The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-09-26

posed by the excavation, as well as on
many OF the fragments in the debris. The
face of the quarry as shown by the ex-
%cavation is a perpendicular wall twelve
feet high. The surface indication before
digging was a circular or oblong depres-
sion OF three or four feet in depth, and
from thirty to sixty feet across. There
is a burr oak tree standing nearly in the
center of the pit which measures six feet
two inches In circumference at'the base.
This tree has evidently been planted since
the pit filled up by wash from the sur
rounding hills.
1.-THE area covered by this condition Of
pitting or quarrying has not been accu-
rately measured but various estimates,
from observation, place it at from 100 to
300 acres. The reason that the area is so
indefinite is owing to the fact that the
points are scattered over a circular tract
having a diameter of four or five miles
in extent. A few acres here and there
where the out-chopping rock shows signs
Of flint below.
1T may be mentioned that a question
had been raised as to the origin of these
pits; some claiming them to be the work
of nature while others thought them the
work of man. This meeting of scientists
settled the point definitely and for all
time, the majority report being that ma
ture could not perform the work shown
to have been done there.
Little Known of the People.
LAS to the people who did this auarrying
little can be said at this time; the study
Is going on, new points are being OBJ
served and followed from time to time and
Us years go by some theory will be
evolved that will meet general approval.
The archaeology of Nebraska. has never
been studied systematically until a year
ago; one year is scarcely time enough to
arrive at a certain conclusion. This much
is evident, however, a lazy Indian-and
most of them we hay met are that way
never did this work. The work was sys-
te1natically done as If under one mans
direction; the flint from these quaSries is
found In well made implements a hundred
miles from the quarries; a few very
c~oarsely made implements are found near
the quarries. but well made implements
are very scarce there.
THE Missouri river front presents a
very complicated archaeological field, and
one which needs more time to develop.
There are indications of three very dis
tinct races or tribes Of Stone Age People
here. These three are intermingled in
places, are separate in other places; they
had traits and customs very similar in
some respects and very unlike in Others.
Briefly stated, we absolutely know but
very little about them. It is my opinion
that these quarries were worked by a
tribe of people related very remotely II
at all to any Indians known by tn early
settlers In Nebraska. The Quarrymen,
We're not OF Sioux stock: they were not
of Coddo stock, and that covers most Of
the tribes known to early settlers in Ne
braska-
Untold Years.
"As to the age OF this work the above
cited burr oak tree teaches US that at
least 100 years ago the pit where it stands
was in practically the same condition thai
it Is today. This is a very unsatisfactory
answer to the question of age; but one
finds many unsatisfactory things in the
study Of such a question:
About forty miles from Badger, Wyo..,
have recently been found ancient flint
q%uarries almost identically like those at
Nehawka- It is the opinion of scientists
that these quarries, too, We're never the
work of any race related to the Indians. !.
The mound builders are not ,classed
| with. the stone age, which is marked by
the use Of such implements as those
taken from the Nehawka quarries. In the
! mounds of these civilized peoples are
found works in metals, chiefly copper,
with many of the designs approaching the
perfection of modern art. It is preposter-
Gus to suppose that these skilled mound
builders spent decades digging the flint
noduies from the banks of the Missouri
river to make the rude implements found
in Nebraska Thu question arises, Did the
authors OF the NehaWka quarries live be-
fore or after the mound builders? The
fact hat the mounds of the latter peo-,
pie are In a better state of preservation,
apparently, than the quarries at Nehawka
would be some evidence that the mound
builders were a later people.
A curious tradition Of the present Iro-
quois tribe records that when the Lenni
Lenapi, the common ancestors of the Iro-
quois and other tribes, advanced from the
northwest to the Mississippi they found
on It's eastern sid a great nation, more
civilized than themselves, who lived in
fortified towns and cultivated the ground.
! The people atlfirst rave the Lennt Lenapi
leave to pass through their territories, but
treacherously attacked them as they were
crossing the river. This gave rise to hos
~t1lities, which resulted in the establish.
ment OF the redmen in those regions.
Insthis evidence we find that the imn:e-
date ancestors Of the redmen and the
mound builders, were synchronous. Thus,
1t is evident that the prehistoric people
who worked the Nehawka quarrtes and
who were not the redmen that came from
westsof the Mississippi, antedated by sew
eral centuries the mound builders.
AS to the physical characteristics of the
people whose existence has Just been dis
covered little that Is definite can now be
said. The people who patiently dug flint
from@the limestone of@5N ehAwka were
.Iprobably a smaller, more stock people
than the later Indians. 1.-the bodies like
those of the edskin never welded the
II great sledges that cracked the solid lime-
stone in these quarries.
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