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taken could substantially influence the numbers since the amount of dispersal and aggregation depended on the
availability of specific resources.

The years of 1840~1842 were poor ones for the Grand Portage Band who went to La Pointe to plead for
hunting gear and supplies. They maintained a loyalty to British trade and were reluctant to trade with the
American fur Company. {n the spring of 1842, Fr. Pirez set up his mission at the mouth of the Pigeon River,
where he encouraged the practice of agriculture and husbandry. He did not linger and there was no priest until
1848.

The 1854 Treaty of La Pointe included the cession of lands from Duluth to the international border, setting
aside two reserves at Fond du Lac and Grand Portage. According to Hickerson (1974:2-3), there were three
distinct groups of Ojibwe in northeastem Minnesota (“Area 332”) as signators of the treaty. These were
“politically distinct from each other--they never combined for any activity, economic. social, political, or
ceremonial, (he three villages. or bands, of Chippewas living in Area 332 were called in the treaty document
Grand Portage Band (4 signers), Fond du Lac Band (14 signers), and Bois Forte Band (3 signers)” (Hickerson
1974,2-3)

Fable 2, Regional Chronology.

Date (A.D) | Event

700 1400 Widespread co-occurrence of Terminal Woodland ceramic types throughout the Lake Superior Basin.

1400-1750 | Sandy Lake pottery appears with Blackduck and Selkirk wares.

164] 1642 | Jerome Latemant wrote that the Saueur were tocuted at Sault Ste, Marie and the Sioux were 18 days
travel trom Sault Ste. Marie: probably the Mississippi headwaters.

1665-1666 \Jouez founds mission at Chequamegon among Huron and Ottawa refugees from Iroquois wars.

1667 Allouez reters 10 @ group called the Ouichibuxec

1669-1670 | Dablon places the Sioux eight days west of Chequamegon.

1670 Allouez differentiates between the Ourchibouec who are located north of the Sault, and the Saute’,
1676 Radin map shows the Sioux living between the west end of Lake Superior and the Mississippi

(Riviere Baude).

1679-1680 | According to Duluth, the Ojibwe are attempting to extend their hunting lands to the west trom the
Sault. Peace council held at Fond du Lac (?) among the Cree, Ojibwe. Sious. and Assiniboine.
Peaceful relations lasted until 1736.

[680— Hypothesized period of westward migration of Saulteaux.

1682 La Salle states that the Sauiteaux actively trading with the Sioux in the Mis ppi headwaters area.

1695 The trader La Chesnaye states that the Ojibwe were living as far west as Pic River: Cree at Lake
Nipigon; Cree and Assiniboine at the Kaministiquia River,

(729 1730 La Verendrye explores west of Lake Superior, Pigeon River. Rainy Lake. Reports that the Indians at

Kaminstiquia River were Cree, Monsonis, and Assiniboine.

(rt French enter into direct trade with the Sioux. eliminating the Ojibwe as intermediarivs.

Ca, 1 730- First evidence of the Grand Portage Band as a discrete entity as signatories on treaties and in
740s historical documentation.

1736 Aflance broken: war opens between Sioux and Cree; Ojibwe shift alliance trom Sioux to Cree and

Assiniboine,

1736-1776 | Characterized by Hickerson as a period of warfare with changes in tribal use and occupancy (i.e.
expansion) in the region northwest of Lake Superior; places the Ojibwe (“Saulteaux”] at the mouth of

the Kaministiquia River in 1744 and in the rice district and Mississippi headwaters region by 1775.

33


beaver, moose, caribou. and deer hunting. fishing, and berry collecting. Group size could vary widely and
mobility was at its peak as canoe travel made all the islands, rivers. and lakes the highway of the people.
Another major fish run occurred in fall as trout and whitefish sought out their spawning grounds and large
numbers of people gathered at the river mouths on Lake Superior for the last time of the year for this harvest
Fall brought the harvest of wild rice for those with access to this important crop. The western portion of the
Grand Portage Band territary touches upon the “rice district” and provided a storable resource that would.
along with preserved fish. meat. and berries. provide a savings account for winter survival when the availability
of food was least secure. As game fattened and coats thickened in anticipation of winter, attention returned te
hunting, and the hunters and their families dispersed to their interior camps. Winter was a period of relative
isolation and limited mobility, occasionally ending in a lean period broken by temperatures allowing the sap of
the maple tree to be collected and rendered into life-saving sugar. Maple sugaring over a period of many vears
could have led to a strong identity of families to their traditional sugar bush, and by extension, to a seasonal
resource-based territoriality

While the availabiligy and distribution of food resources is paramount in its importance, other factors
influenced the settlement and subsistence patterns. Human needs other than eating had to be met. it was during
the periods of abundance that intormation regarding the distribution of game, enemies, and friends, and the
prognosis of a rice harvest or fish run could be learned. Feasting and rituals reinforcing the community,
mariage. burial of the dead. and exchange of gifts took place during these times, and important plans of future
movements were made

Another very important dimension is one of reciprocal relations among baud members. The sharing of
resources was a network of security that could be counted on at any time of the year. Special relationships
based on kin or clan membership could often mean the difference between life and death, especially during the
lean months of winter and early spring. If a family had located in an area where there was no game. it could
move to another area where, based on information learned from the fall gathering, relations could be found.
Wintering on Isle Royale may have been a greater risk since the decision to stay on the island would have been
irrevocable after the onset of storms and ice, and would have been without recourse 0 reciprocal security,

History and the Ojibwe Name

When considering the question of “who are the Ojibwe,” we need also to ask, “what is Ojibwe” since we are
not only dealing with a living group of people. but with the name itself which, as we shall see. has its own
history in time and space. including a variety of usages. At the outset, we must acknowledge an important
caveat:

Without a clear understanding of the historical usage of “tribal” designations such as “Cree” and “Ojibwa” (or,
for that matter. “Ottawa,” “Algonquin,” “Montaignais.” “Naskapi,” etc.), attempts to classify the supposed
antecedents of contemporary native populations often lead to mistaken theories of population movement, or to
false impressions of either homogeneity or discreteness of culture [Greenberg and Morrison 1982:92].

Schenek’s (1997) brief but succinct treatment of historic names identifies the earliest name that can be reliably
linked to the southern Ojibwe as Suwteur (alternate spellings include Sau/reur and Saulteaux). The name was
in more or less general use by the Freach throughout the seventeenth century, and referred to the principal
place of residence at Sault Ste. Marie (Schenck 1997:1 7-18). The Sauteur were first contacted by Jesuits in
1642 as participants in the Feast of the Dead, which was hosted by the Nipissing on Lake Huron. A subsequent
visit by the priests to the Sault found about 2,000 people engaged in fall fishing (Schenck 1997:18-19).
Schenck (1997:19) cites Father Jean Claude Allouez wha, writing in 1667, referred to a group called the
Outchibouec. In 1070 he differentiated the Sauteur from the Quichibous that he placed north of the Sault.
Shenck concluded that, “the true name for those people who resided at Sault Ste. Marie in the 17" century was
Ojibwa” (1997;20). | will not make an argument for or against Schenk’s conclusion. although [ admit to having
some misgivings about “the true name” for any group in this vastly complicated situation. { believe that the

31


Mortuary Sites

Prehistoric burials range from isolated individuals to relatively elaborate group burials (ossuaries). Structured
cemeteries with rigid grid-like organization familiar to most of us today do not appear until the historic stage.

The Blackduck people practiced a variety of burial types. Kenyon (1986) describes a series of burial mounds in
the Rainy River district of northwest Ontario and southeast Manitoba, Many are associated with Blackduck
ceramics and are perhaps the best glimpse of prehistoric mortuary practices in the late prehistory of the western
Lake Superior Basin,

About 900 years ago, a group of people who made pottery that we identify as Blackduck dug a broad,
shallow sauver-shaped depression in the earth near the mouth of the Rainy River. The depression was
roughly circular, with a diameter of about 10 2 feet (3.2 m) and a maximum depth of 2 feet (0.6 m).
Individual skeletons were then wrapped in birchbark matting and placed in a shallow pit. Although a
few were accompanied by grave furniture, most of them lacked such offerings. The individual
skeletons, in turn, were derived from bodies that had been exposed at death until the flesh had
disintegrated, as well as from bodies that had been dismembered... Evidence of the latter is present in
the form of cut-marks at the ends of some of the long bones and at the bases of some of the skulls.
These were made in the process of severing the heavier tendons and ligaments that bind the larger
skeletal elements together. Occasionally, a member of this group would have had his brain removed
after a circular hole had been punched through the occipital region of the skull. Finally, when all the
bodies had been placed in the saucer-shaped depression, a low mound of earth was heaped over the
mass grave [Kenyon 1986:47].

This describes but one episode at one mound to which later modifications, including intrusive individual and
group burials and possibly cremations, were added. Other mounds showed traces of logs covering the central
burial pit. Kenyon notes that the mounds in northwestem Ontario are typically built on points overlooking
broad expanses of water, frequently on the south-facing sides suggesting a spring and summer season.

There is evidence of scalping and of the use of clay masks on some of the skulls, Artifact content is variable
from site to site, but among the burial mounds in his study, ceramics appear to be almost invariably Blackduck
(Kenyon 1986), or Selkirk (Arthurs. personal communication 1999), with little or no admixture of other
Terminal Woodland types. This suggests that although campsites may contain a wide range of ceramics, the
use of mounds and the ceremonies associated with them were confined to the Blackduck (or Selkirk) folk and
not their neighbors. This contrasts with the mortuary behavior from the opposite end of Lake Superior where
the Feast of the Dead stressed intergroup cooperation along the kinship idiom, Some of the burial mounds
included copper kettles, glass beads, and other items of European manufacture, indicating continuity in
mortuary practices from prehistory to history.

In the Lake of the Woods area an isolated individual was found buried in a sitting position, associated with a
Blackduck vessel (Budak 1981). Another isolated transitional Laurei/Blackduck burial was excavated at the
Martin-Bird site on Whitefish Lake (Dawson | 987). Here a single individual was buried in a secondary bundle,
probably birch-bark wrapped, deposited in a pit where it was accompanied by a Blackduck vessel and a
fragment of birch preserved by a copper pendant

For the historic stage we have sometimes both the archeological evidence and an historic account of a burial
ceremony. Usually we have either one or the other and must piece the two together to picture the mortuary
behavior of the time. Not only did group membership play a part in deciding the type of burial an individual
would have, family. clan, status, age. and manner of death would also play in important role. Political factors
could also come into play as groups sought to make alliances with neighboring groups, as was the case with the
Feast of the Dead, described more than once by Jesuit or French military observers. Cleland (1971) cites a
number of first-hand accounts of the ceremony, including the commander at Fort de Baude (Saint Ignace.

40

Se EB eS

See ee SE SF SS & &

EE &

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Archeological Cultures
What is an Archeological Culture?

The definition of archeological cultures employed in this study utilizes an isomorphic view of the relationship
berveen style and raw materials and a corresponding archeological culture. Simply put, this means that one
style of pot represents one archeological culture. This view is based on the assumption that potters used
decorative style to identify themselves as members of a specific group of people. In the Great Lakes region
archeological sites usually include a wide variety of ceramic styles indicative of more than one archeological
culture. Traditionai explanations of this phenomenon include marriage practices where the women (who we
presume were the potters) of one group marry into another, raiding and warfare in which female potters are
captured, copying of styles among groups, and trade and exchange of pottery vessels, All can be documented to
varying degrees for the Upper Great Lakes region, but none fully or independently explain the archeological
association of so many different varieties of pottery on so many sites in so large a region, nor do they exhaust
the scope of potential explanations of this phenomenon.

Uhe Terminal Woodland substage of the Woodland period offers an incredible diversity of ceramics,
interpreted here as the product of several archeological cultures who utilized an area’s resources independently
andor in concert with one another. Blackduck, Selkirk, Juntunen, Peninsular WoodJand, and Huron are the
mast prevalent manifestations of well-defined Terminal Woodland archeological cultures occurring on the
north shore and Isle Royale (Clark |941,]993}. The commingling of a wide variety of ceramics in the Upper
Great Lakes is a fair representation of the ethnic composition of the groups responsible for leaving the
archeological record: what Cleland (1971:93) has referred to as “the cosmopolitan quality” of the Terminal
Woodland sites throughout the region.

Archeological Cultures of the Terminal Woodland Substage

Blackduck

The Blackduck culture. initially defined by Wilford (1941, 1955), underwent a number of later modifications
(Evans 1961; Hlady 1970: MacNeish 1958; Wright 1965). The core area of Blackduck is in the Rainy River
area between Minnesota, Ontariv, and Manitoba, but has also been found across the north shore ot Lake
Superior to the Straits of Mackinac and into the northern reaches of the Lake Michigan drainage (Figure 3),
Blackduck dates from A.D. 700-800 to around A.D. 1100 (Lugenbeal 1978) or A.D. 1750 (Lynott et al. 1986:
Syms 1977). According to Arthurs (1986), Blackduck along the Rainy River is replaced by ceramics
representing the Selkirk and Sandy Lake archeological cultures. He attributes this local phenomenon to an
expansion of Selkirk from the southern fringes of the boreal forest into northern Minnesota to expioit the rich
wild rice resources there. Away from the Rainy River, there is evidence to suggest that Blackduck, Selkirk, and
Sandy Lake are contemporaneous (Syms 1977).

Blackduck pottery is distinctive, although it shares similarities with Mackinac, Heins Creek, Madison, Kathio.
and Clam River ceramic traditions. Typical Blackduck vessels are globular in shape with triangular or wedge-
shaped rims decorated with complex cord-wrapped stick impressions and exterior punctates. Bodies are cord-
marked, often with brushing or combing on the neck (Figure 4).

Subsistence practices utilized local resources without horticulture, wild rice being particularly important in the
Blackduck core area. Gibbon and Caine (1980) identity several related trends from Middle (Initial) to Late
(Terminal) Woodiand that are germane to the Blackduck culture. There is an increase in ric¢-processing
features, in site numbers and size. and in smail limited activity sites.

Dawson (1975, 1982) places Blackduck in the southwestern Algonquian Culture Area, identifying itas having
been produced by the “Ojibwe and associated groups” (1975:32). He also notes its widespread distribution in
the Lake Superior Basin and its association with Mackinac ¥

8


1982 The Northern Ojibwa of Ontario. [n Approaches to Algonquian Archaeology, Proceedings of the
Thirteenth Annual Conference, Archaeology Association of the University of Calgary, edited by Margaret
G. Hanna and Brian Kooyman, pp. 81-96, University of Calgary.

1983 Cummins Site: A Late Palaeo-Indian (Plano) Site at Thunder Bay, Ontario. Ontario Archaeology
39:3-31,

1987 Uhe Martin-Bird Site. Ontario Archaeology 47:33-57.

Evans, G. Edward
1961 Ceramic Analysis of the Blackduck Ware and Its General Cultural Relationships. Proceedings of
the Minnesota Academy of Science 29:33-54. St. Paul,

Fitting, James Ff.
1975 The Archaeology of Michigan. Second Edition. Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills.

Fitzhugh, William
1972 The Eastern Archaic: Commentary and Northern Perspective, Pennsylvania Archealogist
42¢(4):1-19,

Franchere, Gabricl
1839 Remarks made on a visit from Lapointe to the Fishing Stations of Grand Portage, Isle Royale and
Ance Quiwinan-August 1893, In Papers, /786-1¥63. Typescript (A.F816) on file, Minnesota Historical
Society, St. Paul.

Gibbon, Guy E., and Christy A. H. Caine
1980 The Middle to Late Woodland Transition in Eastern Minnesota. Midcontinental Journal of
Archaeology 5(\):57-72.

Gilman, Carolyn
1992 Grand Portage Story. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.

Goddard. Ives
1978 Central Algonquian Languages. In Northeast, edited by Bruce Trigger, pp. 583-587. Handbook of
North American tndians, vol. 15. William G., Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsunian Institution,
Washington. D.C.

Grand Portage Band of Chippewa
1983 A History of Kitchi Onigaming: Grand Portage and Its People. The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe,
Cass Lake. MN,

Greenberg, Adolph M., and James Morrison
1982 Group Identities in the Boreal Forest: The Origin of the Northern Ojibwa. Ethnohistory 29(2):75-
102.

Halsey, John R,
1983 Miswabik-Red Metal: Lake Superior Copper and the Indians of Eastern North America. Michigan
History 67(S):32-41.


References

Arthurs, David
1978 Sandy Lake Ware in Northwestern Ontario: A Distributional Study. Archae-facts 5(2-3);57-64,
1986 Archaeological Investigations at the Long Sault Site. a Stratified Habitation and Burial Station on
the Rainy River in Northwestern Ontario. Conservation Archaeology Report 7. Kenara, Ontario: Ministry
of Citizenship and Culture, Northwest Region.

Biggar, (1. P. ¢ed.)
1925 The Works of Samuel De Champlain, Volume 2. The Publications of the Champlain Society,
Toronto.

Birk, Douglas
1977 The Norway Lake Site: A Multicomponent Woodland Complex in North Central Minnesota Zhe
Minnesota Archaeologist 36:16-45,

Brown, Jennifer S.H., and Robert Brightman
1988 “The Orders of the Dreamed”: George Nelson on Cree and Northern Ojibwa Religion and Mvth,
7823. Manitoba Studies in Native History IIL. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.

Brown, Ralph D.
1936 Minnesota Historical Society Archeological Investigation of the Northwest Company's Post, Grand
Portage, Minnesota, 1936. Manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument,

Buchner, A, P.
1979 The Shield Archaic: A Review. Manitoba Archaeological Quarterly 3(2):2-11

Budak, Michael
1981 A Blackduck Mortuary Vessel from Lake of the Woods. The Minnesota Archaeologist 40(2):78-
88.

Cadieux, Lorenza S.J.
1973 Lettres des Nouvelles Missions du Canada, 1843-1852. Bellarmin, Montreal.

Cameron. Donald
1960 A Sketch of the Customs, Manners, Way of Living of the Natives in the Barren Country About
Nipigon. In, Les Bourgeois de la Compangie du Nord-Ouest, Redits de Voyages, Lettres et Rapports
Inedits Relatifs au Nord-Ovest Canadien, Publies avec une Esquisse Historique et Annotations par L. R.
Masson. Antiquarian Press, Ltd. New York.

Christian, Sarah
1932 Winter on Isle Royale, A Narrative of Life an Isle Royale During the Years of 1874 and 1873.
University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.

Clark, Caven P.
1990 A Dog Burial from Isle Royale, Lake Superior: An Example of Household Ritual Sacrifice in the
‘Terminal Woodland Period. Mfidcontinental Journal of Archaeology 15(2):265-278.

