike the D-shape of many of the other great houses in the canyon. Peñasco Blanco has four great kivas. Construction of this pueblo began in the early tenth century.

Peñasco Blanco is shown above.

Vandalism:

The ruins in Chaco Canyon were seen by some non-Indians was a resource would could be mined for ancient artifacts which could be sold to collectors. In 1877, the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories noted that holes had been poked through the exterior walls of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon by vandals searching for artifacts.

Hyde Exploring Expedition:

The next major American group to explore Chaco Canyon came in 1896. At this time the Hyde Exploring Expedition began what would be four summers of archaeological excavations at the ruins. The Expedition was under the auspices of Frederick Putnam of the American Museum of Natural History. Rancher-turned-archaeologist Richard Wetherill and George Pepper, a student with no experience outside of the classroom, led the expedition. A number of Navajo men were hired to do the digging.

During the next four seasons, the Hyde Exploring Expedition excavated 190 rooms at Pueblo Bonito and sent thousands of artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History. At the end of their first season, they shipped an entire freight car filled with artifacts back to New York.

Edger Hewett, the president of New Mexico Normal University, became concerned that the artifacts from Chaco Canyon were being transferred to New York. He accused the Hyde Exploring Expedition of selling artifacts and vandalizing the Chaco sites. While the charges were found to have no merit, the Department of the Interior ordered the Hyde Exploring Expedition to stop excavations in 1901.

National Geographic Society:

In 1921, the National Geographic Society sponsored an archaeological excavation at Chaco Canyon under the leadership of Neil M. Judd. According to the National Geographic announcement of the expedition:

"This expedition hopes to discover the historic secrets of a region which was one of the most densely populated areas in North America before Columbus came, a region where prehistoric peoples lived in vast communal dwellings whose ruins are ranked second to none of ancient times in point of architecture."

The National Geographic Society directed Judd to completely excavate a promising great house in Chaco Canyon. Judd and his team selected Pueblo Bonito and spent three years excavating the pueblo. Judd published his research in 1927.

University of New Mexico:

From 1935 through 1970 the University of New Mexico excavated at Chaco Canyon. The work was directed by Edger Hewett and focused primarily on education students in archaeology. Very little of this work has ever been published.

Chaco Canyon National Monument:

In 1907 Congress created the Chaco Canyon National Monument to preserve the numerous Ancestral Puebloan ("Anasazi") ruins in the area. In 1980 the National Monument was re-designated as the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. At this time an additional 13,000 acres was added to the park. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Ancient South America: Patagonia

Ojibwa — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:39:47 GMT

Humans-Homo sapiens-have lived in South America for at least 15,000 years and possibly longer. The earliest period of human occupation is generally called the Lithic Stage by archaeologists. During this time period the first post-glacial hunting and gathering groups lived in South America. The people were living in small groups which subsisted on hunting, fishing, and the gathering of wild plants.
At the southern end of South America is Patagonia. Today this is a region of steppe-like plains with a succession of 13 abrupt terraces which rise up to 100 meters (330 feet) at a time. The region's current name comes from pagagón which was used by the Spanish explorer Magellan to describe the native giants that he encountered. The Native American inhabitants, the Tehuelches, had an average height of 5'11" as compared with 5'1" for the Spaniards.

During the late Pleistocene era 15,000 years ago, the glaciers were beginning to recede. This was still an environment of glaciers, woods, and turquoise lakes. The weather at this time was becoming warmer and drier. Shrubs were beginning to replace the grasses which had supported a variety of animals. While this was a hostile environment, it was still occupied by humans.

Many of the mammals which inhabited Patagonia at the end of the Pleistocene have become extinct. At the site of Cueva Túnel, occupied by 11,500 BCE, archaeologists have found the remains of extinct animals, including Panthera onca (a jaguar) and Hippidion saldiasi (a small horse). At another site, Casa del Minero, archaeologists have found an extinct fox (Dusycion avus) and two distant relatives of today's guanaco (Hemiauchenia paradoxa and Lama gracilis). The evidence from these sites shows that humans were hunting these extinct species at this time. The bones from some of these animals had been made into tools, including awls to perforate hides.

