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WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
VOLUME 14 1915
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
fecund
OCT 4 I9U 20600G
Vol. 14 April, 1915 No. 1
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
Fond du Lac County Antiquities Wisconsin Indian Medals
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated March 23, 1903, for the purpose of advancing the study and preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT GEORGE A. WEST Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
DR. S. A. BARRETT : Milwaukee
DR. ORRIN THOMPSON Neenah
W. H. ELLSWORTH Milwaukee
WILLIAM H. TITUS Fond du Lac
H. E. COLE Baraboo
DIRECTORS
DR. E. J. W. NOTZ Milwaukee
DR. LEWIS SHERMAN Milwaukee
TflEASURER LEE R. WHITNEY _. Milwaukee
SECRETARY CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY— G. A. West, G. E. Brown, Dr. S. A. Barrett, H. L. Skavlem, L. R. Whitney, Dr. Louis Falge, Geo. R. Fox.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— H. P. Hamilton, Prof. A. H. Sanford, W. H. Ellsworth, O. L. Hollister, Dr. H. C. Bumpus, B. W. Davis, Dr. M. M. Quaife, 0. P. Olson, Rudolph Kuehne, P. V. Lawson.
MOUND PRESERVATION— E. N. Warner, Mrs. E. H. Van Ostrand, J. M. Poytt, T. E. Brittingham, Prof. L. B. Wolfenson, Dr. J. S. Walbridge, Dr. E. J. W. Notz, Rev. L. E. Drexel, G. H. Squier. Charles Lapham.
MEMBERSHIP— Lee R. Whitney, Dr. Orrin Thompson, Walter Wenz, G. R. Zilsch, H. 0. Younger, Paul Joers, Thomas Bardon, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, C. E. Guenther, R. F. Goodman.
MAN MOUND— H. E. Cole, Mrs. E. C. Wiswall, W. W. Warner.
PRESS— Rev. J. E. Copus, John Poppendieck, C. W. Norris, E. R. Mc- Intyre, A. 0. Barton.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Library-Museum Building, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday of each month, at 8 P. M.
During the months of July to October no meetings will be held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Members, $25.00 Sustaining Members, $5.00
Annual Members, $2.00
..^^ ' communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeological Society or to the Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to Charles E. Brown. Secretary Office, and Curator, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wisconsin.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vol. 14, No. 1.
ARTICLES
Page Fond du Lac County Antiquities, W. H. Titus _ _ _ _ . 1
Wisconsin Indian Medals, Charles E. Brown _____ 28 Archeological Notes _________^ 37
ILLUSTRATIONS "Washington Indian Medal, Joseph Ringeisen Collection _ Frontispiece
Plate Facing Page
1. Zimmerman Group __________ 6
2. "Dumb-bell" Group ___.____. 10
3. Peebles Group __________ 12
4. Grooved Stone Axes, G. M. Brugger Collection _ _ _ 14
5. St. Cloud Group and Garden Beds ______ 16
6. Sheboygan River near St. Cloud _______ 18
7. Long Lake ___________ 20
8. Byron Group ___________ 22
9. Graves in Barker Gravel Pit at Calumetville _ _ _ _ 24 10. Pottery Vessels from Gravel Pit near Calumet Harbor, A.
Gerend and R. Kuehne Collections ______ 26
Figure
1. Briggs Group ___________ 7
2. Fischer Group ___________ 8
3. Clapham Group __________ 9
4. Leonard Mill Group _____._,_ 15
5. Long Lake Group __________ 18
6. Round Lake Mound __._ 18
Washington Indian Medal Jos. Ringeisen Collection
The Wisconsin Archeologist
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeological Society Vol. 14 MADISON, WIS., APRIL, 1915 No. 1
FOND DU LAC COUNTY ANTIQUITIES
William A. Titus
In offering this report for publication the writer desires it to be understood that it is not in any sense a complete survey of the aboriginal remains in Fond du Lac county, but a description of the groups of Indian earthworks and sites which he was able to map and describe within the limited time given to the work during the season of 1914. He hopes later to be able to describe additional Fond du Lac county antiquities in a final report.
Previous contributions to the record of the location and character of the Indian remains in this county were made by Dr. Alphonse Gerend, of Cato; Mr. George M. Brugger, of Fond du Lac; Rev. Leopold E. Drexel, of Fox Lake; Mr. Charles E. Brown, of Madison, and Mr. B. W. Davis, of Waupun. To these and to several other gentlemen, who have furnished information of a helpful nature, full credit is given in the following pages.
Because of its location around the southern end of Lake Winnebago, the present Fond du Lac county was a field of great activity among the prehistoric tribes of Wisconsin. The lake together with the Upper and Lower Fox rivers and numerous smaller streams, opened up to primitive naviga- tion and commerce a vast area, all of which was occupied by the aborigines at one time or another, and by different tribes at different periods.
2 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
In historic time the principal Indian villages in the county were at Calumet, Taycheedah, and Fond du Lac. The Menominee village at Calumet is mentioned by Samuel A. Storrow, who with Tomah, the noted Menominee chief as a guide, visited it on September 25, 1817. It was called Calumet and was "situated on the edge of a prairie" bor- dering on Lake Winnebago. Its inhabitants numbered about 150. On the prairie about the village were evidences of the former cultivation of the soil, probably of plots of corn hills and garden beds. Storrow distributed a quantity of tobacco, Vermillion, salt, thread and needles among the In- dians. Before taking his departure he smoked the pipe with some of the principal men in one of the wigwams and partook of a part of a large kettle of wild rice. He was not favorably impressed with the Indians because of their lack of industry and the filthy condition of the village. (W. H. Colls., v. 6, pp. 170-173.) Samuel Stambaugh mentions that Little Wave was in 1831 the chief of the large Menominee village at Calumet. He states that this chief was one of the signers of the treaty made at Washington, in that year. (W. H. Colls., V. 15, p. 420.)
By Augustin Grignon we are informed that the chief of the Winnebago village located at Taycheedah, was Sar-ro- chau, whom he praises as "one of the best of Indians." The village bore his name. Sar-ro-chau was with Colonel McKay in the British attack on Prairie du Chien, in 1814. After his death his son, The Smoker, became the chief of the vil- lage (W. H. Colls., V. 3, p. 251). The Smoker, or Tahnick- sieka, served as a guide under Pierre Paquette, the Portage trader, in the Black Hawk war in 1832. (W. H. Colls., v. 13, p. 453.)
The Winnebagos appear to have had two villages at Fond du Lac in the days of the traders, one on the East branch of the Fond du Lac river, near where the malt house now stands, and one on the West branch, just below where Forest avenue now crosses that stream. Vague mention is made of a third Indian village on the high bank of the West branch between what is now Superior street and the river, and near the west end of Tompkins street. It is known that at some remote period there was an Indian cemetery on the present Grove street, near the city limits,
Fond du Lac County Antiquities
and bones as well as implements of stone and copper, are frequently brought to the surface in the cultivating of the land.
While on their way to the Four Lakes region in 1829, Mor- gan L. Martin, James D. Doty, Alex Grignon and Wist- weaw, their Menominee guide, passed over the present site of Fond du Lac, where they found a Winnebago village. Martin says of it: "we crossed the river without visiting the savages, for whose company we were not over anxious. Wistweaw, however, was sent back there to engage a guide to pilot us to the Four Lake country." (W. H. Colls., v. 11, p. 400.)
Augustin Grignon states that in 1788, a trader named Ace, had a trading post "about a mile and a half up Fond du Lac river." He was murdered by some Winnebago Indians of White Dog's Rock river band. His wife and children were rescued by friendly chiefs of the neighbor- ing Indian village, at Taycheedah. (W. H. Colls., v. 3, pp. 263-264.)
The aboriginal inhabitants of Fond du Lac county were skilled in the art of making implements of stone and copper. Specimens of these collected from the graves, mounds and village sites are preserved in the State Historical Museum, at Madison; in the Milwaukee Pubhc Museum and in the Logan Museum, at Beloit. In the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, there are a small number of copper needles, spearpoints, knives and chisels, a brass bracelet and stone pipe, collected chiefly at Eden, Dundee and Rush lake. The best local collection is that of Mr. George M. Brugger, of Fond du Lac, which contains many specimens of unique interest. Some of his specimens are illustrated in this publication, and others have been figured in previous numbers of the Wisconsin Archeologist. Dr. Alphonse Gerend, of Cato, has in his cabinet some inter- esting materials collected by himself in this county. An interesting collection formerly owned by Mr. L. M. Wyatt, of Fond du Lac, was destroyed by fire.
Pottery fragments are plentiful in the vicinity of old village sites, and their hardness and decoration would in- dicate that the natives had acquired a fair degree of skill in the potter's art. But few specimens of pottery have been found in an unbroken condition in this locality. Wooden
4 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
implements were undoubtedly most frequently employed for agricultural purposes. These have long since decayed and disappeared.
Passing from the minor to the major antiquities, we find numerous groups of mounds as well as village sites and gar- den beds. These are usually found along well defined routes of travel, either trails, waterways, or portages between the waterways. One such aboriginal highway led from Gouter- mout's bay in the town of Taycheedah to the headwaters of the Sheboygan river. The largest group of mounds and garden beds along this old trail is located just west of the village of St. Cloud, in the town of Marshfield, on the banks of the Sheboygan river. This group will be described in detail later. Another Indian waterway was up the East Branch of the Fond du Lac river, across a portage of about two miles in the town of Lamartine, and thence down the Rock river. Indian remains are also found along the sev- eral branches of the Milwaukee river, in the southeastern part of Fond du Lac county.
The mounds or earthworks found in the Lake Winnebago region are of three kinds; effigy, linear and circular or oval burial mounds. A fourth class, possibly, are the composite *'dumb-beir' shaped mounds, examples of which were found by the writer in a group in Taycheedah township, in August, 1914. These mounds, which have not been previously reported, will be described in detail.
The effigy mounds were seldom if ever used for burial purposes. They are now generally believed to have been totems or monuments to mark the rallying places of the different tribes, or more Ukely of the different clans of a tribe. Thus constructed of earth, we find the effigy of the bear, of the panther, of the turtle, and many other animals, including birds. It is quite common to find effigy and burial mounds in the same group. This is as we might expect. When the members of a certain clan died, it was natural for them to be buried near their clan effigy.
The theory of the construction of the circular or oblong burial mound, that the first and oldest burial was in a com- paratively low and small mound and that the later burials were intrusive, that is they were successively placed on top of the former ones and new layers of earth added, is sub- stantiated to some degree by cultivation of the mounds of
Fond du Lac County Antiquities
the Long lake and Round lake groups, in the township of Osceola, in the eastern part of the county. The earlier plowings brought up bones from near the surface which were fairly well preserved. As the mounds were gradually lower- ed by cultivation other skeletal remains were brought to the surface, but in a poorer state of preservation. Even now, with these n:\ounds almost leveled, fragments of bones are occasionally turned up by the plow. This theory of mound construction has been conclusively proven in other localities by careful excavations of large mounds, these showing the successive burials and layers of earth in section.
We will now consider the various groups of mounds that have come under the observation of the writer during the season's work. In most cases, he was accompanied in his investigations by Donald Scheib, a senior student of the Fond du Lac High School, who rendered valuable assistance.
The town of Taycheedah lying northeast of Fond du Lac, on the shores of Lake Winnebago, easily leads all the other townships of the county in the number and extent of its aboriginal earthworks, and it was here that we began our investigations. Extending from the present village of Tay- cheedah northward along the lake shore are a succession of village sites, evidenced by the presence of hearth stones, pottery fragments, flint arrow points and flakes and other remains. On some of these Indian sites, villages continued to exist down to early historic times. Most of this land is now under cultivation and evidences of corn fields and gar- den beds where such existed have long since been effaced. The numerous groups of burial mounds are found some dis- tance back from the lake shore and on higher ground, where they commanded a view that gave to the man of the forest the protection of a wide outlook and a beauty of landscape unsurpassed in the Northwest. To these worshippers of Nature, this latter was of no small consideration.
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
EARTHWORKS AND SITES IN TAYCHEEDAH TOWNSHIP
ZIMMERMAN GROUP
Plate 1
»
This group of mounds is located in an orchard on the old
Ballou farm now owned by C. Zimmerman, in the N.E. quar- ter of Section of 20, and consists at the present time of three conical mounds. Neighborhood tradition says that formerly there were more mounds in this group. If so, the others have been leveled by cultivation for no trace of them now remains. The large mounds. No. 2 and No. 3, are located on the tops of natural hillocks, and have been badly mutilated by relic hunters. No. 4 is a much smaller mound and is located in a sloping field below the other two mounds. A human skeleton was removed from this mound a few years ago. The largest mound is 60 feet, the next 55 feet, and the smallest, 35 feet in diameter. Mounds 2, 3 and 4 lie in a straight line approximately parallel to and about 325 feet distant from the old Military road.
Between the mounds and the Zimmerman house is a creek which flows in a general westward direction to Lake Winne- bago.
This group of mounds was visited and reported on to the Wisconsin Archeological Society by Charles E. Brown and Rev. Leopold E. Drexel, on November 23, 1907. A short distance northwest of the barn on the Zimmerman place they found another conical mound measuring 40 feet in diameter. It was situated on the edge of a field and was jrossed by an east and west farm fence.
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Zimmerman Group Plate 1
Fond du Lac County Antiquities
BRIGGS GROUP Fig. 1
This group of conical mounds of which three are dimly visible, is situated in a cultivated field on the J. W. Briggs farm in the S. E. quarter of Section 17. Its existence was reported to the Society by Mr. George M. Brugger, on Nov-
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^ence
Fig. 1
ember 24, 1907. These mounds are all so nearly effaced by long cultivation of the land that it is now impossible to ob- tain accurate measurements of them. The largest mound appears to have been about 25 and the others each about 20 feet in diameter. The three mounds are separated from each other by distances of about 50 feet.
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Vol. 14. No. 1
FISCHER GROUP Fig. 2
A group of four conical mounds, also nearly obliterated by cultivation, is located on the farm of Ed. Fischer, in the S. E. quarter of Section 9. Because of their condition no accu- rate measurements of these mounds could be taken. The
f^ence
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mounds are located a short distance north of the Fischer house, on the north side of a ravine and are quite closely grouped. Mr. Fischer states that No. 3 yielded a necklace of copper beads and some other relics when explored a num- ber of years ago.
Fond du Lac County Antiquities
CLAPHAM GROUP Fig. 3
On the old Clapham farm, in the N. W. quarter of Section 29, is a mound group which consists of one well preserved oval mound cut in two parts by the fence along the Military road, and two almost obliterated conical mounds in the adjacent cultivated field. The mound by the roadside is a fine example
Fig. 3
of the oval mound, and is rather high as compared with its lateral dimensions. Its diameters are 14 and 32 feet. It is 4 feet high. This mound has not been mulilated by relic hunters, and favorably situated as it is by the roadside, it could easily be cleared of the grapevine and weeds and a descriptive marker placed on it. It is situated within 50 feet of the east and west section line. The two conical mounds lie a few feet south of it.
10 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14 No.
"DUMB-BELL" GROUP Plate 2
By far the most unique and interesting group of mounds observed by the writer in the town of Taycheedah is located in a thickly wooded area on land recently purchased by E. Roeder, in the N. W. quarter of Section 16. It was quite by accident that we located these interesting earthworks, and so far as can be learned, their presence has never before been reported to the state society. They are easily accessible to visitors as the three '*dumb-beH" shaped mounds reach to within a few feet of the Military road. Reference to the accompanying plate will show that the group consists of examples of two distinct classes of earthworks, three of the mounds being ordinary conical buHal mounds, while the other three are composite mounds, one in particular re- sembling in outline the ordinary dumb-bell.
No. 1, which is farthest south, begins with an oval mound near the Military road, which is 30 x 33 feet and 3 feet high. Connected with this and extending from it due eastward', is an embankment 180 feet long, 8 feet wide and 2 J feet high, and joined to the extreme eastern end of which connecting ridge is a circular mound 30 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. Dr. W. G. McLachlan has reported a linear mound of this type from the Lake Waubesa region, in Dane county (Wis. Archeo., v. 12, No. 4), and A. B. Stout and H. L. Skavlem have located a number of examples at Lake Koshkonong (Wis. Archeo., v. 7, No. 2). It also occurs in a few other localities in the state.
Ninety feet due north of the last mentioned earthwork and parallel to it, is a similar aboriginal monument. No. 2. Again we have a mound, this time circular, near the Military road, with an embankment 6 feet wide and 2| feet high, connected with it, and extending due east 200 feet, but w ith- out any oblong or circular mound at its eastern terminus. The mound at the west extremity of this embankment is 18 feet in diameter and 2J feet high. Dr. Lapham found this typeof mound at Racine (Antiquities of Wisconsin), and Stout and Skavlem have found several examples at Lake Kosh- konong.
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Fond du Lac County Antiquities 11
Just north of earthwork No. 2, a wagon trail cuts through the brush in an easterly direction. Along the north side of this trail is earthwork No. 3. The west end of this structure reaches the Military road. It is possible that a mound or enlargement formerly existed at the west end of this em- bankment, but if so, it was leveled to make way for the road when the country was first settled. At the present time, beginning at the roadside, an embankment 8 feet wide and 2i feet high extends E. S. E. 85 feet where it connects with a circular mound 18 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. From the opposite side of this circular mound, the embankment continues in the same direction for 39 feet where it joins another circular mound of exactly the same dimensions as the last. Again from the opposite side of this mound the embankment continues in the same direction for 35 feet, gradually becoming lower until it disappears. Lapham has described this type of mound from Horicon and from the Wisconsin river region, in Sauk county (Antiquities of Wis- consin). A. B. Stout and H. L. Skavlem have found it at Lake Koshkonong. It occurs also in a few other localities in Wisconsin.
About 25 feet east of the Military road and 90 feet north of earthwork No. 3, is an oblong burial mound with diam- eters of 23 X 35 feet and 2| feet, high designated in the plate as No. 4. Due east from this mound 140 feet, is a circular burial mound. No. 5, 25 feet in diameter and 2| feet high. One hundred feet E. N. E. from No. 5 is still another circular mound. No. 6. This last mound is also 25 feet in diameter and 2| feet high.
This group of earthworks is decidedly unique and it is a matter of regret to the author that Mr. Roeder intends to clear this tract of land during the coming winter and plow it in the spring of 1915, which will forever obliterate these interesting ancient Indian memorials. Two acres of land or less reserved from cultivation would preserve these three very uncommon mound types, and their accessibility to the public would make the reservation the more valuable.
12 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No.
PEEBLES GROUP Plate 3
On November 23, 1907, Mr. Charles E. Brown and Rev. Leopold E. Drexel located and platted a group of mounds located near Peebles, on the ledge just above the stone crushing plant and quarry belonging to the C. & N. W. Ry. Co. Reference to Mr. Brown's plat of that time shows one panther efTigy and two short linear or oblong mounds in the group. Diligent search for these mounds by the writer and his assistant on three different occasions in 1914, failed to discover them. Much work has been done in this quarry since 1907, when the mounds were first seen by Messrs. Brown and Drexel, and the earth strippings from the top have been hauled back and deposited, making it very prob- able that the mounds are now buried under this waste.
According to Mr. Brown's plat the panther efTigy measured 90 feet in length. The two linear mounds, located within a short distance of the efTigy, were each 60 feet long and 25 feet wide. All of the mounds were about 2 feet high at their highest portions. All were within a short distance of the quarry edge. In their rear was a strip of woodland.
GRAVEL PIT BURIALS
In the summer of 1914, Donald Scheib uncovered a skele- ton in a gravel pit on the farm of Math. Michels, in Section 20, Taycheedah township. Only a small portion of the skull showed in the perpendicular side of the pit, nine feet below the surface. By digging carefully around the skeleton before attempting to remove it, the position of the remains was easily and accurately determined. The body had been laid on its side and flexed when buried, that is the knees had been drawn up against the body and the lower part of the legs drawn back against the thighs. Just above the skeleton was a layer of clay four inches thick which seemed to have been burned until it was almost as hard as brick. The larger bones all crumbled at the touch, only the teeth and the phalanges of the fingers and toes remaining in good condi- tion. No implements of any kind were found with this burial. It is unique to find a skeleton nine feet below the surface, but this apparently deep burial may be explained
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Fond du Lac County Antiquities 13
by a possibility that stoppings from the gravel pit were deposited above the grave in the early days of the settlement.
In the collection of Mr. George M. Brugger, at Fond du Lac, are several large sea shells which were obtained from burial sites in this township. One was found in August 1909 in the digging of the basement of a house on the Math. Michels place. It lay near the remains of some twelve In- dian skeletons. These were buried at a depth of about 2J feet "and laid in every direction, some face up, and others face down, and in one place there must have been at least four in one hole, and the skeletons laid as if they had been doubled up when buried."