48


Reid, C.S. and W.A. Ross, (editors)
1981 Studies in West Patricia Archaeology No, 2: 1979-1980. West Patricia Heritage Resource Report
2, Archaeological Research Report 16. Historical Planning and Research Branch, Ontario Ministry of
Culture and Recreation, Kenora, Ontario

Rhodes, Richard A., and Evelyn M. Todd
1981 Subarctic Algonquian Languages. In Subarctic. edited by June Helm, pp. 52-66, Handbook of
North American Indians, vol. 6. William G., Sturtevant. general editor. Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

Ross, W.A. (editor)
1982 Studies in West Patricia Archaeology Number Three’ 1980-1981, Archaeology Research Report
No. 2. Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, Toronto,

Salzer, Robert J.

1974 The Wisconsin North Lakes Project: A Preliminary Report. In Aspects of Upper Great Lakes
Anthropology. Papers in Honor of Lloyd A, Wilford, edited by Elden Johnson, pp. 40-54. Minnesota
Prehistoric Archaeology Series 11. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

1986 Other Late Woudland Developments. The Wisconsin Archeologist 67(3 -4):302-313.

Schenck, Theresa M.
1997 The Voice of the Crane Echoes Afar: The Sociopolitical Organization of the Lake Superior
Ojibwa, 1640-1855, Garland Publishing, Inc. New York.

Shay, C. Thomas
1971 The ltasca Bison Kill Site: An Ecological Analysis. Minnesota Prehistoric Archaeology Series No.
6. St. Paul.

Smith, Theresa S.
1995 The {sland of the Anishnaabeg: Thunderers and Water Monsters in the Traditional Ojibwe Life
World, University of Idaho Press, Moscow.

Stoltman, James B.
1986 The Archaic Tradition. The Wisconsin Archeologist 67(3-4):207-242.

Syms, E. Leigh
1977 Cultural Ecology and Ecological Dynamics of the Ceramic Period in Southwestern Manitoba.
Plains Anthropologist 12(2),

Thompson, Erwin N.
1969 Grand Portage: A History of the Sites, People, and Fur Trade. National Park Service,
Washington, D.C.

Thwaites, Rueben Gold

1899-1900 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuits and
Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. 73 Volumes. Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland,

54



the accidents or circumstances of its deposition. Sufficient samples of ceramics with dateable matcrials exist in
NPS (¢.g., Voyageurs National Park, Isle Royale National Park) and other collections that would be appropriate
for a study of this nature.

Trace Element Analysis (NAA) of Prehistoric Ceramic Clays

Building on previous work, a Jarge suite of samples taken from both geological sources and from Terminal
Woodland vessels should be subjected to trace element analysis. The results would be used to test the findings
of previous studies that suggested that ceramic types with close affinities to the Straits of Mackinae were being
produced on clays obtained on Isle Royale. Other evaluations of cuituraVhistoricat relationships, especially the
Blackduck/Selkirk relationship, and the overall relationship of Peninsular Woodland ceramics to all other
types. could be made.

A-2


The archeological co-occurrence of Blackduck and Selkirk pottery signals great time-depth to the purported
historic association of the Northern Ojibwe and Cree, Even in the absence of perfect chronological or
stratigraphic control, we can see that the archeoloyical record is indicating a mixed composition as the mode
for virtually ail major archeological sites in the Superior basin. The distribution of Peninsular Woodland
ceramics around the Lake Superior Basin suggests that an Algonquian archeological culture. closely allied to
the historic Chippewa. Fox, Sauk. and Potawatomi, may have come form the south and east around A.D. 700.
The pattern established by the Peninsular Woodland people was continued by the Juntunen phase people from
the Straits of Mackinac.

Juntunen phase ceramics suggest that these Algonquian speakers, perhaps proto-Saulteaux but equally likels
Ottawa and/or Nipissing, were already tamiliar with the entire Superior basin. if only on a seasonal basis, at
least 300 years before contact with the French. Like Peninsular Woodland. the distribution of Juntunen
ceramics suggests the SaulteauyOttasa-Nipissing were moving along both the north and south shores af Lake
Superior.

The meaning of Ojibwe is complex with geographical, historical, as well as ethnic cognates. What ultimately
became Ojibwe probably began near the Sault where early French accounts identified the Saulleans andéor
Ouichibous in the mid-seventeenth century. The fact that the Ojibwe are not identified in the westem Lake
Superior basin until much tater may be a function of several things, The postulated westward expansion of the
Ojibwe invokes a variety of explanations, Those in the catastrophic category include pressure from eastern
tribes. the desire to escape from warfare, smallpox and/or depletion of fur-bearing animals. Population growth
and the need to expand to fulfill the needs of the people were cited by Schenck (1997) who stated that the
coalescence of the Ojibwe occurred at about the time of contact. It has also been suggested that the
opportunities afforded by participation in the tur trade. either as middlemen or as direc trappers and traders,
stimulated the move west.

Greenbe
vave a tals

ind Morrison (1982) argued that the phenomenon of names being applied to groups by Curopeans
impression of westward movement, and shauld be considered as one explanation of the perception
of a westward expansion of Ojibwe, In their explanation, the name Ojibwe moves west and is applied to both
the emigrants from the Sault and the prior Algonquian residents of the north shore.

The effective unit of a westward expansion was probably via the smallest effective social unit: the family or at
most the band. not a wholesale emigration by disenfranchised Saulteaux. Neither was it the diaspora as
experienced by the Huron and their allies as they fled the depredations of the Jroquois, The increments of this
expansion may have been a combination of long moves. virtually from one end of the lake to the other, and by
small seasonal moves on a very vradual b Any hypothesized movement or migration did nat occur in a
yacuum. in contrast to Hickerson’s assertion that, contrary to the archeological evidence. much of the area was
vacant at the Ume of the westward expansion. Cree and Cree-Ojibwe, and likely Siouan groups. were very
much in place prior to the historic move from the Saull. [anything is clear from the archeological record it is
that the basin was continuously occupied, and it is likely that it was an array of Algonquian and Siouan-
‘oups than were met by any sort of proto-Ojibwe group moving west.

{vis entirely conceis able that the "westward move” actually occurred over a period of ca. 300-500 years as a
normal prvcess of the seasonal cycle. Associations among the Saulteaux. Nippissing, and others in the east as
well as many of the western groups ultimately gave rise to the historic Northem Ojibwe. This does not conflict
with the generally accepted westward migration following 1680 as the Ojibwe of the Sault sought to improve
their position in the fur trade

The relationship among the Northern Ojibwe and the Chippewa of Upper Michigan, and Wisconsin in early
historic times is not well known. Archeologically, the prehistoric records strongly suggest that there were few if
ans trips across Lake Superioy and there are no data that indicate that south shore groups had any traffic with
nomh shore groups or their resources until thrust into a very untraditional association by the demarealion of the

46


Fitting (1975:185) favors Ojibwe as the probable identity of the Juntunen phase based on the faunal remains he
interpreted as representing the “Chippewa adaptive pattem”. Stylistic similarities in ceramics, according to
Fitting, were the result of influence from interacting Iroquoian groups. Dawson (1982:83) says that the push-
pull ceramics are associated with Ottawa and Potawatomi. The distribution of Juntunen ceramics (Figure 9)
anticipates the hypothesized eighteenth century westward movement of the Ojibwe on both sides of Lake
Superior, and corresponds well to Cleland's (1992) distribution map of the “Lake Superior Ojibwa”. Juntunen
is probably the most significant archeological culture in terms of mapping a prehistoric geographic distribution
onto that of the Algonquian groups centered around the Sault in late prehistory, in which are included the
Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Ottawa.

Dawson (1982;83) places Mackinac in the Southeastern Algonquian area and groups it geographically with
Huron-Petun, The Mackinac wares are considered by him as Saulteaux, while Huron-Petun is Nipissing in
affiliation. Juntunen phase pottery, on the other hand, has stylistic affinities with the Ontario Iroquois
Middleport and Uren stages of the Lake Huron basin. Juntunen ware includes castellated collars, and extensive
use of linear punctations and the push-pull technique for decoration. Nested chevrons and bands are common
motifs (Figure 10)

According to Arthurs (personal communication 1999)

It is unfortunate that Dawson confused the issue in his early writings by labeling these ceramics
Huron-Petun, as most of them are actually what others would classify as Juntunen. In much of his
early writings he didn’t recognize that there were non-lroquoian ceramics that employed traits such as
castellated rims or drag-stamped decoration. These traits occur on vessels whose core areas are fairly
proximate to the Iroquoian cultures (within their sphere of influence), and to my mind represent
imitation [of style]. In his later writings Dawson suggested a Nipissing (i.e.. Algonquian) affiliation,
which may account for some, but not all of them.

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Table 2. Regional Chronology.

i741 La Verendrye notes an alliance among the Grand Portage, Lake Nipigon, Kaministiquia, Rainy Lake,
Ojibwe (7), Monsonis, Cree, and Assiniboine against the Sioux.

1763 Treaty of Paris cedes French possessions to Great Britain.

1767 Jonathon Carver reports a considerable band of Chippewas living at Rainy Lake: at Grand Portage he
reports a large party of Cree and Assiniboine who had come there to trade. Grand Portage controlled
by Ojibwe from the west

1768 John Erskine erects a stockade and post at east end of the Grand Portage.

W775 Alexander Henry the Elder reports that relations between the traders at Grand Portage were “in a state
of extreme reciprocal hostility.” Hickerson characterizes the Native population at Grand Portage as "a
very small group enclustered about the trading depot.”

1798 Decision to move the depot from Grand Portage north into British territory, Negotiations made with
Ojibwe bands at Thunder Bay and Grand Portage to purchase lands on the Kaministiquia River.

1803 Fort Kaministiquia (later Fort William) established 45 miles north of Grand Portage.

1805 XY Company merger with the North West Company

1812-1815 War of 1812.

1821 North West Company merger with the Hudson's Bay Company

1824 Citing Schoolcraft. Hickerson believes that this dates the beginning of the Grand Portage Band as a
named entity

1825 Treaty at Prairie du Chien: excluded Grand Portage Band.

1826 Treaty at Fond du Lac allows copper extraction from south side of Lake Superior: excluded Grand
Portage Band.

1831 US Indian Agent Henry Schoolcraft records 12 men, || women, and 27 children at Grand Portage

1834 American Fur Company hires about 20 Grand Portage residents for fish between Grand Portage and
Grand Marais,

1837 Treaty of July 29, 1837; excluded Grand Portage Band

1838 64 people baptized by Fr. Pirez at Grand Portage.

1839 Bushnell’s census gives Grand Portage a population of | 35

1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty sets international border on Pigeon River; cession of Indian lands along
south shore of Lake Superior and Isle Royale; excluded Grand Portage Band, American Fur Company
fisheries close due to depressed market. Fr. Pirez sets up mission at mouth of the Pigeon River.

1843 Brunson’s census gives population of 145.

1847 Cession of Indian lands on upper Mississippi by Lake Superior and Mississippi River Oyibwe bands,
Grand Portage census figures vary from |50 to 178.

1854 Treaty of La Pointe. September 30, 1854. Signers include La Pointe (14), Ontonagon (3), L Anse (5),
Vieux De Sert (2). Grand Portage (4), Fond du Lac (14), Lac Court Oreiles (14), Lac du Flambeau
(11), Bois Fortes (3), and the Mississippi bands (15).

1855 Three distinct groups identified occupying northeastern Minnesota (Hickerson |974): Grand Portage,
Fond du Lae, and Bois Forte (or Vermillion Lake) Bands.

1875 Grand Portage census lists 262 band members.

1897 Grand Portage census lists 27] band members.

mHeeFtFe SB SS S&S SS  & &

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{ na)

a we EBT PrP PT TTF rT fF FT wl SS

oRSs

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List of Figures
Grand Portage Band Territory .......:sccssssssseeessssessestessaeessecssunessnesenneceaseseneessnesestassenesaasscunentnnegeanes 2
Major Terminal Woodland archeological sites/areas..... .
Geographical distribution of Blackduck and Selkirk ceramics..........scssscsesseesessssessssesssseenssees D

Blackduck ceramics

Selkirk ceramic:
Geographical distribution of Sandy Lake ceramics
Sandy Lake and Peninsular Woodland ceramics

Geographical distribution of Peninsular Woodland ceraimics.........:essecssesressnsseresarensesarenseaeee 16

Geographical distribution of Juntunen ceramic:

Juntunen ceramics

Geographical distribution of Huron ceramic:

Huron Ceramics .....sssescsssssssseessseesssessseessnecensenssnensnscenneesseeene

Engraved slate from 1962 Grand Portage excavations showing Midewiwin-like image ............ 39

List of Tables
Correlation Among Archeological Cultures and Their Ethnohistoric Counterparts......

Regional Chronology ....c.scssssecsecssesveesversenssessesneseeeassessaneqesssnensssatesnesseenscsncessnsnacsee


Grand Portage almost to the Nipigon River. From here it extends north and west to Lake Winnipeg. forming a
wedge between the Saulteaus dialect group to the west, the Severn dialect to the north, and the Central Ojibwe
dialect to the east. Linguistically. the Grand Portaze Band area fails in the extreme south end of a Jarge dialect
group with its closest affinities to he nonhwest.

According to their own history, there were five original Ojibwe clans which grew to twenty-two. The four
primary clans of the Grand Portage Band included the Moose, Marten, Caribou. and Pike clans. This system
defined kinship relations and marriage rules, as well as providing au identity for band members that linked
them to other bands. Clan membership is determined through the mate line and marriage could not take place
between clan members. “Children, always members of their father’s vlan, were taught to ask first for a person's
clan, then for his parents’ names, and last for his own name” (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa 1983-7).

Cameron (1960;247) noted that

All these who are of the same mark or totem consider themselves as relations. even if they or their
forefathers never had any connexion with each other. or had seen one another before. When two
sirangers meet and find themselves to be of the same mark, they immediately begin to trace their
genealogy. at which they even beat my countrymen, the Highlanders, and the one becomes a cousin,
the uncle or the grand father of the other, although the grand father may often be the youngest of the
two. [tis not an uncommon thing to hear an Indian speak of twelve grand fathers and as many grand
mothers.

As we will see, the ability to identify oneselfas a band member and as a clan member had tangible advantages
where seasonal resource availability was concerned.

Ojibwe origin accounts place the Ojibwe peaple at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. moving in the ] 500s
to a location north of Lake Huron and at the east end of Lake Superior. By the 1600s, the Ojibwe had moved
west along the south shore of Lake Superior displacing Siouan groups in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and
northern Wisconsin. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, movement further westward took place
on both sides of Lake Superior. all the way to Fond du Lac.

Atthe same time. |] 500s] other Chippewa bands moved west along the north shore of Lake Superior.
The northern Chippewa had strong ties with the Cree and took their side in the war with the Dakota.
But the Chippewa at Fond du Lac exchanged peaceful visits with the Dakota at Mille Lacs for awhile.
Aud the Chippewa on both sides of the lake were mostly neutral [Grand Portage Band of Chippewa
LO83:1 1]

1227,

In the French entered into direct trade with the Dakota, eliminating Ojibwe middlemen and creating
animosity with the later. Wartare between Ojibwe and Dakota started in earnest and resulted in a southern
displacement of Dakota to south and west. The Ojibwe occupied Mille Lacs in about 1745, after the defeat of
the Dakota village there (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa 1983:12). Small-scale conflicts with the Dakota
continued into the nud 1800s

In correspondence dating October 12, 1742, there is evidence of both the warfare against the Sioux and the
identity of Grand Portage as a political entity:

Father Coquart, who has returned from the post of Kamanistigouia, Wriles me in the 9" of last mouth,
That, while the Sieur de la Venerendry’s people were at the grand portage. the Sauteau of that Post
came there to hold a council with a Sav Chief of that Place, a very influential man, That last Spring
that Chief told him he had determined to strike a blow at the Scioux [Thwaites 1899-1900}.

Woolworth (1998:2) citing La Verendrve. notes that in {741 an alliance was formed against the Sioux among
the Grand Portage, Lake Nipigon, Kaministiquia. Tekamamioune (Rainy Lake), Ojibwe (?) Monsvnis.
Christineau (Cree) and Assininboine tribes, under the leadership of a Grand Portage chief. It is curious that in

29


= x

a

Figure 7. Sandy Lake (above) and Peninsular Woodland (below) ceramics.


EE Ez

=

[a

Huron

The evolution of the prehistoric [roquoian-speakers into their historic counterparts is much better known for the
Huron than it is known for their Algonquian or Siouan-speaking neighbors. This is due, in part, to the
continuity in geographical setting of the Iroquois groups. and to their early interactions with the French. In
particular, the documentation left by the Jesuits is an especially valuable source of information on those aspects
of their traditional society usually unavailable in the form of archeological data.

‘The historic Iroquois are divided into the Saint Lawrence, Five Nation, Erie, Neutral, Susquehannock, Petun,
and Huron groups. [tis primarily the latter hwo groups, archeologically collapsed into one, that are relevant to
the prehistory and early history of the Lake Superior Basin, although the effects brought about by the wars of
the lroquois and Huron diaspora in the mid-seventeenth century are significant region-wide,

The sedentary lroquoian groups lived in fortified villages, outside of which were extensive fields where corn,
beans, and tobacco were grown, Hunting, fishing, and gathering were practiced but the primary subsistence
was based on horticulture (Trigger 1976), Mortuary preference was for ossuary burials, often interred at
intervals of seven to ten years at which time all the dead which had accumulated since the last interment were
gathered for a large “Feast of the Dead.” In addition to the obvious function of disposal of the dead. the
accompanying rituals reinforced mutual ties of kinship or acknowledged friendship among both Huron and
Algonquian groups. Goods were redistributed and trading partnerships for the following years were negotiated,
often facilitating fictive kinship relationships (Hickerson 1960; Trigger 1976).

Prior to 1649, the Northern Division of the Huron-Petun Branch of the Ontario [roquois Tradition (Wright
1966) was located in an area referred to as Huronia, between northern Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe. Village
locations shifted in response toa variety of factors, but overall there was little movement outside of this area
except by small, task-specific groups undertaking long-distance trading expeditions. After 1649 when relations
with the Five Nation Iroquois forced the Hurons into their historical diaspora across the Great Lakes and into
the Mississippi valley, the remnant segments of Huron society took on.a modified identity as Wyandots and.
with their Ottawa counterparts, continued to practice their trading across the upper lakes. The archeological
distribution of Huron pottery in the Lake Superior Basin is spotty but widespread, occurring at the Sault,
Michipicoten. Isle Royale. Whitefish Lake. and the Apostle Islands (Figure 11).

