LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
572.05 .^- 56-5 8
;>>"
The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below.
Theft, mutilation, and underlining of boolcs ar« reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
^L
/V>R 2 4 WJ^^'^ ' ^ '•'9'»
JUN 6
APR 11
19)4 11185
IPI? 0 1 /S9S JAN 0 2 NBB
DEC 0 8 1987
JUN 0 5 W|)9
JUN 0 8 1993 JUN0 4\iil
L161— O-1096
V. SC
^0. ]
THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE AND CEMETERY
IN OCEANA COUNTY, MICHIGAN
GEORGE I. QUIMBY
University of Itdnois APR 22 1968
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
VOLUME 56, NUMBER 1
Published by
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
DECEMBER 9, 1966
1 ' ! ;
Drawing by distal Dais
THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE AND CEMETERY
IN OCEANA COUNTY, MICHIGAN
GEORGE I. QUIMRY
Curator oj Ethnology, Thomas Burke Washington State Museum
Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington
Research Associate, North American Archaeology and Ethnology,
Field Museum of Natural History
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
VOLUME 56, NUMBER 1
Published by
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
DECEMBER 9, 1966
Published with the Assistance of the Harry W. Getz Memorial Fund.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-28392
PRINTED IX' THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS
FA
CONTENTS
PAGE
List of Illustrations 5
I. Introduction and History of the Site 7
II. The Burials and the Faunal Remains 12
III. Artifacts of Stone and Bone 20
IV. Artifacts of Copper and Shell 36
V. Tobacco Pipes and Animal Skins 51
VI. Pottery from the Dumaw Creek Site 64
VII. Vegetal Remains and Textiles 73
VIII. Dating the Site 80
IX. A Reconstruction of Dumaw Creek Culture 83
X. Tribal Affiliations 87
References 90
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOx\S
Frontispiece
PAGE
1. Two views of skull of burial no. 1 13
2. Two views of skull of burial no. 2 16
3. Two views of skull of burial no. 2 17
4. Upper torso and jaw of child and fragment of bearskin from burial no. 3 . . . 18
5. Triangular arrowheads of chipped flint 21
6. Triangular arrowheads and stemmed knives or arrowheads of chipped flint . 23
7. Triangular arrowheads of chipped flint 26
8. Knives of chipped flint . . ' 29
9. Flint drills or knives and scraping tools 31
10. Stone axes 33
1 1 . Artifacts of bone 34
12. Copper hair pipes 37
13. Drawing of Dumaw Creek Indian wearing copper hair pipes and shell beads
as head ornaments 38
14. Copper beads 40
15. Copper beads and shell beads 41
16. Ornaments of shell and copper 43
17. Pendants and beads of shell 45
18. Shell beads 47
19. Marginella beads 48
20. Stone pipes 50
21. Effigy pipes of stone 53
22. Pieces of animal skin 55
23. Drawing of Dumaw Creek Indian in beaver robe with painted decoration . . 56
24. Bag probably of beaver skin 58
25. Bag of weasel skin 59
26. Skin bag and sections of leather or sinew cords 60
27. Small fringed leather bag and mass of folded leather 61
28. Piece of sewn leather, probably part of a bag 62
29. Pottery vessel with scalloped lip 65
30. Pottery vessel 66
31. Pottery sherds 68
32. Pumpkin seeds and fragments of woven bag 73
33. Twined bag 74
34. Woven mat and detail of weave in twined bag 78
5
INTRODUCTION
A few miles northeast of Pentwater in western Michigan there is a for- mer Indian village and adjacent burial ground used in the last decades of the sixteenth century or the qarly decades of the seventeenth century. This archaeological site is important because it is one of very few now known which manifest Woodland Indian culture in the Upper Great Lakes re- gion of the period just prior to the arrival of European explorers, traders, and missionaries.
The Dumaw Creek site, as it is called, is located in section 5 of Weare township (T 16 N, R 17 W), Oceana County, Michigan, on a sandy, undu- lating plain bordering the northwest side of Dumaw Creek, a small trib- utary of the north branch of the Pentwater River. The creek is shallow, clear, and swift-running in a wooded V-shaped valley, the bottom of which is about 30 feet (as measured by hand-level) beneath the plain. This creek is not now navigable by canoe and may not have been at the time of occu- pancy by Indians, although a canoe could be floated to within a mile or two of the site both then and now. If Dumaw Creek was navigable by canoe in the period of occupancy, the site probably was at the head of navigation.