This shell, a specimen of the helmet shell (Cassis sp.) measures Uf inches in length. Its width across its widest portion is 9 inches.
The other shell, a specimen oi F ulg ur perversus was found in 1909 on the Landolff farm, in section 20, at a distance of about one half mile southwest of the Michels place. It was found on the surface of a knoll from which it was probably heaved by the frost. An oval hole has been cut through the side of this shell.
Mr. Brugger is also the owner of an engraved shell gorget, which was found near the school house, in the N. W. quarter of the N. E. quarter of Section 20. It is made from a portion cut from the side of a large sea shell. Its length is 2| inches and its greatest width 5J inches. Near its upper edge are two small perforations. All of these specimens are described and figured in the Wisconsin Archeologist (v. 12, No. 2). Mr. Brugger states that another large shell was found on land owned by a Mrs. Brush, in the southern part of Section 29, or on Sec- tion 32. It was found in a crevice in the limestone rock at a depth of about 4 feet beneath the surface of the soil.
MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES
An Indian camp and workshop site was reported by Mr. Charles E. Brown, in 1907, as existing on the Wm. Wald- schmidt farm in Section 3, about a mile west of Eggersville in the town of Taycheedah. Fragments of pottery and flint flakes and fragments left by the Redmen are plentiful at this place.
14 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
Conical mounds were reported to Messrs. Brown and Drexel, in 1907, as located on the White and Duffy farms, in the N. E. quarter of the S. W. quarter of Section 29, the line fence between the two farms cutting one mound in two. The writer has not seen this group.
In 1901, indications of a village site and traces of an old portage which extended over the ledge from the lake by a winding trail to the headwaters of the Sheboygan river were said to be visible at Goutermouts bay on what is now the Michels farm. This was reported by Dr. Alphonse Gerend, in 1901. Shell and refuse heaps are said to have formerly existed here, on the lake shore.
EMPIRE TOWNSHIP.
ACADEMY HILL MOUND
On the Zoellner farm in the N. W. quarter of the S. W. quarter of Section 8, beside the Division street road, near the top of the high hill at St. Mary's Springs Academy, is a single panther efrig>\ The tail of the figure has been cut away in making excavations for the roadway, but the re- maining portion (the body) is 65 feet long and 25 feet wide at its widest part. This location is picturesque beyond des- cription. Lake Winnebago, like an immense sheet of silver, spreads away to the right, while the city of Fond du Lac, three miles distant and hundreds of feet below, with the fertile prairies surrounding it on every side, can be seen in detail. Except for the city, the fenced fields and the roads, it is not probable that the scene to-day differs greatly from that which greeted the eye of the savage a century or more ago. Beautiful now, it must have been even more enchant- ing then, when the wild flowers covered the prairies like a many-hued carpet.
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Fond du Lac County Antiquities
LEONARD MILL GROUP Fig. 4
This group of three mounds is on the Leonard farm, in the N. E. quarter of the N. E. quarter of Section 18. The mounds he 700 feet east and slightly north of the mill pond, and were so badly mutilated by relic hunters years ago, that it is now difficult to determine their exact character. The
Fig. 4
larger mound (No. 1) is 70 feet long and has the appearance of an effigy, but where the projections occur on eacn side, a large hole has been dug in the middle between each pair of arms, and it is possible that these arms or projections are formed by the dirt that was thrown out of the excavations years ago, and has now become sodded over so that it has the same appearance as the rest of the mound.
No. 2 is circular in form, 16 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high. Mound No. 3 is somewhat heart-shaped and notched on the west end, but this mound was also excavated years ago, and its outlines may have been considerably altered at that time.
16 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
DE NEVEU MOUNDS
On the DeNeveu farm, in the N. E. quarter of Section 31, and due east from DeNeveu lake, there were formerly nine circular mounds, but they have now entirely disappeared. They were located on top of the ledge between the DeNeveu homestead and the school-house. Miss Emily DeNeveu pointed out to the writer, the site of their location, but no evidence of them now remains.
MARSHFIELD TOWNSHIP
ST. CLOUD GROUP Plate 5
Just west of the village of St. Cloud on the banks of the Sheboygan river, is an interesting group of Indian antiqui- ties consisting of mounds, garden beds and cache pits. These cover a considerable area of land that has never been dis- turbed by cultivation, but has been used for years as a pic- nic ground. Dr. A. Gerend, who located this group in 1906, reports that he found evidence of a village site on the oppo- site side of the river, on the John Klinzing place, in the S. E. quarter of Section 26. This was not visited by the writer. There are in this group,, six oval mounds and one effigy, three cache pits and two large garden bed areas, the sodded rows in the latter being as distinct as if they had been abandoned only a few years ago. Several of the mounds have been opened and a human skeleton is reported to have been taken from one of them. As a whole, the earthworks of this group are well preserved. This site is located on the convex and northern side of a sharp bend in the Sheboygan river. A narrow strip of low marshy land lies between the bank of the river and the higher land on which the earthworks are built.
The six oval burial mounds of this group are ordinary examples of their class and do not demand special descrip- tion. Their dimensions are shown in Plate 5. No. 5 is an effigy of the familiar turtle form but lacking the long caudal appendage common to many examples. The three cache pits are located in the southeast corner of the area just above
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 17
high water level and differ considerably in size, the smallest one being nearest to the river.
The most striking feature of this group of evidences of aboriginal occupation is the large garden bed area, which is divided into two unequal patches or fields. The ridges or rows average about seven feet apart and are from 100 feet in length in the smaller field, to 150 feet in the larger area. In the smaller field, the rows are straight, while in the larger, they are for the most part broken. The Sheboygan riter at this place was probably a much wider stream a century or more ago than it is at present and the marshy strip that now borders it was probably a part of the river bed at that time.
This group of earthworks is easily accessible to visitors, being only a few minutes walk from the St. Cloud station. There seems to be no immediate danger that these interest- ing early Indian memorials will be destroyed by cultivation. The site is in a wooded pasture.
OSCEOLA TOWNSHIP
LONG LAKE GROUP
Fig. 5 ^
The existence of this group of mounds was first mentioned in the Western Historical Co's. History of Fond du Lac County, published in 1880. It is located in the S. E. quarter of Section 12. The writer uses the words "is located" rather guardedly, as very little evidence of these antiquities remains at the present time. The plow has leveled them year after year, and large quantities of bones have been brought to the surface. The mounds have now so nearly disappeared that no measurements of them can be given.
ROUND LAKE MOUND Fig. 6
On the isthmus over which the wagon road passes between Round and Mud lakes, in the N. W. quarter of Section 27,
18 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Vol. 14 No.
there is a single large burial mound which was formerly four
fl> 30
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 19
feet high, but is now almost leveled by cultivation. Bones are still occasionally brought to the surface as the nar- row strip is plowed and replowed. About one mile west of this mound, at the first cross-roads, is a gravel pit from which a human skeleton was recovered in the spring of 1914. Round lake is one of the strikingly beautiful lakes of which the eastern part of Fond du Lac county boasts, and it was probably a favorite camping place for the aborigines.
BYRON TOWNSHIP
BYRON GROUP Plate 8
This group of six mounds, probably the most striking within the confmes of Fond du Lac county, is located on land now owned by Louis Luedtke, in the S. E. quarter of the N. E. quarter of Section 36, in the extreme southeast corner of the town of Byron, and adjoining a much traveled public highway. Four of these mounds are in a pasture that has never been plowed, while the other two are in an adjoining cultivated field and have been more or less mutilated by the tilling of the soil.
This group was visitod by the Messrs. Charles E. Brown and Rev. Leopold E. Drexel, under the guidance of Mr. George M. Brugger, of Fond -"u Lac, on November 24, 1907, and afterward reported by them to the Wisconsin Archeo- logical Society. Tne illustration shown in Plate 8, is from the plat o. the mounds prepared by these gentlemen. The property was then known as the F. Nye place.
The mounds are located but a short distance north of the source of the west branch of the Milwaukee river. Of the earthworks one is a conical burial mound, two are bird effigies, two panther effigies and one a tapering linear earth- work. One of the bird-shaped mounds is peculiar in pos- sessing a broad fan-shaped tail and comparatively short wings. Bird effigies of similar form have been located in other southern Wisconsin groups. The other bird is of the ordinary form. The two panther effigies are peculiar among the great number of effigies of this form found in this state in having the paws of the animal distinctly outlined. The
20 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
larger of the two has a tail having the quite remarkable length of about 225 feet. The mounds in this group are sep- arated from each other by only short distances.
Doubtless evidences of an aboriginal village site are to be found in the vicinity of this group. The Byron group is one of those significant evidences of the prehistoric Indian occu- pation of Wisconsin for the permanent preservation of which in the interest of history and education the state should make proper provision.
LAMARTINE TOWNSHIP
SEVEN MILE CREEK EFFIGY
This panther eflfigy is located on the farm of Fred. W. Smith, in the S. W. quarter of Section 26. It is soUtary. If other mounds formerly existed in the adjoining cultivated field, they have been obliterated by long years of plowing and harrowing. The tail of this effigy formerly extended into the cultivated field, and this portion of it has thus been en- tirely leveled. The portion of the body and tail still re- maining measures 60 feet in length. It is on high land sloping gently to a pond of considerable size that always contains water, while still lower and farther away, Seven Mile creek can be seen meandering through the valley.
CALUMET TOWNSHIP
BURIAL PLACES Plate 9
According to information secured for the Wisconsin Arch- eological Society by Dr. Gerend, a large number of Indian skeletons have been disinterred from the gravel hills south of Calumet Harbor and at Calumetville. With these burials a large number of stone and copper implements and a num- ber of pottery vessels were found. The burial places at Calumetville he describes as shallow pits from 2 to 4 feet in diameter and depth. They are exposed by workmen digging in the gravel pits. When so exposed they are found to be
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 21
filled with black top soil in which are fragments of charcoal, ashes and human bones. In Plate 9, an illustration is given of one of these burial pits. The graves are indicated by the dark areas. These pits are frequently only a few feet apart.
A few years ago, 36 skeletons were unearthed within three days in a gravel pit belonging to Miss Barker. One skeleton had a copper necklace scattered around the bones of the neck. This is now in the collection of George Burg, to- gether with a copper spear, a pottery pipe, a stone pipe, sev- eral pottery vessels, and other relics.
The above all accompanied pit burials. A small round hole or well two or three feet in diameter and from three to seven feet deep was dug and in this the flexed body was placed in a sitting posture. There was some evidence that fire had be^n used in these pits.
In Dr. Gerend's collection there is a pottery vessel which was obtained from a gravel pit on the Philip Ebhng place, about one mile south of Calumet Harbor. It was broken when obtained but has been restored. This vessel is des- cribed in the Wisconsin Archeologist (v. 4, No. 1, p. 20). It has a "body of a globular shape, with a poUshed surface and undulate expanding rim. It is made of a black shell- tempered material, and is ornamented at the shoulder with a zigzag pattern of incised lines. It is 4 inches in height." The extreme diameter of the body is 6 inches. Another vessel from this same pit, in the Rudolph Kuehne collection, at Sheboygan, is described as of "lenticular, flask-like shape, surmounted by the head of an effigy, probably intended to represent a turtle. The opening of this vessel is circular, about 1| inches in diameter, and is situated back of the head. There are incised ornamental lines along the border. The material is shell-tempered. The measurements are: height, 3 inches; diameter, 4i inches." (See Plate 10). Several pot- tery pipes and copper ornaments were found with burials in this pit.
Other gravel banks that have yielded skeletal remains and relics are those on the Seibert and the Peter Weinreis places.
22 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
LOEHR MOUNDS
On the Edward Loehr farm, in the S. W. quarter of the S. E. quarter of Section 26, just south of Calumet Harbor or Pipe Village, are two large conical burial mounds. Dr. Ger- end gives their diameters as 40 and 53 feet. They are from 3 to 4 feet high. One is figured in the Wisconsin Archeolo- gist (v. 8, No. 4, PI. 1). In an adjacent field he reports an earthwork in the shape of a large semi-circle. He states that its walls are very distinct on the west and south sides, where they measure 12 feet across. The east side of the wall is less distinct. The space enclosed by this semi-circle is about 250 feet in diameter.
KALT MOUNDS
About one mile south of Calumet Harbor, on the prop- erty of Anton Kalt, and on the property of his neighbor on the opposite side of the lake shore road. Dr. Gerend, located a series of seven circular mounds measuring from 18 to 48 feet in diameter and from 1^ to 4 feet in height.
FOND DU LAC TOWNSHIP
There were formerly a number of mound groups in this township, but most of the land has been so long under cul- tivation that practically all of these have disappeared.
SPALDING MOUND
A circular burial mound was formerly located several hundred feet south of the west branch of the Fond du Lac river and about the same distance east of the Wisconsin Central Ry. tracks, in the block at the northwest corner of Superior and Tompkins streets. Its existence was reported to the state society by Edmund M. Spalding, a civil engi- neer, in 1905. This vicinity was occupied by a considerable Indian village a hundred years ago when the fur traders were spending the winters at the trading post in Fond du Lac.
©
Byron Group Plate 8
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 23
DE NEVEU CREEK MOUND
A conical burial mound was reported by G. M. Brugger, in 1907, to exist on the west side of DeNeveu Creek, just east of the city limits of Fond du Lac, in the west half of Sec- tion 13. He states that there were indications of an Indian camp and workshop site at the same place.
FOND DU LAC VILLAGE
In 1829, there was a large Winnebago Indian village in the city of Fond du Lac, just below the Forest avenue bridge, on the west branch of the Fond du Lac river. It is mentioned by Morgan L. Martin, who passed by it on his way to Prairie du Chien (W. H. Colls., v. 11, p. 400).
Just when the Indians fmally deserted this village is not definitely known, but in 1834, the government surveyors found it abandoned.
FOND DU LAC CACHE
On July 28, 1913, a cache or hoard of 21 copper implements was found by workmen engaged in excavating for a residence at the northeast corner of Hickory and Poplar streets, in the western part of the city of Fond du Lac. Sixteen spear- points and one awl were found together at a depth of 2J feet below the surface. About 8 inches below this deposit were found three copper pikes and a copper socket. The three pikes measure 11, 13^ and 14| inches in length.
This remarkable hoard of copper implements was secured for tne State Historical Museum, at Madison, by tne writer. A full description of it written by himself, was printed in a recent issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist (v. 13, No. 2, PI. 3).
24 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No.
FRIENDSHIP TOWNSHIP
GAMP SITES
An Indian camp or village site is located on both banks of a small creek which empties into Lake Winnebago on Lot 2, Section 16. From this site, which was reported on to the Society by Mr. George M. Brugger, in 1912, he has collected a number of stone celts, fragments of stone ornaments and ceremonials, potsherds, hammerstones and flint implements.
A similar site is reported by him as located on the A. Gens- mer farm, on the shore of Lake Winnebago, in about the center of Section 28. A small stream known as "Anderson's" creek enters the lake at this place. Net weights, celts and flint implements have been collected here. The stones from old fireplaces and flint chips and fragments are scattered over this site.
In the next section to the south (33) there is a creek known as "Mosher's" creek. On both sides of its mouth evidences of a camp site have been found by Mr. Brugger. From this site he has collected a stone chisel, an axe and a number of flint arrow and spearpoints. The ground is covered in places with flint chips and potsherds.
WAUPUN TOWNSHIP
WEIR EFFIGY
Mr. B. W. Davis, of Waupun prepared for the Wisconsin Archeological Society (1914) a detail plat of a panther efTigy which is located on the farm of James Weir, on tne north bank of the Rock river, in Section 34.
This specimen, which is of the common form with a long straight tail, measures 144 feet in length. The width of the body at its front limb is 31 feet and at its rear limb, 32 J feet. Its direction is south 29 degrees west.
> ^
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 25
LOCATIONS NOT INVESTIGATED
The following mound groups and village sites have been reported by others as existing in Fond du Lac county, but have not as yet been mapped or fully described. The writer regrets that he was unable, for lack of time, to visit all these locations, as most if not all of them are worthy of careful study. It is hoped that this may be done in the near future.
Mounds on the east branch of the Milwaukee river, in Section 26, of the town of Auburn, near New Fane village.
Mounds on the Martin Van Dorstan farm, in the S. E. quarter of Section 10, town of Forest. Reported by Dr. A. Gerend, 1906.
Mounds on the bank of Wolf lake, adjoining the old hotel site in S. E. quarter of Section 10, town of Marshfield. Re- ported by Dr. A. Gerend, 1906.
EfTigy mound and some smaller mounds on the road from St. Cloud to Calvary, located in the N. E. quarter of Section 34, town of Marshfield. Reported by Dr. A. Gerend, 1906.
Garden beds on the V. Brenner farm, in the S. E. quarter of Section 31, town of Marshfield. Reported by Dr. A Ger- end, in 1906.
Gravel pit burials in the S. E. quarter of Section 36, town of Marshfield. A large skeleton and a cache of large chipped flint spear heads were found in this gravel pit according to Dr. A. Gerend (1906).
In July, 1908, a skeleton was uncovered in the Huber gravel pit on the Division street road, about two miles east of Fond du Lac and just below the ledge. The workmen reported the skeleton as having been buried in a "sitting position" which probably means that the body was flexed and then placed in an upright position in a pit grave.
A group of mounds was reported by Dr. J. R. Barnett, in 1906, to exist east of Eldorado Mills. Some were effigies and some burial mounds, which were excavated. They were well known to the early settlers, but are now obUterated. One of the old Green Bay and Portage trails passed near this group of mounds.
The following sites of prehistoric activity are reported from the township of Ripon, in the northwestern part of Fond du Lac county:
26 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
Camp or village site near Silver creek, on the Clapp (West) farm, east of Ripon.
In the northern part of Ripon township, near Rush lake, there are a number of effigy mounds. These are mentioned in the Western Historical Go's. History of Fond du Lac County, published in 1880.
Group of burial mounds reported as located in Section 17, near the old village of Ceresco, in the town of Ripon. Ac- cording to information obtained by Rev. S. T. Kidder for the Wisconsin Archeological Society, these have been oblit- erated. They were located a short distance north of the C. & N. W. Ry. track, on the line from Ripon to Dartford, northeast of the Ripon city limits.
A group of effigy mounds is reported to exist in Section 26, just west of Brandon in the township of Metomen. These are briefly described and figured by Rev. S. D. Peet (Prehis. America, v. 2, pp. 274-275).
REMARKS
Exhaustive archeological surface surveys of but a few Wisconsin counties have been made. In others where sys- tematic field-work has been undertaken the existence of unrecorded mound groups, of camp and village sites, plant- ing grounds and of other prehistoric or historic Indian re- mains, are constantly being reported. These have never been known beyond the confines of the agricultural commun- ities in which they occur. Persons having a knowledge of the present or former location of such remains in parts of Fond du Lac county, which the author has not yet been able to reach, are requested to communicate such information as they may possess to the author, at Fond du Lac, or to the Secretary of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, at Madi- son.
Archeological studies should claim the interest of many of the youth now growing into manhood. There is no more inviting field for research open to intelligent young men than that which endeavors by means of careful investigation of surface and buried indications, to reconstruct the life history of primitive man.
3 O
» <
Fond du Lac County Antiquities 27
Residents of Fond du Lac county, who have it in their power to assist, owe it to their fellow citizens to preserve and to protect some of the fine Indian earthworks and other ancient Indian monuments which occur within its boundar- ies. In other counties in the state this is now being done; individual owners, local organizations and communities co- operating in saving and marking such remains for the good of the present and future citizens of the commonwealth.
28 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOCIIST Vol. 14 No. 1
WISCONSIN INDIAN MEDALS
Charles E. Brown
The Spanish, French, British and American governments all coined medals for presentation to the Indians. These were given to the chiefs and leading warriors for the purpose of rewarding their service and securing or retaining their allegiance. They served to gratify the love of the savages for white man's finery and appealed to them as emblems of fealty or chieftainship. They appear to have been greatly valued by their Indian owners.
In the Handbook of American Indians, in Beauchamp's Metallic Ornaments of the New York Indians, and in a num- ber of other works, descriptions and illustrations of numer- ous Indian medals are given.
The earlier Indian medals are for various reasons now quite rare. Chief among the causes for their disappearance there is mentioned the successive governments under which the Indians were then living. Each government caused a search to be made for and replaced with its own the medals issued by its predecessor. Undoubtedly not a few medals were purchased by the early silversmiths who converted the metal into other ornaments.
Elizabeth T. Baird in her Reminiscences of Early Days on Mackinac Island, mentions the silver ornaments worn by the Indian chiefs and says: "The Indians in their usual improvident manner, would, on their long journey to Cana- da, get out of provisions and gladly offer the silver ornaments received the previous year, in exchange for bread and pota- toes; they never cared for meat. Purchasers of this silver were plentiful, and much of it afterwards found its way into the white man's melting pot." (W. H. Colls., XIV, pp. 18- 19).