Huron pottery is characteristically well fired, thin-walled, and burnished or well smoothed, with distinctive
decoration on the rims and necks of vessels (Figure 12). Lines made by incising or by tool impression are most
common, although punctates and push-pull continued to be employed. Vessel shapes are round and globular,
often with squared collars and/or castellated rims. While Huron pottery is “distinctive,” it has been suggested
(Fitting 1975; Mason 1976: Ramsden 1988) that what is Huron in style in the Lake Superior region is, in fact.
Algonquian mimicry of Huron ceramics. Huron pottery is common on Isle Royale, but not in numbers
indicating any more or less activity there than for other non-lroquoian groups. Dawson (1982:83) considers
Huron-Petun ceramics as Nipissing in affiliation, but there is no compelling reason why a certain percentage of
these ceramics cannot be Huron or Wyandot from the diaspora of the Huron Confederacy of which the
Nipissing were a part.



EE fs

= ia

SE = az

The Lakes phase of northern Wisconsin and western Upper Michigan is but one of several “Peninsular
Woodland” archeological cultures, It is thought that the Lakes phase of the Terminal Woodland evolved
directly from its Middle Woodland Nakomis phase ancestor, appearing archeologically as a population
explosion in an area of northerm Wisconsin only sparsely inhabited previously (Salzer 1974, 1986). The Lakes
phase is believed 10 date between A.D. 600 or 700 and A.D. 1400_ Subsistence reflects local variation and
constraints; a seasonally mobile strategy of fishing, small mammal hunting, ricing, and fowling was followed in
this area of extensive marsh and lakes, Mortuary practices included inhumation of bundled secondary and
flexed primary burials as well as cremations in simple effigy, linear, or conical mounds.

Lakes phase pottery is cord-marked with decoration by cord-wrapped stick, cord, and punctuates (Figure 7).
The problem ofa lack of stylistic boundaries is evident with the Lakes phase. Lakes phase ceramics are not
sufficiently distinctive to allow consistent identification in analysis, and disagreement or uncertainty regarding
Lakes phase and other Peninsular Woodland ceramics is likely to be a problem.

Juntunen

The Terminal Woodland sequence, determined from excavations at the Juntunen site (McPherron 1967),
included three cultural phases: Mackinac phase (ca. A.D, 800-1000), Bois Blanc phase (ca. A_D, 1000-1200),
and the Juntunen phase (ca. A.D. 1200-1450). Subsequent reanalysis of the collection raises some doubt as to
the validity of the middle Bois Blane phase, and has broadened the chronological span of the Juntunen phase
almost up to the time of contact, ca. A.D. | 100-1450 (Claire McHale Milner, personal communication 1989;
McHale Milner and O'Shea 1990),

In MePherron’s (1967) initial analysis of the cultural/chronological sequence at the Juntunen site, he described
a shift in interaction sphere from west in the Mackinac phase to the east in the later Juntunen phase. Based on
shared stylistic similarities between the Juntunen phase ceramics and the Middleport and Uren substages of the
Ontario lroquois Tradition, and the suggestion of a longhouse structure at the Juntunen site, McPherron
suggested that the Juntunen phase was best considered the product of an Iroquoian group,

Wright (1968, 1972a) takes exception to McPherron’s interpretation, stating that:

Although a number of ceramic attribute equivalents exist between certain Late Woodland ceramics in
Michigan and the ceramics of the Ontario Iroquois Tradition, it is my opinion that the parallels are of
such a general nature that proposals of origin are placed in a very hazardous position. In short. | cannot
see a direct relationship between the Ontario Iroquois Tradition ceramics of Southern Ontario and the
push-pull ceramics of Michigan and Northern Ontario [1968:49],

Wright viewed the problem from the perspective of the Michipicoten site in the eastern Lake Superior basin
where his excavation revealed a discontinuous stratigraphic record dating between A.D. 1100 and 1600, In
nine strata Wright found a record of mixed ceramic styles, representing archeological cultures from the south
and southeast but not the west. Four ceramic groups identified at Michipicoten include Huron-Petun,
Peninsular Woodland, stamped, and push-pull. The Blackduck pottery missing from the Michipicoten
sequence was found at the Pic River site west of Michipicoten and at the Montreal River to the south, filling in
the regional picture of the complex array of ceramic styles.

Wright asserts that since pottery was not an indigenous part of Ojibwe culture north of Lake Superior, the
heterogeneity in style observed in the prehistoric record is explainable through trade/exchange. A cognate of
this argument is his interpretation of the lithic industry as highly conservative. showing little variation through
time or space. Wright (1968:47-48) believes that this is an indication of local stability in prehistoric Ojibwe
material culture. With or without ceramic technology. there is stability in Ojibwe culture. It could be argued
that nowhere in the region was ceramic technology indigenous, having diffused from the south. The notion of
ceramics being primarily introduced as trade items is not feasible since virtually all ceramics in the region are
locally produced from locally available clays (Clark 1991).

7


this listing the Ojibwe are differentiated from other “Ojibwe” groups. Earlier, in 1669-1670. Dablon (quoted
by Hickerson 1974:32) lists the Sau/reurs distinct from the Quichibous.

The distribution and identity of neighboring bands around Grand Portage tell us something of its history and
composition. For example, at various points in history the Grand Portage Band is differentiated from the
Kaministiquia Band while at other times they are combined. There are four major bands of concern here:
Grand Portage. Nipigon. Rainy Lake, and Fond du Lac. According to Tim Cochrane (personal communication
1998), the Nipigon, Rainy Lake, and Fond du Lac bands were bigger and more politically powerful than the
Grand Portage Band. Among these, the Grand Portage Band is probably located in the area poorest in natural
resources but managed to maintain autonomy through its logistical situation at the head of the Northwest
Company's portage. A redundant and resource-poor shoreline of rocky bar river mouths and headlands to the
south created a buffer between these Northern Ojibwe and Fond du Lac, between which there was little
interaction or movement. Grand Portage Bay is the southernmost of several good, sheltered bays but offers the
shortest overland route to navigable portions of the Pigeon River, which was probably the basis for its selection
by the Northwest Company and earlier French and British traders. Since the Jesuits typically looked for a
population base upon which to focus their activities, it was probably the Pigeon River where the Jesuits
established their first point of contact with the local inhabitants.

It is apparent that the Sault was not the only place to find people called Ojibwe, Writing in 1804-1805 in “A
Sketch of the Customs, Manners, Way of Living of the Natives in the Barren Country About Nipigon” M.
Duncan Cameron (1960:241) stated

This part of the country has been peopled about one hundred and fifty years ago [ca. 1650}, partly
from Lake Superior and partly from Hudson’s Bay, as it would evidently appear from the language of
the Natives, which is a mixture of the Ojiboiay, or Chippeway [f.n, Sauteux] as some call it, spoken at
Lake Superior and the Cree or Masquigon spoken at Hudson's Bay

Every old man with whom | conversed, and from whom | made some enquiry on this subject, told me
that his father or grand father was from either of these two places, and that the reason they came so far
back could be accounted for in no other way than in the following: Population was then on the
increase both in Hudson's Bay and on the shores of Lake Superior, and as Indians, who are obliged to
rove from pace to place for a good hunting ground, are equally at home in any place where they can
find their living, they took to the interior of the country where they found innumerable rivers and
lakes. swarming with a vast quantity of fish, beaver and otters. When one place was exhausted, they
would retire farther and farther back till these two people, who are undoubtedly of the same origin,
began to meet one another in the interior and to intermarry by which they, at length became one
people.

While perhaps anecdotal, Cameron’s account “explains” the fusion of the Cree and Ojibwe as a function of

mobility and proximity. Traditional subsistence practices would have certainly fostered a gradual process of

cultural integration,

Ojibwe Subsistence and Settlement

Subsistence and settlement refer to the way in which people utilize resources for survival and how they
distribute themselves on the landscape. Most resources are seasonally available and where they occur in large
numbers, permit the coming together of large groups of people, The corollary is that in seasons of food scarcity
or of dispersal of resources, people will tend also to be dispersed. The basic pattern of subsistence follows the
seasonal round of resource availability.

The spring was a time of coming together for the spawning runs of suckers and sturgeon at river mouths on
Lake Superior and the larger interior lakes. It was also the time for harvesting the incoming flight of passenger
pigeons arriving from the south. Summer was a period of resource abundance with many options, including

30

Se

=



Figure 5. Selkirk ceramics.

SS

Ze =

= fz

[ et


Woolworth, Nancy
1965 The Grand Portage Mission: 1731-1965. Minnesota History 44(6):301-310.

Wright, J. V.

1968 A Regional Examination of Ojibwa Culture History. Anthropologica 7:189-227.

1966 The Ontario Iroquois Tradition, National Museums of Canada Bulletin 210. Ottawa.

1967 The Laurel Tradition and the Middle Woodland Period. National Museums of Canada Bulletin
217, Ottawa.

1968 The Michipicoten Site. National Muscums of Canada Bulletin 224:1-85. Ottawa.

1972a Ontario Prehistory, National Museums of Canada National Muscum of Man. Ottawa.

1972b The Shield Archaic, National Museums of Canada Publications in Archaeology 3. Ottawa.

1981 Prehistory of the Canadian Shield. In Subaretic, edited by June Helm. pp. 86-96. Handbook of
North American Indians, Vol. 6.. William G. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution,
Washington. D.C.

56


The south shore of Lake Superior is less well known than the north, but archeological finds in recent years
have shown that the antiquity of this arca extends at least as far back as 9.000 years ago. The stone tools of the
Flambeau (ca. 7000 B.C.) and Minocqua (ca. 6000-5000 B.C.) phases were initially defined from sites in
northern Wisconsin {Salzer 1974}. Like the Plano Tradition artifacts to the north, the Flambeau and Minocqua
artifacts are characterized by distinctive flaking patterns and a persistent use of Hixton silicified sandstone.
which has ils source in south-central Wisconsin,

Native copper trom the Lake Superior region becomes increasingly important throughout prehistory. The best-
documented association of copper with this early period comes from the Itasca site in northern Minnesota that
has been dated between 7600 and 5500 B.C. (Shay 1971). The evidence for a human presence in the Superior
basin during this period is gradually becoming better known, but the Plano hunters’ interest in copper has yet
to be demonstrated. Our knowledge of the Plano ‘Isadition in this area is very rudimentary in contrast to
subsequent periods where we have not only artifacts but also actual food remains and habitation sites that
provide a fuller knowledge of the past lifeways of these people.

Archaic

The Archaic stage in castern North America has been characterized as having “widely flung and locaily
variable expressions” (Filzhugh £972:1). Two cultural traditions germane ta the prehistory of Grand Portage
are recognized for the Archaic stage: the Shield Archaic, and the “Old Copper Culture”. Gencralizations that
distinguish these from the earher Plano Tradition artifacts include more diversified styles of tools, the
harvesting of a wider range of plant and animal resources, and larger populations.

A wider range of stone and copper tools reflect an increasingly intimate knowledge of locally available
resources and a trend to specialized tool types with which these resources were harvested and pracessed. Small
scraping tools made from chert appear with increasing frequency and reflect the processing of hides tlecessary
Tor clothing and shelter. Projectile points/knives undergo a reduction in size and a new method ot hafling
involving the use of notches placed in the corners or sides of the bases of the points. Copper gaffs arc believed
to reflect the intensification of the native fishery as well as the use of a material virtually nnutilized in carlier
limes. Although none have been discovered in our area, fish weirs dating to the Archaic stage have been found
in southwestern Ontario.

Some of the differences among Archaic populations may be attributed to local variability in environmental
factors which, in turn, afforded variability in the ways in which the people adapted or responded to their
environment. Other differences may result from non-environmenta) factors that have more to do with the
evolution of culture and soviety apart trom the environmental constraints. Whatever the causes of dissimilarity,
there is ample evidence Jor interaction among prehistoric groups seen in the long distance movement of raw
materials. including copper, across cultural boundaries. The Late Archaic substage witnessed an intensification
of local hunting, fishing, and collecting strategies that gave structure to the relationships among neighboring
groups. facilitating cxchange of both goods and information across wide areas.

The Shield Archaic occupied an area on the Canadian Shield from Keewatin District to Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia (Wright 1972b). The distribution of Shield Archaic sites suggests extensive use of watercraft and
primary exploitation of moose, caribou, fish, and beaver. Bone preservation on Shicld sites is gencrally poor
and the food resources are inferred from the location of sites across the landscape. In the material culture of the
Shield Archaic one finds no clear-cut stylistic patterns. but rather an array of small utilitarian tools made of
locally available raw materials.

‘Jisagreement exists regarding the pedigree of the Shield Archaic. Some archeologists believe that cultural
evolution in the Canadian Shield occurred as an in-place transition from Plano to Shield Archaic to Laurel
{ Wright 1972b). According to others (Buchner 1979), the concept of the Shield Archaic is much too large and
inclusive, and it tikely includes smaller units that thus far have fallen outside of our ability to identify them. In

4


The Setkirk/Blackduck association is documented at least as early as about A.D. 1000. It appears commonplace
in the archeological record 200 years later, and persists at least until contact in the seventeenth century. Valid
questions regarding this association include why an apparent association of two reasonably discrete ceramic
styles over a period of 700 years did not evolve into a stylistic hybrid. Perhaps the answer is in coresidence and
the maintenance of cultural identity through time, rather than a situation of hybridization and change

A stylistic trend noted by Lugenbeal (1978) does hint that hybridization may have been under way. At the
Smith site in northern Minnesota early Blackduck surface treatment of cordmarking gave way in later times to
fabric impressions, both overlain by similar applications of cord-wrapped cord, punctuations, and brushing. If
this trend is valid. it may indicate a shift in orientation of some type from the southern cord-marked traditions
of the Peninsular Woodland to the fabric impressed pottery of Selkirk. By extension, this may signal the
mereasing cultural alignment with the Cree and the formation of the historic Cree-Ojibwe.

Actually. Peninsular Woodland and its various relations represent a “wild card” in this study. With the general
agreement that it represents an Algonquian cultural phenomenon that appears on both sides of Lake Superior
and to the south beginning around A.D. 700, there is a possibility, if not a probability, it represents anuther pre-
Ojibwe archeological culture. Arthurs (personal communication 1999) utilizes the northern Lake Michigan
ceramic type Heins Creek as the expression of Peninsular Woodland he views as prevalent in the Lake
Superior north shore chronology. He sees pottery with stylistic similarities to Heins Creek appearing on sites
around A.D. 700. followed by Mackinac. Juntunen, and other types reminiscent of Oneota and Troquoian
wares. These he interprets as the product of “successive waves of expansion across the north shore from
centers farther and farther to the south and east.” Arthurs attributes the appearance ot these exotic ceramics to
incursions by small trading parties into the area, to rendezvous with boreal forest groups (i... Blackduck and
Selkirk} from the local area and from points farther to the nerth and west.

What Arthurs postulates is not inconsistent with the basic hypothesis of this study: that archealogical cultures
anticipating the historic Ojibwe were present around the Lake Superior for centuries prior to European contact.
The challes is one of reconciliation between the various interpretations of the relationship. both

chronological and sociocultural, among the Peninsujar Woodland and the other contemporaneaus Algonquian
archeological cultures of the region.

Chronology is poorly controiled with respect to the fine-tuning of ceramic Iraditions. An updated classification
of Blackduck (Lugenbeal 1978), Selkirk (Rajnovich 1988), and Juntunen ceramics (McHale Milner and
O'Shea 1990) has begun to refine the traditional definition of ceramic styles, but the tundamemial problem of
relating these parts to a panregional whole remains. Clearly, the very general approach to chronology that
characterizes most archeological analysis, im which the entire Terminal Woodland substage is treated as a
single entity. greatly oversimplifies the issue of group composition and interaction which occurred in
prehistory. However, the requirements of the data to treat the historical realities of ethnic identity cannot be
fully met by the existing archeological record. A large portion of the chronological uncertainty stems from the
spot documentation of archeology along both the south and the north shore of Lake Superior. Conway's
“Algoma” pottery (1977) and perhaps other undocumented archeological cultures between Lake Nipigon and
the Sault may have influenced the direction and scope of composition and interaction in the region in both
spatial and temporal terms.

The degree of inclusiveness/exclusiveness in ceramics in a regional pattern of archeological sites should
constitute the indea of potential if not actual group composition. Discounting for the moment all of the
alternative explanations mentioned earlier (marriage practices, raiding, warfare, mimicry, trade. and exchange),
the potential for mixed group composition requires further consideration. The association of Blackduck and
Selkirk ceramics does not require any of these vehicles to account for their co-occurrence on individual sites or
across the region as a whole, since they represent closely related cultural phenomena associated in space, time.
and by the sharing of fundamentally similar adaptive strategies and cultural values. The operative unit

27


Geographical Distribution of Archeological Cultures

To assess the evidence for multiethnic associations in the Terminal Woodland substage. it is necessary to look
at the distribution of various ceramic types across a broad geographical area. In this study, we are concerned
with the associations of diagnostic ceramics that may or may not signal patterns of group composition.

Published sources were consulted to investigate the archeological sites in the area focusing on the traditional
territory claimed by the Grand Portage Band and more broadly, the Lake Superior Basin, The area includes the
north shore of Upper Michigan, the Superior shore of Wisconsin, the Arrowhead region of northem Minnesota
as far west as International Falls, and a large portion of northwest Ontario contiguous to Lakes Superior and
Nipigon. The nets were cast widely in this area to find a sufficient number of sites for this study.

Archeological data are fraught with problems. Sites, almost never excavated in their entirety, may actually
represent the accumulated remains of hundreds of years of occupational history compressed into a tew
centimeters, and/or spread horizontally over a large area. Consequently, most archeologists keep their distance
trom the type of interpretation being attempted here. Other bolder individuals, such as Dawson, explain their
data in terms of cultural-historical possibilities. Albeit faced with some daunting limitations and caveats. Table
| expresses what may be considered a “consensus” of cultural affiliation between archeological cultures and
their ethnohistoric counterpart.

At the Martin-Bird site on Whitefish Lake (southwest of Thunder Bay), Dawson (1987:54) describes a
Terminal Woodland component as “continuous occupation by various carriers of Algonquian culture.” Dawson
describes three strata that represent the precontact, initial contact, and historic periods, The site is typical in that
the specific associations of ceramic types vary both horizontally and vertically across the site and correlations
between these associations and the occupational history of the site may be suspect. However, taken in whole,
the site contains Blackduck, Selkirk, Peninsular Woodland, and Mackinac wares, and one Sandy Lake vessel.