When the Indians lived along Dumaw Creek the uneven sandy plains were covered by forests in which white pine was the most common, if not the dominant, species. This pine was cut by lumbermen in the years be- tween 1 870 and 1 880 and the stump-land left by the cutting was eventually taken over by farmers. Large pine stumps were still being pulled out as late as 1916 and the land remained in agricultural use until about 1930. In the 1940's oil was discovered in this part of western Michigan and by 1960 the Dumaw Creek site was a drab wasteland of sand blows, low sand dunes, odoriferous oil wells, pumps, and pipes, and a few rotting pine stumps, where once there had been Indians and magnificent forests.
History of the Dumaw Creek Finds
Although the Dumaw Creek site was discovered and excavated in 1915-1916, the finds made then and their significance were lost to archae-
7
8 THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
ological science. It was as if the site had never been dvig. In ail the years I was training in archaeology at the University of Michigan I had never heard of an archaeological find such as this one in any part of the upper Great Lakes region. Yet, as I was later to find, the essential clues that led to the re-discovery of the site were at the University.
In the autumn oi 1959 the Department of Anthropology at Field Museum of Natural History received from the Museum's Department of Zoology an undocumented collection of archaeological materials. These archaeological specimens had been included in a collection of shells ob- tained by the Department of Zoology from the estate of Mr. Charles D. Nelson, a retired schoolteacher of Grand Rapids, Michigan. These speci- mens included a skull with scalp and hair intact and ornamented with cop- per hair pipes; another skull wrapped in animal skins; copper beads; copper hair pipes; some pottery sherds of distinctive style; shell beads; tri- angular arrowheads of chipped flint, and a number of other artifacts which will be described in greater detail elsewhere in this report. What is im- portant here is that Field Museum's Department of Anthropology had acquired a collection of interesting archaeological materials that looked as if they all might be part of one relatively recent cultural complex, but there was no accompanying documentation, except one possible clue that proved to be incorrect, and the man who might have been able to supply the necessary information was dead. The collection was without scientific value unless it could be demonstrated that the artifacts were from spe- cific sites or, better yet, one specific site and that the site could be located.
There were two clues with which to start. The previous owner of the collection had lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one of the boxes con- taining the artifacts had a penciled notation reading "Newaygo County, Michigan." I learned from friends in Grand Rapids that the skeletal ma- terial and artifacts had been sold to Mr. Nelson by a dealer in stamps, coins, and Indian relics, named H. E. Sargent. Mr. Nelson's collection had been part of a larger collection that Mr. Sargent had offered for sale in the late 1920's or early 1930's. At that time Mr. Sargent claimed that the entire collection had been dug from "mounds near Whitehall, Mich- igan" in Muskegon County. I doubted that this provenience was correct because I was thoroughly familiar with the area round Whitehall. Hav- ing spent summers there from 1914 to 1936, I felt certain that I would have heard some news of this find if it had really taken place in the vicinity of Whitehall. At about this point in my investigations, I recalled that the late Dr. Wilbert B. Hinsdale of the University of Michigan had main- tained a file of newspaper accounts of finds of Indian remains in Michigan. Accordingly, I traveled to the University's Museum of Anthropology and obtained access to Dr. Hinsdale's old files.
INTRODUCTION 9
These files consisted of three or four scrapbooks in which were pasted newspaper chppings dating between about 1900 and 1935. There was no particular arrangement to this collection of clippings, so it was neces- sary to examine them all, book by book — a somewhat laborious process. Eventually my efTorts were rewarded. I found an undated article that obviously referred to the collections I was attempting to document. The pertinent parts of this article are as follows:
UNEARTHS RELICS OF AGE LONG PAST MASON COUNTY FARMER'S DISCOVERY DATES BACK OF INDIANS
Pentwatcr, Mich., March 6. — Buried evidently at a period far remote from the time of the earliest explorations of this country by Europeans, a collection of antiquities has been unearthed in this vicinity which seems to prove the theory that the .'\ztecs of Mexico once inhabited what is now the northern part of the United States.
This find was unearthed by Carl Schrumpf, a farmer, of Summit township, four miles from here, while he was digging up a pine stump 30 inches in diameter. . . . Imbedded at the taproot of the stump Mr. Schrumpf found a skeleton in a fair state of preservation. Subsequently he found 1 8 other skeletons with their accompani- ment of articles of utility and adornment. All the bodies had faced the east, and had been buried in a sitting position, the knees drawn up against the chest.
