Copper seems to have played an important part in aboriginal life in this country. As the natives possessed neither gold nor silver and because silver ornaments are extremely rare, one may say that silver was not in use; copper appealed to them as being something beyond the ordinary, if not possessing supernatural powers. There was no other substance which they could hammer into shape, or slightly anneal and work more easily. No other malleable material possessed that bright, beautiful color and was capable of such polish. Therefore, copper appealed to the aborigines, and they made general use of it more as an ornament, or a totem, than for ordinary utility; that is, save in the “copper belt,” where it was so common that tools were made of it.
Fig. 623. (S. 3–4.) Mica ornaments. Ohio mounds. Collection of W. C. Mills, Columbus, Ohio.
What the Northern Indians received in exchange for the copper has always been a mystery to me. In Wisconsin and Michigan where drift copper occurred in large quantities, and where it still may be found, it is likely that the natives carried on an extensive trade in copper and that the peoples of Ohio passed it on, one may suppose, to the South. This trade was extensive because not only in our museums are there thousands of copper objects, but there are many more in the hands of private collectors, and in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley where there has been much digging, great quantities of hatchets, plates, nose-rings, and spools are dug up from time to time.
Fig. 624. (S. 1–3.) Mica ornaments from mounds of the Hopewell Group. Field Museum collection, Chicago.
One may question whether the presence of copper in the Ohio Valley really means extensive aboriginal commerce or trade. I say Ohio Valley because more mound copper is found there than elsewhere, although the South should by no means be excluded. Copper and other foreign materials abound in the middle and lower Mississippi Valley. Yet upon the shores of Lake Superior, about the copper range, on the streams and lakes of Wisconsin and Michigan where lived the Indians who possessed so much copper that they made of it hatchets, fish-hooks, knives, spear-points, etc., usually are to be found no Southern types save a few pipes and problematical forms in slate. What did these Northern natives receive in return for the quantities of copper which they must have bartered? Did they receive bird-stones, gorgets, pipes, etc.? Their bird-stones are very like those of Indiana and Ohio, yet they have a broad bird effigy usually with ears on both sides of the head which is not found save occasionally in southern Ohio and Indiana, and seldom in the South where mound copper is common. Their gorgets and pipes appear to be local. It has occurred to me that the peoples of Indiana and Ohio, and possibly the South, made raids in the copper country, or found copper nuggets in the drift, or mined their own copper, or robbed the Northern peoples of such copper as they wanted. If there had been any extensive aboriginal trade, we should surely find more evidence of it.
Mr. Clarence B. Moore[[28]] has conclusively proved that the copper taken from the Southern mounds and Ohio mounds is prehistoric and not of European origin. Some of the gentlemen connected with the Smithsonian Institution and affiliated museums contend that the fine repoussé work, on sheet-copper, could not have been made by aborigines working with stone tools.
A few words regarding the illustrations. An inspection of all the figures in this chapter, marked from the Hopewell Group, give some idea of the remarkable copper effigies, ornaments, cut designs, etc., comprising the Hopewell collection. This is now on exhibition in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and can be seen by any person who will take the pains to visit that institution. It is justly considered the greatest prehistoric copper collection in the United States. In the Hopewell Group altars hundreds and hundreds of copper ear ornaments were found, all more or less affected by heat. Professor Mills has dug up many ornaments of these same kinds and says of them:—
“Copper ear ornaments were frequently met with in the graves, and twenty specimens were secured. They were invariably found in pairs. The manufacture of these ornaments required skill, as well as a high degree of advancement in ornamental art. The mode of manufacture of the ear ornaments, although two different types were found, was similar. One type was made of two concavo-convex plates, and were connected by a cylindrical column; but only a few pairs of this type were found. The other type, which was most common, was made of four plates of copper, two of which are circular, and two concavo-convex. The concavo-convex plates are attached to the circular pieces, which form the inside of the ornament. The discs are connected with a small cylinder of copper. This figure is a good illustration showing two views of the second type of ear ornaments. Other copper ornaments were found sparingly in the burial cists. From one grave a large copper crescent was removed, and from another, six large copper balls.”