It is also certain that many medals were buried with their owners. In Wisconsin very few of these have yet been re- covered.
Wisconsin Indian Medals 29
Cardinal Richelieu is reported to have caused a medal to be struck for presentation to Canadian Indians in 1631. Mention is made of a French medal which was in the pos- session of a Caughnawaga chief, in 1670. In 1693, a medal was issued by the French in commemoration of the then reigning king of France. This proved so acceptable to the Indians that others bearing the busts of Louis XIV and Louis XV were afterwards coined. The first medals pre- sented to the natives by the American colonies were issued under the Laws of Virginia, of March, 1661. These bore the bust of Charles XI of England. Medals bearing tne busts of other British sovereigns were afterwards made both in England and the colonies. The first Indian medal struck by the United States was issued in 1780. One of the most in- teresting of the early United States medals is said to be that presented by Washington to the celebrated Seneca chief, Red Jacket, in 1792.
A pewter medal bearing a likeness of Washington was presented by the Government to the Indians participating in the treaty held at Fort Harmar, in Ohio, in 1789. Peace medals bearing likenesses of all of the succeeding presidents were afterwards issued and continue to be issued up to the present time.
The early missionaries and fur trading companies also issued medals to the Indians. Examples of these have been found in Indian graves and on Indian village sites.
WISCONSIN REFERENCES
The following are some of the references occurring in Wis- consin historical records of the presentation and wearing of medals by the Indians of the Old Northwest.
At a council held at Quebec, in 1742, with representatives of the Sioux, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Chippewa and Meno- minee tribes, the Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor Gen- eral of New France, presented medals to the chiefs Pemoussa and Patchipac, and promised others to the Winnebago chiefs, Serotchon and Chelaouis. To the latter Indians he said:
"I am very sorry I have no more medals. Had I any I would have conferred that token of honor upon you because I am pleased with you. It will be done next year." In
30 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. I
Papers from the Canadian Archives, 1767-1814, mention of Indian medals is made.
In a letter addressed to Captain De Peyster, October 6, 1776, there occurs a mention of the sending of "two medals and a Gorget for chiefs." In a statement of an outfit com- monly given to Indians the following occurs:
"To a Chief from the upper Country
1 pair of Arm bands
1 Medal with 2| yds. ribbon, if he has none
1 Gorget, with 2^ yds. ribbon, if he has none
1 Chiefs Gun or Rifle, if they are in want of it, or ask it
3J yds. fine cloth for a blanket, leggings and lap
2i yds. linen for a shirt
1 knife
4 flints
1 gun worm
1 pair shoes
1 blanket of 3 points
1 laced hat
2 lbs. gunpowder
8 lbs. ball and shot
1 tomahawk
18 yds. ribbon
I lb. vermilUon
12 pair ear bobs
300 brooches
1 brass or tin kettle."
Elsewhere, under the heading of "Instructions for Dis- tributing Indian Presents" mention is made of "a canoe w^hich has been detained for the conveyance of medals, silver- works and flags." These were from Montreal and were in- tended for the Indians at Green Bay and the Mississippi. (W. H. Colls., XII, pp. 40, 102, 118, 120, and 123.)
In an account of the life of Robert Dickson, the British trader, in the same volume (p. 140) mention is made of "flags, one dozen large medals, with gorgets, and a few small ones" to be sent to St. Josephs. This bears the date of June 18, 1812. In November of that year, he was appointed agent to the Indians west of the Mississippi, being provided at Montreal with "six silk flags and five large medals with gor- gets, to be given to the principal chief of each nation." (p. 143).
Wisconsin Indian Medals 31
Gen. Cass mentions the dress of a Chippewa chief whom he saw at St. Marie, in 1820, as consisting of an "eagle's feather, bears grease, vermiUion and indigo, red British mihtary coat, with two enormous, epaulettes, a large British silver medal, breech clout, leggings and moccasins." (W. H. Colls., V.)
Thomas L. McKenney, in his Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, 1827, mentions an Indian as wearing a British medal (p. 313). Albert G. Ellis, in an account of the treaty at Butte des Morts, in 1827, says:
"It was at this treaty, that Oshkosh, the present head Chief of the Menominees, was first recognized. After the Council was open, Gov. Cass said: "We have observed for some time the Menominees to be in a bad situation as to their chiefs. There is no one we can talk to as the head of the nation. If anything should happen, we want some man, who has authority in the nation, that we can look to. You appear like a flock of geese, without a leader, some fly one way and some another. Tomorrow, at the opening of the Council, we shall appoint a principal chief of the Menomp- nees. We shall make inquiry this afternoon, and try to select the proper man. We shall give him the medal, and expect the Menominees to respect him." (W. H. Colls., II, p. 430.)
Bishop Jackson Kemper speaks of Old Wing, an old chief, whom he saw at Mackinac, in 1834, as wearing a "round hat with a silver band, a large medal on his breast, etc." Big Wave, a Menominee chief, from Sturgeon Bay, whom he met at Green Bay, wore a "regimental coat and a large medal of Washington." (W. H. Colls., XIV, pp. 411-424.)
A portrait of Souligny, a prominent Menominee chief, in the State Historical Museum, painted by Samuel M. Brookes, shows this chief wearing two large silver medals.
In T. P. Wentworth's Early Life Among the Indians, an illustration is given of the Wisconsin Chippewa delegation which visited President Lincoln, in 1862. A number of the chiefs are shown wearing large silver medals.
32 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No.
MEDALS IN WISCONSIN COLLECTIONS
SPANISH MEDALS
1. This specimen was found at Prairie du Chien in an In- dian grave, in 1864, and is now in the collection of the State Historical Museum, at Madison. According to the record accompanying it this interesting medal is "supposed to have been given to Huisconsin, a Sauk and Fox chief." It is said to be an example of the regular "service medals" awarded by Spain to members of her army.
Obverse, bust of king to left; legend, Carolus III Rey deEspana e de las Indias. Reverse, within a cactus wreath, Por Merito. Silver, size, 2| inches, with perforation for suspension. Weight, about 2 ounces.
This medal is much worn having the appearance of long use. The legend "Por Merito" is very indistinct.
BRITISH MEDALS
2. A British medal in the State Historical Museum, comes from Ontario county. New York. It was presented by the late Byron Andrews, of Evansville, Wisconsin.
1714. Brass. Obverse, bust of king to right, laureated, with flowing hair, in armor, draped; legend, George, King of Great Britian. Reverse, an Indian at right drawing his bow on a deer, standing at left on a hill, sun above, to right above tree one star, to left above Indian three stars. Size, 111 inches, with loop for suspension (broken). Weight, ^ ounce.
Medals of this pattern are said to have been issued dur- ing the reigns of George I, and George II, in brass and cop- per, in sizes of IJ and If inches.
3. Another British medal was presented to the State His- torical Museum by W. R. Durfee. It is said to have been presented to a Wisconsin chief by the British government.
1775. Silver. Obverse, bust of the king, to left, with hair curled, in armor, wearing ribbon of the Garter; legend, Georgius III Dei Gratia. Re- verse, the royal arms with supporters; surmounted by crown and ribbon of the Garter; below ribbon with motto, Dieu et Mon Droit. Size, 3 inches, with small perforation for suspension. Weight, 4 ounces.
This style of Indian medal, it is stated, was presented to chiefs for meritorious service, possibly until replaced by those of 1814. (Handbook of Am. Indians, Pt. 1, p. 833).
Wisconsin Indian Medals 33
4. An equally fine specimen of the foregoing medal is owned by a Madison lady. It was obtained from a Wiscon- sin Indian by her grandfather, Mr. F. A. Wright, of Oshkosh, who traded with the Indians in the region between his home and Lake Superior. It is of the same size as the other speci- men. The silver loop for suspension is present. Weight, 3 ounces.
5. A second George III medal in the State Museum differs from the foregoing in being made of two disks of sheet silver placed back to back and bound along the edge with a narrow rim of the same metal. Size, 3 inches. Weight, 2§ ounces. The designs on the obverse and reverse are the same as those on the other medal.
This medal has the following interesting history. During the Civil War, when it was thought that England might side with the Confederacy, our Indian agents were ordered to search for foreign medals among the tribes, demand their surrender and give American medals in their stead. This medal is one of several then obtained among the Wisconsin Menominee by Indian agent M. M. Davis. This particular medal is the one presented by Governor Frederick Haldi- mand, of Canada, to the Menominee chief, Chawanon (Shawano). It was presented to him at a general council held at Montreal, August 17, 1778, at which representatives of the Sioux, Sauk, Fox, Menominee, Winnebago, Ottawa, Pottawatomi and Chippewa tribes, were present. It is generally supposed that at this time the presentation of medals took place in consideration of the assistance rendered to the British by these tribes in the campaigns in Kentucky and Illinois and during the War of the Revolution. Gov- ernor Haldimand, commander in chief of the British forces in Canada, also gave a certificate with each medal conferred. The certificate of Chawanon, as Grand Chief of the Menomi- nee, is preserved in the manuscript collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. It is figured in Volume XVIII of the Wisconsin Historical Collections and also in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the American Bureau of Eth- nology. This declaration appears in both EngUsh and French on the certificate:
'To Chawanon Grand Chief of the Folks Avoines: In consideration of the fidelity, zeal and attachment, testified by Chawanon, Grand Chief of the Folles Avoines to
84 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
the King's Government, and by virtue of the power and authority in me vested, I do hereby confirm the said Chawa- non Grand Chief of the Folks Avoines aforesaid having be- stowed upon him the Great Medal, wiUing all and singular the Indians, Inhabitants thereof, to obey him as Grand Chief, and all OfTicers and others in his Majesty's Service to treat him accordingly. Given under my hand and Seal at Arms, at Montreal this Seventeenth Day of August, One thousand seven hundred and seventy Eight in the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of our Soverign Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God of Great Britian, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith and so Forth."
Fred Haldimand, Bv his Excellency's command.
E. Foy.
This chief, whose name is also given as Chakachokama, "was known to the Creoles of Green Bay as 'The Old King'." Dr. W. J. Hoffman gives his Indian name as Tsheka tshake mau or Sheka ttshokwe mau. According to Dr. R. G. Thwaites, his village was located "on the west side of the Fox river, just above Fort Howard," at Green Bay. "The name given in his certificate is the French form of Shawnee." He was the grandfather of the Chief Oshkosh. He died in 1821 while on a visit to Prairie du Chien. He was highly esteemed by the members of his tribe. (See W. H. Colls., Ill, p. 226; XVIII, p. 369-370; 14 Rep. Bu. Am. Ethno. p. 45; Handbook Am. Ind., p. 833.)
6. Another George III silver medal was presented to the state museum by the late Horace Beach, of Prairie du Chien. He purchased it from a Wisconsin Indian, in 1882. It is probable that it was buried in an Indian grave or elsewhere. Its surface is so badly corroded that only the general out- line of the designs on its face can be distinguished. The design on its reverse differs from the two medals described in showing a central shield, crowned, instead of the British coat of arms. The encircling ribbon of the Garter is absent. Size, 27 inches. Weight, 2J ounces.
Wisconsin Indian Medals 35
AMERICAN MEDALS
7. At the treaty at Fort Harmar in Ohio, in 1789, the American government presented a medal to the Indians present. The tribes represented at this treaty were the Ottawa, Delaware, Huron, Sauk, Pottawattomie, and Chip- pewa.
1789. Pewter. Obverse, bust of Washington, with full face, legend, George Washington the Father of Our Country. Reverse, at top. Friendship, with six stars on each side, at bottom. The Pipe of Peace; in inner circle, wreath enclosing clasped hands, 1789, and crossed wands. Size, 2yV inches, milled edge. Weight, 2| ounces.
This specimen, now in the State Historical Museum, was obtained by Thomas R. Roddy from Fish Tail Lincoln, a Wisconsin Winnebago Indian ninety years of age, residing on the Winnebago reservation, in Nebraska. It became the property of the museum in 1911.
8. In the collection of Mr. Joseph Ringeisen, Jr., the well- known Milwaukee collector, there is a specimen of the Wash- ington medal which was found by a Mr. Edward Jennings, at a place about three miles north of Aurora, Lawrence county, Missouri. An illustration of this medal appears as the frontispiece of this publication.
9. A John Quincy Adams medal in the State Historical Museum, was formerly in the N. H. Terens collection, at Mishicott, Wisconsin. It was obtained from an Indian grave in Charlton township, Kewaunee county.
1825. Silver. Obverse, bust of John Quincy Adams to right; legend, John Quincy Adams President of the United States 1825. Reverse, crossed calumet and tomahawk, clasped hands of white and Indian; legend. Peace and Friendship. Size, 2| inches. Weight, 3 ounces.
Medals of this style are said to have been coined for pre- sentation to Indian chiefs during the administration of all of the presidents from Jefferson to until the administration of Millard Fillmore, in 1880, when the design on the reverse was entirely changed.
10. In the Milwaukee Public Museum there is a specimen of the Millard Fillmore Indian medal. It bears the date 1850. It is of the same metal, design, and size as the John
36 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
Quincy Adams medal, except that the design on the reverse side is different.
Reverse. An Indian in war costume and a pioneer in foreground, the latter leaning on a plow; to right a hill, in center background, a river and a sailing boat; to left, two cows beyond a farmhouse; American flag back of the figures; legend, Laftor, Virtue, Honor; in exergue, J.Wilson.
This specimen was presented to the museum by Mr. Charles L. Mann of Milwaukee, in 1910.
Undoubtedly other Indian medals exist in collections and in private hands in Wisconsin. Members and friends of the state society are requested to inform the writer of sucn specimens in order that they may be examined and des- criptions of them obtained.
Archeological Notes 37
ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES
The annual meeting of the Wisconsin Archeological Society was held in the lecture room of the Milwaukee Public Museum, on Monday evening, March 15. Vice-president Dr. Orrin Thompson conducted the meeting. There were thirty members and a number of visitors in attendance. The annual reports of Treasurer Whitney, of Secretary Brown and of the State Survey Committee were received. Officers for the ensuing year were chosen. Their names appear at the beginning of this issue of the bulletin. A vote of thanks was extended to the retiring president and vice-presidents.
The program of the evening consisted of a talk on the subject of Indian corn by Mr. M. L. Wilson, of the University of Montana; a paper on "Wisconsin Indian Medals," by Secretary Brown, and a paper by Mr. H. P. Hamilton on "Copper Implements," read by Mr. Whitney. Mr. G. A. West exhibited a collection of potsherds from Cherokee village sites, near Tryon, North Carolina and explained their character and ornamenta- tion. Mr. Skavlem gave an account of his experiences in conducting re- searches at Lake Ripley, Rock lake and elsewhere. At the close of the meeting, Mr. W. A. Phillips exhibited an interesting series of copper im- plements recently acquired by himself.
At a meeting of the Executive Board held earlier in the day, resolutions on the death of Rt. Rev. J. J. Fox, of Green Bay, a charter member of the Society, were adopted. Mr. Ben F. Faast, of Eau Claire, was elected to membership.
Annual members of the Society, recently elected by the Executive Board, are Mr. H. F. Franke, Milwaukee; Mr. Ben F. Faast, Eau Claire; Mr. Robert McFarlane, Waupun; Mr. A. M. May. Waukon, Iowa, and Mr. Ray S. Owen, Mr. Whitney N. Seymour, and Mr. Stewart Turneaure, Madison.
The death at Chicago, on March 14, of Bishop J. J. Fox, of Green Bay, removes from the rolls of the Wisconsin Archeological Society one of its most devoted friends. Having been one of its charter members the good Bishop was personally acquainted with many of its members. He was well acquainted with many of the old Indian sites on the shores of Green Bay. Although at all times a very busy man. Bishop Fox never lost his active interest in the work of the state society.
The 1915 meeting of the American Association of Museums will be held at San Francisco, on July 6-8. The meetings will be held in rotation among the museums of that city, formal visits being made to Oakland, Berkeley, and other places. Information concerning this meeting may be obtained from Mr. Paul M. Rea, Secretary, Charleston, S. C.
38 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 1
Prof. F. G. Mueller, a member of the Society, conducts a summer camp for boys, which is located at Indianola, on the northwest shore of Lake Mendota, at Madison. This camp was established by its director nine seasons ago. Its location is charming and healthful and every facility is offered for an enjoyable and profitable summer's outing. There are five attractive and well furnished buildings, an athletic field, tennis courts, a fleet of launches, canoes and row boats and a fine bathing beach. The camp farm, which is located on the site of an early Winnebago village, comprises several hundred acres of woodland, pasture and cultivated fields. Special features on the camp program include a number of hikes, field instruction in local history .and archeology, and trips to Devils lake and the Dells of the Wisconsin. The camp continues from June to Octo- ber. The attractive 1915 camp catalogue has just appeared. Copies may be obtained by addressing the director at Camp Indianola, at Madison.
Mr. Ben F. Faast, of Eau Claire, is assisting the Society in its work by providing for the permanent preservation of a group of Indian mounds located on lands in which he is interested, on the shore of Potato lake, in Rusk county. With the help of other friends he is also endeavoring to create an interest in the preservation of a fine group of similar earthworks situated on the shore of Prairie lake, near Chetek, in Barron county. Mr. John S. Baker has promised the protection of several burial mounds located on his property on Bear lake, in the same county.
Mr. William H. Ellsworth, of* Milwaukee, vice-president of the Wis- consin Archeological Society, has been honored by his appointment as a member of the board of trustees of the Milwaukee Public Museum.
The annual Joint Meeting of Wisconsin scientific societies was held in the Biology building of the University of Wisconsin, on April 1 and 2.
The participating organizations were the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, the Wisconsin Archeological Society, Wiscon- sin Audubon Society, Wisconsin Mycological Society, Madison Mycolo- gical Society, and Wisconsin Natural History Society. For the Wiscon- sin Archeological Society papers were presented by Prof. L. B. Wolfenson, Dr. Louise Phelps Kellogg, Miss Ethel Rockwell, Mr. Charles E. Brown, Mr. W. A. Titus, and Mr. Ira M. Buell. The annual dinner was given at the University Club, on the evening of April 1. On this occasion. Prof. D. C. Munro, president of the Academy, delivered an address.
The January-February issue of the Archeological Bulletin contains articles o'n "Ancient Life in Southeastern Nebraska," by Samuel P. Hughes; "Waconda Spring," by G. J. Remsburg, and "Chipped Imple- ments are Most Numerous," by J. N. McCue. Mr. W. L. Griffin of Somerset, Kentucky, is the present secretary-editor of the International Society of Archeologists.
Dr. Fred H. Sterns, of the Department of Anthropology, of the Peabody Museum, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, has published in the January- March issue of the American Anthropologist, a paper on "A Stratification
Archeological Notes 39
of Cultures in Eastern Nebraska. In this paper, which is illustrated with several figures, the author gives a description of some of the results of his last summer's investigations of rectangular lodge sites in that state. Among the materials found during their excavation were potsherds, ani- mal bones, charred corn and gourd or squash seeds. Traces of contact with white people are entirely absent.
The report of the Anthropological Division of Canada for the year 1913 contains a brief account of the researches conducted by Dr. Paul Radin among the Chippewa Indians residing near La Pointe and Odanah, Wis- consin, and at Red Lake, Minnesota. As a result of this field work the conclusion has been reached that: "The Ojibwa of Wisconsin and Minne- sota probably represent two separate invasions. Those Ojibwa who en- tered Wisconsin did so either by way of Mackinaw or by the more cir- cuitous route of the entire peninsula of Michigan. The Minnesota Ojibwa probably entered in two ways, either by way of Mackinaw and the north- ern shore of Lake Superior or by way of the Rainy river region."
"The language differs from that spoken in southeastern Ontario in few^ details. Initial vowels never disappear. The slurring of vowels so com- mon in Sarnia is very rare, and as a consequence many of the secondary consonantal clusters found in Sarnia are not met with here."
Very little mythology was collected owing to the large number of col- lections in existence. No new details were added to the information ob- tained last year on the subject of the social organization of the Ojibwa. A few clan names were added and about one hundred personal names ob- tained. No clan myths were obtained, and it seems doubtful if they really exist.
"There seems to be no difference in religious beliefs between this and the Ontario division of the tribe, except, of course, the beliefs and their systematic presentation connected with the midewiwin."
Reports are also given of the work of A. A. Goldenweiser among the Canadian Iroquois, W. H. Mechling among the Malecite and Micmac, and by J. A. Mason among the Northern Athabaskan tribes. Mr. Har- lan I. Smith conducted archeological researches in New Brunswick and Alberta; Mr. W. J. Wintemberg in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and on Prince Edward island, and Mr. W. B. Nickerson in southwestern Mani- toba.