Among the relics found . . . were a skull to which is still attached considerable hair, elaborately dressed with copper beads, the strands of hair being drawn through the beads, which are approximately 2^^ inches long, and knotted to prevent the beads from slipping. To the other side of the skull cling remnants of a war bonnet showing traces of hide and also of textile, apparently made of vegetable fiber.
A pipe made of stone, stem and bowl in one piece, the latter elaborately and artistically carved in the semblance of a bird's head. The basic material is flintlike and very highly polished.
A snake of copper, six inches in length, forming a pendant, found on the breast of a child. Pipe bowls formed of pottery. . . . Needle believed to have been made of beaver bone. . . . Miscellaneous assortments of arrow and spear heads; also quan- tities of broken pottery. Granite spheres. . . . Wampum [shell beads] and copper beads.
With the evidence gleaned from this old newspaper article, I now knew that the artifacts recently obtained by Field Museum came from some- where near Pentwater and that they had been dug up by Carl Schrumpf. But I still didn't know when they had been found nor did I know whether the site from which they came was in northern Oceana County or in south- ern Mason County. In an effort to settle these questions I next directed my attention to the files of Dr. Hinsdale's correspondence preserved in the archives of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.
In Dr. Hinsdale's old files I eventually found a communication from Carl Schrumpf dated 1932 in which he stated, "The collection that I found several years ago I sold to a man from Grand Rapids by the name
10 THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
of Sargent. . . ." Mr. Schrumpf also disclosed in his correspondence that he would be 80 years old on May 17, 1933 and that his address was Route 2, Hart, Michigan. I now had corroborative evidence indicating that the collection in question, or major parts of it, had been sold by Mr. Schrumpf to the Grand Rapids dealer named H. E. Sargent who, in turn, had sold a large portion of it to Mr. Nelson, the schoolteacher, from whose estate Field Museum had received his part of this collection. I also was certain that Mr. Carl Schrumpf, aged 80 in 1933, was dead by 1960, the year in which I read his correspondence to the late Dr. Hinsdale.
I continued my search by looking through the University of Michigan Museum's site files covering Mason and Oceana Counties, watching par- ticularly for the name of Schrumpf. In the Oceana County file I hit "pay dirt." I not only found a site reported by Carl Schrumpf but I also found a picture of Mr. Schrumpf displaying the specimens he had found. These included the diagnostic objects, such as the skull with scalp and hair intact with attached hair pipes of copper, a number of the specimens that were now in the possession of Field Museum, and many additional objects that I was able to trace subsequently. But most important, I now knew that the site was in Section 5 of Weare Township, Oceana County, Michigan. In additional files dealing with Oceana County I learned that Mr. Carl Schrumpf had dug up these specimens in 1915 and 1916 and that, under the direction of Dr. Hinsdale, Mr. F. M. Vrieland had made an inventory of Schrumpf's collection for the Museum of Anthropology in 1924. At this point I had found abundant evidence to document the archaeological collection that Field Museum had obtained from Mr. Nelson's estate. But there remained one thing yet to do: to inspect the site personally.
In the summers of 1960-1962 I occasionally visited the Dumaw Creek site studying the topography and general situation of the site and making surface collections. There I found fragments of pottery with the same unusual characteristics that were typical of sherds in Mr. Schrumpf s col- lection and arrowheads of chipped flint that were identical in style and treatment to those excavated by Mr. Schrumpf. By 1961 there was no shadow of doubt whatever. The collection of Indian artifacts and skeletal material that Field Museum had obtained from the estate of Mr. Charles D. Nelson had come to him from the dealer Sargent who had purchased them from Carl Schrumpf sometime after the summer of 1924. The Museum's collection was now documented and well worth study and anal- ysis. Moreover, there was information available on other specimens from the Dumaw Creek site that were not in the Museum's collection. There was also the possibility of locating additional Dumaw Creek artifacts in the possession of other institutions and individuals.