Radiocarbon dates range from A.D, 630+85 (dating a Blackduck burial) to A.D. 1775 and the ceramics are in
many cases associated with historic trade goods. The ethnic composition in one area of the site is interpreted by
Dawson: “The composition of population if it approximates the variations in the ceramic assemblage would be
30% Algonquian speakers out of Michigan and Wisconsin, 25% Ojibwe and 25% Cree. The one Sandy Lake
vessel may represent a single fortuitous contact with Siouan-speakers” (198

Also on Whitefish Lake is the Mound Island site where Dawson (1978) found a major occupation site with
Blackduck (52 percent), Mackinac (?) (21 percent), Peninsular Woodland (2! percent), and Pickering Branch
(5.2 percent) ceramics. Atthe McCluskey site, a mainland site on Whitefish Lake, the pattern was Blackduck
(90 percent), Selkirk (8 percent), Mackinac, Peninsular Woodland, and Pickering Branch Iroquois (<1 percent
each) (Dawson 1974, 1978).

On Isle Royale, Blackduck ceramics occur in equivalent frequencies to both Huron and Juntunen vessels
(Blackduck 15 percent. Huron 18 percent. Juntunen !2 percent) but only half of the frequency of Selkirk (32
percent) (Clark 1995), Thirty-nine percent of the Terminal Woodland ceramics were unclassified, reflecting the
generic cord-marked pottery of Peninsular Woodland.

Thirty-nine sites in the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota had diagnostic Terminal Woodland
artifacts (typically Blackduck pottery); four also yielded copper artifacts (Peters 1984, 1986; Peters et al. 1983).
Most sites found in the forest survey are lithic scatters and surely include a number of aceramic Terminal
Woodland components that are not counted here, Excavation by Superior National Forest personnel at the Big
Rice Lake site revealed a large occupation with Blackduck and Sandy Lake ceramics (Peters 1984)

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Tntroduction

Archaeological Consulting Services conducted a late prehistoric cultural affiliation study for Grand Portage
National Monument. The project included developing a background on the issues involved in linking the late
prehistoric (A.D. 700 to 1600) record of often vague or poorly defined archeological cultures with a historic
record in which conjectured band, tribal, and/or linguistic identities are known, The purpose of this project was
to provide the basis for determining cultural affiliation in the event of the unintentional discovery of human
remains or cultural items under The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990
(NAGPRA), and to provide for the Monument a synthesis of its late prehistoric archeological record.

Grand Portage occupied a unique position as a major entrepot for the early fur trade of the Upper Country; its
reasons for selection by the Northwest Company being a sheltered bay and access to the river roads of the
interior. The present-day National Monument includes not only the Depot on Grand Portage Bay, but also the
site of Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River and a portage trail linking the two, all of which are within the present
lands of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa. Excavations at both the Depot and Fort Charlotte
have produced a wealth of information regarding the fur trade. However, late prehistoric artifacts, features, and
sites have neither been identified nor reported with the same enthusiasm as the fur trade materials. It is for this
reason that a cultural affiliation study of the Monument required a simultaneous focus on the archeology of the
Monument and immediate vicinity, to provide a site-specific context for the study, and a more broadly based
examination of the archeology and historic resources of the region.

The term Ojibwe is used throughout the report and, as will be seen, has a variety of meanings depending on the
context of its usage. Chippewa is used here only in its legal sense or in direct quotes, and of course the Ojibwe
people’s name for themselves, Anishnabeg, is acknowledged and respected. The name Saulteaux, apart from
specific quotes and contexts in this discussion, is used to differentiate this group of seventeenth century
migrants from the Sault Ste. Marie area from the Northen Ojibwe who, I argue, resided for at least 600 years
in the western Lake Superior Basin.

Research Design
The study addressed the question of cultural affiliation by following these steps:

1. Assemble all relevant archeological, ethnohistoric, and historic reports and records with primary focus
on the Monument and the area historically claimed by the Grand Portage Band between Isle Royale,
Beaver Bay, Basswood Lake, Mille Lacs, and Nipigon River (Figure 1).

2. Evaluate these reports and characterize sites by archeological culture using ceramic types.

3. Construct a series of maps with accompanying text showing the distribution of archeological cultures
for the study area.

4. Construct a map showing the major archeological sites discussed in the text.

5. Synthesize information provided by historical sources regarding band membership and composition to
determine if, for example, multiethnic or multilingual bands existed that may account for multiple
ceramic styles on a single site, An evaluation of settlement and seasonality will address the possibility
of seasonal aggregations of single or multiethnic occupations that would alternatively explain the
presence of more than one ceramic style on a single site.

6. Address linkages of archeological cultures and historic bands, and make identification of probable
affiliation of archeological cultures to the historic Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa.



Acknowledgements

] would like to express my gratitude to the many individuals who have assisted me in this study. Mark Lynott
and Jeff Richner made the library resources of the Midwest Archeological Center, National Park Service,
available to me. Dave Arthurs (Parks Canada) and Bill Ross (Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture-
Thunder Bay) provided me with updated material trom their research as well as critical comment on the
interpretation of the archeological record, Dr. Alan Woolworth was kind enough to review the dratt and offered
several useful comments on the archeology and history of the area. The outstanding offices of Jean Baker and
Eric Bushée (ACS) created the accompanying graphics. Margie Green (ACS) permitted this departure trom the
Southwest to undertake this study as a reward for months of the abject boredom of looking at Hohokam lithics.
Ms. Teresa | foffman (ACS) gave the draft a much-needed and completely objective read. Tim Cochrane
swilched hats several times for my benefit, never losing sight of his administrative obligations while remaining,
first and foremost, my friend and colleague.

vi


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Sandy Lake/Wanikan

The Wanikan culture was defined by Birk (1977). Sandy Lake pottery, the diagnostic artifact of the Wanikan
culture, was identified earlier by Cooper and Johnson (1964) who suggested that the Wanikan culture evolved
out of the Clam River focus, and thought to represent an occupation of Siouan speakers. Chronologically, the
Wanikan culture falls between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1700. Sandy Lake pottery has a maximum distribution
from the Mississippi headwaters area east to Lake Nipigon, north and west as far as eastern Manitoba, with its
area of primary concentration in the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake area on the international border
(Arthurs 1978) (Figure 6), The Norway Lake site in northem Minnesota contained a substantial Wanikan
component associated with Blackduck ceramics. Settlement and subsistence are not well known but are
believed to reflect a predictable focus on wild rice and other aquatic resources of the region.

Like Selkirk, Wanikan is identified primarily by its pottery that is often difficult to distinguish from its late
prehistoric cord-marked contemporaries (Figure 7), Temper is predominantly shell in the southern range of
Sandy Lake pottery, changing to grit in the north (Peterson 1986), It is described as having, “thin-walled,
globular pots with straight, thin rims, exterior surface treatment of vertical cording or smoothed exterior, and
occasional interior or exterior punctates. Decoration is confined to interior lip notching, although some vessels
show influence from other wares, such as Oneota, with trailing or stamping” (Lake Superior Basin Workshop
1988),

The ethnic identity of the makers of Sandy Lake pottery is uncertain. That they were likely Siouan speakers is
generally accepted, That they were ancestral to the Assiniboine is possible and not inconsistent with known
early historic distributions of the Assiniboine west and north of Lake Superior, including Lake Nipigon, Isle
Royale, and the Grand Portage Band territory.

Peninsular Woodland

“Peninsular Woodland” is a term that refers to the vast array of cord-marked vessels found from the north shore
of Lake Superior, south well into the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron Basins. This inclusive “type” has not
found currency among archeologists in the United States, who favor terms that relate to specific localized
ceramic types and varieties. The Mackinac phase pottery from the Juntunen site favors cord-marked and fabric
impressed exteriors on short squat vessels with round bases and square lips. Decoration is by the use of
punctations and geometric designs on rims and necks executed with a cord-wrapped stick. Mackinac ware is
broadly similar to most contemporaneous ceramics from surrounding areas, including Blackduck, Wayne
(southern Michigan), Princess Point (southwest Ontario), Heins Creek (Door Peninsula of Wisconsin and
western Upper Penisula), and Canton (northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin) wares-

Dawson (1982) links the Peninsular Woodland with the historic Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo, No attempt will be
made to address this, other than to point out that the “confusion” of identity is likely mirrored in the
Algonquian speakers of southem Lake Superior and reflects highly mobile populations with many shared
cultural traits, The distribution of Peninsular Woodland pottery (Figure 8) appears to stay fairly close to the
Lake Superior littoral, similar to the distribution of the Juntunen materials.


7. Provide brief summary statements of research needs that can be used to respond to Resource
Management Plans, project statements for the Archeological Site Management Information System, or
for 10-238 project statements anticipating budget calls for cultural resource projects (Appendix A).

8. Provide guidelines for evaluating the probable cultural affiliation of an “unanticipated discovery.”
This will include a synthesis of what is known about prehistoric and historic burial practices, and
identify any unique attributes that may be helpful in making a determination of affiliation (Appendix
B).

No new fieldwork or reanalysis of extant records or collections was undertaken for this project. It was well
beyond the scope of the budget and expectations of the project to re-evaluate collections of artifacts and to
re-evaluate ceramic classifications made by other archeologists.

Cultural/Historical Overview

The cultural/historical overview provides a framework for organizing the prehistoric archeological and historic
cultures at Grand Portage and in the surrounding Lake Superior basin. This framework is consistent with terms
and time periods employed in the northern tier of the Upper Great Lakes states and adjacent provinces of
Canada. Cultural stages are subdivided into substages or phases that represent episodes in the cultural
evolution of the historic Native Americans/First Nation, This partitioning of prehistory is, of course, arbitrary
insofar as the changes that took place did not occur overnight. The use of copper, the manufacture of ceramics,
the adoption of new hunting and fishing techniques, and the development of interband relations have no
beginning and no end in the greater scheme of history and cultural evolution. However, to the archeologist, the
prehistoric record is punctuated at times with “new” things that seem logical places to identify a change of
some magnitude separating them from previous and subsequent cultural developments. These are the bases for
the stage and substage classification schemes commonly used in archeology. As will be seen below, the same
principles apply to the definition of archeological cultures within a given substage.

Population estimates for any period are virtuatly impossible. Using the numbers of sites as a gross index of
population growth it is possible to state that population numbers rose steadily throughout prehistory.
Population growth is also inferred from the evidence for increasing efficiency in acquiring and sioring food.
While this hardly answers the question of how many people were here in the past, few would argue with the
assumption that population steadily increased from the Archaic through Woodland to Historic times. There
may have been major increases in population growth in late prehistory as the mobility of cance travel and the
advantages of food production and storage techniques made possible the “banking of resources” in an ever
broadening regional economy which linked the vast fisheries of the Upper Great Lakes to the northern margins
of horticulture to the south.

Laie Paleoindian/Early Archaic

Sites dating as early as 8,000 years ago dot the Lake Superior basin. Following the retreat of the last glaciation
prehistoric hunters found ample prey among the caribou, bison, elk, and moose in an environment then in
transition from a periglacial tundra to the present southern boreal forest.

Archeological remains are largely confined to stone tools and waste material left over from stone tool
production. Large chipped stone spears and knives with distinctive flaking patterns are typical of these early
cultures. The classic fluted points, often found associated with the remains of mastodon, mammoth, or bison
are uncommon in this area. The first recognizable archeological culture is the Plano Tradition. On the north
shore of Lake Superior, Plano astifacts have been found at a number of sites preserved, in part, by the effects of
isostatic rebound of the shoreline that have elevated the already high beaches well above the current levels of
Lake Superior. Notable are the quarry/habitation sites Brohm and Cummins near Thunder Bay, Ontario
(Dawson 1983),


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of burials at this location. All the skeletons were in poor condition, making it difficult, if not
impossible to accurately determine the age and sex of the individuals [Woolworth 1968].

Writing from Leech Lake, Minnesota in 1833. William Johnston (1893:194) describes the circumstances of the
death and the burial of a young man killed by an accidental discharge of a rifle

The coffin was filled up. ay is generally the case with the articles that the deceased was fond of. while
living. His medicine sack was placed under his head, and on that touching his head, were placed the
emblems of his warlike deeds, the War Eagles feathers... The burial ground was situated on a rising
piece of ground nearly in the center of Pine Point; amidst a thick grove of tall nonway pines...Here and
there a small mound showed where others had gone to rest. Some coffins were high in the air. placed
on scaffolds, one was the head chiefs son: which was as some distance trom the this: it attracted the
eye. being more conspicuous that the others and its being painted with vermillion.

While scattolds are usitally associated with Plains traditional practices. there is one account ofa scaffold burial
at Grand Portage. In 1799 MacGillivray mentioned the “premier’s scaffold” at Grand Portage as a local
landmark. According to Gilman (1992:73) the scaffold held the remains ofa chief referred to as the Premier. or
Nectam. who was an ally of the British. The remains were placed on a scaffold at Grand Portage and later
moved to Fon William. Gilman further states that, “As a mark of respect, the North West Company placed a
British Nag over the remains, an act that ‘was extremely gratifving to the Indians” (1992.73).

The use of the term “cottin” may be confused with “grave houseTM in some cases and the distinction is not
always clear. Coffins are understood to contain the actual remains of the dead with their grave goods and
probably were not in use until well into the Historic period. Grave houses, on the other hand. were (and are)
built over the actual grave. This was the place where offerings to the spirit of the dead were made, but did not
contain the actual remains themselves. The antiquity of grave houses is not clear, They are mentioned in
pussing by Koh] (1985:373) in his history of the Lake Superior Ojibwe. Whether prehistoric or historic. they
are not likely to long survive the passage of time unless maintained.

Although they likely participated in the Feast of the Dead, descriptions specific to the Ojibwe people. and more
specifically to the Northern Ojibwe. seem to reflect a more intimate and exclusive practice of burial on the
family. clan, or band level. Burial away from the major population centers such as the Sault and Straits of
Mackinac. should also reflect a minimum of external influence on burial practices. The Rainy River area to the
west may represent. at least in prehistory. Northern Ojibwe fe.g., Blackduck/Selkirk) mortuary ritual of a
communal nature, bul without the multicultural influences scen to the east

Discussion

The above characterization of prehistoric and historic burials illustrates the wide range of mortuary practices
found in the region. Obvious limitations include the inability to associate a specific h pe with a specific group.
excepr in special cases where a European observer provided a record of the partic spats. Altematively. what is
perceived as a limitation may overlook the equaily obvious fact that there is no single mode of interment for
any One group in the region, and that cultural affiliation based on mode of interment is virtually impossible.
Even in acase where a culturally diagnostic item, such as a Blackduck pot. is associated with a burial. there is
no absolute guarantee of the relationship of the deceased 10 that culture. The problem is further exacerbated in
the historic stage when discrete groups, formerly discernable through their unique pottery, became
archeologicully invisible as ceramics were replaced by products of European manufacture.

Miskwabik and Mishebeshu

The role of copper in the archeology, history, and religion of the Lake Superior region may tell us something of
the people who had access to the copper resources of Isle Royale. and by extension. the Grand Portage Ojibwe.
Copper was called Miskwabik, or the ced metal. among the Ojibwe on both sides of Lake Superior and fulfilled

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of small forms common throughout prehistory. but there are no copper tools or omaments which are considered
distinctively Laurel in style. It is assumed that copper was one of the items used by the Laurel people in the
comtext af gift exchange or trade in the acquisition of nonlocal commodities. The degree of interregional
exchange appears not to be too great, however, since nonlocal items rarely occur in great numbers.

It is Lauret pottery that identifies this culture. Vessels were constructed by coiling and there was a modest use
of grit temper. Vessels are hard and usually conoidal with straight rims and squared lips. Decoration made by
dentate stamping, linear stamping, push-puil, incising, pseudo-scallop shell impression, and use of punctates
and bosses, was confined to the upper 1/2 to 1/3 of the vessel that is otherwise smooth. Cord-marked exteriors
and the use of cord-wrapped sticks for decoration, the hallmarks of Terminal Woodland ceramics. do not occur
in Laurel assemblages (Masou 1981).

Along the southern periphery of its range along the Rainy River and Boundary Waters on the international
border. are the largest Laurel sites. At the Smith Mound in northern Minnesota, the mode of interment was by
bundle burial in small ossuaries. There was also evidence for preburial ritual treatment of the dead in the form
of dismemberment and cleaning of bones (Mason 198} ).

Terminal Woodland

There is no sudden change in artifact style to mark the beginning of the Terminal Woodland substage. Instead
it is defined in terms of the trends that set it apart from its predecessor (Gibbon and Caine 1980). Terminal
Woodland is characterized by increased localized cultural differentiation measurable in increments of stylistic
variability and raw material use. Subsistence practices became highly specialized in areas with unique
resources, such as the wild rice district in northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and adjacent portions of Canada, or
the fisheries at Sault Ste, Maric and Fond du Lac. There is evidence for an increase in population size in the
Terminal Woodland in the form of a higher density of sites and larger site size (Fitting 1975: Mason 1981).

From the beginning of the Terminal Woodland substage, roughly trom A.D. 700, to recorded history the Upper
Great Lakes was the scene of a complex interplay of archeological cuitures representing three linguistic groups
which were, in turn, partitioned into what are traditionally thought of by archeologists as culturally discrete and
autonomous units. The vast diversity in ceramic styles in the Upper Great |.akes region has been described in
various terms ranging from chaotic to cosmopolitan. The evidence of group composition and interaction among
archeological cultures. such as Blackduck, Selkirk, Juntunen, f{uron, and Peninsular Woodland, must be
explored using distinctive types of stone used for tools, copper artifacts, and ceramic styles and clay sources.
Ultimately. the relationship between ethnographic and ethnohistoric groups, on the one hand, must be
contrasted with archeological cultures on the other to provide a model of group composition and identity that
bridges prehistory and history.

The major Terminal Woodland archeological cultures represented on north shore sites covered a broad area
encompassing the entire Lake Superior (Figure 2). Included is the Straits of Mackinac sequence from the
Juntunen site, the Peninsular Woodland, and its cognates primarily from northem Lakes Michigan and Huron,
Blackduck culture. Selkirk composite, and Wanikan culture from the rice district of northern Minnesota and
adjacent areas of Ontario and Manitoba, and the Huron-Petun from aorthern Lake Huron. The cultural-
historical sequence is explained in detail below.


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either case, the archeological identification of Shield Archaic, and the discrimination between it and Woodland
assemblages that lack pottery, has been difficult owing to the persistence of stone tool forms that clearly began
in the Archaic and continued into the Woodland stage.

The second Archaic archeological culture is equally unpopular with respect to its title and uncertain with
respect to its meaning. The Old Copper Culture, Old Copper complex, or simply Old Copper, began as early as
3000 B.C. and continued to around 1200 B.C. (Stoltman 1986). The geographical distribution of Old Copper
has its heart in northeastern Wisconsin, near the copper-producing districts of Keweenaw and Ontonagon on
Lake Superior’s south shore. Artifacts attributed to Old Copper are found well away from this core, however,
and extend around the west end of Lake Superior, into the Lake Michigan basin, into the northern reaches of
the Midwest Riverine area, west to the plains periphery, and east as far as the Ottawa River between Ontario
and Quebec (Mason 1981).