Most of the tools used by these early Native American residents of Patagonia were made from stone. The landscape had been formed by volcanic activity and this provided stone that was ideal for making tools. Outcrops of good rocks became quarries in which the extracted stones were knapped in situ into blanks from which tools would later be made.

In other parts of the Americas, Indian people would re-sharpen their stones as they got dull. In Patagonia, however, with the abundance of good stone, the people simply discarded the dull blades and made new ones.

The stone tools which they made were not crude. They often used pressure-flaking for removing small chips so that the tools were sharp and were made in pre-determined forms. They also used heat treatment in making their tools. Heat treatment is a complex procedure that requires annealing the stones so that flaking, particularly pressure flaking, becomes easier. Heat treating the stone, however, requires more sophistication that just sticking the stone in a fire: the temperature of the fire has to be carefully controlled. If the heat of the fire rises too quickly or if it gets too hot, the object is ruined and not suitable for knapping.

During the Lithic Stage in Patagonia, archaeologists have found evidence of site specialization showing that different activities were carried out at different sites. At Cerro Tres Tetas, archaeologists have determined that the stone tools were used primarily for activities related to the scraping and cutting of hide. This suggests that this site was used for the making of clothing and the preparation of hides for their tents.

At Cerro Tres Tetas there is also some indication of division of labor with regard to scraping the hide and cutting it. While both activities were carried out near hearth fires, different activities clustered around different fires.

At Cueva Tunél, the analysis of the tools at the site shows that they were used for cutting soft tissue such as meat. This, coupled with the abundance of faunal remains showing human activity, suggests that this site was used for the consumption of animals which had been hunted nearby. The site is located near a natural reservoir which would have attracted animals and would have been an ideal hunting location.

Casa del Minero was a base camp which was used for making both stone and bone tools. The animal remains found at the site show that meat was both prepared and cooked here. The site is near two quarries which provided the people with flint and silicified tuff. In addition, the site is near some sources of pigments which were used to make some of the finest rock art in South America.

During the Lithic Stage in Patagonia, the people created a great deal of rock art. At the Estancia la María, for example, the artists were using polychrome techniques in which red, ocher, yellow, white, rosy, violet, and blue used. The artists also used the hollows and natural relief of the walls to enhance the images. The motifs used at this site include: hands in negative and hands in positive; and scenes where guanacos appear running or standing; with their breedings; in attitude of drinking water; and pregnant females. There are also concentric circles of lines and of points (interpreted as suns, strategy diagrams for the control of the flocks or like sources of water). The human occupation at this site dates to about 10,000 years ago.

Rock art from Estancia la María is shown above.

The Cueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz, Argentina is a cave at the foot of a cliff. This site, which dates to about 8000 BCE, has negative images of hundreds of hands. Using pipes made from bone, the artists sprayed a mineral-based paint on the wall. Blocking the paint with the hand created the negative images. Most of the hands are left hands, suggesting that the artists held the spraying pipe in their right hand.

The main cave is about 79 feet deep and is 49 feet wide. The opening of the cave is 33 feet high and slopes downward to a height of about 7 feet. In addition to the stenciled images of hands, there are also depictions of humans, guanacos, rheas, felines, and hunting scenes. There are also geometric shapes and representations of the sun. There are red dots on the ceiling which were probably made by submerging hunting bolas in ink and then tossing them up. The hunting images appear to be the oldest, and those of the hands are the most recent. The ancient artists used this cave for several thousand years.

Cueva de las Manos has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1999.

The hands painted on the wall at Cueva de las manos are shown above.

A hunting scene from Cueva de las manos is shown above.

The view from Cueva de las manos is shown above.

The Ancestors of the Iroquois

Ojibwa — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:59:15 GMT

When the Dutch and the French, and later the English, began to enter into what would become New York State searching for trading partners in the seventeenth century, they encountered a large, well-organized alliance of tribes known as the Iroquois. The League of Five Nations, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, was composed of five culturally and linguistically similar nations who had come together to promote peace among themselves.

