The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-05-16
RELICS OF THE INDIANS
INTERESTING DISCOVERIES ON
LAKE COEUR D'ALENE.
stone weapons and Implements I'm
enrthed on the st. Joe
River.

IL excavating for a residence on Occur
d'Alene avenue, Harrison, Idaho. Mr.
Olvis exhumed a skull and the larger
bones of a skeleton the other day. They
are apparently of great age an are the
remains of an Indian. The grave had
been made in hard. dry clay, sloping
toward the shore, and from which there
is a beautiful view of Occur d'Alene lake
and surrounding hills. The spot chosen
by the red man for a resting place for
the dead is just such a one as white
man would be drawn to for a living place,
which the writer has had occasion to Of
ten notice. The conditions here are such
as to preserve, so that one is drawn to
specializing as to the probable lapse OF
tine since burial. The skull shows the
Indian to have been of large SIZE and OF
old age at time of death. 1t is very thick
and heavy except about the ears and back,
also very wide between the ears and full
in the back region. AS a phrenologist
would say, it is very full in the region
of all the animal propensities, and the
skull being thinner over this part would
indicate an activity of this region of the
brain.
1t is easy, by studying the contour OF
this skull, to imagine that the owner OF
ii was an Indian warrior, crafty, cruel
and savage to the letter. The very low
front and middle head contrasts wonder
fully with that of civilized man, still not
lacking at the brow for depth, from
center, in the region of the faculties OF
observation, locality, etc.
The white clay spots on the floor of the
excavation, clear cut in the darker clay
Shows there are two or three more graves
and that Mr.. Orvis has located his resi-
dence directly over the burying place of
a long past savage race. They have thus
been replaced by people whose advance
has been so rapid that to slower thinking
minds the pace seems a crushing, crash
ins gait bringing through civilization
more. complete and swifter changes than
fire Mo sword.
Several hundred years ago this Indian.
al the age of 100 years, died, was buried
and was forgotten in the traditional his
tory of his people, only again to be dis
turbed in his last resting place by a peo-
pie, called by his progeny pale faces"
( And that progeny are now only few in
number, and it is significant that those
! few are huddled together here and there
as if for protection, like the last of
| slaughtered herd. But their supremacy
ohce a reality, and of history not old.
| is being forgotten. Thus the wheels or
time turn to rapid changing events and
make brief pages of human history.
( Even as I write 1 look out upon a scene
that seems hardly a reality compared
with the country when the writer first
came into it as a prospector. There is
! the escape of steam and the buzz and
scream of the saws of half a dozen mills,
all cutting out lumber for the Occur
dAlene mines. These mines are now
known the wide world over for their lead
silver production, but were almost I'M
known 10 years ago. The train goes roar
ing by with its heavy load of ores from
these same mines. l iOok out upon the
lac and see all manner of small boats
and a half dozen tugs with loads of wood.
merchandise and booms of logs, ties and
telegraph poles. The steamers Georgia
Cakes" and ELK" comes to landing.
as their whistles start the distant echoes
going ana coming in the hills, and again
q memory fresh turns back the few pages
70 the time when the prospector carried
his blankets about the country on his
back, in the first days of the Occur
d'Alenes.
Relics OF the Stone Age.
Evidences of a prehistoric people are
quite often found about this lake and
tributary rivers. Only the other day Mr..
Chamberlain, residing some 10 miles up
the st. Jo while digging a cellar found
several curious stone implements, among
the most interesting of which was a stone
az, a battle ak, war clubs, lance heads
and a stone mortar and pestle, used by
the Indians to grind grain, fruits, roots,
etc. At this point of hill, which comes
down to the river, there are many stone
arrow points and fragments of human
bones mixed through the soil. and other
evidence of its having been an old bat
tie ground, upon which contendng tribes
fought some great battle. At one place
there was uncovered, by blowing. a pit
IN which there seems to have been buried
some 40 or so bodies, as the bones would
indicate.
Our parties picked up many arrow
points on the beach of Chatcolet lake.
the arrows having probably been shot at
water fowl along the shallow part of the
lake, and after the wood rotted away,
the points of obsdian, being of lighter
material than the sands, were by the
action Of the water shoreward brought
upon the beach. These points were made
of different colored obsidian, which oc-
ours in the lava formation OF the imme-
date vicinity, and are of all lengths to
Sia inches. the latter having probably
been shot at deer while they were moss
Z ing" Some of the obsidian is of a beau
tiful smoky color. and the points show
a wonderful workmanship.
The Dying Poets Forethought.