INTRODUCTION 1 1
I did locate some additional Dumaw Creek artifacts in other collec- tions. At the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan there were fragments of Dumaw Creek pottery that had been donated by Mr. Carl Schrumpf. Two Dumaw Creek pottery vessels were obtained by Field Museum from the Coffinberry Chapter of the Michigan Archaeo- logical Society. Although these vessels were listed as having come from a mound at Whitehall, Michigan, they were illustrated in the above-men- tioned photograph of Mr. Schrumpf and his Dumaw Creek site specimens. In Grand Rapids Dr. Ruth Herrick kindly allowed me to examine and photograph a gorget of shell. Although this gorget was cataloged as hav- ing been found in a mound near Whitehall, I recognized it from a drawing Vrieland had made when he inventoried Schrumpfs Dumaw Creek col- lection in the summer of 1924. Furthermore, both this gorget and the two pottery vessels previously mentioned were directly traceable to the dealer Sargent who had bought them from Carl Schrumpf. A similarly docu- mented collection of about one dozen important specimens from the Dumaw Creek site was found to be owned by Mr. Carl L. Adams of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I examined this group of artifacts in 1962 and 1964. However, the largest privately-held collection of Dumaw Creek cultural materials turned up in the possession of Mr. Seymour R. Rider who has a farm near Hart, Oceana County, Michigan.
Mr. Rider had been collecting Indian relics in Oceana County since 1908 and he dug up several burials from the Dumaw Creek site shortly after Schrumpf made his findings in 1915 and 1916. Most of Mr. Rider's collection from this site was picked from eroded surfaces of dwelling areas or excavated with burials that had been partly exposed by erosional forces. A few of his specimens he obtained from Mr. Carl Schrumpf, whom he knew personally. I had learned of Mr. Rider's collection from friends in Pentwater, Michigan, and in the summers of 1961, 1962, and 1963 I de- voted some time to photographing and studying his materials from the Dumaw Creek site.
By the summer of 1964 I had obtained a large body of data from which I could make a useful reconstruction of the culture that was manifested at Dumaw Creek. I was personally familiar with the site and its history since Mr. Schrumpf first dug there and I knew that Dumaw Creek culture was an exceedingly young variety of the Late Woodland complex of cul- tures in the Upper Great Lakes region. Although this important site had not been dug into by any professionally-trained archaeologist, it was, none- theless, now possible to analyze and interpret the data in somewhat the same way as if I had excavated the site myself and to make my ideas and interpretations known to others.
II
THE BURIALS AND THE FAUNAE REMAINS
There were at least nineteen burials removed from graves at the Du- maw Creek site in 1915-1916 by Mr. Carl Schrumpf. However, the 1924 inventory of Schrumpfs collection made by Vrieland for the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology suggests that 55 skeletons were taken from the site by Schrumpf between 1915 and 1924. In this same period there were some additional burials removed from the site by col- lectors from Ludington, Hart, and perhaps other towns in the area. The only statement about burial position is in the undated newspaper article from the files of the late Dr. W. Hinsdale m Ann Arbor (see p. 9). Ac- cording to this account, "all the bodies had faced the east, and had been buried in a sitting position, the knees drawn up against the chest." My own experience with Late Woodland burials elsewhere in western Mich- igan leads me to believe that what Schrumpf meant by "sitting position" was, in reality, a bvirial in a tightly flexed position with the corpse on its back or its side. Vrieland's 1924 inventory adds the information that sometimes there were two skeletons in the same grave pit.
In the Field Mviseum of Natural History collection from the Dumaw Creek site there are the partial remains of 14 burials consisting of ten adults, three sub-adults, and one child. The adults and sub-adults were represented by skulls, some of which had varying amounts of skin and hair adhering to them. The child remains were parts of the upper torso and lower head in an excellent state of preservation. In July of 1964, Mr. James MacDonald, then a graduate student in physical anthropology at the University of Toronto, made a number of useful observations and comments regarding these human remains which I have summarized here. Of the ten adult skulls, four were most probably male, two probably were female. No attempt was made to sex the remains of the three. sub-adults and child. The skulls of adult males and females were gracile with small mastoid processes and brow ridges that were not developed. They did, however, have prominent chins. One female was particularly brachy- cranial, the remaining females tended to be brachycranial and the males more or less mesocranial.
12
f i^'n' ^'. J^'' ""'^"^^ °'"'''"" of burial no. 1 : rear of skull and right side too- front of skull and left side, bottom. ^ ' P'
13
14 THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
The skull of burial no. 1 (catalog no. 26811 7), most probably an adult male, had skin and hair attached to it (fig. 1). The hair was colored with powdered red ocher and ornamented with hair pipes^copper tubes held in position by tresses of hair inserted through the tubes and tied with knots larger than the diameter of the tubes. When found, this skull had a piece of beaver fur and a textile fragment, probably remnants of burial wrap- pings, adhering to one side of it. The skull itself is 1 8.5 cm. in length from glabella to opisthocranion and has a maximum width of 14.5 cm. The lower jaw is missing and the face is in very poor condition, probably the result of handling and lack of specialized care at the time of excavation and during subsequent storage.