The October-December, 1914, issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Society of American Indians, which has just appeared, contains a number of very interesting articles by Arthur C. Parker, William J. Kershaw, Prof. F. A. McKenzie, Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Gawasa Wanneb, Hon. Peleg Sprague, Hon. W. S. Washburn, and Charles W. Chickeney. Dr. Parker gives an account of the memorial presented to President Wilson, at Washington, on December 10, by a delegation of its active officers, associate officers and members of its advisory board. This memorial was the outcome of the conference held by the society at the University of Wisconsin, on October 6-11, 1914. The memorial was read to the Presi- dent by Dennison Wheelock, an Oneida, of West Depere, Wisconsin. After its presentation, Mr. W. J. Kershaw, of Milwaukee, delivered an eloquent and profoundly impressive address. President Wilson expressed
40 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 1
his great pleasure in receiving the delegation and promised to give the memorial his most earnest consideration.
The Fifth Annual Conference of the Society will be held at the Univer- sity of Kansas, at Lawrence, September 28, to October 6, 1915.
Museum Bulletin No. 6 of the Geological Survey, Canada Department of Mines, is devoted to an exceptionally interesting paper by V. Stefan- sson, on the "Prehistoric and Present Commerce Among the Arctic Coast Eskimo." It is accompanied by a map showing Eskimo trade routes. Among the important articles of trade among the different tribes are stone lamps and pots, native copper and implements made of this metal, wood and articles made of wood, furs and skins, ivory, horn, pyrites, oil and Siberian goods.
Vol. 14
July, 1915
No. 2
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE LAC COURT OREILLES REGION
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated Marqh 23, 1903, for the purpose of advancing the study and preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT G. A. WEST Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
DR. S. A. BARRETT..-_1 Milwaukee
DR. ORRIN THOMPSON Neenah
W. H. ELLSWORTH... Milwaukee
W. A. TITUS Fond du Lac
H. E. COLE: Baraboo
DIRECTORS
DR. E. J. W. NOTZ Milwaukee
DR. LEWIS SHERMAN Milwaukee
TREASURER LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
STATE SURVEY — Ellis B. Usher, L. R. Whitney, G. R. Fox, C. E. Brown, Dr. S.
A. Barrett, Dr. Louis Falge, H. L. Skavlem.
MOUND PRESERVATION— Prof. Albert S. Flint, Prof. L. B. Wolfenson, Mrs. E. H. Van Ostrand, P. V. Lawson, J. M. Pyott, B. F. Feast, T. L. Miller, R. P. Ferry, Dr. N. P. Hulst, C. W. Norris, Mrs. Charles Gatlin, C. L. Dering,
B. O. Bishop, R. S. Owen, Grant Fitch, G. H. Squier, Chas. Lapham, Rev. J. H. Huhn, W. W. Gilman, Dr. A. F. Heising.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— Henry L. Ward, Prof. A. H. Sanford, Dr. G. L. Collie, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, C. L. Fortier, Mrs. E. C. Wiswall, H. P. Hamilton, J. P. Schumacher, Hon. Emil Baensch, W. W. Warner, B. H. Brah, Most Rev. S. G. Messmer, Dr. Frederick Starr, Dr. W. C. Daland, H. H. Schufeldt, Dr. J. J. Davis, R. H. Becker, Dr. F. C. Rogers, Col. G. Pabst, Mrs. Mary J. Wilmarth, Hon. A. J. Horlick, F. H. Lyman, W. P. Clarke, Dr. W. H. Brown.
MEMBERSHIP — Jos. Ringeisen, B. W. Davis, Rev. L. E. Drexel, Paul Joers, O. L. Obermaier, W. A. Phillips, Miss Julia A. Lunn, L. R. Gagg, A. Crozier, A. Gerth, W. A. Wenz, C. G. Schoewe, W. H. Vogel, Miss Minna M. Kunckell, A. W. Pond, E. C. Tagatz, W. A. Kraatz, A. H. Quan, J. V. Berens, Miss Emma Richmond, A. T. Newman, H. O. Younger, Thomas Bardon, W. H. Zuehlke, Prof. F. G. Mueller.
PRESS— John Poppendieck, Jr., A. O. Barton, E. R. Mclntyre, R. H. Plumb, Miss Mary E. Stewart, Rev. J. E. Copus, H. A. Smythe, Jr.
MAN MOUND — Jacob Van Orden, Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Miss Jennie Baker.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Library -Museum Buildino;, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday of each month, at 8 P. M.
During the months of July to October no meetings will be held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Members, $25.00 Sustaining Members, $5.00 Annual Members, $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeological Society or to the "Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to Charles E Brown, Secretary and Curator, Office, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wisconsin.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vol. 14, No. 2
ARTICLES
Pag«
The Lac Court Oreilles Region, Charles E. Brown 41
Our Indebtedness to the American Indian, Leo J. Frachtenberg. ,. .. 64 Archeological Notes 70
ILLUSTRATIONS
Spanish Indian Medal Frontispiece
Map of the Lac Court Oreilles Region
Plate * Facing Page
1. La Court Oreilles Chippewa 46
2. Reserve Townsite Mounds 50
3. Aiken Bay Group 54
4. Cemetery at White Fish 56
j . : Burial Mound at Eho Eto Haven 56
5. Eho Eto Haven Group 60
Spanish Indian Ali'd;)! State Tlistorical Museum
The Wisconsin Archeologist
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeologrical Society Vol. 14 MILWAUKEE, WIS., JULY, 1915 No. 2
THE LAC COURT OREILLES REGION
Charles E. Brown
The La Court Oreilles region is located in the western part of Sawyer county, in northwestern Wisconsin. The principal physiographical feature of the region is its system of beautiful lakes the most important of which are Court Oreilles, Little Court Oreilles, Grindstone, White Fish, Sand and Bass. These are drained by the Court Oreilles river, which is itself a tributary of the Chippewa. Of the lakes mentioned only Little Court Oreilles, and a portion of Court Oreilles and Grindstone lakes are included within the boundaries of the Lac Court Oreilles Indian reservation.
Little Court Oreilles, according to the maps of the region, is only about one mile in length and about one-half mile in width at its widest part. Its east and a large part of its west shores are high and sandy, and are quite generally denuded of trees. Some parts of both shores are under cultivation. At the south end of the lake near the outlet, there is an area of low swampy land. Court Oreilles is one of the largest lakes in northwestern Wisconsin. From ex- treme end to end its length is about six and one-half miles, its greatest width (from Aiken bay to the Chicago club) being about two and one-half miles. It is very irregular in outline and has a number of beautiful bays along both its north and south shores. A thoroughfare connects this large lake with Little Court Oreilles. Its banks were once thickly wooded with pine and deciduous trees which forests have been largely removed by logging operations. These cut-over lands are now overgrown with young trees and
42 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
brush. The east shore has high banks and the land, where not under cultivation in small gardens of the Indian resi- dents is covered with brush and occasional small groves of trees. Near Ishams bay, at the northeast extremity of the lake, the land along the shore is lower with an occasional ravine and small swampy area. A short distance east of the lake there is a ridge of quartzite. The south shore of the lake is generally high with fine sandy beaches. Huss point, on this shore, has been cleared and is partly under cultivation. The remainder of the shore line from this point to the Eho Eto Haven summer resort, is low and level and where not occupied by the cottages of summer residents, is a pictur- esque jungle of young trees and shrubs. The beach is par- ticularly fine along this stretch of shore. The head of the curiously shaped peninsula is very high with steep banks and is still quite heavily wooded with a mixed forest. Its highest and most beautiful point is occupied by the club house of the Wismo club. The shore of Mud bay, along the neck of the peninsula, is low with a large tamarack swamp and marshes on its south shore. The bay is quite shallow with a mud bottom. The north shore of the lake has high rocky or gravelly shores except at the thoroughfare con- necting this lake with Grindstone lake, where there is a small area of swampy land. Forests of second growth timber and brush lands occupy this shore. The Ottie farm across the bay to the east from the Chicago club house is the only cultivated land on this side of the lake. The fine club house and other buildings of this club occupy a tract of low, gently sloping land at the head of a fine bay on this side. From this point to opposite the head of the peninsula, the west shore, which is elevated only a few feet above the water, is quite heavily wooded. Below this point some of the land is under cultivation.
Grindstone lake is about three and one-third miles long and about two miles wide at its widest part. It also is a beautiful body of water with both high and low and swampy shore lines. There are several summer resorts and summer homes on its north and east shores. White Fish lake is about two and one-half miles long and two-thirds of a mile wide. Sand and Bass lakes are of smaller size. The Court Oreilles lakes being spring fed, the water is fresh and clear.
L/rrte
E/'RVATION
Map of the Lac Court Oreilles Region, the numbers refer to the text
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 43
The fishing in these lakes is of an excellent character. Bass, pike and muskalonge are abundant.
The Lac Court Oreille reservation is 69,136 acres in extent. This tract of land was set apart for the use of the Lac Court Oreille band of Chippewa in 1854, its selection being ap- proved by the Secretary of the Interior, in 1873.
About 1,200 Chippewa now reside within its limits. They are scattered over its acres living on farms and allotments. The principal settlements are at Reserve, Whitefish, Trading Post, Barbertown, Billy Boys (or Signor) Dam, Chief Lake and Round Lake.
The first permanent settlement of the Chippewa in this region is said to have been made in about the year 1754. From this point new villages were from time to time estab- lished on the shores of the lakes and streams in the adjoining districts to the south and east. lii 1852 the Court Oreilles Chippewa formed a part of the division of the Chippewa tribe known as the "Belenukeengainubejig." In 1905 their number was officially reported as 1,214.
The Court Oreilles take their name from the region. "The proper name of the lake (Court Oreille) is Ottawa, from a band of Ottawa, found there by the first (French) traders who visited the region. These Ottawas cut the rims of their ears in such a way as to make them appear short; and the traders to avoid the suspicions of the Indians when con- versing together about them, called them and their like Courtoreille, or Short Ears." (W. H. C, IV, 229.)
With the Messrs. A. 0. Barton and E. R. Mclntyre as companions, the writer visited the Lac Court Oreille region in August, 1914, for the purpose of conducting an archeol- ogical reconnaissance. Arriving at Reserve the party went into camp near the summer cottage of Judge E. C. Higbee, on the west shore of Lac Court Oreilles, and conducted its investigations from that base until the return of the Messrs. Barton and Mclntyre, one week later, when the writer removed to the Kuhl resort, at Eho Eto Haven, on the south- shore of the lake, and continued his researches from that point. The difficulties to be overcome in conducting a sur- face survey of the lake lands were considerable. The un- cultivated lands, especially on the north shore of Court Oreilles, are overgrown in places with an almost impassable
44 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
tangle of brush and even the trails which in many places follow the banks and extend in various directions into the back lands were often hidden in the brush or very obscure through disuse. But few of the lands along the lake being farmed there was but little opportunity to locate traces Of stone age village sites except along the lake banks. These, although carefully examined in many places, yielded but little information of archeological interest. The frequent showers, which occurred almost daily, greatly interfered with out field work. Both the Indian and white inhabitants of the region cheerfully aided us with such data as they pos- sessed. We are especially indebted to Judge and Mrs. E. C. Higbee, Mr. Charles LaRush, Rev. Mr. G. L. Merriam, Mrs. Geo. M. Huss, Mr. J. G. Kuhl, Miss Mamie Setter and Miss Anna Wolf for courtesies extended to our party.
The Indian mounds located about the Gourt Oreilles lakes should be protected by their present owners against further senseless mutilation. Why Government officers have per- mitted the exploration by relic hunters of those on the Reservation it is difficult to understand. The loss of, or injury to, these ver>^ interesting monuments of prehistoric time will some day be greatly regretted.
THE REPORT 1. Reserve Village
The east shore of Little Lac Gourt Oreilles, where the present Ghippewa Indian village of Reserve is now located, is said to have been hmg the site of an Indian village. This land is said to have been originally the allotment of a former head chief, Akewinze. In about the year 1883 there were but three or four houses here, one of these being occupied by the Government blacksmith, whose duty it was to keep the guns of the Indians in repair and to make iron axes, hoes, and other implements for their use. Graves were then located along the top of the lake bank a short distance south of where the village pump now stands, and also in the rear of the present Lorange general store. Some were disturbed in preparing the road, human bones being then disclosed. Some iron and a few stone celts and flint arrowpoints have
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 45
been picked up, it is reported, in the road and in the gardens of the village. The writer was not able to see any of these. A search along the lake bank and in the village failed to dis- close any evidence of stone age workshops or wigwam hearths.
John Corbine, a Frenchman and the father of Mr. Louis Corbine, of Reserve, is said to have been the first actual settler. He was a trader, his log cabin being situated in a field on the east side of the Reserve to Hayward road, ad- joining the present dwelling of the latter. He died about fifty years ago, being then nearly one hundred years old.
Reserve consists of some fifty or more frame, and part log and frame houses. It occupies the entire east shore of the lake, quite a few of the houses fronting on the road. The others are scattered over the lands in the rear. Each house has its small garden patch. There is a general store and a small country hotel. At the north end of the village, at the northeast corner of the lake, is the Catholic church, parson- age and cemetery.
2. '^Pagan" Cemetery
About one-eighth of a mile north of the Catholic cemetery and about five hundred feet north of the Hayward road is the burying ground of the non-Christian Indians of the reservation. It is located on slightly elevated land, in a clump of young pme trees. There are fifty-five graves here, all but two of which are covered with board shelters. Nine are the graves of children. The graves are closely grouped in six parallel rows the aisles between them being from three to four feet in width. The graves in each row are separated from each other by from about two to three feet. Sweet fern, wild rose and hazel bushes grow among them. The wooden shelters placed over the graves are nearly all of the familiar dog-kennel pattern. The largest measured 8 feet 2 inches in length and 5 feet in width. One is triangular in shape. One of the shelters has a shingled roof. One is painted a bright blue and another a dark red color, the remainder being unpainted. All of the shelters have small openings cut in one end beneath which are nailed narrow pieces of wood. On these shelves food is placed for some
46 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
days after the burial. This is said to be intended to assist the spirits of the dead during the time which they require to reach the spirit world. Several of the shelters have two shelves one above the other. In one instance the shelf was nailed inside of the opening. The openings in this cemetery are all at the north end of the shelters. They are sawed into the board fronts and differ considerably in shape. Some are square with a pointed or notched top^ rectangular, lozenge shaped, roughly circular and of other shapes, it being the evident intention of the relatives of the dead to make them as ornamental as possible. One shelter has two of these openings placed side by side. About one opening are a series of auger holes forming an arch which is surmounted by a cross made in the same manner. In another case six auger holes arranged in two lines of three holes each are bored into the wood on the left side of the opening. Auger holes arranged in a triangle" partly surround another opening. A wooden cross is nailed across the opening of one shelter. Nailed above the opening of another is a sniall piece of board bearing a pencil drawing. The upper half of this board is cross- hatched with pencil lines below which is the rudely drawn figure of an animal, head downward. This figure is also cross-hatched. It is probably intended to represent a bear, this animal being probably the totem of the deceased. On theshelf beneath the opening was an offering of a small heap of tobacco. In front of one grave house were set two stakes of about the same height as the shelter, one. being blunt and the other sharpened to a point.
There are both old and new graves in the cemetery. Sev- eral of the wooden shelters have collapsed and several others are beginning to fall apart. Two graves are without shelters. One of these is a new grave, that of Sam Buck, an Indian who recently died of tuberculosis. At the time of our first visit to the cemetery the earthen mound of this grave had been covered with a piece of rush matting upon which pieces of sod and logs had been piled. In front of the grave was a piece of board containing a rude pencil drawing of an animal probably intended to represent a wolf. On a sub- sequent visit we found that odds and ends of lumber had been hauled to this grave with the intention of building a shelter. We learned that a "feast" had just been held at the grave by relatives of the dead.
?o
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 47
The cemetery is reached by a path or trail winding through the trees and brush from the Hayward road.
A short distance from the cemetery, on the west side of the road, is the home of George Sheff, a chief of the Court Oreilles band, who died about five years ago. His one story frame house stands in a pretty grove of young Norway pines and is surrounded by a neat wire fence, and wooden gate with an arch above.
On the west shore of Little Court Oreilles is the home of Kakake, a prominent member of the local Indian band. The house is located on elevated ground overlooking the lake. About 100 feet north of it is the family cemetery. Here are buried John, aged 16; George, 18; Alex, 14; and Wequay Kakake, 2. All of the graves are covered with wooden shelter houses. In front of the first grave is a wooden stake upon which is drawn with a pencil a human figure having the tail of a fish, head downward. The second grave shelter has a toy wooden windmill fastened to its roof. A modern granite gravestone, placed in front of the graves, gives the names and ages of the dead.
3. Trail Cemetery
On the north side of a trail or path leading east through the brush from the main Court Oreilles trail is a neglected cemetery of seven graves. These are about one thousand feet or more east of the house of Mr. Ed. Corbine, near the northeast shore of Lac Court Oreilles.
The wooden shelters are in a state of disrepair. They are closely grouped being from three to fifteen feet apart. The largest measures eight feet in length. The roof is twenty- six and the box fourteen inches high. A child's grave shelter is four feet and two inches in length and one and one-half feet high. The graves are hidden in the brush.
0 4. Dance Circle
An abandoned Chippewa dance circle is located at the intersection of "Main" street with the east boundary line of the Reserve Townsite plat. It is a short distance north of the frame building in use by the inhabitants of the reserva- tion as a town hall, and about 500 feet east of the Ed.
48 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
Corbine house. This ring is plainly visible in the grass. It is circular in form and from 85 to 89 feet in diameter. The earthen ridge outlining it is from 3 to 3 J feet wide and from a few inches to a foot or more in height. It is surrounded by a growth of hazel and other brush. The center of the circle is free from brush being kept so by the grazing of the cattle of the Indians. Three young poplar trees stand at the east- ern edge of the circle. The writer was informed by one Indian that dances were held here as recently as fifteen years ago.
5. Linear Mound
On the bank of Lac Court Oreilles and about 250 feet in the rear of the Corbine house already mentioned is what appears to be a tapering linear mound. This earthen ridge is about 2 feet high at its highest part, 125 feet in length and from 6 to 9 feet in width at its broadest extremity. One extremity lies within 3 and the other within 19 feet of the top of the lake bank, which is here about 30 feet high. Wild shrubs grow on the earthwork near its narrowest extremity.
6. Sugar Camp
According to information obtained from Mr. Charles La Rush, the land lying along the lake shore between the Corbine place and his own home was at one time the site of a grove of large maple trees, which the Chippewa in early days tapped to obtain sap for the making of maple sugar. These trees had been cut away when he acquired the land, which is now overgrown with young Norway pine and other trees, and hazel brush.
7. La Rush Garden Beds
In the rear of a summer resort cottage belonging to Mr. La Rush, and separated by but a short distance from his own home, is a series of Indian garden beds. These indica- tions of former cultivation begin at the cottage and extend back into a grove of young pine trees, for a distance of 130 feet. The general direction of the beds is from ten to forty degrees east of north. The beds are from 18 inches to 3i
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 49
feet wide and of irregular lengths, from about 70 to 112 feet. They are from 6 to 8 inches high. The paths between the beds are from 1 to 2J feet wide. The beds are very plainly marked on the soil. Being in a rather thick grove of young trees it was only with considerable difficulty that their di- mensions could be secured.
8. Camp Site
The land along the shore of Lac Court Oreilles between the La Rush place and Ishams bay, at the head of the lake, is in a wild state being for the most part thickly overgrown with trees and bushes. Although a trail follows the shore for a considerable distance it appears to be used but little and at the time of our visits was almost impassable, being entirely obscured in places.
At one place about half way between these two points the burned stones of a fireplace were seen protruding from the top of the sandy lake bank. This was uncovered by digging and charcoal and ashes found in its middle. The circle of stones was about 2 feet in diameter. At other places along 'the bank quartz chips and fragments were found. When this land is cleared and brought under cultivation additional evidences of old Indian camp sites will undoubtedly be disclosed.
9. Barbertown Graves
At the small Indian settlement known as Barbertown, at the head of Ishams bay, Messrs. Barton and Mclntyre found a small modern Indian burying ground. The graves were at a distance of about 30 feet from the shore. Five were those of adult Indians and three those of children. They were covered with wooden shelters, and with rush matting and strips of birchbark.
10. Reserve Townsite, Village Site and Mounds
Plate 2
The peninsula separating Little Court Oreilles and Court Oreilles was at one time occupied by a Chippewa village. This is said to have been from twenty to twenty-five years
50 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
ago. The peninsula, which was platted several years ago for summer resort purposes, is now partly under cultivation and in use as a pasture. The remainder is covered with woods.
A group of five burial mounds is located along the top of the high lake bank south of the road which runs along the southern shore of the peninsula.