The characteristic artifact forms, fashioned of copper, represent the most varied use of this material at any time
in Upper Great Lakes prehistory. Only during the Middle Woodland in the Hopewell culture and later in
Mississippian culture does copper working assume comparable proportions, although in much different
expressions. Archaic artifacts include large (by Terminal Woodland standards) spearheads, knives, gaffs,
adzes, as well as an array of forms more familiar later in time, such as awls, tubular and discoidal beads, and
hooks (Wittry 1957).

Initial Woodland

The temporal boundary between the Archaic and Woodland stages is archeologically defined by the
introduction of pottery. In eastern North America south of the boreal forest the first ceramic-producing cultures
are referred to as Early Woodland, dating as early as 1000 B.C. Early Woodland pottery is characteristically
coil constructed and thick, with cord-marked interiors and exteriors. By the time of the Middle Woodland
cultural pattern, beginning about 300 B.C., ceramics tad a wider variety of shapes, surface treatments, and
types of decoration (Mason 1981). It was at this juncture that ceramics made their appearance in the material
culture of the Shield Archaic (Wright 1972b), or were brought into the region around and north of Lake
Superior by a different culture to the south (Buchner 1979). Echoing an earlier sentiment, Wright (1968:47)
states that, “The evidence from the sites under consideration...strongly suggests that ceramics are not an
indigenous part of Ojibwa material culture.” Mason (1981:286) summarizes the ambivalence with which he
believes pots were accepted in the north: “There is a high probability that there were some people in the Laurel
country who did not manufacture or use earthenware but who were fully contemporaneous with those who did
and that the only empirical difference between their respective sites would be the presence or absence of
sherds.”

In practice, the terms “Initial Woodland” and “Laurel” in the Lake Superior basin mean the same thing. Other
InitiaVEarly Woodland archeological cultures (¢.g., North Bay of Northern Lake Michigan and the south shore
of Lake Superior and Saugeen culture of southwestern Ontario) are peripheral to this analysis, although they
represent similar cultural developments of a more southerly Woodland stage cultural evolution (Mason 1981).
The Laurel focus was defined by Wilford’s (1941) work in northern Minnesota. His definition was
subsequently expanded by MacNeish (1958) to cover southern Manitoba. Laurel sites are now known from a
large area north of the Great Lakes and between Saskatchewan and central Quebec.

Other than the apparent deletion of large copper artifacts from the tool inventory and a shift in lithic raw
material preferences, there were no fundamental changes in the lithic and copper technology and their products
from previous Archaic material culture. Net sinkers appear to be new in the region at this time (Wright 1967),
and trade items such as Saugeen pottery from southwestern Ontario, shell from Manitoba, and Yellowstone
obsidian occur on both sides of Lake Superior (Janzen 1968; Wright 1967). There is a proliferation of small
chert endscrapers in the Laurel culture, which is attributed to the functional needs of an economy increasingly
devoted to fishing (Janzen 1968). Copper tools and ornaments in Laurel assemblages include the typical range

5


Trigger, Bruce G.
1976 The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. McGill-Queen’s University
Press, Montreal and London.
1981 Ontario Native People and the Epidemics at 1634-1640. In Indians Animals und the Fur Trade: a
Critique of “Keepers of the Game”, edited by Shepard Krech Hl, pp. 21-38. University of Georgia Press,
Athens.

Vecsey, Christopher
1983 Traditional Ojibwa Religion and Its Historical Changes. The American Philosophical Society,
Metmoirs 152. Philadetphia

Warren, William W.
1974 History of the Ojibway People. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.

Wheeler, Robert C., Walter A. Kenyon, Alan R. Woolworth, and Douglas A. Birk
1975 Appendix 2. Cataloged Underwater Project Artifacts in the Minnesota Historical Society, 1960-
1973. In Voices from the Rapids, An Underwater Search for Fur Trade Artifacts 1960-73. Minnesota

Historical Archaeology Series No. 3, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Whittlesey, Charles
1863 Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge
13(155). Washington, D.C,

Wilford, Lloyd A.

194] A Tentative Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota. American Antiquity
6(3):23 1-249,
1955 A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Culture in Minnesota. 4merican Antiquity 2) :1 30-142.

Wittry. Warren
1957 A Preliminary Study of the Old Copper Complex. The Wisconsin Archeologist 38(4):204-221.

Woolworth, Alan R.

1962 Archeological Test Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument, June-September, 1961.
Minnesota Historical Society. Manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument.

1963 Archeological Investigations at the Northwest Company’s Fur Trade Post, Grand Portage,
Minnesota, in 1936-1937. Manuscript on file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.

1968 Archeological Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument, 1962 Field Season. Minnesota
Historical Society. Manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument.

1969 Archeological Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument, 1963 1964 Field Seasons.
Minnesota J istorical Society, Manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument.

1975, Archeological Investigations at the Northwest Company’s Depot, Grand Portage, Minnesota, in
1970-1971, Manuscript on file, Midwest Archeological Center. Lincoln.

Woolworth, Alan R., and Nancy L. Woalworth
1982 Grand Portage National Monument: An Historical Overview and an Inventory of Its Cultural
Resources. 2 Volumes. Manuscript on tile, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.
1998 The French Presence on Lake Superior and at Grand Portage, c. 1740-1805, Phase U. Draft
manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument, Grand Marais.

5

a


Also in the 1962 season summary report, some prehistoric chipped stone, but no ceramics, are described. Of
note is an engraved slate with an incised image on both sides (Figure 13). The context of this find appears to be
an exploratory trench where stockade posts were found, but there is no mention of other associations. The
figure shown is very similar to others found on birchbark scrolls associated with the Midewiwin, or Grand
Medicine Society. The Midewivin was a society devoted to the lore of herbal curing which became
increasingly popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when traditional culture came under the
stress of disease, warfare, and displacement. The French evidently left no record of the Midewiwin, leading
some scholars to suggest that it was an historic phenomenon, although others believe that, as a secret healing
society, it was probably not openly discussed in front of Europeans (Come! 1986)

In his report on the 1963—] 964 excavations, Woolworth (1964) reports a large, expanding stemmed projectile
point from a cabin north of the blockhouse. It is described as “brown chalcedony” which is likely a form of
Hudson's Bay Lowland chert common on Terminal Woodland sites (Julig et al. 1992). In the 1970-1971
excavations, native artifacts are limited to one wooden net shuttle, three Micmac-style pipe fragments, five
flakes, and one bone tube. “A bone tube of the type used by native doctors in curing rituals was found near the
well” (Woolworth 1975:252).

The other area of Grand Portage National Monument that has received archeological attention is the opposite
end of the portage at the site of Fort Charlotte. Here, too, the evidence is ephemeral. An underwater survey of
Pigeon River here recovered“! unfinished jaspilite projectile point, 5 prepared or utilized fakes, 24 assorted
waste flakes of chalcedony, jaspilite. and chert: | variably cut and drilled piece of catlinite” (Wheeler et al.
1975.98)

An investigation of Fort Charlotte was undertaken in September of 1979 that involved the remapping surface
features, a magnetometer survey to detect subsurface features, and shovel tests (Jones 1980), No prehistoric
materials were recovered during this project.

Lynott's (1988) survey of a proposed right-of-way on Grand Portage Band lands east of the Monument
recorded three small aceramie prehistoric sites. Noble's (1989, 1990) excavations revealed sparse
nondiagnostic Terminal Woodland materials heavily mixed with fur trade era and more recent deposits.

Discussion
Focus on the fur trade facilities at Grand Portage and Fort Charlotte tell us next to nothing about the prehistoric
or historic Indian presence there. The chipped stone is very likely trom the Terminal Woodland substage. but
only represents the fact that someone was here. The total absence of ceramics is telling. There was probably
never any significant prehistoric occupation in the area selected by the North West Company for its depot.
While this is true, it is also possible and indeed very likely that, if there was a sizeable prehistoric occupation, it
was in an area outside the Monument where no archeological work has been conducted.

Mortuary Practices

The practices surrounding the treatment and burial of the dead were concerned with the proper care of the
ancestors as an expression of reverence and respect for the dead by the living. It is important in a study of this
nature to review different burial practices as a means by which future discoveries of burials may be evaluated
as to age and cultural affiliation, and further, that they may be treated appropriately and respectfully by those
people to which they are most likely related. The treatment of the dead is usually highly informative about
degrees of inclusive/exclusiveness of human groups. It is also here that one often finds the most unique
expressions of self-definition manifest in the burial ritual and goods accompanying the deceased. But, like
everything else, one finds that these behaviors change through time and space, and that there is not just one
type of burial or ritual activity that is specifically Ojibwe. The following discussion includes both prehistoric
and historic mortuary sites and practices and, while not exhaustive, is representative

38

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The Michipicoten site at the mouth of the Michipicoten River on Lake Superior contains stratified deposits
ranging from A.D. 1100 to 1700 (JV. Wright 1968). Stratum VII (ca. A.D. | 100-1400) contained Juntunen
and Peninsular Woodland ceramics. Stratum III (ca. A-D. 1460) contained Huron, Juntunen, and Peninsular
Woodland ceramics. Stratum II (ca. A.D. 1700) contained Huron, Juntunen, and Peninsular Woodland
ceramics. This sequence and other similar ones mav be interpreted as a reflection of over 600 years of regional
stability with the later addition of Huron/Nipissing ceramics,

The Whitefish Island site at Sault Ste. Marie produced an assemblage duplicating the association of ceramic
wares seen at Michipicoten and at several Isle Royale sites. Conway (1977) describes the association with
Huron, Mackinac, Bois Blanc, Juntunen, Blackduck, and Algoma style ceramics. (“AlgomaTM ceramics
represent Conway's interpretation of a local Algonquian ceramic tradition. It has not been formally published
or described, however.)

On the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula's copper range and to the southwest toward the Wisconsin
border, archeological sites take on expected similarities comparable to Isle Royale and north shore sites,
although they retlect a southern “Chippewa” or Saulteaux orientation. The Sand Point site at the southern end
of Keweenaw Bay is dated between A.D. 1100-1400 with a ceramic complex related to the Lakes phase of
northern Wisconsin and stylistic ties to the Juntunen phase (Claire McHale Milner, personal communication
1989), The site includes eleven burial mounds, and the remains of a minimum of 1] 7 individuals were
recovered from site testing (Cremin 1980). At the Montreal River site near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
the assemblage is dominated by Mero phase grit-tempered Oneota ceramics and includes Sand Point and
Juntunen ware.

The Juntunen site at the Straits of Mackinac. a pivotal site in a regional crossroads. was discussed earlier.
Suffice to say that the diversity of ceramics here indicates a complex occupational history of large seasonal
aggregations of mostly Algonquian-speakers come together for the fishing, the feasting, and the burial of their
dead. It is important to observe that the overall composition of the Juntunen ceramic assemblage, especially in
its later prehistoric Occupations, appears to mirror that of many of the major sites along the north shore of Lake
Superior: Michipicoten, Pic River, the Thunder Bay area, Whitefish Lake, and Isle Royale.

Discussion

In general, we can conclude from the overview of Terminal Woodland archeological cultures that, apart from
marked differences in ceramic styles, the settlement and subsistence practices of Great Lakes Terminal
Woodland peoples were very similar. We have already seen from Dawson’s proportional representation of
different ceramic traditions at individual sites that a number of pots, representing a number of archeological
cultures, are typically present at individual sites, This leaves open the question of how they came to be at the
same site and what this means in terms of mobility, manufacture, and group composition.

Using Isle Royale as a focal point, a study of trace elements in ceramics selected from sites all around the Lake
Superior Basin indicated that pottery was both imported to and locally manufactured on Isle Royale (Clark et
al. 1992). The best evidence for long-distance movement of pots was found in the Juntunen phase: the vessels
stylistically belonged to the eastern end of Lake Superior and the Staits of Mackinac, but were made with
clays found on Isle Royale. If one discounts ceramics as a possible commodity, there is no conclusive
archeological evidence for trade or exchange with neighboring areas within the Lake Superior basin, Even in
the event that ceramics were traded, the evidence is largely restricted to the Juntunen phase. In this case,
mobility of Juntunen potters between the Straits of Mackinac and Isle Royale along the north shore seems an
equally valid explanation. That Blackduck and Selkirk co-occur in such frequency reflects an ongoing use of
the north shore by people already familiar with the western end of Lake Superior, whether or not one ascribes
to the theory that they are coeval or that one supplants the other through time.

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both spiritual and materia] needs as a substance for tools and ornamentation that was gifted to the people by an
underwater manitou or spirit being. Copper has long gained the attraction of archeologists by its unique
qualities (Martin 1999), True metallurgy was not achieved in North America. but the combination of culd-
hammering and annealing of native copper resulted in elaborate artifacts found widespread throughout the
Midwest and adjacent areas.

A discussion of copper and its religious meaning is tangential to this cultural affiliation study. insofar as it
appears that virtually all Algonqutans had access to and used copper in some form in prehistory. It also appears

that neighboring Siouan groups also had access to copper, although perhaps in a way limited by the costs of

down-the-ling exchange. However. the uniqueness and importance of copper as a cultural item frequently
recovered archealogically demands some consideration.

Geological and Cultural Context of Lake Superior Copper

Native capper is found in the Keweenawan formation, which includes Isle Royale and the Keweenaw
Peninsula of Northern Michigan. While the major bedrock sources of copper are found here. variable amounts
of bedrock and louse copper have been found at the eastern end of Lake Superior. and in the areas of glacial
drift of L pper Michigan, Wisconsin, aad Minnesota, For the northern Ojibwe and their immediate neighbors
Isle Rovale served as the primary source for copper, requiring either a canoe trip to the island to mine it or
establishing trade relanons with others who did (Clark 1991, 1995).

In the Terminal Woodland substage. copper on both sides of the lake was fashioned into a variety of smal!
tuols and omamenis, and distributed widely through the mechanisms of wade and exchange. A differential
distribution of copper artifacts on archeological sites around Lake Superior suggests that the people of the
Juntunen phase had a particular interest in copper. Copper artifacts are prevalent at the Juntunen site and on
other Terminal Woodland sites exhibiting the usual mix of Juntunen, Blackduck. Selkirk. and Peninsular
Woodlang ceramics. However. away from the Lake Superior shore. the occurrence of copper drops ulf and.
while present in small numbers on many Blackduck and Selkirk sites to the northwest, does not reach the
quantities found on Juntunen phase sites (Clark 1991, 1995). This may be a function of distance trom die
source, or may have some cultural explanation. such as differential access to the resource. [t was tentatively
suggested that the Juntunen people may have exercised some form of control over copper on fsle Royale. or
had a greater interest in it, while other resources, such as fish and caribou. were unrestricted. While this is
unproven, it may hint that the scope of prehistoric Juntunen activity stretched as far west as Isle Royale, in
concert with Hickerson’s (1974) assertion that the Saulteaux were already well acquainted with the region at
the time of their purported westward move in the sixteenth century,

Historical Context of Lake Superior Copper

Furopeans first became aware of Great Lakes region copper in the early sixteenth century when copper
ornaments were found among the Indians along the St. Lawrence. In the winter of 1535-1536 Carer was
entertained and intrigued by tales of the "Kingdom of Saguenay” which Jay in some ambiguous direction to the
north and west and from whence had come the copper objects in possession of his hosts, the St. Lawrence
Iroquois. In subsequent years there was a flow of information concerning the source of copper. In 1603
Champlain's Huron informants described a copper mine somewhere to the north where they had obtained some
bracelets, Seven vears later on a trip upriver from Quebec, Champlain encountered some Montagnais and a
single Algonkin who presented him with a piece of native copper said to have been obtained from the bank ofa
river (Biggar 1925).

With the establishment ofa permanent French presence in Hurania (southwestern Ontario) and the burgeoning
fur trade. inore substantive information conceming the sources of copper was forthcoming. Penetration into the
Superior Basin by the traders Brule and Cirenole around 1623 brought back copper specimens and more tales
of mining from Indians living in the Lake Superior basin. No mines were actually visited, however, and much

43


Table }. Correlation Among Archeological Cultures and Their Ethnohistoric Counterparts.

Archeological Culture

Linguistic Affiliation

Historic Group

References

Blackduck

Algonquian

Monsoni. Ojibwe

Dawson 1974,1975: Wright
1972

Selkirk Algonquian Cree Dawson 1982: MacNeish
1988: Wright 1968
Sandy Lake Wanikan Siouan Assiniboine Birk 1977: Cooper and

Johnson 1964: this report

Mackinac Algonquian Sautteaux, Ojibwe Dawson !982

Juntunen Algonquian Ottawa, Potawattomi Dawson 1977, (982:
McPherron 1967

Juntunen Algonquian Saulteaux. Ojibwe Fitting 1975

Juntunen Irequoian lrequoian McPherron 1967

Juntunen Algonquian Ottawa or This report

Otawa/Saulteaux mix
Huron froqueian Huron This report

Huron-Petun Nipissing Dawson 1982; Fitting 197.

Mason 1976; Ramsden 1988

Algonquian

Peninsular Woodland.
including Lakes Phase

Dawson 1982, Mason 1981;
Salzer 1974, 1986

Algonquian Menominee. Winnebago.

Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox

In a survey of sites at Voyageurs National Park on the international burder, eluding Rainy, Namakan, and
Kabetogaina {akes. Blackduck is reported as the most common (Lynott et al. 1986). Blackduck is associated
with Selkirk at eight sites. and with Sandy Lake at two. There is one site with only Blackdack and one with
only Selkirk. [he nearby [ong Sault site on the Rainy River was intensively excavated and produced evidence
for a Blackduck and Selkirk habitation and burial site of long duration (Arthurs 1986). Rajnovich (1980)
reported eleven |erminal Woodland sites with Blackduck pottery from the north shore of Rainy Lake. Kenyon
(1986) describes sev cral burial mound sites in northwestern Ontario, many on the Rainy River. Kenyon defines
the ceramics in them as being caclusively Blackduck, whereas Arthurs (personal communication 1999) feels
they are exclusively Selkirk. The exclusivity in itself is noteworthy in view of the typical heterogeneity of
ceramics on occupation sites.

The Bullynacree site in the Lake of the Woods area was a Blackduck, Selkirk, and Sandy Lake occupation
(Rajnavich and Reid 1987), Also near Kenora. the Ballysadare site produced Blackduck ceramics, apparently
without any other Terminal Woodiand types (Rajnovich 1980). The Spruce Point site at the north end of the
Lake of the Woods also had late prehistoric occupations identified by the presence of Blackduck. Sandy Lake.
and Seikitk ceramics (Rajnovich 1983).