The map above shows the approximate location of the Iroquoian and Algonquian tribes when the Europeans first began to enter the area.
The designation "Iroquois" was given them by the French and was most likely a French mispronunciation of a derogatory term used to describe them by enemy peoples. They call themselves Haudenosaunee which is often translated to mean "People of the Longhouse" and they symbolize their confederacy as a longhouse with five hearth fires. The longhouse is symbolically seen as being oriented west to east, with the Seneca occupying the western door; then the Cayuga, the Onondaga, the Oneida, and, finally, the Mohawk occupying the eastern door.

The map above shows the relative location of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

A drawing of an Iroquois longhouse is shown above.

Archaeologists have identified the ancestral Iroquoian culture in New York as the Owasco cultural tradition which began to flourish about 900 CE. The Owasco people were farmers whose lives centered on the raising of the Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash. This vegetable diet was supplemented with a diversified subsistence of fish, game, and wild plants.

With agriculture, the Owasco people tended to be sedentary, living in villages, hamlets, and satellite camps. These ranged in size from a few dozen people to a few hundred people. At the beginning of the Owasco period, these ancestral Iroquois people built their villages in the fertile sites of their fishing grounds, on flood plains or just above on slightly higher terrain. Archaeologists have found numerous cache pits and remains of large vessels in these sites, which suggests that they had a stable and prosperous communal life.

The Owasco villages were made up of a number of longhouses. There was intense warfare between the communities: there was no over-arching political structure at this time.

The phase of Iroquois history called Carpenter Brook Owasco by archaeologists began about 1000 CE. This phase marked the beginning of a shift in settlement patterns from riverine villages to permanent towns located on hilltops.

In 1100 CE, ancestral Iroquoian people began to occupy the Maxon-Derby site. This site was an un-palisaded Owasco village which covered about two acres. It housed a maximum of 200 to 250 people. The people were living in small oblong houses with rounded ends. In addition to the small houses, there are two larger structures, about 60 feet in length, which resemble the later Iroquois longhouses.

By 1140, Owasco people were living at the Sackett site on Arsenal Hill near present day Canandaigua. This village covered more than three acres and was enclosed by an ellipsoidal ditch measuring 343 feet by 202 feet. The Owasco people dug the trench to a depth of two to three feet and to a width of seven to eleven feet. Within the village, the people were living in small wigwams. While there were no longhouses at the site, some of the features in the wigwams, such as narrow shelves or benches around the interior-are features which are found in later Iroquois longhouses.

In 1290, Owasco people established a village at the Chamerlin archaeological site. The village was surrounded by a palisade and contained longhouses which were up to 80 feet in length.

In 1300, the phase of Iroquois history called Oak Hill Iroquois by archaeologists began. During this time, Iroquois settlements were primarily permanent stockaded villages located in defensible sites. By this time, a pattern of village removals and resettlements had been established. Every 25 to 50 years, the villages would outgrow their sites, exhaust soil fertility and firewood, and would move two or three miles away.

In 1400, the phase of Iroquois history called Chance phase Iroquois by archaeologists began. In the Onondaga area there was a village resettlement which resulted in a larger village being fairly close to a smaller village. Having two towns fairly close to each other is a clear indication that they had some type of non-aggression pact and perhaps saw themselves as being part of the same nation and/or political entity.

In 1451, the Iroquois Confederacy-the League of Five Nations-was born when Deganawida, a Huron born of a virgin, crossed the great lake in a stone canoe and began to bring forth his vision of a great peace. Deganawida had a speech defect and had Hiawatha speak for him to the several Iroquoian tribes. As a result of their efforts, the Five Nations-the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk-met and buried the instruments of war and planted a pine tree of peace. The wampum belts recorded:

"I, Deganawida, and the union lords now uproot the tallest pine tree and into the cavity thereby made we cast all weapons of war. Into the depths of the earth, down into the deep underneath currents of water flowing to unknown regions we cast all the weapons of strife. We bury them from sight and we plant again the tree. Thus shall the Great Peace, Kayenarhekowa, be established."

This was the alliance which the French, Dutch, and English encountered in the seventeenth century.