Fig. 569. (S. 5–8.) Copper beads and small cylinders. Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.
A very large number of other specimens are in other public and private collections in Wisconsin and other states. To the activity of the Wisconsin Archæological Society and of its members is due the very great increase in recent years of the number of copper implements in local educational institutions.
Fig. 570. (S. 2–3.) Copper gorget, W. H. Ellsworth’s collection. Copper beads, H. P. Hamilton’s collection. The gorget came from the banks of Silver Lake, Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
There is evidence to show that in pioneer days a very considerable number of such implements, their value being unappreciated, found their way into the hands of roving pedlers and junk dealers and afterwards into the founder’s crucible. In several institutions are implements which have been rescued from such a fate.
Fig. 571. (S. 1–2.) Copper and stone pendants from the cemetery at the mouth of the Wabash. Andover collection.
Others have been found useful by their original finders and wholly or partially destroyed.
I continue: The conclusion now universally accepted among archæologists is that there is no reason for attributing the working of the copper deposits or fabrication of the implements to any other people than the Indians. The early explorers found both the northern and southern tribes in this country using implements and ornaments of native copper often in common with those of stone. From South America almost to Canada various travellers refer to this metal being in the possession of or employed by the natives. Many of these accounts have been so often quoted by writers on North American archæology that they are entirely familiar to the student, and there is therefore no necessity of repeating them here. There is no doubt that some of these accounts refer to European metal obtained from earlier visitors or traders, or possibly from shipwrecks along the coast. Thus the natives soon became quite proficient in fashioning it into articles adapted or better adapted to their needs than the ruder articles which they then employed.
