Mound Fort Artifacts.

[Robert Braun]

At the recent parade and town festival in Blue Mounds, The WHS graciously provided a display of dug artifacts from digs at the Mound Fort site.

Among the artifacts were: lead musket balls, lead spalling, bone fork handles, a broken two tined fork, a smallish fiddle-back spoon, kaolin pipe bowl and stem fragments, a musket-sized blond flint, a cast lead flint grip and a single brass U. S. Army General Service button. Cut nails, plate and bottle sherds and other items rounded out the display.

I am informed that the former state archaeologist Robert Birmingham is writing a book about the artifacts found at Mound Fort. Well he should, for the tie in with artifacts found at other 1830s Wisconsin sites (Fort Crawford, the Indian Agency House at the portage) will connect several dots regarding the material culture of the period.

Mr. Birmingham has confirmed evidence of gang molds in use at the fort.

Bob Braun

[richw]

What puzzled me (in the car, on the way home) was why there were Inddian trade goods in the fort, including a bale seal. Also present were 3 trade beads, and (?forgot).

What was going on at the fort that brought bales of trade goods there?

[Larry Koschkee]

Rich raises an excellent question that I have pondered about a bale seal found by a Dr. Harris Palmer work crew at the site of the Gratiot fortification in present day Lafayette County. You can just make out a faint fleur-de-lis symbol on one side of the seal and Roman numerals (I forgot exact number) on reverse side.

Many years ago I found a bale seal on the Denniston Hotel grounds in Cassville WI utilizing a metal detector. It has a loop intact and a "cross keys" symbol on one side a severly damaged reverse side.

While hunting stone points in a plowed field near Bridgeport Wisconsin (Brunet's Ferry Wisconsin River crossing) I discovered a looped seal with a series of circle ridges on one side and a human head side profile on the reverse side.

One of the lead objects discovered by an Amigo this summer in a street in Platteville WI is suspected to be a bale seal according to the opinions of two Professors of Archaeology. It looked like a "log stamp" to me.

[Robert Braun]

Very interesting materias here.

My question is: does the presence of lead bale seals automatically translate into the presence of trade goods?

Sacks and bales of say cloth were also shipped with bale seals.

For those who cant get enough on these seals, check out www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/baleseals.htm

Baled Bob

[Larry Koschkee]

For what it is worth ---- An interesting bit of information was gleaned from a talk by a Professor from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec some time ago. The Professor was hosted by the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, La Crosse Wisconsin and he wrote his dissertation on the trade route from Lachine, Quebec to Grand Portage Minnesota and the re-distribution of goods into the Mississippi River valley.

A large amount of bale seals have been found in the Chippewa River valley of Wisconsin, especially in the tributary, Flambeau River. Speculation is many canoe loads were dumped in the rapids of the river. Plus treasure hunters work shallow water of the river rapids areas extensively.

Another explanation given by the Professor for amount of artifacts found in the Chippewa River valley watershed is because it was considered a neutral zone between two Indian warring nations - Sioux and Chippewa. Evidently the zone suited the French in their Indian trade efforts - providing a realitive peaceful setting to conduct business.

Sources indicate that the Chippewa River valley neutral zone benefited wild game as well. Early travelers commented on the large amount of ungulates found in the region.

[richw]

larrykoschkee said:

....Another explanation given by the Professor for amount of artifacts found in the Chippewa River valley watershed is because it was considered a neutral zone between two Indian warring nations - Sioux and Chippewa. Evidently the zone suited the French in their Indian trade efforts - providing a realitive peaceful setting to conduct business.

Sources indicate that the Chippewa River valley neutral zone benefited wild game as well. Early travelers commented on the large amount of ungulates found in the region.

Larry,

I hate to pick on you but the historical evidence I have seen does not support the "neutral zone" idea often promoted. Malhiot, Curot, Nelson, and especially Chief Copway paint a picture that is less than "neutral." I think "contested area" would be a better label, considering the number of "war parties" from both sides that were causing constant fear, and leaving bodies in their wake.

I think a better explaination for the number of traders in this region would be
a. "Easy" water access (easier than the Montréal/Flambeau portage, for example).
b. An abundance of wild rice, hence the name Foille Avoine for the district.
c. An abundance of game and fur-bearing animals, as noted in your post.