The first of these, an oval mound measuring 24 by 27 feet, is located on the top of the lake bank and at a distance of 150 or more feet southeast of the Presbyterian mission church. It lies about 66 feet south of the road from Reserve to White Fish settlement and from which it is separated by a ticket of sumach. A trail running along the lake bank from the direction of Reserve passes between the mound and the bank and then turns toward the church, where it connects with the road. Between this mound and the next, and directly in front of the church and parsonage, was formerly located a small patch of Indian corn hills. In the parsonage flower garden adjoining this site a small flint workshop site is indicated. Flint chips were scattered over the surface of the soil. On the edge of the lake bank just beyond this garden is the second mound. It is oval in form having di- mensions of 37 by 40 feet, and is about 4 feet high at its middle. A depression on its top shows that it has been explored by reUc hunters. The lake bank opposite this mound is about 30 feet high and steep. The road is 60 feet north of it. In a thicket between this mound and the road are several neglected Indian graves each being covered with a wooden shelter.
Mound No. 3 lies 45 feet beyond the last. Its edge touches the top of the bank. The road is 50 feet from it. It is circular in outUne, 34 feet in diameter and 3i feet high. It also has been excavated. Within a few feet of it is another cluster of four neglected graves.
Mound No. 4 is separated from No. 3 by a distance of about 675 feet. It is 38 feet in diameter and about 3 feet high. It also is located on the edge of the lake bank, which is at this point about 60 feet high. The road passes directly by this mound. A distance of 320 feet beyond No. 5 is the last mound of the series. It is situated on the edge of the top of the lake bank, which is at this place about 25 feet high. The mound is 32 by 35 feet in size and of about
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 51
the same height as the former mound. The road passes within a few feet of both of these last two mounds, which are hidden from sight by bushes.
Local Indian tradition says that these mounds were not constructed by their people but by the Dakota who occupied this region until driven away by the Chippewa. At a dis- tance of about 33 feet northeast of the first mound described is a pothole 25 feet or more in depth and about 100 feet in diameter at its top. Growing in it at the present time are brakes and tall poplar saplings. According to Rev. Mr. C. L. Merriam, who is in charge of the Presbyterian mission, the Chippewa state that this cavity was employed by them as a hiding place for their women and children when attacked by their enemies, the Dakota.
11. Moshier Mounds
At the head of the Reserve townsite peninsula are two burial mounds. The first of these is located on the edge of the lake bank, at a distance of about 100 feet northeast of the summer residence of Mr. W. L. Moshier. It is 37 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high.
Twenty-eight feet east of this mound and within 35 feet of the summer cottage of Mrs. Laura Bunce, is a second mound. This is 37 feet in diameter and from 4J to 5 feet high. The lake bank upon which the mounds lie is from 28 to 30 feet high and very steep. Both mounds have been excavated by the very careless and unsatisfactory method of digging holes into their tops. It is said that this was done in 1892 by parties seeking relics for exhibition at the Chicago World's Columbian exposition.
Mr. Moshier informed us that several years ago Indian grave houses were to be seen at a number of places on the peninsula not far from his cottage.
12. Huss Bay Dance Ground
This dance ground is located on the shore of Huss bay, on the south shore of Lac Court Oreilles, in the northwest corner of Section 7.
52 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
It is on a level piece of land a short distance from the lake and is surrounded by a few pine and other trees. It is in use for the dancing of the squaw dance, a dance in which both men and women participate. The circle in which the dances take place is about 25 feet in diameter and is out lined by a well worn track cut into the sod by the feet of the participants.
A short distance south of the dance ground is a north and south road which forms the western boundary of the Lac Court Oreilles reservation. Several hundred feet up this road is an unoccupied Indian house. A few feet north of the house, among the high grass and weeds, is the family ceme- tery of its former occupants. There are three graves each covered with a wooden shelter. In front of one is a tall pole having at its top a strip of white cloth.
Beyond this house, and several hundred feet north of the intersection of the reservation road with the road leading to Reserve, is a large one-story red-painted frame building, which, we were informed, was formerly in use as a reserva- tion school. It has five windows on each side and a door in the front and rear. On its roof are the iron mountings of a former school bell. Indian children now attend the govern- ment school at Hayward. Many of the young men and women on the reservation have attended school at Haskell, Tomah or elsewhere.
13. Dance Ground
One hundred or more feet south of the intersection of the roads already mentioned is the principal dance ground of the reservation. A grove of young pines stands between it and the road to Reserve. The space in which the dances are held is about 60 feet square and is surrounded by a neat wooden and woven wire fence, the woodwork of which is painted a bright blue color. At the middle of the east and west sides of the enclosure are w^ooden gates. Tall flag poles, also painted blue, are located opposite each entrance and also on the north and south sides. A broad seat, secured to the fence, extends around the inside of the enclosure.
The Lac- Court Oreilles Region 53
A dance was in progress at the time of our visit, on the afternoon of August 30. This we afterwards learned was a portion of the so-called "dream dance" which is described in the Wisconsin Archeologist (V. 10, No. 1), from notes obtained by Dr. S. A. Barrett, an officer of the Archeological Society. About thirty-five old and young men were taking part in the ceremony, most of these being seated around the sides of the enclosure. On the ground, a short distance from its southwest corner was a large drum handsomely orna- mented with bright red cloth and beadwork. This was beaten with drumsticks by nine drummers seated about it on the ground and who chanted as they drummed. From time to time some of the dancers rose in their places and danced in place by slowly lifting their feet and bending their knees.
The following notes concerning the dance and other ceremonies are extracted from those obtained on this oc- casion by Mr. Albert 0. Barton:
"The drum hung about two inches from the ground, from four brightly colored sticks. These projected about two feet above the drum the ends being curved and ornamented with pendant ribbons. The drum must never touch the ground or table upon which it rests. The supporting sticks are said to typify or represent the four wind gods.
"The drummers are said to 'belong to the drum' and the distinction is said to be hereditary. There were two 'masters' or 'keepers' of the drum, Steve Grover and John Quarters, who appeared to be the masters of ceremonies and who made all announcements. Steve Grover is one of the four chiefs of the Lac Courte Oreilles band and owns the drum which is now kept at his house. The drum must have a special table» and someone must always sleep in the same room with il at night. Offerings of tobacco are expected to be made to it. There are four so-called 'head' drummers, each of w^hom has his own song. While this is being chanted he leaves the drum, dances and gives a present to someone. The drummer puts particular individuality into his own song and dancing. Sometimes every drummer has his own song.
"The dance is a barbaric performance and resembles simply 'marking time,' as the dancers remain practically in the same position to the end of the dance. Among the participants were a number of very picturesque old full-bloods garbed largely in real Indian fashion. These characters seemed more appropriate in the ceremony than the others, particularly the light-colored half-breeds.
"While this dance, unlike the squaw dance, is considered a purely man's dance, the women sometimes open the last dance unaccompanied by the drum until the men join in. In this dance the women give away presents. At the close of the dance the masters announce how many more dances will be given in the future and when.
54 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
"An interesting feature of the afternoon's ceremony was the stripping of the weeds of mourning from an Indian couple. These dances are the occasion for the leaving off of mourning for such deaths as have occurred since the last dance. Widows and widowers must wear their weeds for a year, but other mourners have no fixed period. In this instance a mother and step-father were relieved of mourning for the woman's son, one Sam Buck, an Indian of some prominence, who had died recently.
"After the drum beating, shouting and dancing had been in progress for some time, a number of w^omen and children entered the enclosure and sat on the ground behind the drummers. Four of these women were said to 'belong to the drum.' Among their duties is that of cooking and serving the feast which is spread outside the gate and to which all are invited. With them came Sam Buck's mother and step-father, who took seals on rugs spread for them. While the song was in progress the other Indian women washed her hands and face and combed her hair, a like service being done her husband by the men present. A new blue waist was also put on the woman and then both were adorned with beaded finery of various kinds. The Indians present came forward and presented them with various gifts, blankets, belts, beads, etc., a large and valuable heap being piled up between them. As the woman rose in her finery she puffed vigorously at her pipe.
"Then followed more songs interspersed with eloquent speeches by the various drummers, addressed to the couple to whom the distin- guished attentions had been shown.
"The speechmaking was opened by John Quarters, a 'grade' Indian, who keeps a country store at Whitefish and whose father was a logger and a founder of the city of Barron. In substance he said: —
" 'With this taking off of your marks of mourning you are now free to wear any color you wish; but if the gifts before you were piled as high as your heads, you should not entirely put away your sorrow. However, while remembering your loss you should not be bowed down, but should lift up your heads again and be hopeful.'
"The next speaker was Steve Grover, the owner and so-called 'priest of the drum.' Grover is credited with some unusual views and practices. At his log cabin home near the dance ground he is said to have set up a cross upon which he asks visitors to place offerings of tobacco. He is also said to possess a vest with a red ribbon cross embroidered on the back, and is said to have declared that he was crucified like Jesus and ascends to heaven whenever he desires. He is said to have been ques- tioned by his sceptical brethren as to the appearance of heaven and why he did not stay once he was safely within it.
" 'I am too young to give you older people advice.' said Grover to the couple, 'but I would like to tell you something about the meaning of the drum. It was God in heaven who gave us the drum and put his wind into it. This fact we should never forget. Every time we see or think of the drum we should think of God. This will make us good and happy. We 'should also be good to our neighbors, and if we are, they will be good to us.'
"According to one legend the drum was given to the Indians in one of their wars. While the war continued one of the women had a dream
:v cd
*
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 55
in which an apparition appeared and commanded the tribe to 'follow that which follows me.' When the apparition appeared the next night it was followed by a drum. As the objects which the Indians see in their dreams are believed to have the virtues of protecting dieties, the drum has since been a sacred emblem in the tribe. It is an ancient belief that animals seen in dreams, particularly following feasts, have pecularily benign attributes and protect those who behold them.
"The next drummer to speak said in part. 'God put the Indians down here upon the earth that they should know their future by their dreams. But many Indians are forgetting this old teaching and the old customs. We should remember that we cannot do anything without God's will. God appoints everything we do and when we find things going against us it is because we have done something wrong to the drum.'
"Other speeches in a similar vein were made. At the close John Quarters announced that the dance would continue in the torenoon of the morrow and that the women would have to bake bread and bring other food for a feast at the noon hour."
An educated Christianized Indian girl, a daughter of one of the chiefs, assisted Mr. Barton with interpretations of the ceremonies and speeches. Several hundred Indians and whites witnessed the ceremonies from the grove partly sur- rounding the dance enclosure.
A short distance south of the dance ground is the frame- work of the medicine lodge. This was about one hundred" feet in length. The arches were still standing but the customary covering of matting or sheets of bark had been removed. The writer was informed that meetings of the medicine lodge are also held at Round lake, Chief lake and at the Post (Pah quauh wong), on the Chippewa river.
14. White Fish Cemetery
Plate 4
Beyond the Medicine lodge is the cemetery of the White Fish Indian settlement which is located near at hand, about the head of the lake of the same name. This cemetery fronts on the reservation line road and lies in a grove of young pine trees. Twenty-one graves were counted in the lot nearest the road, all being provided with weather-beaten wooden shelter houses. About 90 feet directly in the rear of these is another lot of fifty-four graves. They are approached by a narrow lane through the trees and are in a small clearing. The graves are arranged in five irregular north and south lines
56 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
and face toward the west. The largest shelter measures 10 feet 3 inches by 3 feet 8 inches in size. It is 3 feet high. Two of the graves in this portion of the cemetery are covered with a structure made of unbarked pine logs, each log being about 6 feet in length and 4 inches in thickness. The logs are laid side by side and are built up three logs high. Run- ning crosswise between each layer of logs are shorter logs of the same diameter to which the long ones are spiked. This style of grave covering is more substantial than the board shelter house and probably perpetuates an earlier method of protecting Indian burials. One shelter house is of a curious construction being octagonal in form. The sides of this octagonal house measure 2 feet 10 inches in width. The height of the bottom board is 14 inches and the slope of the pointed roof measures 3| feet.
One grave shelter is curious in that it has two small square openings cut into its front. The thought suggested itself that this probably sheltered the bones of two persons instead of only one. Several of the shelter houses have flat roofs. One, covering a child's grave, has a shingled roof. A number of the shelter houses have fallen apart, the boards lying on the mounds of the graves. The openings in the fronts of the shelters in this cemetery are all square or oblong in shape. Some have narrow shelves tacked beneath the open- ings. A glance at the graves through these openings shows that some are covered with strips of birchbark and others with Indian matting. Small rolls of birchbark and whittled sticks with the shavings attached lay on several of the graves. The significance of these offerings we were not able to learn. Thirteen children's graves occur in this cemetery.
The houses of the White Fish settlement begin near the dance ground and occur at intervals along the road beyond the cemetery and westward toward the lake. These are one- story frame structures. Near some of these dwellings are wigwams constructed by covering a light framework of bent poles with pieces of birchbark sewed together in strips, or with squares of rush matting, which are tied to the frame- work with basswood cord or strips. One was covered with squares of elm bark, w^hich was weighted down on the top and sides with small logs. These wigwams were being used as sleeping quarters by members of the families to whom
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Cemetery at White Fish Burial Mound at Eho Eto Haven Plate 4
The Lac Court Oreilles Region " 57
they belonged. Near these and other homes on the reserva- tion we occasionally encountered interesting home-made farm appliances of other days, such as log water troughs, a shingle-shaving horse and a grindstone mounted in a log trough.
15. Creek Village Site
Chips and fragments of white quartz, the refuse of the aboriginal arrowmaker, a pebble hand hammer and scattered burned and broken stones from wigwam fireplaces were found among the stubble in a grain field on the east side of a creek or thoroughfare connecting Lac Court Oreilles and White Fish lake. This land is the property of Ex-Senator White and lies on the north side of the so-called White Fish road, leading from Reserve to Sand lake. The presence of the stubble and of the brush which covered other portions of this land prevented the making of a more careful search for evidences of aboriginal occupation and of learning more of the extent of this site. This field is elevated in places from 20 to 30 feet above the thoroughfare. The owner of the property informed the writer that a number of stone celts flint arrow and spearpoints had been collected from the cultivated portions of this land. According to local Indian traditions this place is said to have been the site of an early fight between the Dakota and the Chippewa. Whether or not this story has any foundation in fact cannot be deter- mined. Doubtless the finding of stone implements on this village site is responsible for this belief.
Chippewa Indians are said to have formerly camped on Huss point, a short distance northeast of this site, on the Lac Court Oreilles shore.
16. White Mound
On the west side of the thoroughfare directly in the rear of a cottage occupied by Mr. Mortenson, the foreman of the White farm, is an oval mound. This measures 18 by 21 feet in size and 2| feet high. It is about 35 feet from the cottage and about 30 feet from the barn beyond. It is about 300 feet north of the bank of White Fish lake. An Indian trail is said to have formerly crossed the thoroughfare near the
58 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
cottage and proceded over the wooded portion of the White property lying to the west of the Mortenson house.
17. Mud Bay Mounds
On the narrow neck of a peninsula stretching into Lac Court Oreilles are several groups of mounds. The first of these is located on the shore of Mud bay, on the south side of the peninusla, and a short distance south of the road w^hich leads to the Eho Eto Haven resort and Wismo club. An old logging road, which connects with the road already men- tioned, passes by the mounds. The mound located farthest toward the east is 15 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high. It is situated about 35 feet back from the Mud bay shore. Twenty-five feet beyond it is a second mound which is 18 feet in diameter and of about the same height. Thirty-five feet beyond this is the third mound, which is 20 feet in diameter, and about 3 feet high. This mound lies about 65 feet from the shore of the bay. The mounds are partly hidden by young trees and brush. The place where they are located is commonly spoken of as the "Indian camping ground." Two wigwam frames were located in the brush east of the mounds at the time of the writer's visit. An Indian family whose members had been cutting marsh grass from a small pond near the mounds had packed up its be- longings and was preparing to leave the place. The bay shore opposite the mounds is low. The bay itself is shallow with a mud bottom. Some wild rice in the bay had been sown during the winter by John Quarters, a local Indian. It is said to have been sown when the ice was thin and trampled down. At the eastern side of the bay not far from the mounds is a cranberry marsh.
18. Aiken Bay Group.
Plate 3
Northwest of the mounds just described, on the shore of Aiken bay, is a group of nine mounds. Eight of these are located in the rear of a group of summer cottage^. Five of the nine mounds are oval in form, one is a linear mound and
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 59
three are conical in form. A plat of this group is shown in Plate 3. The dimensions of these mounds are:
No. 1. 21 X 24 feet, 3 feet high.
No. 2. 26 feet in diameter, 3 feet high.
No. 3. 24 X 25 feet, 3 feet high.
No. 4. 20 X 27 feet, 2f feet high.
No. 5. 18 X 20 feet, 1 foot high.
No. 6. 36 feet in diameter, 7 feet high.
No. 7. 21 X 75 feet. If feet high.
No. 8. 26 X 34 feet, 1 J feet high
No. 9. 30 feet in diameter, 1| feet high. Mound No. 1 is located on property belonging to S. Green- hagen at a distance of about 50 feet from the lake shore. Two oak trees 8 and 10 inches in diameter are growing on this mound. A distance of about 160 feet separates this mound from No. 2. This last mound has been dug into and the pit in its top was being used by the residents of the nearby cottage as a receptacle for tin cans and other rubbish, a sad spectacle. At one extremity of Mound No. 3 is a pine stump 2 feet in diameter. Mound No. 4 has been dug into in several places by relic hunters. A road leads between this mound and the next. The site of this road is said to have been formerly used by the Indians in portaging their canoes across the peninsula.
Mound No. 7 has the distinction of being the highest mound in the Lac Court Oreilles region. This fme abor- iginal monument has been mutilated by the digging of a deep hole into its top. Its rather steep sides were oVergrown with brush and tall weeds. On its northern side was an oak stump measuring 21 inches in diameter. Touching the base of this mound is a small frame building used for the storage of ice. Mound No. 9 has also been dug into. Near the Aiken cottages is a small oval heap of earth measuring 15 by 12 feet which may once have been a mound. The writer was unable to obtain any certain information in regard to it.
The land upon which the mounds are located is level and is elevated but a few feet above the waters of the bay. The location of the mounds is such that there is no need of their being removed. They are a decided attraction to this place and the cottage owners should unite in protecting them against further digging by relic hunters. Their present neglected condition is a disgrace.
60 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 2
19. Eho Eto Haven Mounds and Village Site.
Plate 5
Some 400 or more feet beyond Mound No. 9 of the mound group just described, in the rear of the W. E. Gilbert and E. B. Dawes cottage is the first of another group of Indian earthworks. Two and a large portion of a third of these mounds are located near this cottage and the remainder are on the property of Mr. J. H. Kuhl's charming summer resort, to w^hich he has given the name Eho Eto Haven. There were originally eight mounds in the group, (See Plate 5), five of which were oval in form. One mound for- merly located about fifty feet in the rear of the dining hall on the Eho Eto Haven grounds, was removed by Mr. Kuhl in 1913, he being then unaware of its value and interest. This mound he states was 8 feet or more in height. Its base outline is still quite clearly marked in the grassy field. Had it been spared it would no doubt have proven a great attraction to summer visitors.
The mounds of the Eho Eto Haven group have the fol- lowing dimensions:
No. 1. 21 feet in diameter, about 1 foot high.
No. 2. 17 feet in diameter, about 1 foot high.
No. 3. 19 X 51 feet, 3| feet high.
No. 4. 16 feet in diameter, 1| feet high.
No. 5. 24 X 27 feet, 4 feet high.
No. 6. 24 X 38 feet, 3^ feet high.
No. 7. 15 X 21 feet, reported as formerly, 8 feet high.
No. 8. 18 feet in diameter, 1 foot high.
Mounds No. 1, 2, 4 and 5 have all been dug into by relic hunters, who judging from the character of their digging, got but little for their pains. Eho Eto Haven occupies the nar- rowest point of the peninsula measuring in places not more than 300 or 350 feet across. A large portion of the neck of the peninsula is said to have been once overgrown with pine trees. A few fine examples of these are preserved on the grounds of this summer resort. Opposite the cottages the beach of Lac Court Oreilles is sandy, the lake bank in its rear rising to a height of from 3J to 4 feet above the water. In the rear of the cottages the land slopes to a lower, level area.
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The Lac Court Oreilles Region til
The tree and brush fringed bank of the Mud bay shore at this place is low. A short distance from the shore are scattered beds of wild rice. Beyond the cottages the land rises to a considerable height, this high land, covered largely with a fine forest of mixed woods, occupying the entire head of the peninsula. The top of the steep bank along the Court Oreilles shore is at a considerable height above the water. The Wismo club-house is located on the northern shore and near the end of the promontory.
From its character it is evident that in early days the Indians would choose this peninsula as the location for a vil- lage. The excellence of the fishing in the lake on both sides, an abundance of small game, the wild rice in Mud bay, the maple trees on the point convenient for sugar making and other edible vegetable products which the woodlands afforded all combined to make this an ideal spot for the location of a village. Even now flocks of wild ducks fly from the lake across the narrow neck to Mud bay and could at times be easily brought down with an arrow. Blueberries grow in abundance on the bank. The beaches afforded good land- ing places for canoes.
