The last three weeks of the 1999 class were spent at the Pokagon Village site, a historic site that is now located on private property with several owners. This historic village was inhabited by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians around A.D. 1830. The investigations at the site were conducted in cooperation with the Pokagon Band and were endorsed by the Tribal Council. John Warren, the Cultural Coordinator for the Band, really helped get the project off the ground.
The location of the Pokagon Village site was first recorded by land surveyors in the early 1830s. The village location was described in the surveyor's notes. He mentions that approximately 20 houses were scattered in a small valley, and gives the location of Pokagon's cabin and a Roman Catholic "church, school, or mission house."
The site now lies in a combination of wooded areas, areas covered with dense brush, and cultivated field. Our first step was to reproduce the 1830s survey. This was done early in the spring so that we could see through the dense vegetation covering most of the area. At a later date, we examined the surface of a fallow corn field on the northeast corner of the village and found some scattered historic artifacts.
For practical
reasons, the field school worked in the fallow corn field on the northeast
corner of the village. We are very grateful to Dr. Bob White, the
property owner, for allowing us to work there. We conducted surface
walkovers and plotted all surface artifacts. The artifacts were concentrated
around a large knoll.
This shows the condition of the knoll at the time of the survey.
We then conducted
magnetic and resistivity surveys of the knoll in the area where artifacts
were most abundant. We also made conductivity surveys over part of
the area using a EM338 conductivity meter graciously loaned to us by Geonics
Limited, Ltd. The resistivity and conductivity surveys were not
very successful because the weather had been very dry and soil moisture
was too low.
The magnetic data were more helpful. The surface
artifacts are shown as black circles. Postive magnetic signals are
shown in red, and negative ones in blue. Paired red and blue anomalies
are characteristic of metal.
Each grid square is 10 meters square. The surface artifacts were scattered across a small knoll (its center is near letter "C"). Excavation units (outlined in white) were placed to test some of the anomalies.
Units in area
"A" (near the top) tested the strong positive and negative anomalies in
this area. They were produced by a midden that contained many artifacts
dating to the Pokagon era. Area "B" tested a strong dipolar anomaly.
This was produced by a piece of sheet metal on the edge of the midden.
Area "C" was a large weak dipole that was produced by a patch of burned
soil. This may have been the remnant of a hearth. We assume
that a cabin or wigwam was located on the top of the knoll at "C" and that
refuse from the cabin was deposited into a small gully at the base of the
knoll (at "A" and "B").
John Warren keeps
careful watch over the excavations while teaching the students a a few
Potawatomi phrases.
Excavations in the midden area were conducted in levels to identify any changes in artifact types over time.
A variety of artifacts were found during the excavations. They
all date to the early 19th century and represent typical household refuse.
Potttery sherds included pieces of blue-edged ware, red and brown transfer
prints, and sherds with hand-painted floral designs (upper left).
All of these would have been imported from England. Crockery (the
red earthenware in the upper right) was used for storage and could have
been made in America. Clay pipe fragements (such as the stem and
bowl fragments on the middle right) were also common.
Faunal remains included the large elk tooth shown on the lower left,
pig teeth, and other miscellaneous animal bone fragments that have not
been identified.
Metal artifacts (lower right) included iron nails, brass buttons, scraps
of sheet brass, many other iron fragments, and one small piece of lead.
To Sum It All Up: The 1999 investigations at the Pokagon
Village site located debris from a cabin that once stood on the northeastern
edge of the village. The small size of the pottery sherds and other
artifacts, and their excavation contexts (within or just below the plowzone)
show that this portion of the site was badly disturbed by plowing.
Even though this part of the site was badly disturbed, future study of
the artifacts will tell us more about life at Pokagon Village around A.D.
1830.