This region was also one of the last dominated by British fur traders.

[richw]

BTW, the beads were:

"Russian" cut-facet bead, a large seed or small pound bead, blue-black in color, and a semi-transparent blue bugle bead.

The brass thimble found at the site could have been a trade item, too.

What I am now wondering is, were these "Indian" items brought to the fort as souvenirs of the BHW? Were they dropped by Menominees or other "friendly Indians?" Or, was there trading going on at the fort site, as implied by the bale seal. There were other trading sites in the region...

[Larry Koschkee]

Rich has challanged my statement that the Chippewa River Valley was considered at one time a neutral zone for two warring factions in pre-Wisconsin history. Name dropping, i.e., Malhiot, Curot, Nelson, Chieft Copway, does not come across as a sufficient rebuttal. It seems to me that an erudite person should bring more to the table.

Annotation of your position would be helpful, not only to myself, but others as well.

Thank you and best regards,

Larry Koschkee

[richw]

Larry,

surely you don't mean to say that your one reference of one unnamed person's [scholarly] opinion carries more weight than a handfull of historical documents?

[richw]

Copway, George. The traditional history and characteristic sketches of the Ojibway nation. London : Charles Gilpin, 1850.

Curot, Michel. A Wisconsin Fur-Trader's Journal, 1803--04. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Volume 20, pp. 396-472.

Malhiot, Francois Victor. A Wisconsin Fur-Trader's Journal, 1804--05. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Volume 19, pp. 163-215.

Nelson, George. My First Years in the Fur Trade: The Journals of 1802-1804 (Wisconsin). Edited by Laura Peers & Theresa Schenck. Minnesota Historical Society Press 2002.

[Larry Koschkee]

Rather than reading all the text of the sources you have provided, are there specific page numbers that dispute the idea of a neutral zone in the Chippewa River area? You said: " I hate to pick on you but the historical evidence I have seen does not support the "neutral zone" idea often promoted." A part of this sentence, " idea often promoted," leads me to believe that you have come across references to a "neutral zone" before.

I am open to changing my opinion if I can see convincing evidence to the contrary.

[richw]

Larry,

thanks for being patient. Given more time, I will add more quotes, but for now, here are a few...

From Chief Copway:

...it was the fisheries of Lake Superior
[p. 21]
that attracted them [Ojibwe] from their old haunts and induced them to leave the scenes to which, for so many years, they had been accustomed.

The same attraction is supposed to have drawn the Sioux to the south-west end of Lake Superior and to the land bordering all along below Shah-gah-wab-mick. In a short time contentions arose between the Ojibways and the Sioux about the right of occupancy. The game of the land and the fish of the waters were probably the first cause of hostility between the two powerful nations, -- a hostility which has been marked by many acts of cruelty on both sides. War commenced for the retention of the huntinglands, and a neutral ground having been between them ever since, the first cause of other wars has been forgotten, and the repeated ravages of death made upon each party have obliterated the remembrance of the cause of the early contention.

Noteworthy here is the use of the term "neutral ground," a place of "the repeated ravages of death."

Curot makes it clear that during certain seasons, the Ojibwe left the "neutral zone" to avoid Sioux war parties. The following quotes are from Curot:

Mr. Sayer would not
[Page 448]
Allow Them to Drink In The fort, fearing too much that the Sioux enemy might appear any moment, now that there were new trails Beaten down on the snow that had fallen during the last three Days.

[Page 449]
This evening The Sioux Spies came to listen and prowl around the fort. We saw Tuesday 6, Their tracks, they came from the side of Lake Jaune [Yellow Lake]. Smith and David went This morning to set a net under The Ice at the pakouiawin 1/4 of a League from the fort. David told us that he heard Sunday After he came back more than 40 gun shots in the direction of Lake La Coquille[now Clam Lake].

[Yellow (Jaune) River is a tributary of the St. Croix, in the present Burnett County, Wis. Warren, "History of the Ojibways," inMinn. Hist. Colls., v, pp. 171, 172, says that the villages on Rice Lake and Yellow River were founded on land won from the Sioux in the early part of the 18th century.--Ed.]