The presence of three groups of burial mounds are in them- selves an indication that such a village existed on the penin- sula in stone age times. When the land on the neck, now largely overgrown with brush and young trees, is brought under cultivation additional evidences of this early occupation will be revealed. An examination of the garden and potato field in the rear of the cottage at Eho Eto Haven, nearest the edge of the elevated land resulted in the finding of numerous fireplace stones and of numbers of flint and quartz chips and fragments. A few flint chips were also found in a corn field on the higher land near the Wismo club.
20. Sugar Bush Trading Post.
A trader's cabin is reported to have been once located where the club-house of the Sugar Bush club now stands. Mr. Corbine, of Reserve, informed the writer that his father had a cabin trading post here before locating at Reserve. This spot is a very attractive one. Tall maples and a few oak trees grow about the log and frame club-house. In its
62 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
rear are thick woods. The lake bank at this place is from 4 to 8 feet above the water.
In a small garden patch near the club-house, and in the rear of the boat-house, a few flint chips and a number of scattered hearthstones were found during an examination of the ground. Mr. Charles La Rush informed me that about fifteen years ago there was a log cabin where the club-house now stands. While on a visit to the place at that time he found the rusted barrel and lock of a flintlock gun in the garden nearby. Other specimens such as iron arrowpoints, iron axes and hoes, and gunflints are said to have been found here by others.
21. Winters Point Graves
On this point, on the north shore of the lake, according to the statement of Mr. Henry La Rush, is a small neglected Indian cemetery of ten or more graves covered with the cus- tomary shelter houses.
GRINDSTONE LAKE 22. Grindstone Lake Mounds.
This group, having only part of a day at my disposal and being unable at the time to obtain any definite clues as to their exact location, I was unable to locate. Since that time Mr. Frank 0. Setter, of Hayward, has informed the me that they are situated about IJ miles east of Mr. George Post's summer cottage, this cottage being located just on the east side of the reservation line. He states that there are a series of mounds here, all being conical or oval in form. Some were excavated in about the year 1893. When examining the bank of Grindstone lake a considerable amount of quartz chips and fragments were found in the trough of a small washout" located along the low wooded shore at a point about one-eighth of a mile east of the reservation line. These are traces of a workshop site.
The Lac Court Oreilles Region 63
White Fish and Sand Lakes
Only a small part of the west (or north) shore of White Fish lake is under cultivation, the remainder being in a wild state. Some of the fields along the road to Sand lake were examined but no traces of early aboriginal life were en- countered. This small lake has some cultivated fields on its north shore which were examined but without success. The immediate shoreline is elevated from a few to 12 or more feet above the water. A large portion of the south shore is occupied by a tamarack swamp. Mr. Walter Lar- son of Sand lake has a circular catlinite disk-shaped orna- ment with a perforation through the center which, he states, was found at the "Four Lake" ranch, at the southeast corner of the lake. This is about one inch in diameter and less than one-fourth inch thick. A stone celt and other articles were also found there. The Chippewa are said to gather wild rice in Flat and Slim lakes, south of Sand lake. Pipestone is said to be obtained by them on Pipestone creek in the eastern part of the reservation.
64 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 2
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO THE AMERICAN INDIAN
LEO J. FRACHTENBERG. U. S. Smithsonian Institution
Republished, by permission, from The Quarterly Journal of the Society of American Indians.
Civilization and culture are the result of an extensive co-operative system to which every individual inhabiting our globe contributed and still contributes his share. No achievement, be it literary, economic, or scientific, has ever been accomplished by a single man or group of people with- out the aid that has resulted from the efforts of those who had previously directed their energies toward the attain- ment of a certain goal. Our present philosophical systems owe their origin to the studies of human mind and nature made by ancient and medieval scholars. Our writers draw their inspiration from the works of their predecessors, and our great scientific inventions have been facilitated by the former endeavors of the savants of all nations. Thus, our present civilization consists of an infinite number of elements contributed by every people, every nation, and every race of this universe. American culture, for instance, has been effected by the combined efforts of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Slavs, Semites, Mongols and others, each of these, groups contributing its particular, typical portion.
It should not, however, be supposed that only the higher and more advanced types of nations participate in the crea- tion of a certain given civilization. In this respect every- body's co-operation is invited and welcomed, and no serv- ices, even those of a most primitive character, are rejected. We Americans, especially, who are probably the most civilized and advanced people in the world, owe a great portion of our progress and success to primitive races, above all to the American Indian. How many of us, will, in bliss- ful ignorance, underestimate and even ridicule the intellec-
Our Indebtedness to the American Indian 65
tual prowess of the red man, and boast of the superior attainments of the white race? And yet, many of our accom- plishments may be traced directly to the assistance received from the "red skin." An examination of our culture reveals to us the fact that the influence of the Indian on our civiliza- tion has been far-reaching and comprises every phase of our intellectual, pohtical, social, agricultural and industrial life.
A few years ago the late Dr. Chamberlain, of Clark Uni- versity, tabulated a list of the contributions made by the Indian race to our civilization. To that list the present writer has added further material, a mere glance at which will convince us of the fact that we owe a great deal to the Indians of North and South America.
Of the fifty States and Territories that form this great Union of Stars and Stripes, twenty-five derive their names from native Indian words; while the number of cities, moun- tains, lakes, streams, and bays that owe their appellation to Indian descriptive terms is legion. Our daily speech abounds in terms and expressions that have been taken from the various Indian tongues. It is estimated that over 300 \yords of our present vocabulary have been borrowed from such sources. One only has to think of expres'sions like buccaneer, canoe, cannibal, chocolate, coyote, ham- mock, hurricane, hickory, mahogany, maize, moccasin, pampas, potato, quinine, raccoon, skunk, squaw, tobacco, toboggan, totem, tomato, tuxedo, wigwam and others, to get an idea of the extent of this system of borrowing.
But the red man did not confine his contributions to our vocabulary to single words only. There are a number of phrases in our language which owe their origin to the Indian mode of speech. How many Americans to-day use expres- sions like fire-water, squaw-man, pale-face, medicine-man, happy-hunting-grounds, to bury the hatchet, to smoke the pipe of peace, to go on the war-path, etc., without knowing that these are phrases taken from the Indian languages? In some instances we have received from the Indian words and ideas that have become powerful factors in our daily life. I shall mention only caucus, chautauqua, mugwump, and Tammany. Can anyone imagine American politics without "caucus?" Can anyone think of the city of New York without its "Tammany?"
66 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
Let US now turn our attention to the field of literature. What a wealth of material has been offered by the Indian to our writers past and present! Indian life and traditions have been an inexhaustible source of inspiration to English: speaking novelists, poets, and dramatic writers. Bryant's "Prairies," Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Burial of the Minnesink," Whittier's "Mogg Muggone," Lowell's "Chip- pewa Legend," Cooper's "The Last of the Mx)hicans," Dryden's "Indian Queen," Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyom- ing," and many others, are literary products that were inspired by the red man. The literary fame of men like Defoe, Kingsley, Lew^ Wallace, Bandelier, King, Haggard, and Robertson is due mainly to their narratives of Indian life. And if we add that during the last decade our painters, sculptors and musicians have become gradually attracted by Indian subjects, we shall have a complete picture of the great debt which we owe to the Indian of North and South America in the field of literature and art. Furthermore, our history, so resplendent with brilliant characters, has been embellished, — thanks to the red man, — by a number of heroes who could easily adorn the history of any nation. Pocahontas, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Brant and others have won for themselves a place in the annals of mankind and have contributed their share to the glorious past of our Nation.
But the bulk of the Indian's contribution to our civiliza- tion and culture does not lie in our intellectual and literary attainments. It is our material life that owes him an ever- lasting debt and upon which he bestowed benefaction after benefaction, gift after gift. Take our commercial life, for instance, of which we are so justly proud. Who thinks to-day of the fact that our railways and railroads follow exactly the paths, made, trodden, and kept up at an enor- mous sacrifice, by the ancient, pre-Columbian Indian? As the late Dr. Chamberlain says, "It was not an empty boast when, in 1847, an Iroquois chief appealed to the white man for help upon the following grounds:"
"The Empire State, as you love to call it, was once laced by our trails from Albany to Buffalo; trails that we had trodden for centuries; trails w^orn so deep by the f^et of the Iroquois that they became your roads of travel, as your possessions gradually
Our Indebtedness to the American Indian 67
ate into those of my people. Your roads still traverse the same lines of commerce which bound one part of the Long-House to the other. Have we, the early possessors of this land, no share in your history?" Our industry, stupendous as it is, has been enriched by a number of substantial devices which we learned from our red neighbor. Every grocer knows and appreciates the value of arnotto, the famous dye for staining cheese and butter, but he is not aware of the fact that it has been given to us by the Indian. In like manner we received from the red man the cochineal, a red tinge for animal fibers and for coloring certain foods, and also a score of other dyes. Ornamental timbers and dye-woods we owe to the previous knowledge and experimentation of the Indian; and the various uses to which we apply mahogany and logwood to-day are the results of his early, though primitive, enterprises. Llama wool, alpaca, hemps and fibers are other industrial articles im- parted to us by the Indian with a generous hand. But above all, by showing us the usefulness of caoutchuc (India rubber), which we employ nowadays so extensively in mending old things and forming new ones, the American native has won the right to claim the everlasting gratitude of our manu- facturers. And these items by no means exhaust the long list of contributions made by the Indian to our industrial progress.
Our agriculture, too, has been touched by the beneficial in- fluence emanating from the Indian, for he has taught our farmers the use of fish manure, the burning over of fields as a preparation for planting, the planting of corn in hills, and many other important methods. One need not necessarily be a farmer to appreciate the value of these agricultural innovations. The fisherman to to-day in following his occu- pation, still resorts to a number of devices that originated wdth the Indian. Thus, he is indebted to him, among other things, for the use of the fish weir, for the method of catching fish by means of narcotic poisons, and for the practice of catching eels and salmon by torch-light. In like manner, the hunter received his share from the primitive American, learning from him the application of the blow-gun, so as not injure the skin of the animal, and the method of trailing and capturing larger animals and wild beasts.
68 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
It has been remarked that we Americans could not hve without recreations. Has it ever occurred to us how much we owe to the Indian in this particular respect? We love to go "canoeing" in the summer; we devote ourselves to "tobog- ganing" and "snow-shoeing" when our streets and hills are covered with snow; our sons in college bend their energies upon winning a "lacrosse championship" for their alma mater; our South American neighbors spend a great deal of their time in playing raquette, but few of us know that these pastimes have been handed down to us by the Indian. Even our comforts and luxuries are not free from this all-compris- ing influence. Panama hats, Navajo blankets, hammocks, moss bags, mocassins, snow-goggles, dog-sleds, micmac grass, all these are gifts of the aborigines. And tobacco, this curse and blessing oi our civilization, does it not come from the Indian? Even if we have to admit that tobacco is doing an enormous damage to our communities, are we to blame the Indian for it? The fact remains that its cultivation has become the basis of prosperity in a number ot our States and other countries.
If the above-mentioned gifts have entitled the Indian to our everlasting gratitude, his contributions to our supply of food have made him the real bcneiactor not only of our own country, but also of the whole world as well. By teaching the early settler the planting of potato and maize, he has changed, as if by a magic touch, hitherto bare and uncul- tivated regions into thrifty, prosperous States. Suffice it to say that without the cultivation ol" potatoes and corn, Ireland, northern Germany, Roumania, and a number of our wealthiest States would be nothing but wild, unoccupied regions. And the generosity of the Indian did not stop here. There is a vast amount of items in our daily food that we received through the direct or indirect mediation of the Indian. Tomatoes, squash, hominy, pumpkin, Lima Beans, pineapple, custard apple, persimmon, cacao, vanilla, manioc, agave, guava, artichokes, quinoa, pemmican, chewing gum, peanuts and maple sugar are only some of the articles obtained from the red man. And we must not torget that drinks hke mate, labrador tea, chocolate, cocoa, pulque and chicha are oi Indian origin.
The last, but not least, contribution made by the Indian has been in the field of medicine. Aside from the fact that
Our Indebtedness to the American Indian 69
our forefathers resorted very often to the medical treatment of Indian doctors Uke Joe Pye in New England, and that even to-day we hear so much about Indian cures and Indian remedies, our great medical and surgical progress has been greatly facilitated by th-i Indian. Can any one conceive of the present state of surgery and medicine without cocaine, quinine, yerba santa, cascara sagrada, jalap, jaborandi leaves and curari? And these drugs and antidotes lor which we are indebted to the previous knowledge and experimen- tation of the Indian.
Such has been the contribution of the "red skin" to our civilization and culture! And how was "Poor Lo" rewarded ior his services by the "superior" race? If we should con- stitute ourselves into a public court and judge honestly our actions toward the Indian and those of the Indian toward us, the verdict would decidedly not be in our favor. We have robbed the Indian of his soil, we have broken his spirit, we have debauched his mind, we have undermined his health, and doomed him to destruction. The valiant "Wild Son oi Yesterday" is no more. His Hie belongs to the past, and he is slowly dragging his weary feet to the grave, which we, his "brave conquerors," have dug for him. But while leaving this world ior the unknown fields, where he expects to be unit'^d with his ancestors in eternal beatitude, the Indian takes with him the proud knowledge that his aboriginal life here has not been useless, that he has contributed his share to the civilization and culture of mankind, and that this name will never be forgotten. To use Dr. Chamberlain's words, "He bequeaths to postcity manifestions of a useful existence that are more lasting than monuments of stone or marble . . ." for in the words of one of our poets —
"The memory of the Red Man,
How can it pass away.
While his names of music linger
On each mount, and stream and bay?"
70 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES
A very attractive and useful folder has just be^n issued by the Ghetek State Bank, of Chetek, Wisconsin. This folder gives a brief account of the Indian history of northern Wisconsin, and especially of the upper Chip- pewa valley and the region about the Chetek lakes, and is illustrated with a number of fine half-tone pictures of modern Chippewa Indians and of the charming scenery of the region. Its most valuable feature is an excellent map of the Chetek and Chain o' Lake region in Barron, Rusk and Chippewa counties. Oh this map there are indicated in red the auto touring roads, summer hotels, Indian mound groups, cemeteries, battle- fields, village and camp sites, planting grounds and trading post sites, and other features of special interest to the summer visitor. Great credit is due to Mr. Ben F. Faast, of Eau Claire, for suggesting and carrying out this plan of attracting the attention of tourists and settlers to the history, scenic beauties and agricultural and other possibilities of this part of Wisconsin. Other Wisconsin communities and development companies might do well to follow the example set by the Chetek State Bank in pro- viding the public with much desired information concerning their attrac- tions.
Mr. Lee R. Whitney of Milwaukee has entered upon his twelfth year of service as treasurer of the Wisconsin Archeological Society. During the entire years of the Society's corporate existence it has had no more faithful or interested officer. He is one of only four or five men whose names. still appear on its rolls, who, as long ago as the year 1899 conceived and nurtured the idea of a strong state organization. Mr. Whitney's friend- ship is cherished by brother archaeologists in every part of Wisconsin and in many states of the Union.
The Secretary has received several very pleasant letters from Dr. Frederick W. Putnam, of Cambridge, Mass., the distinguished American archaeologist. Although now over eighty years of age Dr. Putnam has not lost his early interest in Wisconsin's interesting aboriginal earthworks and other remains. The Society has always been proud to carry on its rolls the names of such men as Dr. Putnam, Dr. Frederick Starr and Prof. Warren K. Moorehead.
In the May issue of "Rod and Gun in Canada," a magazine for sportsmen, published at Woodstock, Ontario, there appears an interesting short article by Col. G. E. Laidlaw on "Primitive Fishhooks," in which the bone and copper fishhooks of the aborigines are described largely by means of quotations from the publications of American archaeologists.
There have been elected to membership in the Wisconsin Archeological Society since the last issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist, Hon. W. G. Bissell, Miss Eleanor Sauer, Miss Rose Blankenhorn, Miss Viola Friedman,
Archeological Notes 71
Miss Katherine Burns, Mr. Carl Baur, Miss Emma M. Vollmer, Mr. J. B. Huenink, Miss Margaret R. Brewster, Mr. Harold W. Cdnnell, Miss Clara L. Phillips, Miss Bertha M. Kerch, and Mr. M. H. Wengler, of Milwaukee; Mr. B. J. Dockendorff, La Crosse; Mr. A. M. May, Waukon la.; Mr. R. S. Owen and Mr. Stewart Turneaure, Madison; and Mr. Robert McFarlane, Waupun.
Members of the Society are urged to read Professor Warren K. Moore- head's new book, "The American Indian in the United States." This work is devoted to a consideration of "the present condition of the Indian, his political history and other topics." It covers a period from 1850 to 1914. Among its many chapters several of the most interesting treat of 'The White Earth Scandal" and "The Sioux and the Messiah Craze." In March 1909 Professor Moorehead was appointed a special agent by the Board of Indian Commissioners and was sent to investigate conditions on the White Earth reservation.
The book is illustrated with a large number of fme plates some of which are reproductions of the fme photographs of Rodman Wanamaker.
The Spanish Indian medal illustrated in the frontispiece of this issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist was found in an Indian grave at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1864. It is supposed to have been presented by the Spanish government to Huisconsin, a Sauk and Fox chief. A full des- cription of this medal, which is in the State Historical Museum, was given in the last issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist (Vol. 14, No. 1.)
Mr. O. L. Obermaier of Milwaukee has in his collection several of the interesting socketted copper spearpoints with ornamented blades. He is the owner of a quite large number of fme flint implements from Wisconsin and Missouri.
We regret to announce the death during the month of March, of Mr. E. C. Perkins, of Prairie du Sac, one of the older members of this Society. Mr. Perkins was one of Sauk County's wealthiest men. His death calls to mind the fact that some of our members, who can well afford to make such provision, are losing an opportunity to perpetuate their interest in the work of the Wisconsin Archeological Society and the cause of future archeological investigation in Wisconsin, by bequeathing to the Society small or large funds to be used by our successors in advancing this im7 portant work. Members and friends may if they desire designate that gifts are made such for particular purposes such as conducting researches in their home counties and publishing the results, for securing the pre servation by purchase of notable examples of aboriginal monuments, for acquiring archeological specimens and collections, and for providing for the education of young men for future service in the field of American archeological science.
We are informed that Mr. Frank G. Logan, a member of the Society, has increased to the sum of $30,000 his fund for the maintenance of the Logan museum of Beloit College. The collections of this museum are of an
72 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 2
archeological and ethnological character. This generous gift will make it possible to further increase their already great value to students of Ameri- can archeaology.
Secretary Brown desires members and others who have such specimens in their collections favor him with descriptions, outlines and photographs of the old Indian silver breeches. It is desired to soon publish an article descriptive of these.
The Wisconsin Archeological Society has always carried on its member- ship roll the names of a considerable number of lady members. Of their support of an devotion to its work it has been and is justly proud. It has thirty-eight lady members at the present time. Mrs. Charles Catlin, Mrs. Mary R. Merrill and Mrs. A. K. Hamilton, of Milwaukee, and Mrs. Caroline E. Kehl, of Oconomowoc, are life members. Miss Alice E. Chapman and Miss Minna M. Kunckell, of Milwaukee; Mrs. Mary R. Mann, of Woodruff, and Mrs. Mary J. Wilmarth, of Chicago, have been members since the inception of the work in this state. Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, of Madison, has always been very active in the work of encourag- ing the preservation and marking of prehistoric Indian monuments and sites of historic interest. She has twice served as chairman of the Land- marks Committee of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs. Her achievements have deserved the appreciation of the citizens of the com- monwealth. Her successor, Mrs. Edwin H. Van Ostrand, of Madison, is a lady of recognized ability and enthusiasm for this important task. She also has been twice reappointed to the head of this important division of the work of the Clubs.
Other ladies who have in one way and another shown themselves to be devoted friends of our cause are Miss Mar>' E. Stewart, Miss Elizabeth Bradford, Mrs. Sophie Miller, Miss Ida Fernekes and Mrs. Emilie Reu- melin, of Milwaukee; Mrs. E. C. Wiswall, Mrs. John G. Woolley and Mrs. Amy D. Winship, of Madison; Miss Emma Richmond, Lodi; Miss Jennie Baker, Prairie du Sac; Miss Althea R. Sherman, Mc Gregor; and Miss Julia A. Lunn, Beloit. Nearly all of the ladies mentioned have at one time or another served on one or more of the Society's standing committees. Some have never failed to attend the state field meetings held during the past nine years.