Fortunately, the skull from burial no. 2 reached the Museum with its wrappings intact. In January, 1959, 1 carefully removed these wrappings, layer by layer. The outermost wrapping was raccoon skin folded two or more times so that the fur side was largely out or enclosed in the inner folds. Next was a section of skin and fur of the black bear and beneath this were the remnants of a layer of elk skin with hair intact. Between the combined elk and bear skin layer and a large section of textile there were the following objects: a triangular arrowhead of chipped flint (catalog no. 268123); an ovate knife of chipped flint (catalog no. 268131); a small woven bag (catalog no. 268184) of pumpkin or squash seeds (catalog no. 268183); a sturdy thorn probably used as a needle or awl (catalog no. 268182); a short section of wooden rod such as part of an arrowshaft (cata- log no. 268181); six culmens from the beaks of large hawks (catalog no. 268186); two fragments of a feathered tail of a bird, probably a hawk (catalog no. 268187); some dried leaf fragments, one of which was a spe- cies of fern (catalog no. 268188); the seed of a wild grape {Vitis sp.) (cata- log no. 268189); an unworked mussel shell {Fusconaia flava), probably used as a spoon (catalog no. 268180); a leather bag (catalog no. 268105) with a repaired area showing aboriginal sewing; a narrow bag made of a weasel skin (catalog no. 268106); a flattened mass of folded leather and leather thongs (catalog no. 268159); fragments of leather cords and thongs (catalog nos. 268157 and 268158); a section of braided grass (catalog no. 268160); two fragments of white pine (catalog no. 268178); a piece of folded leather with remnants of sewn stitches (catalog no. 268104); a frag- ment of sewn beaver skin (catalog no. 268108); and a small fringed bag or pouch of leather (catalog no. 268103).
The large section of textile mentioned previously proved to be a large flat bag woven of spun buffalo hair and leather thongs by means of a twin- ing technique. This bag and other artifacts found in the wrappings re- moved from the skull of burial no. 2 are described elsewhere in this report.
THE BURIALS AND THE FAUNAL REMAINS 15
Beneath the woven bag was another large bag (catalog no. 268107) made of beaver skin with the fur side on the interior. Possibly this bag had been turned inside out. In any case, it lay directly against the skull of burial no. 2.
This skull (catalog no. 2681 1 3) was badly warped laterally — flattened from side to side by pressure of the earth over the grave pit (see figs. 2 and 3). In this condition it is about 20.6 cm. long from glabella to opisthocranion and 11.7 cm. in maximum width. The face is missing, but the right mastoid process and part of the right zygoma are still intact. Probably this skull is that of a male. Most, if not all, of the hair is still attached to a thin layer of well-preserved skin adhering to the top and back portions of the skull. The hair is colored with powdered red ocher. Running lengthwise along the crest of the skull there was a double band of rawhide, seemingly part of a headdress, possibly a kind of roach (cata- log no. 268116). Over the lower back portion of the skull there was a rectangular plaque of large tubular beads of copper held in position by leather thongs (figs. 2, top; 3, bottom).
Burial no. 3 in the collection (catalog no. 268185) is that of a child less than two years of age and probably only one year old. The remains con- sist of a fragmentary lower jaw and a section of the upper part of the torso and the lower part of the head, including skin, hair, and some bones (fig. 4). The torso-head section is about 13 cm. high and 14.3 cm. wide at the shoulders. On the skin of the left chest there is the partial imprint and greenish stain of a copper snake effigy pendant that accompanied this child burial in the grave. Other artifacts found with this burial were nine or more small tubular beads of shell and seven or more small tubular beads of copper. Some of the shell beads were still on their cord which was made of two strands of bast fiber showing a right-to-left twist. Most of the copper beads were still on a leather thong, although one such bead had a fragment of bast fiber cord with a right-to-left twist. There was also a section, 15 cm. by 6 cm., of bear skin with fur intact (catalog no. 268155) which may have been part of a robe or burial wrapping (fig. 4, bottom). Thus this child, when laid in its grave, probably was wrapped in the skin of a black bear and was adorned with a copper pendant in the form of a snake, a string of shell beads, and two strings of copper beads. These and other artifacts are described in more detail in subsequent portions of this report.
