The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2

by Warren K. Moorehead

THE STONE AGE IN DAKOTA

The former Territory of Dakota included that portion of the country now forming the States of North and South Dakota.

The ancient specimens of handiwork in the Dakota Territory of the early “eighties” comprised surface “finds,” which were mostly stone mauls, hammers, and axes, rude bone and pottery articles of old village-sites, and also various kinds of mound products.

The principal artifacts are here enumerated:—

Hide and Bark

Leather or tanned hide, found occasionally in mound burial-pits. Although evidently very old, it appears to have been carefully tanned, and to have been part of the hide of a buffalo.

Baskets made from the bark of the birch tree. These are small and are nearly all of similar pattern. Usually the basket consists of but one piece of bark cut in such a manner that it could be bent and fashioned into a neat basket and stitched together where the parts overlapped. Sometimes two and even three rows of holes are present, showing great regularity, and that a small needle and thread must have been used in the work.

Objects made from Deer Antlers

Pear-shaped deer antler pipe-bowls, three and one half inches long, and two and one fourth inches wide at the top, have been found by the writer. (See Fig. 428, F.)

Deer antler, perforated near one end.

Deer antler tyne, perforated and notched. Perhaps this served as a message stick.

Deer antler tyne, peculiarly cut and furrowed. Probably a tool. (See Fig. 542.)

Bone Objects

Bone harpoons for spearing or catching large fishes such as the Great Lake pike of Devils Lake.

Bone anklet, with ornamental carving, and having holes near two opposing margins for lace-strings, and other holes perhaps for the attachment of ornaments.

Bone tubes or pipe-stems, cut from the hollow bones of birds’ wings.

Bone awls, needles, and knife-blades.

Shell Objects

These comprise objects made from fresh-water shells as well as those made from ocean shells.

Among these are the following:—

Circular pearly ornaments like buttons, with a central aperture and four marginal notches at regular intervals. Large pearly shell rings thicker and wider on one side. (See Fig. 543, E.) Usually more than twenty of these rings have been found together near a human skull and in such a position that there seems no doubt they had formed the principal part of a necklace.

Oblong pearly pendants, notched near one end for the cord of attachment, and decorated with four or five notches on the other extremity. (See Fig. 528.)

Long beads made from the columella of shells of the ocean gasteropod, Fulgur perversa, of frequent occurrence also in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. (See Fig. 543, D.)

Small shell beads made by grinding the ocean shells Nerita, Natica, and Marginella on the shoulder of the spire. (See Fig. 543, G.)

Scoop or spoon, made from a valve of the bivalve mollusc Unio, the common fresh-water mussel. This has a very short handle cut on it, and it is ornamented with a few notches on the margin.

Stone Objects

Sharpening-stones. Ovoid objects made of coarse sandstone and having a groove in the centre of one side. These were for sharpening bone awls and needles and probably for grinding shells and other articles into the desired shapes.

The stone mauls and hammers were plentiful in the southern portions of Dakota; but were absent from a large part of the Territory near the forty-ninth parallel. Most were grooved near the middle, and they varied considerably in size and shape. There were also some grooved stone axes, some of which possess a prominent ridge beside the furrow and upon the side between the furrow and the edge end of the axe.

Barbed flint and agate spears. Some are very large. All are translucent and exhibit workmanship of a high order. They are found in the burial-mounds, and are very rare. (See Fig. 214 A.)

Flint and agate arrow-heads. Only a very few of these occur. They are also well made.

Effigy stones. Two slender stone serpents have been reported from South Dakota. One of these is said to have six curves or convolutions.

Stone pipes. (See Fig. 428.) These are made of catlinite or red pipestone, and are regularly formed and beautifully polished. They are all straight tubes constituting bowls, and vary in length from two to ten inches. One taken out of a mound by the writer was ten and one quarter inches long (twenty-six cm.). The stem was at least in some cases made from the hollow ulnar bone of the wing of a large bird; for bone stems of this character were found with several of the pipes. Hollow pieces of wood may perhaps also have been used as pipe-stems. This straight tubular pipe is very characteristic of the mounds of North Dakota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, very few of other kinds having as yet been reported from this prairie region.

Stone tablets. Flat pieces of stone are sometimes found; but they are very rare. One of these found by Montgomery in 1889 is made from pipestone or catlinite and has the figure of an animal carved upon each side. (See Fig. 310.) One of the carvings is probably meant to represent a beaver, and the figure upon the other side of the tablet is a representation of a buffalo cow with open mouth, and the figure of a stone spear-head with shaft attached, pointing to the heart. It would seem to indicate that the buffalo had been shot in the heart by the spear or large arrow, and in consequence the mouth is represented as being wide open. Some, however, interpret the position of the spear and shaft to mean the “line of life,” which may possibly be the correct interpretation. Another tablet found by Montgomery in a burial-mound has the figure of a beaver carved upon each side, one representing the upper surface of the animal, and the other being a side view.

Objects of Copper

The articles made of copper are few in kind and number. They are chiefly simple cylindrical tubular beads and rudely formed spear-heads of native copper.

Objects of Pottery

The writer has found a number of vessels of pottery in the burial-mounds of northern Dakota. All of them are small urn-shaped vessels of coiled ware, and almost all of them were found in a perfect condition. In most cases their decoration is a continuous spiral groove around the body of the urn, terminating near the centre of the bottom of the vessel. In a few instances the decorative design is different; and some are provided with four holes in the rim for suspension by cords.

On the Mandan village-sites and in the more southern parts of Dakota many fragments of pottery jars and vessels are found. These have various incised decorative designs, and in some cases ears or small handles are present. Much of this pottery closely resembles the pottery of the eastern part of the continent.

Objects of Unbaked Clay

There have been tobacco-pipes of unbaked clay found by the writer in the burial-mounds of this region. One form of these consists simply of a bowl with a straight tubular passage. (See Fig. 429.) It is nearly of the same design as that of the catlinite pipe.

A second kind (see Fig. 429) has stem and bowl in one piece and is bent or curved so that the stem is at right angles with the bowl as in modern pipes. These pipes, like some of the catlinite pipes taken from the ancient mounds, showed evidence of much usage, there being a considerable incrustation or deposit within the bowl from the burning of kinni-kinnic of some kind.

While some of the artifacts herein enumerated and described were undoubtedly made by Sioux and Mandan Indians, it appears quite certain that the products of the mound burial-pits, that is, the spirally grooved urns, the tubular pipes, antler tynes, and sea-shell ornaments, belonged to some other ancient tribe, possibly to the ancient Arikaras, or to a yet earlier tribe.

CHAPTER XXXVI
CONCLUSIONS

Naturally, the Conclusions to “The Stone Age” are somewhat long, and while I have embodied them all under two chapters, yet they have been grouped under subdivisions, as will be observed by readers.