Vhe West Patricia District of northwestern Ontario covers 223.500 square kilometers (86.300 square miles) of
rivers and lakes of the southern boreal forest. The extensive survey of this area disclosed approximately 364
lenninal Woodland sites (Reid 1980: Reid and Ross 1981: Ross 1982). In most cases, the camponents are
identified as Blackduck and/or Selkirk.

The Cobinosh Island site is located on the north shore of that island at the eastern end of the Nipigon Bay
archipelago in Lake Superior, According to David Arthurs (personal communication 1990), the site is stratified
and includes tems Creek, Madison. Mackinac, Juntunen. Blackduck, Selkirk (7), and Iroquoian ceramics.

25


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16


Parker, John (editor)
1976 The Journats of Jonathan Carver and Related Documents 1766-1770. Minnesota Historical
Society Press, St, Paul.

Peters, Gordon, John Hunn, Karene Motivans, and Walter Okstad
1983 Cultural Resaurce Management on the Superior National Forest, 1982 Annual Report. Cultural
Resource Report No. 1. U.S,D.A. Forest Service, Superior National Forest, Dututh.

Peters, Gordon (editor)
1984 Cultural Resource Management on the Superior National Forest, 1983 Annual Report. Cultural
Resource Report No. 2. U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Superior National Forest, Duluth.
1986 Cultural Resource Management on the Superior National Forest, 1985 Annual Report. Cultural
Resaurce Report No. 4. U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Superior National Forest, Duluth.

Peterson. Lynell
1986 An Attribute Analysis of Sandy Lake Ware from Norman County and North Central Minnesota.
Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Quimby, George |.
1966 Indian Culture und European Trade Goods. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

Rajnovich, Grace

1980 Balysadare (DkKp-10): A Laurel-Blackduck Site at the Source of the Winnepeg River, Ontario
Archaeoloxy 33:37-58.

1983 The Spruce Point Site: A Comparative Study of Selkirk Components in the Boreal Forest.
Conservation Archaeology Report No. |. Northwestern Region, Heritage Branch, Ministry of Citizenship
and Culture, Kenora.

1994 Reading Rock Art: Interpreting the indian Rock Paintings of the Canadian Shield. Natural
Heritaze/Natural History, Inc. Toronto.

Rajnovich, Grace, and C.S. Reid
1987 Rescuing Rat River Portage Prehistory: Preliminary Report on the 1986 Excavations uf the
Ballynacree Site in Kenora. Conservation Archaeology Report 11. Northwestern Region, Ministry of
Citizenship and Culture.

Ramsden, Peter G.
1988 The Huron-Algonkian Boundary: The View From Halburton and the Kawartha Lakes. Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association, Whistler, British
Columbia.

Ray, Arthur J.
1974 Indians in the Fur Trade, University of Toronto Press.

Reid. C.S. (editor)
1980 Studies in West Patricia Archaeology No. 1:1978-1979. Archaeological Research Report 15.
Ministry of Culture and Recreation, Historical Planning and Research Branch. Kenora, Ontario.

ts
oo


Vi. Are the Grave Goods Prehistoric, Historic, or a Combination?

This determination will begin the process of establishing an age assessment of the burial. A grave
containing only precontact goods is likely to be prehistoric; a combination may be earlier than one with
only goods of non-native manufacture.

Vi What are the Dates of the Artifacts?

Each type of artitact will have a date or more likely a range of dates associated with its manufacture and
use established by the discovery of similar artifacts at other sites. This assessment will establish a
minimum and maximum date range for the burial.

Vill Are the Artifacts Attributable to a Specific Archeological Culture?

If native-made clay pottery is present, what style(s) is represented? [s only one type present or is more than
one present? Jf Blackduck and/or Selkirk are present, then it is possible that the remains are thase of a
Northern Ojibwe and/or Cree individual. If Juniunen pottery is present, it is possible that the remains
belong to a somewhat earlier proto-Ojibwe archeological culture. If Peninsular Woodland is present then
the remains may be those of an Algonquian-speaker whose tribal affiliation is unknown.

If the associated artifacts arc strictly of non-Native manufacture. but other lines of evidence suggest that
the remains are Native American, then it is unlikely that any further cultural affiliation can be determined.

As acautionary note, it is not uncommon for artifacts to be introduced into a burial accidentally, especially
on a busy sile where there are many artifacts remaining from previous occupations. The excavation of a
burial pit and its subsequent filling may result in the unintentional mixing of earlier artifacts into a later
context.

The inability te reach an unequivocal determination of cultural affiliation should not be seen as a failure. since
under normal archeological circumstanves, one is usually provided with only pieces of the puzzle. This is
compounded in our case by historical uncertainties of cultural identities among living groups that have no
archeological counterparts. Even under the best of circumstances, the determination of cultural affiliation will
be a probability statement or “best guess” on the part of the investigators.


That change occurred is undeniable and it is beyond the scope of this project to address this issue. Bruce
Trigger presents a plausible middle ground in the debate, worthy of mention; although his argument pertains
more directly to the Huron, it has general applicability to the Algonquians as well. The adoption of tools of
European manufacture has been referred to as a “dependency.” Whether sudden or gradual, the replacement of
traditional tools to those acquired through trade “developed because native peoples clearly recognized that the
possession of certain classes of European goods made life easier and more secure for them. Once they became
familiar with the range of good that the Europeans had to offer. they sought to obtain items of considerable
technological value” (Trigger 198 1:24).

Uhe participation in the fur trade was a means to makc life easier. more convenient. and more pleasurable. The
shifts in traditional lifeways were not dramatic changes, but adjustments to an ancient system of seasonal
movements, and a seasonal redirection of effort towards fur-bearers rather than meat producers. lt was now
necessary to bring the winter's furs to the depot to obtain goods in the spring, and to obtain the necessary
supplies in the tall to insure a good harvest of pelts. This may account for Woolworth’s (1998:73) statement
that. “In early historic times [prior to 1805], the Ojibwe Indian winter village was at the east end of Grand
Portage Bay where Mount Josephine sheltered it from the harsh winter winds.” This is contrary to the typical
pattem of winter dispersal of small family groups in the interior away from Lake Superior. but may reflect a
new settlement type as a point of contact with the traders. In addition, it provided the context for the coming
together of a diverse mix of native and non-native cultures

By the mid-seventeenth century Neutral and Five Nation lroquois attacks on the Algonquian speakers in
southwestern Ontario and Michigan's Lower Peninsula caused the Sauk, Fox. Kickapoo, Mascouten. Miami.
and Potowatomi to move west of Lake Michigan. leaving the land between lakes Huron and Michigan virtually
uninhabited. It was also during this period, between the 1660s and 1690s, that the French increased their
presence in the Upper Great Lakes with the building of missions, forts, and trading centers. Changing social
configurations found the development of multi-ethnic populations around the social and economic nuclei of
these French establishments (Mason 1981: Quimby 1966: Ray 1974).

Apart trom proselytizing the faith, the exploration of the Upper Country was strictly a means to an end: the
discovery of the route that would open direct trade between Europe, Cathay, and Japan, Eventually. the region
came to be appreciated on i1s own merits by Europeans who sought to exploit its vast resources rather than
merely use the land as a base for seeking a waterway through the continent to the fabled Lu Mer de l'Ouest. As
French and Spanish commercial interest in the interior of the North American continent increased, the
vighteenth centucy witnessed fierce mercantile and military competition between the British and the French.
French control of the St. Lawrence waterway and the Great Lakes region ended with the military defeat of the
French and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in |763 that ceded that vast region to Great Britain. With the
French eliminated as a political power in North America, British and Canadian merchants vigorously exploited
the fur resources of the interior, aided by a workforce of largely Indian, French, and French-Canadian
entrachion

On August 26. 1731 the French trader, La Verendrye, arrived al Grand Portage Bay. A few men were sent on
to Rainy | ake where they established Fort St. Pierre. Most of La Verendrye’s party retreated to Thunder Bay
for the winter, returning to Grand Portage the following year. They continued west that summer to establish
Fort St. Charles at the Lake of the Woods. Although never a post as such, Grand Portage was probably
traversed regularly by French traders until the area fell into British hands at the conclusion of the French and
Indian Wars.

In about 1768, John Erskine | Askin] put up a stockade and post at east end of the portage. A merger of several
trading partners in Montreal was effected in (783, and the North West Company was born. For a time. Fort
Michilimackinac at the northem tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula was the western outlier of the fur trade and
its voyageurs could make the trip between there and Montreal within the scope of a single ice-free season. As


the trade moved west and the distance lengthened, a second administrative center was established at Grand
Portage. Here was the depot where the great cargo canoes and bareau of the Great Lakes exchanged their
westbound loads of trade goods for eastbound bales of castor gras. arriving in the lighter and smaller canoes of
the inland waterways of the west.

A substantial post was built on the shores of Grand Portage Bay. In the 1790s. the depot consisted of 16
buildings surrounded by a log stockade. The waterfront included wharves and a dock capable of
accommodating the 75-ton schooner Orter. It was also at this time that Fort Charlotte was constructed at the
western end of the portage on the Pigeon River. A second and smaller post was built by the competing XY
Company on the opposite side of Grand Portage Creek from the North West Company's facilities. The XY
Company operated between 1797 and 1805 until bought out by its stronger neighbor.

A decision to move the great depot to British territory was made during the meeting of the North West
Company at Grand Portage in |798, after a land survey disclosed that the depot lay on American soil.
Negotiations were made with local Ojibwe bands at Thunder Bay and Grand Portage in the late summer of
1798 to purchase land along the Kaminsitiquia River (Woolworth 1998:65). Construction of the new post,
called Fort William, began in 1802 and the Grand Portage facility was abandoned two years later

After the move to Thunder Bay the Ojibwe and Metis population which remained at Grand Portage continued
to exploit Isle Royale's resources and, in 1836 when the American Fur Company expanded its operations to
include commercial fishing, were much sought after tor their knowledge and expertise in the local fishery
(Cochrane n.d.). Ojibwe men and women were employed by the American Fur Company at Grand Portage and
other sites (Franchere 1839). The men engaged in fishing, the women in processing the catch. Archeological
remains of American Fur Company establishments on Isle Royale have been identified at Grace Point. the head
of Siskiwit Bay, Checker Point, at Belle Isle, and at the Siskowit Mine. Most of the American Fur Company
fishing establishments on Isle Royale coincided with earlier prehistoric sites and, after the termination of
American Fur Company fishing in 1841; these sites were reoccupied by native families. In 1846-1847 surveyor
Charles Ives reported the location of an Indian maple sugaring camp on Red Oak Ridge or Sugar Mountain
near the Island Mine. Sarah Barr Christian's diary relates a trip she made to a sugaring camp “on the north side
of the island” (Christian 1932). Ives notes other Indian camps at Merritt Lane, Grace Point, Grace Island.
Siskowit Mine, and at the mouth of Washington Creek (Ives | 846-1847),

The Grand Portage Community

The historic documentation of the number of Indians at Grand Portage throughout the span of the fur trade post
there is poor. Even though Grand Portage census information is available from 183] on, it must be
remembered that the community also included those families occupying places such as Basswood and
Saganaga Lakes at some distance from Grand Portage Bay which were likely omitted from the censes.
Hickerson’s research in a lands claim case (1974) states that there was no Ojibwe village at Grand Portage
prior to the trade. In fact, he states (1974:147) that, “There are no records of the existence of a Chippewa
village at Grand Portage before 1800,” Woolworth (personal communication 1999) believes that a village
originated here in the 1730s and was located near Mount Josephine at the eastern end of Grand Portage Bay,
here the village would have been sheltered from the winds off Lake Superior.

Following the depot’s move to Thunder Bay, the numbers of native residents remained small. “In 1831, Henry
R. Schoolcraft, U.S. Indian Agent at Sault Ste. Marie, said there were only twelve men, eleven women, and
twenty-seven children in the village of Grand Portage” (Grand Portage Band 1983:39). In 1834, American Fur
Company’s Ramsay Crooks hired about twenty Grand Portage residents to fish between the Pigeon River and
Grand Marais. The fishery was closed in 1842 due to a poor market. Schoolcraft’s census figures are
substantially lower than subsequent ones. He did not actually visit Grand Portage and likely underrepresented
the total number of persons living within the band territory, Even the season of the year in which a census was

34

am HE HE He HE EE

See EF Ee & & ew

oa

[ as aa



199] Group Composition and the Role of Unique Raw Materials in the Terminal Woodland Substage
of the Lake Superior Basin, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology. Michigan
State University, Ann Arbor.

1995 Archeological Investigations at Isle Rovale National Park, Michigan. Occasional Studies in
Anthropology, No. 32, Series Editor F.A. Calabrese, Midwest Archeological Center, National Park
Service. Lincoln.

Clark, C.P.. H. Netf, and M. Glascock
1992 Neutron Activation Analysis of |.ate Woodland Ceramics from the Lake Superior Basin. In
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Cleland, Charles E.
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Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

Cleland, Charles E. (editor)
1971 The Lasenen Site, in Historic Burial Locality in Mackinac County, Michigan. Anthropological
Series 1(1), Publications af the Muscum, Michigan State University.

Cochrane, Timothy
n.d. Ojibwa Fishing Skills and the American Fur Company's Fishing Experiment on Lake Superior.
Manuscript on file, Isle Royale National Park, Houghton.

Cooper. L. and £. Johnson
(964 Sandy Lake Ware and its Distribution. dmerican Antiquity 29(4):474-479,

Conway, Thor
1977 310-Whitefish Island- A Remarkable Archaeological Site at Sault Ste, Marie, Ontario. Research
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Comel, George L..
1986 Ojibway. In Pople of the Three Fires, The Ottawa. Potawatomi, and Ojibway of Michigan. Pp.
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Cremin, William C.
1980 Sand Point (20BG14): A Lakes Phase Site on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Baraga County,
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Dawson. k. C. A

1974 McCluskey Site, National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Archaeolagical Survey of Canada,
Paper 25. Ottawa.

1975 The Western Area Algonkians, In, Papers of the Sixth Algonquian Conference, 1974. Edited by
William Cowan, pp. 30-41, National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service
Paper No, 23, Otlawa.

1977 An Application of the Direct Historical Approach to the Algonkians of Northern Ontario.
Canadian Journal of Archavology \:\5\-181.

1978 The Mound Island Site: A Multi-component Woodland Period Habitation Site in Northwestern
Ontario. Ontario Archaevlugy 30:47-66.

49


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Lake Superior Basin Workshop
1988 Desparately Seeking Siouans: The Distribution of Sandy Lake Ware. Wanikan 88-1,

Lugenbeal, Edward N.
1978 The Blackduck Ceramics from the Smith Site (21KC3) and Their Implications for the History of
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3(1):45-68.

Lynott, Mark J
1988 Archeological Survey of a Proposed Road Construction Locality at Grand Portage, Minnesota.
Manuscript on file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln,

Lynott, Mark J.. Jeffrey J. Richner, and Mona Thompson
1986 Archeological Investigations at Voyageurs National Park: 1979 and 1980, Occasional Studies in
Anthropology No. 16, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.

MacNeish, R. S.
1958 An Introduction to the Archaeology of Southwest Manitoba. Bulletin 157, Anthropological Series
44, National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.

Martin, Susan R.

1999 Wonderful Power: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin. Wayne
State University Press, Detrvit.

Mason, Ronatd J.
1976 Ethnicity and Archacology in the Lipper Great Lakes. In Cultural Change and Continuity: Essays

in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by Charles §. Cleland, pp. 349-361. Academic Press, New
York.

1981 Great Lakes Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.

McHale Milner, Claire. and John O'Shea
1990 Life Apter the Juntunen Site? Late Prehistoric Occupation of the Upper Great Lakes. Paper
presented at the Midwest Archaeological Conference, October 5-6, Evanston.

MePherron, Alan
1967 The Juntunen Site and the Late Woodland Prehistory of the Upper Great Lakes Area.
Anthropological Papers 30. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Monk, Susan M.
1986 A Summary of Archeological Monitoring at Grand Portage National Monument during Creck
Bank Stabilization, August 18-21, 1986. Manuscript on file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.

Noble, Vergil E.

1989 An Archeological Survev of Development Projects within Grand Portage National Monument.
Cook County, Minnesota, Midwest Archeological Center Reports, Lincoln,

1990 A Report on Archeological Investigations Within the Grand Portage Depot (21CK6), Grand Portage
National Monument, Minnesota: The Kitchen Drainage Project. Midwest Archaeological Center Reports,
Lincoln,

$2


Miskwabik and Mishebeshu

Geological and Cultural Context of Lake Superior Copper ......ssssecsseecssesssseesseesssssecseneeeeeesaeeteneesseree 43
Historical Context of Lake Superior Copper

Copper and Ojibwe Beliefs oo. cesses

Summary and Conclusions

References.

Appendix A; Project Statements...

Conduct Archeological Survey to Establish Resource Inventory

Create and Maintain a GIS Layer for Cultural Properties on Grand Portage Band/NPS Lands ........ A-1
National Register Evaluation Testing on Sclected Sites Al
Direct Dating of Cooking Residues on Ceramics wel
Trace Element Analysis (NAA) of Prehistoric Ceramic Clays ..... wa AH2
Appendix B: Step-by-Step Evaluation of an Unanticipated Discovery Situation..........0cresemeneen Bel
I. Are the Remains Human or Non-Human? ......0..0..6.cece . Bel

II. Are the Remains Native American or Other?....
Ill. Are there Skeletal Attributes That Indicate Ethnic Affiliation? ..
IV. What is the Mode of Internment?.
V. Are There Grave Goods or Other Artifacts with the Burial?.

V1. Are the Grave Goods Prehistoric, Historic, or a Combination? . ... B-2
Vil. What are the Dates of the Artifacts? ..... 2
Vill. Arc the Artifacts Attributable to a Specific Archeological Culture?.. .. B-2



Michigan) between 1694 and 1697, who describes in detail one Feast of the Dead. Characteristic is the large
ossuary burials accompanied by days of feasting, mouming, and praying. Some involve lavish offerings that are
subsequently retrieved from the dead and redistributed among the living, while in others the grave goods
remain in the ossuary to be covered at the close of the ceremony,

The ceremony associated with the Feast and the treatment of the remains seems to find its archeological
corollary in the Juntunen and Lasanen sites. At the Juntunen site at the Straits of Mackinac. McPherron
(1967:201-232) describes a mid-fourteenth-century ossuary burial with 35 individuals interred at various stages
of decomposition. including primary. fragmented secondary, bundles. Eleven bundles were placed in a
prepared pil: organic matter and sand were placed over the burials, to which 24 additional burials were added.
There was probably a bark fining placed on top of a second layer of remains. Grave goods with one male
included one copper awl. A secand ossuary contained eight individuals. a third ossuary contained six
individuals. a fourth assuary contained eight. and a fifth ossuary an additional eight. One primary burial of a
child was not included in any of the ossuaries and was probably a later addition.