Most of the artifacts from the Dumaw Creek site were found in graves where they had been deposited as burial furniture, but unfortunately, ex- cept as noted above, the data on specific associations and relationships have been lost over the years or may not have been recorded in the first
Fig. 2. Two views of skull of burial no. 2 : right side of skull, top; left side of skull, bottom.
16
Fig. 3. Two views of skull of burial no. 2 : top section of skull, top; rear portion of skull, bottom.
17
Fig. 4. Upper torso and jaw of child and fragment of bearskin from burial no. 3.
18
THE BURIALS AND THE FAUNAL REMAINS 19
place. Undoubtedly, some of the artifacts that lack specific provenience were found with some of the burials represented by the skulls in the Field Museum collection from the Dumaw Creek site. Four of these skulls have characteristic greenish stains showing that they had been buried in asso- ciation with copper artifacts which were relatively abundant in the graves at this site.
In the Dumaw Creek collection owned by Mr. Carl L. Adams of Grand Rapids, Michigan, there is an object which probably was once part of one of the burials excavated from the site in 1915-16 by Carl Schrumpf. It is a hank of human hair tied in the middle with a leather thong that had been carefully wrapped around the hair nine times. The distal end of the hank was doubled back so that it lay over the tied part. The proximal portion was colored with red ocher. This queue-like relic is about 7 cm. long and 2.5 cm. in diameter.
In the collection of Mr. Seymour R. Rider of Hart, Michigan, there were large numbers of human teeth from the Dumaw Creek site. These represent burials in that they are remains of skulls that were fragmented in the course of excavation. Most of Mr. Rider's collection of artifacts were found as burial furniture.
The Faunal Remains
The faunal remains from the Dumaw Creek site that are in the pos- session of Field Museum of Natural History were kindly identified for me by the following members of the museum's Department of Zoology : Joseph Curtis Moore, Curator, Mammals; Philip Hershkovitz, Research Curator, Mammals; Emmet R. Blake, Curator, Birds; Fritz Haas, Curator Emeritus, Lower Invertebrates; and Alan Solem, Curator, Lower Invertebrates. The kinds of animals present at the site were manifested by skins and furs, bones, teeth, etc., which, for the most part, were artifactual remains. Be- cause of the nature of the collections, frequencies of given animal remains are of little significance and are not given here. The animal remains found at the Dumaw Creek site were those of bear (Ursus americanus), beaver {Castor canadensis), buff'alo {Bison bison), deer {Odocoileus virgianus), elk {Cervus canadensis) , raccoon {Procyon lotor), weasel {Mustela sp.), hawk (prob. Buteo sp.), and mussel {Fusconaia flava) . All of these remains, except pos- sibly buff'alo, were of animal forms native to the region. And buffalo were less than 200 miles south of the site in the prairies or oak openings of south- western Michigan. The exotic remains, such as marginella shells {Gla- bella or Prunum apicina) and conchs, were undoubtedly imported through channels of trade, a tradition going back some thousands of years in the eastern United States.
Ill
ARTIFACTS OF STONE AND BONE
Stone
The Dumaw Creek Indians made arrowheads, knives, and scraping tools of chipped flint and ungrooved axes of hard, granular stone. The flint seems to have been derived from pebbles and small cobbles of the kind found in glacial deposits or in stream beds or along lake shores. It was variable in color and texture. Some observers might call this mate- rial chert, but, since I cannot accurately distinguish between flint and chert, I am here using the term flint for stone that breaks with a con- choidal fracture and can be chipped and flaked as if it were glass. The flint arrowheads seem to have been made somewhat carelessly or at least with a minimum of eff"ort, yet I have no doubt that they were perfectly functional. Some of the knives and scrapers seem to have been made with greater care and more completely finished.
The ungrooved axes were made, in this instance, of diabase. Evidence from elsewhere suggests that axes such as these were hafted through sockets cut into hardwood handles. All of the stone artifacts from the Dumaw Creek site are described in the following pages.
Arrowheads
More than a thousand flint arrowheads have been found at the Dumaw Creek site both in the village debris and as part of the burial off'erings in graves. At least 99 per cent of these are small triangular arrowheads of chipped flint ranging in length from 1.5 cm. to 3.5 cm. In the collections of Field Museum there are some 135 triangular arrowheads from the Dumaw Creek site. These are presented by selected groupings in the following pages.