[richw]

One more, from Copway. I don't have any info on the war he mentions.

Of the recent war, an account of which has been published, on Lake St. Croix and Rum river, it is only necessary to repeat what others have said, that it was brought on by the treachery and cruelty of those in whose power it was to have prevented the sad occurrence. I was on the battle-field of Lake St. Croix soon after the conflict, and saw the remains of the slaughtered Chippeways scattered in all directions. The marks of bullets were upon all the trees, and the shrubbery was all trodden down. Some of the dead were suspended upon the branches of the trees. The Siouxs may have killed a large number of Chippeways, but the warfare was not an honourable one. The day previous, a pipe of peace was received from the Sioux nation by the Chippeways, who had a desire for peace.

The pipe was expected that day, and was smoked in good faith, but the next day the Siouxs followed the Chippeways up the river, then followed those of St. Croix. The day following they availed themselves of every advantage, and killed over one hundred Chippeways and upwards of ninety Siouxs. Since this conflict, many Americans have settled among them, whose presence has in
[p. 59]
a great degree prevented a repetition of the same disastrous scenes.

[richw]

Okay, one more from Copway...

Several years ago, while strolling by the Chippeway river, with one of the most intelligent Indian chiefs, whose name was "Moose Tail," he pointed out to me numerous battle-grounds of days past, and all day sketched to me in his own graphic language the conflicts that had occurred upon them.

I counted twenty-nine battle-grounds on the shores of the Menomenee river, along which is a small branch of the Chippeway, on the western side, where trees were notched according to the number of warriors who fell. The border of the St. Croix contains more, and the upper Mississippi can furnish traditional records of battles at every mile of its course.

[richw]

The continuation of these wars, up to the first of April, 1850, as given by the Minesota Chronicle, is here related:

"Our community has just been startled with the intelligence of another of those sanguine scenes so common in the annals of the two powerful tribes of the north-west -- the Siouxs and the Chippeways. On Wednesday morning last, about sunrise, a war-party of Siouxs from the village of Little Crow and Red Wing, surprised a small encampment of Chippeways, on Apple River, Wisconsin, and killed and scalped fourteen of them, without loss or injury to the attacking party. They also took one boy prisoner. Few men were with the party of Chippeways -- it being mostly composed of women and children, engaged in making sugar. The fourteen killed comprised three men, three nearly grown boys, six females, women and children, and two male children. The attack was upon ground heretofore ceded by the Siouxs to the Government, but upon which, by treaty stipulation, they still have the privilege of hunting. The place is twenty or twenty-five miles north-east of Stillwater.

On Thursday, the Sioux warriors appeared in the streets of Stillwater, and went through the scalp dance, in celebration of their victory -- forming a circle round the Chippeway boy -- their prisoner -- and occasionally striking him on the face with their reeking trophies. The boy, we understand, has already been adopted into one of the families at Little Crow Village.

It is with pain we record the occurrence of a scene so truly revolting to the better feelings of humanity. This aggression of the Siouxs will doubtless lead to retaliation on the part of the Chippeways; and we may expect to hear of more bloodshed, unless the civil and military authorities succeed in putting a stop to it. This can hardly be expected with the present meagre force on our frontiers. The murder of the Chippeway on Crow River by the Siouxs a few weeks ago, (who was the son of the Chief White Fisher,) had caused much revengeful feeling to break out anew among that tribe, previous to the occurrence we now relate.

It is proper to remark, that the better disposed men among the Siouxs entirely disapprove of this renewal of their old feud against the Chippeways. The leader of the party in this tragedy is a graceless scamp, who last fall scalped his own wife. He was arrested for the act, and confined in the prison at Fort Snelling for several weeks. Having signed the temperance pledge, and promised a reform for the future, he was finally released. It were better had he been kept there till this time. It is said the main reason that induced him to lead his comrades to slay the defenceless Chippeways, was to wipe off the disgrace of his former cruelty to his own family, and the punishment which followed it. Such are the Indian's ideas of honour!

Measures will be taken by Governor Ramsey to bring the offenders connected with this outrage to justice. The Chippeway boy will be sent back to his people as soon as he can be reclaimed from the Siouxs."