The Lasanen site near the Strait of Mackinac dates between A.D. 1670 and 1715 and may be attributed to any
combination of Ottawa. Huron. or neighboring Algonquian bands, including the Saulteax. The cemetery
includes one smal] ossuary and a number of rectangular burial pits containing single or multiple individuals
with accompanying grave offerings. Some are stone lined while others are not.

Buriai at the Lakes Phase Sand Point site at the end of Keweenaw Bay in Upper Michiyan was in or on
prepared mounds. A rather complicated sequence of construction and use of Mound | was oftered:

First. a sub-floor chamber was excavated and the pit lined with yellow sand preparatory to receiving
the remains of five individuals. Next. a ramp-like primary mound of the same yellow sand was raised
over this central burial pit, with the ramp rising in height from svuth to nesth. Human remains were
buried either in pits dug into this ramp or merely placed on the surface of the ramp and covered over
ssith a thin laver of sand. There now followed the erection of a substantial wood structure over the
ramp. Stout vertical supports. having diameters of up to 30 cm, were set in place and a piatfurm of
lighter timbers built atop this framework. The cremated remains of four individuals. at least three of
whom were children. are associated with this construction phase. Finally. after the wooden platform
had been tired. a cap of midden fill collected from the area adjacent to the mound was deposited over
the remains of the platform. As this cap layer accumulated. multiple or ossuary burials were placed in
the mound [Cremin 1980:10].

Taken in concert with other burial sites in the region, notably the Juntunen site at the Straits of Mackinac
(MePherron 1967), and the familiar mix of ceramics at the site, the Sand Point site mortuary can be seen as
typically Terminal Woodland in its variability.

Warren (1974:72) stated that. “When an Ojibway dies, his body is placed in a grave. generally in a sitting
posture. facing the west. With the body are buried all the articles needed in life for the journey.” Although his
familiarity was with the Ojibwe south of Lake Superior, it is interesting to note the sitting posture that. while
nol universal. sas also scen at an isolated Blackduck burial in the Lake of the Woods noted above.

At the Monument, Woolworth described burials found during excavations on the northeast side of Grand
Portage Creek in 1962:

Four adult [primary, extended) human burials, probably Chippewa Indians, ca. | 800-1825. were
found. All of the burials were oriented with the heads to the west and the feet to the cast. Among
materials tound with the burials were: brass bracelets. brass flager rings, a rusted fire steel, an adze. a
corroded copper kettle. coiled brass wire hair ornaments, and black and white tubular (canon)
beads... These burials were not made in a formal graveyard, but were random interments made over a
considerable period of time. and so remote that local Indian traditions do not agree as to the existence

dy


a a a

U
U
[
L
U

aE Es

mm HE =

Figure 13. Engraved slate from 1962 Grand Portage excavations showing
Midewewin-like image.
Archeologists describe the mode of interment as being either primary or secondary. Primary burials include
remains that are buried whole and relatively soon after death. Secondary burials occur after some modification
of the remains, such as dismemberment, has taken place and the bones no longer in anatomical relation. The
position of a primary burial can be extended, as in a lying position on its back, side, or face, or flexed ina
sitting or fetal position. Secondary burials are usually bundled, possibly wrapped in skin or birchbark, but may
be laid out to represent an articulated primary extended burial. Cremations also occur either as small, dispersed
elements or in concentrations representing a single deposit in a container such as a hide or birchbark bag.

39


*SoHWELaD YADYPS pue yonPpe[gq Jo woNNguystp fearydussoas) “¢ aaNFLy



Henry, Alexander
1969 travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between the Years of 1760 and
1776, Charles E. Tuttle, Publishers, Rutland.

Hickerson, Harold
1960 The Feast of the Dead Among the Seventeenth Century Algonkians of the Upper Great | ukes.
American Anthropologist 62:81-107.
1974 Ethnohistory of Chippewa of Lake Superior. In Chippewa Indians Ill, American Indian
Ethnohistory, North Central and Northeastern Indians, compiled and edited by David Agee [lorr, pp. 9-
18U. Garland Publishing Company, NY.

Hlady, Walter M.
1970 Ten Thousand Years: Archaeology in Manitoba, Commemorating Manitoha's Centennial,
1870-1970. Manitoba Archaeologicat Society, Altona.
197] An Introduction to the Archaeology of the Woodland Area of Northern Manitoba. Afanitoba
Archaeological Newsletter 8(2-3).

Ives, William
1846-47 Land Survey Notes and Plats of Isle Royale, Michigan. Manuscript on file, Midwest
Archeological Cenier. Lincoln.

Janzen, Donald E.
1968 The Naomikong Point Site und the Dimensions of Laurel in the Luke Superior Basin.
Anthropological Papers No. 36. Museum at Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Johnson, Elden
nd. Undated memorandum to Russell Fridley, Director of the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscript on file, Grand Portage National Monument.

Johnston. William
1893 Letters on the l'ur Trade 1833, edited by J. Sharpless Fox. vol. 37. Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Collections, Lansing,

Jones, Bruce A.
1980 Historic Site Archeology at Fort Charloue, Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota.
Manuscript on file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.

Julig PJ. C.P. Clark, and R.G.V. Hancock
1992 Chemical Characterization and Sourcing of Upper Great Lakes Cherts by INNA. Ontario
Archaeology $4:37-50.

Kenyon, Waiter A.
1986 Mounds of Sacred Earth: Burial Mounds of Ontario. Archaeology Monograph 9. Royai Ontario
Museum, Toronto.

Kohl. Johann Georg
(985 Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway. Translated by Lacelles Wraxalt. Minnesota
Historical Society Press, St. Paul.

51


Appendix A: Project Statements

‘These project statements are provided to give direction to possible future studies and resource management
needs for Grand Portage Nationa! Monument and the lands of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota
Chippewa. While only sketches of research designs, they provide the scope and purpose of several possibic
projects.

Conduct Archeological Survey to Establish Resource Inventory

A comprehensive archeological survey should be undertaken to identify and document prehistoric and historic
cultural properties within the lands of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa. The purpose is to
identify significant resources and to incorporate them into a management plan, These data could be used to
develop a plan to monitor sites for illegal looting or natural destruction such as erosion or fire. The study would
also provide initial data useful in planning ground-disturbing activities such as road realignment or
construction of new facilities.

Additionally, knowledge of the distribution and types of archeological sites around Grand Portage National
Monument could potentially contribute a great deal to the understanding of the evolution of the Grand Portage
community. Questions regarding the relationships among Native American/First Nation groups prior to
Luropean contact, and subsequent relationships with the French and British could be addressed.

While the entire area should be surveved, a tentative priority is suggested:

lL. All currently developed and proposed development areas
2. Grand Portage Island

3. Waswagoning Bay

4, The mouth of the Pigeon River

3. Basswood Lake

6 Other interior locations

Create and Maintain a GIS laver for cultural properties on Grand Portage Band/NPS lands

As a management tool for the present and the future, a geographic information systems (GIS) layer with all
cultural properties should be created. This will serve as an aid to both management and scientific investigation
of prehistoric and historic sites. A GIS layer could be used to identify earlier beach ridges where Archaic sites
may be located. It could be used to highlight areas of shoreline attrition that may be affecting later
archcological sites. As a predictive tool useful in planning, a GIS layer could be used to identify areas were
sites are likely to occur.

National Register Evaluation Testing on Selected Sites

Minimal testing of archeological sites would provide contextual data and an evaluation of the integrity of a site.
‘The determination of the depth and content of archeological sites can be accomplished by the excavation ofa
very small aumber of 1-m* units, Similar techniques on Isle Royale were successful in this regard. The very
limited approach has the advantage of obtaining a maximum of information while leaving af] but a few meters
of the site undisturbed. Testing would be required 1o address questions of a cultural/historical nature. as well as
identifying those sites of special significance to the local community.
Direct Dating of Cooking Residues on Ceramics

The problems associated with understanding the dynamics of the prehistoric cultures of the Lake Superior
Basin require specific dates from ceramics, Radiocarbon samples derived from hearth features or midden
deposits date the whole assemblage of typically diverse ceramics on a site, but do little to unravel the complex
cultural history tesponsible for their deposition. Prehistoric ceramics in the Upper Great Lakes are blessed with
ain abundance of organic cooking residues resulting from their use which directly date the vessel's use and not

A-l


En He He HE &

= { s]

SS

Selkirk

Dating between A.D. 700 and | 750, Selkirk is known from the area north and west of Lake Superior (Arthurs
1978; Rajnovich 1983; Wright 1981). Initially defined by MacNeish (1958), Selkirk was subsequently
expanded to include a number of related ceramic style groups (Hlady 1970, 1971). Selkirk ceramics are found
in an area bounded by northern Saskatchewan, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the north shore of Lake Superior.
and northern Minnesota (Rajnovich |983:52) (Figure 3). In a reanalysis of Selkirk ceramics, Syms (1977:71)
groups a number of complexes into a larger “Selkirk Composite”. The individual complexes exhibit sufficient
integrity of style and regional distribution to suggest that they formed partitions within the composite. The
composite represents the maximum aggregation of related style groups that constitute Selkirk as an
archeological culture.

Rajnovich believes that Selkirk represents a local evolution out of the Initial Woodland Laurel tradition:

The Selkirk prehistoric culture was one of a number of archaeological cultures that covered the
Canadian Shield, from eastern Saskatchewan to western Quebec, from about 1000 years ago to 400
years ago. They were the ancestors of today’s Algonkian speakers of the same area. The ancestors of
all of these Late Woodland peoples lived throughout the Middle Woodland Period, from about 2,000
years ago to about | 000 years ago; their distinctive artifact assemblages are known to archaeologists as
Laurel, and the distribution of Laurel sites is remarkably similar to the distribution of the pictographs
all across the shield [1994:46-47],

Selkirk is identified archeologically by its fabric-impressed ceramics with little or no decoration (Figure 5).
According to Rajnovich (1983), the earliest Selkirk pottery is found in northern Manitoba where conical bases
on vessels strongly imply a Laurel origin for Selkirk with a subsequent diffusion to the south and east, Closer
to Lake Superior in southeastern Manitoba and the Lake of the Woods area of northwestern Ontario the earliest
Selkirk material is “simple undecorated ceramics (Alexander Fabric Impressed)... followed later by decorated
types influenced by Blackduck” (Rajnovich 1983:58).

Rajnovich (1983) favors contemporaneity between Selkirk, Blackduck and Sandy Lake. Wright (1968) and
Dawson (1982) see Selkirk as ancestral to the historic Cree in northwestern Ontario and adjacent Manitoba.


mm mr Trew ge OP ft SO P| Ss Le

|

List of Figures
List of Tables ......
Acknowledgements

Introduction.
Research Design
Cultural/Historical Overview.......

Archeological Cultures .

Previous Archeological Research at Grand Portage

Table of Contents

Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic

APChAIC oss esseesseeestssssesssesssvenssessessegsessnssesveensseeteen

Initial Woodland... ccessessessensesenesenes
Terminal Woodland.

What is an Archeological Culture
Archeological Cultures of the Terminal Woodland Substage ...
BIACKdUCK ........ccsssessesssersnsssesensentoeseeey
Selkirk.......... ssoeeresesenesenneees:
Sandy Lake/Wanikan...........s.ssseessee
Peninsular Woodland.......sscsesseesvessuessesceiersees

JUMTUMNEN...... secsescessnesesesntsseareensateatonnes

Huron...

Geographical Distribution of Archeological Cultures.

Discussion

What is an Ethnohistoric Culture?......0.....seu-ssseees
Who are the OjibWe? oe eessessssesscsneeneseentenee
Ojibwe Subsistence and Settlement..................

History and the Ojibwe Name ..........ssssssssesseecsssescessseresssssssssscecsvenccesssesssnsseesesseesmsestsasseessnseesserses OL

Regional Historical Context .........eceseceer

The Grand Portage Community...

Discussion

Mortuary Practices .......,.cccsseceesssceessesseessessscsssssecssecautcaoneseeavecassasesunesassasesnsaessesasessssnesssesaressssaeenenseeess OB

Mortuary Sites .....cscccescsrsesseessssessesestesssasesssesssseesssesssssssunersnsesauseesnensanecnnseeseessssneeessaressssecasssasecenersenees 40

Discussion



distinction made by Allouez and Dablon differentiating the Sauteur from the Outchibous is most telling and
likely represents an ancient distinction later obscured by historic movement and reorganization.

It is apparent that the historical treatment of names ranges from inclusive to exclusive. and that the
geographical placement of those groups to whom the name is applied shifts through time. Exclusivity seems to
be limited to earlier usage where Ojibwe is used to differentiate one group from another that in later times.
would be subsumed by the term. In its inclusive mode, Ojibwe contained large numbers of smaller Algonquian
groups such as the Mississauga, Amikwa, Nipissing, Noquet, and Nikikouek (Schenck 1997:1 7),

The term eventually embraced additional Northern Ojibwe groups to the north and west of Lake Superior.
Greenberg and Morrison (1982) present a convincing argument regarding the westward spread of the name
Ojibwe and the relationship between the Ojibwe and Cree. They assert that as the Northern Ojibwe had
occupied the boreal forest north of Lake Superior at least since European contact, and that the name Ojibwe
diffused west it came to include the Monsoni, Muskego, Gens des Terres, and Cree. They further argue that the
“blanket tribal designation like “Cree” or ‘Ojibwa’ has created a false impression of cultural homogeneity or
discreteness, disguising local and ecological and social variability in ethnic categories” (1982:76), In summary,
they suggest that the Northern Ojibwe began as groups of hunters who spoke an Ojibwe/Cree dialect.
Sometime around (or before) contact, some of these groups began to visit the Sault to fish, trade, marry, etc.,
retuming to the interior hunting grounds in the winter months, With the beginning of the [roquois
depredations, these northerners ceased their visits and, according to Greenberg and Mornison, became divided
from the Saulteaux or Southern Ojibwe. The “Northern Ojibwe.” which were Ojibwe-Cree or Cree in origin,
became the Ojibwe of history as a result of ethnographic confusion. Greenberg and Morrison offer the term
“Boreal Forest Cree-Ojibwe” as a more accurate, if more cumbersome name,

Regional Historical Context

The acquisition of European material culture preceded the arrival of the first whites in the Upper Great Lakes,
filtering through a down-the-line exchange network extending from the St. Lawrence River across the Great
Lakes to the Mississippi Valley (Table 2 has been provided for easy reference to the historical events and
processes only touched upon in the discussion that follows). There is no consensus regarding the extent and
magnitude of sociocultural change brought on by contact and the fur trade. Fundamental broad-scale shifts in
native culture have been postulated, including an increase in the incidence of intergroup hostility. Traditional
historical interpretations of the impact of the fur trade on native cultures suggest that low-level endemic
wartare, often drawn along linguistic boundaries, reflected the reciprocal animosity among groups and served
as a means to acquire personal prestige. Blood feuds required exchanges in which redress and compensation
were the ultimate goal. But by the mid-1600s the motivation for violent interaction, even if founded on
traditional blood feud idioms, was directed toward the acquisition of furs, fur bearing territories, and/or an
economically strategic position as middlemen between the French and native groups lacking direct access to
them.

We know from the study of prehistory that settlement and subsistence did not remain static. It evolved as the
climate, the landscape, and the ethnic and social make-up of the human population changed through time.

Technologies permitting more effective harvesting of fish allowing even greater seasonal aggregations of

people and a surplus of storable food to better buffer the winter scarcity.

The advent of the fur trade and its impact on native culture has been hotly debated, some asserting that it
disrupted and destroyed native practices, others that it was simply grafted onto a native system. A revisionist
interpretation stresses the lack of impact by the fur trade and European culture in general on native society and
the longevity of traditional practices. Trends already underway, including dispersals due to local
overpopulation, and hypothesized shifts towards larger clan based villages, may have been amplified by the
coming of the whites (Cleland 1992; Fitting 1975; Schenck 1997).

32

=

ES =

Hee S&H SF F&F Ss BS S&S & &«

=



Figure 10, Juntunen ceramics.

co



f1 C7

is

mM Tie

3

LATE PREHISTORIC CULTURAL AFFILIATION STUDY,
GRAND PORTAGE NATIONAL MONUMENT,
MINNESOTA

Prepared by
Caven Clark, Ph.D.

Prepared for
Grand Portage National Monument
National Park Service
Contract 1443PX600098231

Cultural Resources Report No. 111
Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd.
Tempe, AZ

November 9, 1999


of the information was couched in vague and often mythic language. In his review of references to copper in
the Jesuit Relations. Whittlesey (1863) concludes that all such references prior lo | 847 are. at best. secondhand
in nature. Dablon (Thwaites, Jesuit Relations 1669-1670) makes mention of the tradition of a floating island of
gold 40 or 30 leagues north of the Sault and opposite Michipicoten Island. [In 1739 the French engaged in
limited prospecting at the bidding of De la Ronde, who employed two German miners in the Ontonagon area of
Upper Michigan. Alexander Henry, in 1771, established a mine on the Ontonagon River that failed the
following sear,

European interest in the mingral resources of the region appears fo have focused on the Ontonagon area and not
Isle Rosale. It is indeed surprising that so few references to the island exist for this period, given the traffic
between Grand Portage and Montreal. Even Captain Johnathon Carver, who spent sume lime at Grand Portage
in 1767 and was a collaborator with Henry on the Ontonagon mining project, failed to note the presence of the
island in his survey and manuscript journals (Parker 1976: 145ff). However, Carver did remark on the island in
his published journal (Parker 1976). Carver's cartographic report of (ake Superior apparently drew heavily
from extant sources when the major islands of the lake were plotted, and it is highly untikely that he ever
visited Isle Royale.

Euro-Americans mining of copper and silver did not begin on Isle Royale until the 1840s by which time any
tangible link between the prehistoric miners and their historic descendants had been largely obscured by the
processes of cultural change, or went unnoticed and unseperted by early writers in the region. No European left
an account ofa Native American actively mining copper and historic records al its use are few. Father Fremiot
reported in 1850 that. “lour savage families of the Riviere aux Tcurtres [Pigeon River] had passed the winter at
Tott’s Harbour [on Isle Royale], The men and the young people had been employed in the work outside of the
mine and had earned «salary which let them live in comfort” (Fremiot in Cadieux 1973:626). Clearly, these
people. presumabls Ojibwe, had no fear of handling copper as they engaged in the cash for labor economy of
the early mining industry.

The use of native copper items as grave goods, sometimes alongside European trade goods. in historic contexts
is known. It seems likely that there was a relatively rapid replacement of copper tools of native manufacture by
functionally equivalent tems of European origin obtained through trade. However. the change trom copper to
iron and brass did not negate the reverence lor native copper by the Ojibwe (Halsey 1983).