Mr. C. V. Fuller of Grand Ledge, Michigan, a well-known collector of Indian materials, calls our attention to the fact that he has in his collection a fine example, found near his home, of the Hint ceremonial knives de- scribed in the January, 1915, issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist. It is made of blue hornstone, is 9 inches in length, and its blade 2 inches wide at its widest part. Mr. Joseph Ringeisen, of Milwaukee, has in his collec- tion another specimen from that state made of like material. Col. Geo. E. Laidlaw informs the editor of the finding of two specimens in Ontario. Dr. H. M. Whelpley states that he has a very fine specimen measuring 12^ inches in length. He has long endeavoted to locate the quarry from which the material used in making such knives was obtained. He sur- mises that most of the Wisconsin specimens migrated from Missouri.
Archeological Notes ' 73
Mr. Ira M. Buell, curator of the Logan museum, at Beloit, has returned from a trip to Florida. While there he explored several shell mounds in the vicinity of Palm Beach and was successful in securing a large number of interesting specimens of shell implements, pottery and other articles.
Wau-Bun Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Portage, are causing to be placed in the old Fort Winnebago cemetery, at that city, a huge boulder, properly inscribed, in memory of the pioneers of the old fort days as well as some of the soldiers of the seven wars, who lie buried within the enclosure, namely; the Revolutionary war. War of 1812, the Seminole war, Mexican war. Black Hawk war, War of the Rebellion and the Spanish-American war.
The Portage Daughters, since their organization, have been very prominently identified with this work of marking places of historic interest, as witness the monument to Marquette and .Joliet, the site of the first church in central Wisconsin, and the spot made historic by the surrender of the Winnebago Indian, Red Bird, It is hoped by the society to make the marking of the site of the old fort its next pretentious undertaking.
The Annual Archeological Report, 1914, of the Ontario Provincial Museum, is of an exceptionally interesting character. Dr. Roland B. Orr, is the director of this museum. It contains interesting illustrated articles on "The Petuns or Tobacco Nation," on "Lacrosse," both un- signed, but presumably contributed by the director; on "The Pre- Christian Cross," by Very Rev. W. R. Harris, and on "Ontario Effigy Pipes in Stone," (Third Paper), by Col. Geo. E. Laidlaw. The early home of the Petuns is shown to have been in Ontario (1616). Here in 1649, the Huron confederacy, of which they formed an integral part, was attacked by the warlike Iroquois and their villages destroyed.
"For the next fifty years their history is a pitiful record of intense suffering, of defeats, of famine and flight from pursuing enemies. Joined by a remnant of Hurons, who fled to them for refuge, the Petuns abandoned their country and by weary wandering over land and water at last found shelter (1652) at Mackinaw. The Iroquois with the scent and pertinacity of hounds followed them and forced them to take refuge on Noquet Island near Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1653 they were with the Algonquins and wintered at Teaontorai, an Algonquin village seventy or eighty miles south of Sault Sainte Marie. Here they were joined by a band of Neutrals and formed an alliance with the Ottawas. With the Ottawas the Petuns now roamed into the territory of the Dakotahs; driven from here after a stubborn fight they retreated to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Driven from here they found shelter at Chegoimegan, Wis. In time the main body returned to Mackinaw. Leaving Mackinaw they descended to Detroit; then they are found in scattered bands at Niagara, Sandwich and other places. The tribe as a body now settled at Sandusky (1751), from which place they were removed by the United States Government to Kansas (1842, and finallv to Indian Territorv, now the state of Oklahoma (189-!)."
Col. Laidlaw's paper on effigy pipes is very interesting and" well illus- 'tratcd. In the course of his investigations he has found a distinct class of
74 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 2
these pipes in the St. Lawrence Basin which come down into the historic period and which are probably of Huron-Iroquois origin. Wisconsin students should secure and read his paper.
Members of the Society are urged to purchase back issues of The Wis- consin Archeologist. They may be had at 50 cents a number. Some issues will soon be exhausted.
Vol. 14 September, 1915
No. 3
THE
WISqONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
LAKE WINGRA
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated March 23, 1903, for the purpose of advancing the study and preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT G. A WEST . Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
DR. S. A. BARRETT Milwaukee
DR. ORRIN THOMPSON Neenah
W. H. ELLSWORTH Milwaukee
W. A. TITUS Fond du Lac
H. E. COLE - Baraboo
DIRECTORS VjU. E. J. W. NOTZ ...Milwaukee
TREASURER LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY CHARLES E. BROWN . Madipon
COMMITTEES
STATE SURVEY— Ellis B. Usher, L. R. Whitney, G. R. Fox, C. E. Brown, Dr. S. A. Barrett, Dr. Louis Falge, H. L. Skavlem.
MOUND PRESERVATION — Prof. Albert S. Flint, Prof. L. B. Wolfenson, Mrs. E. H. Van Ostrand, P. V. Lawson, J. M. Pyott, B. F. Faast, T. L. Miller, R. P. Ferry. Dr. N. P. Hulst, C. W. Norris, Dr. N. A. Gray, C. L. Dering, B. O. Bishop, R. S. Owen, Grant Fitch, G. H. Squier, Chas. Lapham, Rev. J. H. Huhn, W. W. Gilman, Dr. A. F. Heising, Dr. F. C. Rogers.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— Henry L. Ward, Prof. A. H. Sanford, Dr. G. L. Collie, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, C. L. Fortier, Mrs. E. C. Wiswall, H. P. Hamilton, J. P. Schumacher, Hon. Emil Baensch, W. W. Warner, B. H. Brah, Most Rev. S. G. Messmer, Dr. Frederick Starr, Dr. W. C. Daland, H. H. Schufeldt, Jr., Dr. J. J. Davis, R. H. Becker, Col. G. Pabst, Mrs. Mary J. Wilmarth, Hon. A. J. Horlick, F. H. Lyman, W. P. Clarke, Dr. W. H. Brown.
MEMBERSHIP— Jos. Ringeisen, B. W. Davis, Rev. L. E. Drexel, Paul Joers, O. L. Obermaier, W. A. Phillips, Miss Julia A. Lunn, L. R. Gagg, A. Crozier, A. Gerth, W. A. Wenz, C. G. Schoewe, W. H. Vogel, Miss Minna M. Kunckell, A. W. Pond, E. C. Tagatz, W. A. Kraatz, A. H. Quan, J. V. Berens, Miss Emma Richmond, A. T. Newman, H. O. Younger, Thomas Bardon, W. H. Zuehlke. Prof. F. G. Mueller.
PRESS— John Poppendieck, Jr., A. O. Barton, E. R. Mclntyre, R. H. Plumb, Miss Mary E. Stewart, A. G. Braband, H. A. Smythe, Jr.
MAN MOUND — Jacob Van Orden, Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Miss Jennie Baker.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Library-Museum Building, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday of each month, at 8 P. M.
During the months of July to October no meetings will be held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Members, $25.00 . Sustaining Members, $5.00
Annual Members $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeological Society or to the "Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to Charles E. Brown, Secretary and Curator, Office, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wisconsin, v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vol. 14, No. 3
ARTICLES
Page
Lake Wingra, Charles E. Brown 75
Archeological Notes 118
ILLUSTRATIONS
Winnebago Chief Bad Thunder Frontispiece
Map of Lake Wingra Facing page 76
Lake Wingra Facing page 78
Plate ~ Facing Page
1. Oregon Street Group 82
2. Dividing Ridge Group 84
3. Linear Mound in Dividing Ridge Group 86
4. Greenbush Mounds 90
5. Vilas Park Group 92
6. South Warren Street Group 94
7. Winnebago Girl 98
8. Jefferson Street Group 102
9. Edgewood Group 104
10. Wingra Group 106
11. Details of Effigies in Wingra Group 108
12. Cemetery Woods Group 110
13. Panther Effigies in Cemetery Woods Group 112
14. Lake Forest Group No. 1 114
15. Lake Forest Group No. 2 116
16. Vilas Group 118
Figure Page
i. Lewis Effigy 93
2. Bear Effigy : 96
3. Monroe Street Group 101
4. Edgewood Bird Effigy 104
5. Nakoma Mounds 109
6. Turtle Effigy in Lake Forest Group No. 2 Ill
Tiad Thunder, Winnebago Chief
The Wisconsin Archeologist
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeological Society
Vol. 14 MADISON, WIS., SEPTEMBER, 1915 No. 3
LAKE WINGRA
Charles E. Brown
Secretary and Curator, Wisconsin Archeological Society
Introduction
Lake Wingra is the smallest of the three beautiful lakes between which Madison, the capital city of Wisconsin, is situated. Its greatest length is one and one-fourth miles and its greatest width one-half mile. Its maximum depth is fourteen feet and its average depth ten feet. Its elevation above sea level is 849 feet. The lake has a marl bottom, this mud being from fifteen to thirty feet in depth.
When the first white settlers came to the site of Madison in 1837, this lake was surrounded on all sides by more or less extensive tracts of marsh and swamp land these indicat- ing by their extent that at some time in the distant past its water area must have been nearly three times as great as it is at present. The most extensive marsh and swamp areas were located along the eastern and southeastern portions of the lake. In recent years this original area of marsh land has been greatly diminished. Since 1905 a tract of such land on its northern and northeastern shore, where the margin of marsh was not very wide, has been converted into firm land by filling it with marl dredged from the lake bottom. This now forms a part of Henry Vilas park. The reclama- tion of the extensive marshy area on the south shore of the lake is now progressing under the direction of a local real estate firm. At the western end of the lake a similar under- taking is in progress.
MAP INDEX
The numbers refer to the numbering of the map and of the text descriptions.
Oregon Street Group Dividing Ridge Group Greenbush Mounds Vilas Park Group
9.
9a. 10. 11.
5. Vilas Park Mound and Village Site 12. 5a. Lewis Effigy 13.
6. South Warren Street Group 14,
7. Bear Effigy and Curtis Mounds 15.
8. Monroe Street Group 16.
Jefferson Street Group Lincoln Street Mound Edgewood Group Wingra Group Cemetery Woods Group Nakoma Mounds Lake Forest Group No. 1 Lake Forest Group No. 2 Vilas Group
Camp and village sites are indicated by dotted areas, trails by Ijroken lines and outlines of former marshy areas by dotted lines.
Lake Wingra 77
Extending along the eastern shore of the lake there for- merly was a steep moranic ridge, portions of which remain, the remainder having been levelled by the operation of two large sand and gravel pits. The refuse from one of these pits has been employed in filling some of the marsh between the base of the ridge on its western side and the lake shore. This picturesque ridge, known as the Dividing or Dead Lake ridge, separated Lake Monona from Lake Wingra.
From the northeast corner of Lake Wingra to the present location of St. Mary's hospital the general direction of this ridge was easterly. From this point to its termination near the Wingra canal crossing of the Oregon road its direction was to the southeast. Its former greatest elevation has been given as about seventy-five feet. Its highest part appears to have been that lying directly south of St. Mary's hospital, between the shores of the two lakes. At this point the strip of firm land at its base was very narrow, on the Lake Monona side less than an ordinary city block in width and on the Lake Wingra side much narrower. Scattered oak trees grew on its sides and crest. The elevated land on the north shore of the lake, now occupied by the streets and residences of Wingra Park, rises to a height of from twenty-six to thirty- three feet above the level of the water. At the western end of the lake the rise of the land from the marshy margin to the higher land beyond is more gradual. The most prominent knolls in the Lake Forest woods, on the south shore, are elevated from sixty-five to seventy-five feet above the lake. The lands about Lake Wingra were in the early days of set- tlement of the Four Lakes region covered with a more or less dense forest of oak trees. Of this original forest a few trees remain in Henry Vilas park and on the public oval and lots adjoining. Others are in the pasture on the Edgewood academy grounds. Some old paks continue to exist on the remnant of the extremity of the Dividing ridge located east of the Oregon road. At Lake Forest, on the south shore of the lake, the forest is rather dense but largely second growth timber. Other woodlands about the lake are the tract known as Wingra, which is already being invaded by suburban homes; the so-called Cemetery woods on the north side of the Illinois Central Railway track; the Buell woods on the west shore, and the Bartlett woods lying a short distance to
78 • WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 3
the southwest of the lake. Two creeks enter the lake, one at its western end and the other through the Lake Forest woods. On the margin of the lake are a number of fine springs which constitute the chief source of its water supply. Two of these are on the Lake Forest shore, one being choked at this time by a growth of water cress. Another fine spring known as the Gorham spring, is located on the Verona road, at the western end of the lake. One on the Edgewood shore is in use as a watering place for the Academy cattle. The Bryant spring on the edge of the marsh south of the eastern end of the lake, and the White Cross spring adjoining the ice houses on the Monroe road, on the north shore, supply spring water to many Madison homes. Two fine springs, not as well known as any of those noted, are located in the Lake Forest marsh by the side of a road leading across the marsh from the old Vilas (Gay) farm to the woods. These several springs were no doubt greatly appreciated by the Indian residents of this region. The trails passed some of them and Indian camps were located nearby.
In an article published in the Wisconsin Historical Col- lections (V. 7) Mr. J. A. Noonan states that the Indian name of this lake, "Wingra, or Duck lake," was obtained by him from one Joe Pelkie, a French and Indian resident on the site of Madison, in 1837. Maps of 1844 to 1848 give the name of this body of water as Lake Weengra. Since the fifties the spelling of this name has become altered to that now in use. It does not occur in the Winnebago, Chippewa or Menomini vocabularies at present available. The Win- nebago Indians who camped on its shores from earliest times, are said to have called this lake Ki-chunk-och-hep-er- rah, meaning the "place where the turtle emerges," a name given it no doubt because of the large number of mud and snapping turtles which are even to-day numerous denizens of its waters.
The lake has also been called Dead lake because of a former mistaken popular belief that it had no outlet. Maps prior to 1837 showed no connecting stream between lakes Wingra and Monona, though one has always existed. This outlet, first known as Weengra creek, and later as Murphy's creek, has been dredged and its course straightened and is now known as the Wingra canal.
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Lake Wingra 79
The great abundance of the fish in its waters and of the game on its shores made this lake a favorite place of Indian residence. Mr. George W. Stoner and other early settlers of Madison inform us that at times the local lakes were fairly black in places with flocks of ducks and geese. Quail, partridge and prairie chickens "could be counted by the thousands." Deer were plentiful. The black bear was occa- sionally seen. Wolves, foxes, lynx, wild cats, raccoons, skunks, woodchucks, and other animals of smaller size were numer- ous. Mink, muskrat and otter inhabited the marshes and lake banks. Fish of a number of species were very abundant in the waters. The dredging of several large elk antlers from Lake Wingra indicates that these animals also once roamed through the forests on its shores.
A limited quantity of wild rice grew in the western end of the lake. This has now disappeared. For a sufficient supply of this nutritious cereal the Indians must have resorted to some of the other lakes or connecting waterways. The yellow water lily (Nuphar advena) whose tuberous roots were often referred to by early Wisconsin travelers as "Indian pota- toes," grew in quantities in several of the shallower places in the lake. In the autumn acorns, which were an importamt article of food with the Indians, could be gathered in great quantities in the forests.
Other nuts, as well as berries of a number of kinds, were abundant.
Only scraps of the early Indian history of Lake Wingra are preserved to students of local history. It is evident from the evidences of aboriginal occupation upon its shores that this small lake was for several centuries at least a favorite resort of the red men. Winnebago villages and camps have been located upon the banks of this as well as of the other Madison lakes since stone age times. According to Winne- bago tradition no other tribe has ever intruded upon these lake lands. From the time of the coming of the first white settlers to 1870, or later, small bands or families of the Hochungara, as these Indians call themselves, continued to camp upon the lake banks from time to time. Favorite spots for the location of such camps appear to have been on the ridge at the eastern end of the lake, on the site of Vilas park and adjoining lands, and in the Lake Forest woods, where at night their camp fires could be seen from across the lake.
80 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14. No. 3
According to Mr. Stoner the Winnebago had a burial ground on the ridge about where the Pieh gravel pit is now located. These graves were covered with small logs which were laid upon them to prevent their being disturbed by dogs or wild animals. In removing the gravel at this place in recent years Indian bones were frequently disturbed.
In fishing and hunting upon the lake the Indians used log canoes. Mr. L. B. Rowley informed the writer that some years ago a number of these canoes could be seen in the water at the western end of the lake where they had probably been sunk by their Indian owners for safe-keeping during their absence. A canoe preserved in the State Historical Museum, at Madison, was obtained in 1908 from the marsh on the south shore of the lake. This specimen is made from a bass- wood log and is eighteen feet long and seventeen inches wide at its middle. It is said to have been brought down the Rock river from above Horicon, into the Yahara, and through lakes Kegonsa, Waubesa and Monona to Madison, by a Winnebago Indian, in 1895. He came to the lake every autumn until the year 1902 to trap muskrats and mink. On the occasion of his last visit, in that year, he probably secreted it in the marsh where it has since been found.
One of the principal Indian trails in the region of the Four Lakes lead from Pheasant Branch (Peena) at the northwest corner of Lake Mendota (Wonk-shick-o-meek-er-rah, where the man sleeps), in a southerly and southeasterly direction to the district between Lakes Wingra and Monona, thence across the land between the eastern base of the Dividing ridge and the latter lake following in a general way the course of the present Oregon road, thence across the tongue of the ridge and Wingra canal, and in a. southeasterly and easterly direction to the foot of Lake Monona. Crossing the Yahara (Catfish) at this place a lateral is reported to have continued northward to the Winnebago village and trading post site at Winnequah, on the east shore of this lake, while the main trail proceeded in an easterly direction for a short distance to a point where it united with the Mendota- Monona-Waubesa trail. Early maps show that another trail (probably uniting with the first at the Monona-Yahara crossing) traversed the land to the south of Lake Wingra and then proceeded in a northerly and northwesterly direction
Lake Wingra 81
to Pheasant Branch, the one-time site of a Winnebago village. Doubtless from a point just north of Lake Wingra this trail and that first described were identical. A trail traversing the north shore of Lake Wingra came from the direction of present Greenbush, skirted the present Edgewood grounds and then continued across the present Consumers' Ice Com- pany property. Somewhere northwest of this point it prob- ably connected with the first mentioned trail. It was prob- ably also only a continuation of either the trail which is said to have followed the crest of the Dividing ridge or that at the eastern base of the ridge. Laterals must have con- nected the camp and village sites on the lake lands not di- rectly in the course of the main trails described with these aboriginal thoroughfares. The courses of the trails as laid down on the accompanying map are only approximately accurate.
The Lake Wingra Winnebago in the days previous to the coming of the white settlers depended for their supplies upon the traders located at Pheasant Branch, on Lake Men- dota; Winnequah on Lake Monona; on the Oliver Armel post on the site of Madison and the Rasdall post near the outlet of Lake Kegonsa. Other traders from Lake Koshko- nong and elsewhere also visited the region to traffic with the natives.
Mr. Stoner, in an article published in the Madison Demo- crat (Dec. 3, 1899), tells of the great numbers of the Indians encamped about the local lakes in the thirties. He says that it was "no uncommon sight to see from 500 to 1,000 Indians" on the site of Madison in those years. Other early settlers state that bands of Pottawatomi, Chippewa and Sioux also occasionally visited this region at that time. Many early Madison settlers remember the bands of Indians, sometimes of considerable numbers, moving through Madison over the Monroe street road, the men usually mounted on ponies, the women frequently walking. Other ponies carried the camp equipage and younger children. Altogether they were a picturesque company as they moved in one direction or the other to distant camping grounds.
The Indian remains of Lake Wingra have attracted the attention in past years of several well-known archaeologists who have visited some of the groups and published papers
82 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 3
and articles concerning them. These were Dr. I. A. Lapham, Rev. S. D. Peet, Prof. T. H. Lewis and Prof. Gyrus Thomas. Peet's descriptions appear in articles in the American Anti- quarian, Wisconsin Historical Collections, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in his book, Prehistoric America (v. 2). His descrip- tions and figures are inexact and his conclusions often of a more or less visionary character. They are of little real value to the student.
Other references to the mounds on this lake appear in the several histories of Dane county. These are largely copied or compiled from some of the above sources.
Dr. Arlow B. Stout, then a student in the University of Wisconsin, made surveys of the mound groups on JefTerson street, on the Edgewood grounds and in the Wingra (Mar- ston) and Cemetery woods in the years 1906 to 1908. In the latter year the writer continued this necessary work, bringing it to its present state of completion.
INDIAN REMAINS
Oregon Street Group. (Plate 1). This group of Indian mounds was situated on the east side of Oregon street (a part of the Madison to Oregon road) between Pine and Cedar streets, in South Madison. They lay at the base of the west- ern slope of the Dividing ridge. A short distance to the north of their location is a large sand and gravel pit. On the top and slopes of the ridge is a grove of old oak trees and on its crest traces of a former road. Directly across the Oregon road from the mounds is a tract of low marshy ground which extends to the bank of the Wingra canal.