The first group (fig. 5) consists of 26 arrowheads that were found, according to Carl Schrumpf, near the right hand of one of the buried skeletons. These triangular arrowheads (catalog no. 268124) range in length from 2.0 to 2.9 cm., in width from 1.4 to 2.1 cm., and in thickness from 0.3 to 0.6 cm. Twenty of these arrowheads are chipped bifacially and six show chipping on only one face. Sixteen of these points have
20
ARTIFACTS OF STONE AND BONE
21
AlAii
Fig. 5. Triangular arrowheads of chipped flint found with one burial.
Straight bases and ten have slightly curved bases. One arrowhead is cov- ered with powdered red ocher, the others range from white to gray, the natural color of the flint. Measurements of arrowheads in this group follow :
SOME MEASUREMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
|
(Measurements in cm.) |
||||
|
No. |
Length |
Width |
Thickness |
Characteristics |
|
1 |
2.0 |
1.8 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
2 |
2.0 |
1.4 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
3 |
2.4 |
1.6 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
4 |
2.9 |
1.5 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
5 |
2.5 |
1.4 |
.3 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
6 |
2.8 |
2.0 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
7 |
2.5 |
1.6 |
.6 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
8 |
2.5 |
1.7 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
9 |
2.5 |
1.5 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
10 |
2.3 |
1.6 |
.5 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
11 |
2.5 |
1.6 |
.4 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
12 |
2.3 |
1.5 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
22 THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
|
No. |
Length |
Width |
Thickness |
Characteristics |
|
13 |
2.8 |
2.1 |
.5 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
14 |
2.2 |
1.7 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
15 |
2.4 |
1.4 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
16 |
2.5 |
1.6 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
17 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
18 |
2.5 |
1.8 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
19 |
2.6 |
2.0 |
.6 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
20 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
21 |
2.2 |
1.5 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
22 |
2.6 |
1.8 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
23 |
2.4 |
1.8 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
24 |
2.4 |
1.7 |
.4 |
unifacial, curved base |
|
25 |
2.3 |
1.7 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
26 |
2.6 |
1.6 |
.4 |
unifacial, curved base |
A group of 27 somewhat larger, triangular points (catalog no. 268125) lacks information about specific provenience within the Dumaw Creek site. These arrowheads (some of which may be knives) could have been part of the village debris, burial finds, or a mixture of both. They range in length from 2.4 to 3.5 cm., in width from 1.3 to 2.3 cm., and in maxi- mum thickness from 0.4 to 0.7 cm. Twenty-three of these points were chipped on both faces and four had unifacial chipping. Sixteen points had straight bases, ten points had curved bases, and one point had a broken base. The color of the flint ranged from white to gray or tan. Some of these arrowheads are illustrated in Figure 6 ; upper 4 rows, and measurements follow :
SOME MEASUREMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
(Measurements in cm.)
|
No. |
Length |
Width |
Thickness |
Characteristics |
|
1 |
3.4 |
1.9 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
2 |
3.1 |
1.3 |
.4 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
3 |
3.1 |
2.3 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
4 |
2.4 |
1.9 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
5 |
3.0 |
1.8 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
6 |
2.8 |
2.2 |
.5 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
7 |
3.0 |
1.9 |
.4 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
8 |
2.6 |
2.3 |
.6 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
9 |
2.7 |
1.7 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
10 |
3.0 |
2.3 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
11 |
3.3 |
1.8 |
.6 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
12 |
3.5 |
1.9 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
13 |
2.7 |
1.8 |
.5 |
bifacial, broken base |
|
14 |
3.5 |
1.8 |
.5 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
15 |
2.7 |
1.6 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
16 |
2.8 |
2.0 |
.6 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
17 |
3.0 |
2.1 |
.6 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
18 |
3.3 |
2.0 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
19 |
3.4 |
1.9 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
20 |
2.9 |
1.9 |
.4 |
bifacial, curved base |
|
21 |
2.8 |
2.2 |
.5 |
bifacial, straight base |
|
22 |
3.2 |
1.7 |
.4 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
23 |
3.4 |
1.8 |
.7 |
bifacial, straight base |
ARTIFACTS OF STONE AND BONE
1 ii 1 # f
23
AA A i A
i AAAA^4 A JkiiA AA
A A ^ A A A A
Ai^ Ai A AaA
^Uf^
M A •«.