Copper and Ojihwe Beliefs

While in no way restricted to the groups identified as Juntunen phase. the apparent interest in copper by the
\lgonquian people who traversed the north shure of Lake Superior between Isle Royale and the Straits of
Mackinac suggests that, tor them. copper may have held special significance. Even though copper mining
technology and the use of copper tools had disappeared by the time European observers were on the scene,
there is a vestigial remnant of a tradition suggesting that it was an important substance to the Ojibwe who
continued to revere it after it had ceased to serve any technological needs (Halsey 1983; Koh! 1983).

{he most important figure associated with copper by the Ojibwe was variously called Underwater Manitou,
Underwater Panther, Long-Tailed Underwater Panther, Mishebeshu or Michi-Pichouy. the Great Lynx.
Veesey’s (1983: 74-75) extensive treatment is quoted here at length:

The Underwater Manitou influenced the abundance and availability of land and sea animals. With its
numerous underwater allies it controlled all game, withholding animals and fish from its enemies. The
early Lake Superior Ojibwas offered it sacrifices to obtain good fishing, and in the Creation Myth
Nanabozho fought it to secure the right to hunt for future Indians.

The Underwater Manitou possessed great and dangerous powers, It could cause rapids and stermy
waters; it offen sank canoes and drowned Indians. especially children, The Ojibwas associated it with
the sudden squall waters of the Great Lakes which prevented fishing, even picturing it in the shape of

4


responsible for depositing the archeological remains may have been something as small as a single family or as
large as multiclan village. Membership was likely fluid, potentially representing elements of any or all
members of the archeological cultures in a region.

The pervasive problem of organizing the “chaos” of the cord-marked ceramics of the Upper Great Lakes may
be a function of the band/band composite situation over time that has two important characteristics: 1) general
similarities in style over a large area, and 2) sufficient discreteness to give the impression that, to the
archeologist. real “types” exist. As we have seen, using proportions of ceramic styles Dawson (1982) generated
a series of cultural-historical “just-so” stories to account for the archeological record. This is a function of a
one-pot. one-culture view and represents little possibility of trade, exchange, multiethnic groupings, etc., to
explain the variability, Still. the distribution and proportions of style. a 4a Dawson. are thought provoking on a
geographic level, chronology, and sampling notwithstanding.

Other factors influencing the formation of the archeological record include issues of settlement and seasonality
that undoubtedly conditioned the best time of year to visit a site, and the number of people that could
reasonably camp there. In a “good place to camp.” such as a logistically important river mouth or sheltered bay,
at a place of resource abundance, or at a place of spiritual significance, the likelihood of many visits over a
long period of time is high. The habitual problem of discerning small repeated occupations by small groups
from single occupations by large ones can only be acknowledged, but not effectively addressed in a study of
this nature. Any of these variables, singly or in combination, would explain the presence of more than one
ceramic style on a single site.

In this regard, Grand Portage, which lacks any significant evidence of a Terminal Woodland occupation, was
likely not the primary point of departure for groups traveling to and from Isle Royale, nor the destination of
groups coming from the east or west. Although Grand Portage is one of the best sheltered bays south of the
Canadian border, the mouth of the Pigeon River/Pigeon Bay, Pigeon Point, and Waswagoning Bay probably
were the focus of occupation prior to the advent of the fur trade as the only nearby locations for spawning
whitefish and lake sturgeon, Unfortunately, we have no archeological evidence to support this,

Ethnohistoric Cultures

It is necessary to define what is meant by the term “Ojibwe” since this forms the living corollary of
archeological cultures. Of primary concern is the identification of a specific group ata specific place at a
specific time. which is easier said than done,

What is an Ethnohistoric Culture?

Social relationships in an historic setting, rather than archeology’s relationships of material objects in a
hypothetical setting, are the basis for defining ethnohistoric cultures, Using historical records, groups are
observed in their living context, albeit often through strongly biased glasses, Ranging from mere footnotes ina
traveler's journal to detailed descriptions made by captives, priests, or traders these are often the only windows
into a cultural past that illuminate a cultural complexity largely invisible to archeology. It is at once challenging
and confusing when confronted by a name that appears in one place one year and hundreds of miles away
another, with no clear understanding of the mechanism that made that move necessary, or for that matter, what
exactly that name signifies. In this section, we will seek an operating definition of the Ojibwe.

Who are the Ojibwe?

The Ojibwe are part of'a vast group of Algonquian-speaking people found from the Atlantic coast, through the
Great Lakes and the Norther Plains. The Central Algonquian language group includes Ojibwe (the language)
with variations in dialect that are or were spoken by the Northern Ojibwe, Ottawa, Mississauga, Nipissing,
Potawatomi, and Algonquin (Goddard 1978), Rhodes and Todd (1981:54) place Grand Portage in the
Northwestern Ojibwe dialect group that runs from south of Grand Portage west to Rainy Lake and north from

28

me EH Ee EE HE HE HE EE &

He me FE ee

[ es]



Nineteenth-century documentation clearly indicates that an aboriginal population including Ojibwa. Cree. and
Assiniboine groups was present on the north share of Lake Superior in the area of the Grand Portage and near
the mouth of the Kaministiguia River at Fort William. From the last quarter of the eighteenth century into the
first half of the nineteenth century the depot of the North West Company and (after the merger in [821) the
Hudson's Bay Company served as a cultural and economic center for the surrounding region for whites and
natives alike.

Previous Archeological Research at Grand Portage

Research at Grand Portage National Monument has been intermittent since the 1930s with most of the
controlled excavation undertaken near the Great Hall and Depot to acquire data tor reconstruction and
interpretation. {n more recent years, survey and excavation have focused on small-scale ground-disturbing
development or shoreline stabilization projects. Woolworth and Woolworth +1982). and Noble (1989)
summarize archeological research between 1936 and 1975, Noble's overview indicates that, while there is a
wealth of information on the fur trade era, relatively little archeological information penains to the Terminal
Woodland substage. In fact, almost nothing can be said regarding the prehistoric record of the Monument
except by extrapolation from surrounding areas. In that regard, it was necessary to critically examine all
archeological reports from the Monument to determine what is known about the Terminal Woodland substage
there,

In 1936, Ralph D. Brown looked for evidence of stockade lines at the site of the depot. He reported “the
existence of Indian material in sma) quantity.” but gave no further description.

An undated memorandum to Russell Fridley, Director of the Minnesota Historical Society. from Elden Johnson
(n.d.), Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, reports on the progress of field school excavations at the
Monument held June 12-July 14. 1961. The excavations took place at the location of the present parking area
and the XY Company area on opposite side of Grand Portage Creek.

The small area between the lakeshore road and the present shore line and east of the “XY” area was
tested briefly and produced the most significant results. The area is a sand and gravel beach zone in
which the lower levels of the test trenches produced flaked stone side scrapers of Indian manufacture
apparently in direct association with early historic trade goods of European manufacture. .Perhaps
superticially. and without analysis of materials and data. this area looks as if it could be an early
historic contact zone, perhaps of the French period [Johason n.d.J

In the report of test excavations, June-September 196], Woolworth deseribes Feature 19 as a probable
prehistoric feature containing two scrapers, four jasper-taconite flakes. three mammal bone tragments and one
10° Jong metal rod. The feature was not described or illustrated in the report. In correspundence detailing the
results of archeological excavations in 1962, Woolworth (1968) describes a prehistoric find: “Toward the close
of the excavations, a prehistoric, probably pre pottery, lithic site was found. A finely flaked projectile point. a
knife. three scrapers, and a number of flint chips definitely demonstrate that a group of prehistoric Indians once
lived and hunted at Grand Portage many hundreds of years ago.” This was tentatively attributed to an Archaic
culture on the basis of the absence of pottery. However, the base map places it at an elevation which would
have been under water during the Archaic stage, and it is more likely that it represents a small aceramic
Woodland stage occupation,

Four burials were found between 1962 and 1964. Ail were on the northeast side of Grand Portage Creek and
although dispersed shared a similar orientation. The burials were adult, primary, and extended with abundant
trade goods as offerings and appointments to the dead. Woolworth (1964) dates them between [800 and [825
(Unfortunately, the remains themselves were destroyed by fire where they were stored in the Great Hall: the
associated grave goods are curated at Hamline University.) Although only four were found. the area is referred
to as a “burial ground” in many of the notes and it is likely that more are present in this area of the Monument.

37


gs ES EE HE HH HE SS & fz:

= =

Figure 12. Huron ceramics.



L

‘seasersan perdojoaqase
PURpoom [eurmss| sofeyy T suNsiy



Appendix B: Step-by-Step Evaluation of an Unanticipated Discovery Situation

The following is based on the assumption that a qualified professional archeologist is available for the field
evaluation. The protocol of notification and consultation is not addressed. The approach is a strictly
archeological one designed to ascertain the most likely cultural affiliation of human remains. Certain analytical
techniques, such as osteological and biochemical analysis, may or may not be deemed appropriate, but are
offered here as the archeologist’s best effort to obtain the desired results. Given the results of the study, any
determination of cultural affiliation must be seen as a statement of probability rather than of certainty.

L Are the Remains Human or Non-Human?

(his may not always be as straightforward as one may think. Cremations, bundle burials, and heavily
disturbed burials may not be immediately recognized as such. Animal bones may be present as grave
offerings as an item of persona] adornment, social significance (such as clan membership), or individual
power, Further, while not falling under NAGPRA, the disvovery of an animal burial may signal the
remains of a ritual act. Burials of dogs and bears are not uncommon in the Upper Great Lakes and should
not be treated casually if encountered in an archeological setting.

I. Are the Remains Native American or Other?

This significant question will affect the subsequent handling, Two approaches are presented below: one
from a physical science perspective, the other anthropological. Even with the most skilled analysts, this
distinction may be an impossible one to make. For example a Metis, or mixed-blood individual will likely
have physical characteristics reflecting both Native American and Euroamerican genetics, and could be
buried with any combination of artifacts.

HL. Are There Skeletal Attributes That Indicate Ethnic Affiliation?

Examination by a physical anthropologist could result in an assessment of probability of biological
affiliation. | luman populations are characterized by unique physical characteristics or epigenetic attributcs.

Native American groups may be distinguished from non-Indian groups at a certain level by the presence of
some attributes. Among these are shovel-shaped incisors and certain configuration of the cusps of molars.
While DNA studies are technically the best means of determining biological distance, the absence of
population studies as well as the destructive nature of the analysis renders this option unlikely. Biological
affiliation is not the same as cultural affiliation, but determination of the former may be useful in an
assessinent of the latter.

We What is the Mode of Interment?

Does the type of burial suggest a cultural affiliation? A coffin burial in an organized cemetery is more
likely to represent a non-Indian than a flexed burial wrapped in birchbark and accompanied by clay
vessels, This element will not necessarily be a conclusive indication of cultural affiliatiun, but may, in
concett with other evidence, be an aid in determination. Remains occurring in any type of grave other than
a primary extended one are likely Native American. If a formal patterning of the graves is evident,
particularly one which is in a linear or grid pattern, then it is likely that the burials are either Euro-
American or Native American with Christian influence.

V Are There Grave Goods or Other Artifacts with the Burial?

Conspicuous goods, such as clay pots, kettles. ax heads, beads, knives, or jewelry are common. What may
be overlooked in the context of an accidental discovery are items such as coffin nails, bits of sawn lumber,
birchbark wrappings, or remnants of Jabric and leather. The absence of grave goods does not necessarily
mean that the remains are either prehistoric or historic.

B-]



Lake Superior itself... Some Ojibwas thought of the Underwater Manitou as a thoroughly malicious
creature,

It was not totally evil. however. In some traditions, it fed and sheltered those who fell through the
winter ice. It offered medicinal powers to those who accepted it as guardian...{t gave copper to the
Indians, who cut the metal from the being’s horns as it raised them above the surface of the
water... Those who attempted to take the copper without offering proper payment met severe
punishment from the Underwater Manitou. It was a creature to inspire terror and awe, as well as
reverence, Without the aid or benign neglect of this being — part snake. part catfish. part lynx. part
mountain lion ~ the Ojibwas would surely starve or suffer death in raging waters.

Theresa Smith's (1995) discussion of Mishebeshu provides little in the way of a linkage between copper and
the underwater beings. but gives valuable insight into the physical and spiritual context of this being in the
Ojibwe beliefsystem. The dread of Mishebeshu and his potential presence in all bodies of water together with
the association with copper suggests that water was his element and copper his substance. Looking at Isle
Royale as the most significant source of copper for the north shore Indians, the need to propitiate Mishebeshu
lor both the travel across the lake to the island and the extraction of copper suggests that the island was, in a
real sense. his island. The act of mining copper may have been seen as an intrusion into Mishebeshu’s domain,
the tools of mining as the weapons by which the copper was won from him. Or perhaps a truce was made
between the miners and Mishebeshu who could still exact his toll on the travelers on their retum to the
mainland. The relationship between the Ojibwe and copper is an interesting one, but entirely speculative since
there is ne record of any ritual associated with copper mining.

The story of “Wild Men and Giant Snakes” as told by Chief Norma Fox of the Cockburn Island Ojibwa in
eastern Lake Superior indicates that copper may be associated with other manitous as well:

There is also a legend that an Indian was canoeing on Lake Superior, and suddenly the water became
very turbulent. The Indian man was sure he would drown. A big snake was pulling at his canoe. so the
Indian stuck his fish spear into the giant serpent’s back. When he pulled the spear up, a piece of the
snake's flesh was stuck onto the end of the spear. The flesh turned out to be pure copper [Conway and
Conway 1990-29].

Ritual offerings to water manitous prior to making long trips or dangerous crossings are. however, well
documented. Isle Royale’s Metis John Linklater reported that, “his [Ojibwe] wife's grandmother. and his own
grandfather. remembered coming to Isle Royale. The latter recalled the gathering on the Canadian shore and
the ceremonies. the dance and the appeal to the Spirits, that were deemed necessary before the trip could be
made” (Fox 1929:31 7-319). A Juntunen phase Terminal Woodland dog burial found on Isle Royale was almost
certainly a ritual act, but it will never be known if the purpose was related to a water crossing. copper mining,
or the alleviation of sickness (Clark 1990).

The use of copper in prehistory seems to map onto the range of the Lake Superior Ojibwe and Ottawa better
than that of any other group. Although the use of copper changed through time and was ultimately deleted from
the cultural repertoire as a material from which tools were made. there is a persistence of its use as items of
personal adornment. Further, the tradition of the association of copper with Mishebeshu, and the reverence held
toward large pieces of copper by the Algonquians of the upper lakes, may signal the lineage of a tradition more
interested in copper than its neighbors.

Summary and Conclusions

The prehistoric record of archeological cultures in and around the Lake Superior Basin suggests that there was
a distribution of potiery styles. very roughly correlated to historic ethnic groups, that anticipated the historic
distribution of “tribes.” In this “just-so” explanation, it must be remembered that we are talking about
archeological cultures separated by time and not distinct tribes in the historic sense.

45


international border between the United States and Canada. A this juncture, treaties involving the cession of
lands and rights to resources brought groups together that formerly had little or no intercourse, but were now
identified under the general term Chippewa.

Based on previous archeological investigations, the Ojibwe in yeneral and the Grand Portage Band in
particular are archeolagically invisible at Grand Portage. There are no means by which the Grand Portage Band
can be distinguished from the Rainy Lake Band, or any other neighboring bands. The prehistoric record is
limited 1¢ nondiagnosue chipped stone lools and waste flakes reflecting the typical array of Gunflint formation
sources Irom the nearby Canadian Shield. No ceramics found at Grand Portage can be used to infer which
archeological cultures may have heen present. [t appears likely that there was. in fact. no substantial Indian
community here until after Grand Port became an emtrepot of the fur trade. although systematic
archeological survey could alter this assertion

Mortuary practices tell us litle about either the archeological or ethnohistori¢ cultures present in the area. On
the regional level there are interesting differences with respect to communal and intertribal ceremonies such as
the Feast of the Dead in the eastern Lake Superior Basin while evidence trom the Rainy River area indicates
exclusive mortuary rituals practiced by the Blackduck’Selkirk people. However, for the most par. the
variability in Ue treatment of the dead seems to reflect achieved status. manner of death, place of death. and
season of death. rather than a strict set of culturally discrete parameters unique to one culture and not another.

the use of copper was not restricted to the Ojibwe or to any of the prehistoric archeological cultures of the
region. The relative abundance of copper on Juntunen phase sites from Isle Royale to the Straits of Mackinac
indicate a great lime depth for travel to and/or interaction with groups from both ends of the Lake Superior
Basin. It also brings into question any notion of a vacant or abandoned land into which the Ojibwe eventually
moved. While unproved. the traditional reverence for copper into the Historic stage may signal the persistence
ofa relationship between the Ojibwe and copper trom earlier times.

In sum. while the Grand Portage Band cannot be identified from archeological remains, it scems clear that their
history involved elements of stability and movement, coupled with close relations with neighboring bands of
nomh shore Ojibwe and Cree, but with diminishing intercourse with southern Ojibwe groups of northem
Wisconsin and Michigan until the mid-nineteenth century. and then only in treaty situations. If the
identi n of Selkirk and Blackduck ceramics as ancestral to the historic Cree and Northern Ojibwe is
correct. then the ancestral Grand Portage Band and their neighbors have been in place for at least 500 years.
during which time they received their identity as Ojibwe as related groups, including the Juntunen
archeological culture of prehistory and the Saulteaux of history, moved westward from the caster fake
Superior Basin. Coalescence into today’s Grand Portage Band was a consequence of several “centralizing”
forces, including the trade depots and their cash and barter economy, treaties with land and/or resource cession,
the creation of the international border. and the role of the church and schools in community life

Given the nature of the fur trade Depot at Grand Portage. human remains found there could conceivably belong
to any of the Native American/First Nation groups who participated in the trade as employees or independent
traders. although in terms of overall probability Ojibwe'Cree would be the most likely. It is also probable that
claims of cultural affiliation could be made with First Nation groups now residing in Canada.

What is clear is that the creation of what became Ojibwe was an additive process of differem groups through
time. I'hes shared a common cultural background but exhibited differences in lineage expressed in clan and
band membership. and further manifest in aspects of their material culture, most notably for the archeologist.
pottery. The migrants and visitors from the east did not find a nt land waiting to fulfill a native manifest
destiny, but a land already peopled by ones they could identif¥ as relatives of adegree. The mechanisms of the
centuries of interaction, fission, and fusion of these groups that ultimately gave rise to the Ojibwe of history
wilt perhaps never be fully understood.

47


Figure 4. Blackduck ceramics.

swe HE HE HE He EE Ef