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, a former officer of the Bureau of American Ethnology, has given a figure and description of this group of Indian earthworks in the Twelfth Annual Re- port of the Bureau (pp. 46-47, fig. 6). Both are inaccurate as a comparison of his figure with that made by the writer on August 20, 1910, will show. No trace of the two conical mounds of which he found traces in the "old fields," at the northern end of the line of mounds can now be seen. His mound No. 1, which he describes as a "double excavation.
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Lake Wingra 83
one portion, the other in the form of a horseshoe," proved to be nothing more than the embankment marking the site of a former small building, probably of a powder house of the quarrymen, and adjoining which is a mutilated oval mound. His mounds No. 3, 4 and 5, two of which he de- scribes as rings of earth, and the other which he figures ^s of horseshoe shape, were mutilated circular and oval mounds, which were excavated by relic hunters previous to his visit to the group in 1889. Of his mound No. 7 only the faintest trace remained. No. 8 was not a mound but a natural sur- face formation.
In the road near the northwest corner of Pine and Oregon streets was a remnant of a partly destroyed small conical mound. On the crest of the ridge at a distance of about 175 feet northeast of mound No. 1, is a remnant of a small linear mound. This is about 27 feet in length and 12 feet in width. Its height is about If feet. It is within about one hundred feet of the edge of the old gravel pit and was very probably wrecked because of its lying across the line of ihe ridge road.
The mounds in the series at the base of the ridge were from 9 inches to a foot in height. What their elevations were before being excavated can not be determined but they were probably never much higher. Their diameters are given in the accompanying plat. Of the mounds of this group only mound No. 6 remains, the remainder being obliterated by the recent erection of a house, by Mr. Frank Coster, on the lot on which they were located. No. 6 lies on a lot be- tween the houses of Coster and J. B. Johnson.
2. Dividing Ridge Group (Plates 2 and 3). The crest of the high, steep-sided ridge which separates Lakes Wingra and Monona was in the year 1859 occupied by a large num- ber of Indian earthworks. A plat of this system of mounds, prepared in that year by Dr. Increase A. Lapham, shows a series of twenty-five mounds distributed along the top and a few of them situated on or extending down the slope of the ridge. The mounds were separated from one another by only short distances, the two farthest separated from each other being less than 80 feet apart. The width of the ridge crest was from about 30 to 150 feet.
84 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 3
Of the total number of mounds seven appear to have been conical or oval mounds, thirteen were linear and five effigy or animal-shaped mounds. Of the effigy mounds two were evi- dently intended to represent birds. One was an effigy of the familiar turtle and two effigies of the common so-called panther type. With two exceptions all of the linear mounds were examples of the very common straight or embankment- shaped form. The two exceptions were a tapering linear and a straight linear having a circular termination at one end.
At the time of the writer's first visit to this ridge crest, in 1908, all of these mounds had disappeared but those num- bered 1, 2, 3 and 4. These occupied the undisturbed portion of the ridge, between the two gravel pits. Measurements taken at that time showed these earthworks to have the fol- lowing dimensions:
No. 1. Diameters 30x70 feet, 9 feet high.
No. 2. Diameter 60 feet, 9 feet high.
No. 3. Length 70, width 30 feet, 5 feet high. A portion of the southern extremity has been removed since these meas- urements were taken.
No. 4. Length originally about 100 feet, width 25 feet, about 4 feet high. From the southern extremity of the last mound about 30 feet had been removed, its former extent being, however, still plainly indicated on the surface of the ridge. Between mounds No. 3 and 4 there were unmistak- able surface indications of the recent removal of a conical mound having a base measurement of about 35 feet. Lap- ham shows a bird effigy at this place. This was evidently an error in platting since no trace of wing-shaped appendages could be found on the undisturbed surface of the ridge on either side of the conical mound.
Beyond the removed extremity of mound No. 4, for a dis- tance of about 100 feet and extending to the edge of the Keyes gravel pit, the sod had been removed exposing the burned and broken stones of several fireplaces and plentiful indications of a former ffint chipping site. It was plain that Indian wigwams had at one time been located at this place. Doubtless this camp site originally extended further along the ridge top. In digging for relics at the side of and near the extremity of this last mound two Madison boys, according to the statement made fo the writer by one of them, had un-
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T.ake Wingra 85
earthed the bones of a human skeleton. This burial lay on its side.
In the levelling of mound No. 2, Mr. J. H. Pieh, the owner of the gravel pit, which is rapidly cutting away the north- erly end of the remaining section of the ridge, disturbed sev- eral burials. These were probably bone burials since the skulls and bones were scattered through the earth.
All of these mounds are built of black soil. As there could hardly have been a sufficient quantity of such earth on the narrow ridge crest, most, if not all of it, must have been carried up the steep sides from the marshy ground below, a task which could not have been otherwise than very diffi- cult and tedious.
In the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel of January 2, 1860, Dr. Lapham published an account of the excavation by himself of one of the mounds on the ridge (No. 1).
Opening an Ancient Mound Near Madison, Wisconsin
{Report by I. A. Lapham, Esq., to the American Ethnological Society.)
Travellers approaching the beautiful city of Madison, the capital of the young State of Wisconsin, by the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail- road, from the East, are conveyed across one of the lakes that give so much interest to this charming locality. Looking toward the South, they will fmd the lake bounded by a ridge of considerable elevation the crest of which is serrated by a series of ancient monuments of earth- work, the mysteries of whose origin and nature have not yet been fully found out. Their sharp outline, projected against the sky for a back- ground, with the scattered trees and shrubs, all reflecting in the clear still water of the lake, render this spot quite conspicuous and beautiful.
Of this remarkable ridge, which divides the waters of lake Monona (the third of the series) from lake Wingra, with its ancient earthworks, a sketch (Fig. 1) and a plot (Fig. 2) are given on plate 2. The slopes were steep, especially on the south side; the crest narrow, the soil a loose gravel, (drift of the geologists,) but slightly compacted with clay or other material. At the highest point, where the two largest mounds are situated, it has an elevation quite abrupt, of seventy-five feet, upon which the mounds make an addition of ten feet. In some parts, the ridge is covered with groves of small trees, at others it is naked.
By invitation of Geo. P. Delaplaine, Esq., of Madison, I visited that place on the 1st of June, 1859, in company with Prof. J. D. Whitney, the Geologist, for the purpose of making a survey and ex- ploration of the interesting group of mounds, before they should
86 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14 No. 3
become lost by the progress of "improvement" in that direction. Already some of them have been injured by the opening of roads, and by the idle curiosity of persons who have made slight excavations. It would be fortunate if other landed proprietors would follow the good example of Mr. Delaplaine, and preserve an accurate record of such ancient works as they are about to destroy. Many very interesting animal effigies, (mounds in the forms of animals,) have already been levelled by the plough, or otherwise injured or effaced.
The peculiar form of this ridge, the nature of the soil, and its position between two valleys, exposing it to the drying effect of the winds, render it peculiarly fitted for the preservation of anything that may have been buried under the mounds. The steep slopes fall away from the base of the mounds on either side, thus carrying off immediately the falling rain. The earth composing the mound was of fine material, well com- pacted, and still furthr protected by a dense sod of prairie grass and weeds; so that very little water could penetrate it; and the depth was such as to exclude all the destroying effects of frost in winter. We were therefore convinced that, if any of the original mound-builders are anywhere preserved, we might look for them here; and in this we were not disappointed.
These mounds, as is usual in such groups in Wisconsin, present a variety of forms — among them the circular, oblong, attenuated and animal-shaped. They are situated on the north-west quarter of sec- tion twenty-six, in township seven, and range nine of the government surveys. From the top of these mounds there is a very fine and ex- tensive view of the country around, suggesting at once the idea that this may have been a sort of look-out station or sentry post from which to watch the approach of the enemy.
The largest mound on this ridge, the one excavated by us, has an oval form, the basal dimensions being seventy and fifty feet; the height ten feet. It was built upon the convex surface of the ridge, so that the depth of the mound in the middle was a little less than ap- peared from the outside. The exploration was commenced on the southeast side by running a horizontal drift from the base toward the center. This brought us a little below the original surface.
Our first discovery was the remains of a human skeleton that had b3en buried about three feet below the top of the mound. The position of this skeleton was horizontal, the head toward the west. The bones were very much decayed, the teeth and a few of the larger bones being all that were sufficiently strong to be taken out. At the foot was the skull of a skunk, and also a few teeth, arid a portion of the jaw of another animal, apparently a fox. Whether these had been buried with the human body, or had burrowed into the mound on their own account is not easily determined, though the latter supposition is rendered prob- able by the good state of preservation of the skull of the skunk.
This skeleton was doubtless buried in the mound, since the original construction, as is often done by the Indian tribes. Its decayed con- dition was owing to its position near the surface, rather than to its great age.
Lake Wingra 87
Our work was temporarily arrested by the high wind, which swept with full force over the ridge, and kept the opening we had made involved in a cloud of fine dust, rendering it almost impracticable to breathe while making the excavation. The earth thrown out was quite dry, and in much indurated masses or clods, though the spring rains had hardly ceased. The material of the mound was mostly the dark colored soil of the prairie, showing that the surface only had been taken to construct it. At one place, there was a slight layer of gravel, as if a small quantity of that material had been used when the work had reached that point.
Under the middle of the mound we found the object of greatest interest. An excavation had been made in the original ground, the bot- tom of which was paved with rounded stones, imbedded in clay. Upon the pavement was placed the body of a man, in a horizontal position, the head toward the east, the legs and arms folded back. The skeleton was in very good state of preservation, most of the bones being found, including many of the smaller ones. The skull was nearly entire, but had been crushed and distorted by the pressure of the superincumbent earth.
About two feet above the skeleton, we found a few fragments of a hu- man skull, but no traces of other bones. They had, doubtless, been casually thrown upon the mound during the progress of its construction'
Very near the skull was found a gray flint arrow-head, and a bone, apparently of a bird, which had been wrought into an implement of some important use, no doubt, to those who made it.
Occasionally fragments of bones, and pieces of charcoal, were found at various depths, but no indication of the burning of human or other sacrifices. Roots of trees or shrubs had penetrated to the very bottom of the mound. While the work was in progress we were visited by numerous citizens of Madison, and by the Officers and Students of the Wisconsin State University, may of whom manifested a deep interest in the subject of American Antiquities.
In a letter addressed to Dr. I. A. Lapham, then state geologist, dated at Madison, October 12, 1874, W. J. L. Nicodemus informs him of the results of the exploration by himself of two of the burial mounds. In the first mound a few human bones were found. From the second he obtained two skulls and several potsherds. These were found buried on the natural surface of the ridge at a depth of eight feet below the surface of the mound. Other mounds on the ridge were explored by other persons but no exact information concerning the results of their digging is available.
In about the year 1898, Mr. Carl Brandt removed a large burial mound which was located on the ridge in his door- yard, on the south side of his house, on Oregon street about one block south of Middle street. At the base of this conical
88 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 3
mound he found the bones of two or three skeletons and a number of flint instruments. The skulls and implements were acquired by several Wisconsin University boys who visited his place at that time. A grooved stone axe was re- cently found by Mr. Brandt in a potato patch on the ridge near Middle street, north of his house. Several flint arrow points and potsherds were also obtained here.
Collections of flint chips and other rejectage of the Indian arrowmaker made by the writer and Mr. Albert 0. Barton from old wigwam sites on the crest of the Dividing ridge, chiefly in the section between the Keyes and Pieh gravel pits, appear to indicate that the kind of flint in most com- mon use by the early Indians, probably because of the ac- cessibility of the supply, was the attractive salmon colored flint which occurs in the limestone quarries west of the city of Madison. This material is of excellent quality and chips as well as implements made of it are found quite commonly on most of the old Indian camp and village sites which the writer has examined on the shores of lakes Wingra, Monona and Mendota.
Next in abundance of the flint rejectage found on the ridge sites is a pinkish or light reddish flint. The source of this material is not known. It is very probably an imported flint brought to this region from quarries lying to the south of Wisconsin, probably from the Flint Ridge region, in Ohio. It bears a slight resemblance to samples of Flint Ridge ma- terial obtained through the courtesy of Dr. W. G. Mills, of Columbus. Other sites about the Madison lakes yield chips and fragments and specimens made of this flint.
There were found on the ridge also chips and implements made of a flne white flint which may have been obtained by the aborigines either from boulders removed from the drift, or introduced in the course of Indian barter with tribes lying to the south of Wisconsin.
Chips of the grayish clouded or mottled so-called "Bad Axe" flint and which is reported as procurable in the state, also occur. Chips of this material the writer found very abundant on the old village sites examined by him at Rich- land City (Gotham) and at Sparta.
Other varieties of flint of which samples have been found on the ridge sites are a light grayish or brownish flint of fair
Lake Wingra 89
quality and undoubtedly Wisconsin in origin, a bluish gray flint, and a dark brownish flint.
Had it been possible to examine the entire crest of the ridge before the destruction of the parts now levelled a large amount of valuable evidence would very probably been ob- tained from the old camp and workshop sites which present evidence indicates must have extended over a considerable part of its length.
The small number of flint arrowpoints found on the sites between the two pits include nearly all of the common forms. The leaf-shaped triangular, notched and barbed types are all represented. These are made of the varieties of flint mentioned, and a few others. One small blank or rude point of whitish quartzite was found. Several perforators found are of the common form without a broad base. A small flake scraper has also been recovered.
Several potsherds are of small size and unornamented. Mr. Marion Granefield has a small copper awl which he col- lected from this place. The only object of possible white trade origin is a fragment of the bowl of a clay trade pipe. It is ornamented with several stars and is of the style in use sixty or more years ago.
In operating the gravel pits burials have occasionally been unearthed near the surface of the ridge. A skull obtained from one of these graves on July 10, 1900, is preserved in the State Historical museum. About four years ago Mr. William Keyes unearthed a skeleton in the sand pit, north of Middle street.
The destruction of the Dividing ridge was a crime which should never have been perpetrated. It was one of Madison's most charming scenic features*
3. Greenbush Mounds (Plate 4). Of a group of mounds formerly located in that part of the Ninth Ward of the city of Madison known as Greenbush scarcely a trace now re- mains. These mounds, according to the accounts of the few residents who remember them, are said to have been located on the ridge on the present site of St. Mary's hos- pital, near the intersection of Mill and Erin streets. On a lot adjoining on the east the home of Mr. William Burrowbridge there is a low embankment which may be the remains of a
90 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 3
linear mound. Mr. Albert O. Barton has collected a few flint arrow points in a piece of cultivated land on the edge of the ridge at the terminus of Mill street at this point. No indications of a former camp or workshop site could be found on this ground when recently examined.
The only description of this group of Indian earthworks which is available to students of Wisconsin archaeology is the rather fanciful one given by Dr. Stephen D. Peet, for- merly editor of the American Antiquarian, in his work, Pre- historic America (v. 2, p. 15). His plat of the group is re- produced in Plate 3. This will enable the student to judge for himself whether he agrees with its author in his identifi- cations of the animals represented by the several effigies. A careful checking of some of Dr. Peet's "surveys" by present day archaeologists shows some of them to be but little better than mere sketches. The platting of the animal figures is often poorly done.
"A large group of mounds containing one effigy of the fox (No. 4) and of another figure or effigy of doubtful significance (No. 3) may be seen in that part of the City of Madison called Greenbush. The group con- tains: man mound, 1; eagle, 2; a wild goose, 5; a kingbird, 6; and two straight mounds. The attitudes of all the creatures are very striking, especially the wild goose, chased apparently by the kingbird. The attitude of the fox is also expressive. It is situated on the slope of ground apparently crawling up the hill in a stealthy manner and as seen on the surface of the ground is a striking effigy."
On page 63 he describes the same group:
"A group of effigies may be seen near Lake Wingra, overlooking the marsh and lake. There is in the group a wild goose and a duck in close proximity, both flying toward the water, and a long tapering mound close by which may represent a fish. The habit of the birds is to feed in the marshes.
The effigies studied in connection with the locality give this idea. There are several other effigies in the group such as an eagle and a swallow, and two land animals, all of them arranged on the side hill parallel with the water, giving the idea that they were placed there as screens for the hunters who were watching the geese and ducks which frequented the lake."
In his Figure 12 he shows a single conical mound among the effigies. Two of the effigies in his plat are very probably intended to represent geese, one the eagle or hawk and an- other is a mound of the familiar panther type.
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In the State Historical museum there is an eight ounce cannonball which was found by Mr. George B. Merrick, of Madison, in black soil obtained from an Indian mound lo- cated near the old Catholic, cemetery, in 1905 or 1906.
4. Vilas Park Group (Plate 5). On the top of a hill, the northern terminus of the Dividing ridge, at the northeast corner of Lake Wingra, rising just above the Vilas Park Zoo and giving a fme view of the lake and its shorelines, is a rather compact group of Indian earthworks.
The preservation of the mounds now remaining was se- cured through the purchase by the city of Madison, in the years 1910 and 1913 of the hill-top and adjoining lower land. As may be noted from the accompanying plate there originally were in this group a total of eleven mounds. Eight of these were conical (burial), one a linear and two effigy mounds. One of the burial mounds was destroyed and several of the other mounds mutilated in past years by the erection of several dwelling houses, the cultivation of gar- den patches and the cutting of a road across the land. Por- tions of the wings of both of the bird effigies were thus re- moved. The former pasturing of cattle on the hill-top has also caused deformations of their wings and bodies. Of the burial mounds now obliterated considerable portions could still be seen when the writer first viewed these earthworks in 1908.
The conical mounds which now remain have diameters respectively of 24, 27, 28, 30 and 33 feet. The largest is about 3| feet high at its middle. The single linear is 72 feet in length and 17 feet wide. The body of the larger of the bird effigies is 70 and the other 58 feet in length. One bird originally had a wingspread of over 200 and the other of over 100 feet. Of the contents of the burial mounds de- stroyed little information is available. Scattered human bones were found in one of these.
On the afternoon of October 7, following a luncheon ten- dered them at Lathrop hall, the members of the Society of American Indians, then in Conference at Madison, were taken by the University reception committee on an auto- mobile drive over the University grounds and through the city parks. At Henry Vilas park a stop was made to permit
92 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 14, No. 3
of the unveiling of a descriptive metal tablet in honor of the occasion on the group of Indian earthworks here de- scribed. The tablet was placed on the top of the most south- erly of the burial mounds. It is 12 inches by 18 inches in size, is mounted on a concrete block and bears the following legend :
Indian Mounds
One of the Several Groups of Prehistoric Burial, Linear and Effigy Mounds Formerly Located on the Crest of the Monona- Wingra Ridge. Several of these were surveyed by Increase A. Lapham, in 1850.
Village Site was in the Park below.
Marked for the Wisconsin Archeological Society by W. W. Warner, 1914.
The unveiling address was delivered by the writer. Mrs. Sara E. Mallon, of Milwaukee, a handsome young woman of Wisconsin Menomini Indian descent, unveiled the marker. Rev. Mr. Henry Roe Cloud, an educated Winnebago Indian, delivered the address of acceptance. Among the native Ameri- cans present on this occasion were members of the Winne- bago, Chippewa, Pottawatomi, Menomini, Dakota, Omaha, Arapaho, Navajo, Cherokee, Oneida, Kickapoo, Fox and Brothertown tribes. Prominent Indian leaders present were Rev. Mr. Sherman Coolidge, Mr. William J. Kershaw, Mr. Hiram J. Chase, Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Mrs. Marie L. Baldwin, Mrs. Angel Decora Dietz, Mr. Chauncey Yellow Robe, Mr. Dennison Wheelock and Mr. Oliver Lemere. '
5. Vilas Park Mound and Village Site. At the base of the hill upon which is located the group of mounds just de- scribed, among the animal cages of the Henry Vilas Park zoo, is a solitary conical burial mound. This earthwork has a basal diameter of 17 feet and is about 1 J feet high. Growing upon one edge of this mound is an oak tree having a trunk 2 feet in diameter and at its other edge a large hickory. A metal marker, the gift of Mr. James M. Pyott, of Chicago, has been placed on this mound by the Wisconsin Archeologi- cal Society.
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When the present park lands were still in a wild state there existed at the northern end on the elevated land now occu- pied by the animal house and shrubbery a patch of Indian corn hills. There are said to have been several hundred of these. No vestige of them remains. In 1908, when the ground about the cluster of old oak trees in the center of the park was being prepared for the lawn, numerous flint chips and fragments and occasional arrow points, tips of deer antlers, animal bones, potsherds and scattered fireplace stones were collected by the writer. Several celts, grooved stone axes, and flint points had previously been collected here by local boy collectors.
The writer is informed that from the early fifties to the eighties small numbers of Winnebago Indians camped from time to time on this elevated land which was then bounded on several sides by a part of the Lake Wingra marsh, and also upon the land at the base of the ridge slope beyond.
5a. Lewis Effigy (Figure 1). In an article entitled