^. :a 44
«
Fig. 6. Triangular arrowheads and stemmed knives or arrowheads of chipped flint.
No. Length Width Thickness Characteristics
24 3.5 2.0 .5 bifacial, straight base
25 2.9 1.6 .5 bifacial, straight base
26 3.1 1.8 .4 bifacial, curved base
27 3.5 2.0 .6 bifacial, straight base
Another group consists of thirty-eight triangular arrowheads (catalog no. 268126) that range in length from 1.7 to 2.9 cm., in maximum width
24 THE DUMAW CREEK SITE
from 1 .2 to 1 .9 cm., and in maximum thickness from 0.3 to 0.6 cm. These arrowheads do not have specific proveniences, but all of them are from the Dumaw Creek site and it seems likely from written statements by Mr. Schrumpf and others that most of these points were found in graves as part of the burial furniture. One of these arrowheads is chipped on one face only, the remaining 37 of them show bifacial chipping. Thirty- one of the points have straight bases, five have slightly incurved bases, one has a base that is excurvate, and on one broken point the base is missing. The color of the flint generally ranges from white to dark gray, but there are a few reddish pieces and several that are mottled. Some of these arrowheads are shown in Figure 7, upper 3 i-ows, and their measurements are as given below.
SOME MEASUREMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
(Measurements in cm.) No. Length Width Thickness Characteristics
1 2.7 1.5 .5 bifacial, straight base
2 2.4 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
3 2.1 1.6 .4 bifacial, straight base
4 2.3 1.6 .4 bifacial, straight base
5 2.2 1.3 .3 bifacial, straight base
6 2.1 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
7 2.5 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
8 2.5 1.7 .5 bifacial, straight base
9 2.6 1.7 .6 bifacial, straight base
10 2.2 1.9 .4 bifacial, straight base
11 2.5 1.7 .4 bifacial, straight base
12 2.8 1.4 .4 bifacial, straight base
13 2.7 1.7 .4 bifacial, straight base
14 2.5 1.8 .5 unifacial, curved base
15 2.3 1.5 .5 bifacial, curved base
16 2.0 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
17 2.5 1.2 .5 bifacial, excurvated base
18 2.9 1.4 .5 bifacial, straight base
19 2.7 1.5 .4 bifacial, diagonal straight base
20 2.8 1.7 .4 bifacial, straight base
21 2.5 1.5 .4 bifacial, curved base
22 2.0 1.4 .5 bifacial, straight base
23 2.4 1.8 .6 bifacial, straight base
24 2.5 1.8 .4 bifacial, straight base
25 2.0 1.3 .3 bifacial, broken at base
26 2.1 1.9 .4 bifacial, straight base
27 2.1 1.6 .4 bifacial, straight base
28 2.6 1.5 .5 bifacial, straight base
29 1.9 1.4 .4 bifacial, straight base
30 2.1 1.7 .5 bifacial, curved base
31 1.9 1.6 .4 bifacial, straight base
32 2.5 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
33 2.5 1.5 .5 bifacial, curved base
34 1.7 1.6 .4 bifacial, straight base
35 2.2 1.2 .3 bifacial, straight base
36 2.2 1.4 .4 bifacial, straight base
37 2.2 1.5 .4 bifacial, straight base
38 2.4 1.7 .5 bifacial, straight base
ARTIFACTS OF STONE AND BONE 25
Still another group (catalog no. 268127) consists of nineteen triangular arrowheads that are without specific proveniences within the Dumaw Creek site. They range in length from 1 .9 to 2.8 cm., in maximum width from 1.4 to 1.9 cm., and in maximum thickness from 0.3 to 0.5 cm. Six- teen of these points are completely chipped on one face only and the remaining three arrowheads are chipped bifacially. Seventeen of them have straight bases and two have bases that curve inwardly. Their colors range from white to dark gray, except for one brown point. Some of these arrowheads are illustrated in Figure 6, bottom 4 rows. The individual measurements and some observations are listed below in tabular form.
SOME MEASUREMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
(Measurements in cm.)
|
No. |
Length |
Width |
Thickness |
Characteristics |
|
1 |
2.2 |
1.6 |
.3 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
2 |
2.4 |
1.7 |
.4 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
3 |
2.5 |
1.8 |
.3 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
4 |
2.7 |
1.8 |
.3 |
unifacial, straight base |
|
5 |
1.9 |
|