The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1927-06-17
THE CURRITUCK
INDIANS ATE A
LOT OF OYSTERS

J
many acres in extent, on the
shores of Currituck Sound in
Currituck County may be the
graveyard of American In
dians who lived on the shores
of Currituck for centuries be-
fore the white man came. SO
thinks NJ. RAYMOND Harring-
ton of the staff of the Museum
OF the American Indian, of
New York City.
TO confirm his opinion Mr.. Har-
ringtOn visited one of these mounds
at Point HarbOr last week. The
mound is none other than that pine
clad bluff at the end of the point
where Currituckians hold their an
nual Pleasure Day picnic. With
Grover Sawyer and a labOrer to help
him. Mr.. Harrington made two eX-
cavationS i'm the mound. In the
second excavation he found exactly
what he had come all the way from
New York to find: he found the
skeleton of an aged Indian, buried
in Il sitting posture lis Indians were
buried
The skeleton WAS very old and
brittle from aye. But there wasn't
any doubt about it being the skele-
ton of an Indian, very old Indian;
maybe an Indian chief or Medicine
Man. for he was big Indian. big
bones. big hands, big feet and a
massive Shapely head.
lie was buried in sitting post
urc aS Indians were, with his toma-
hawk. pipes. bowls and such things
as he would need on his journey to
the Happy Hunting Grounds of an
other world when the Great Spirit
called.
Mr.. Harrington gathered up all
the relics in the pit and went back
TO New York, leaving the skeleton
there where. hundreds of curious
ones viewed il last Sunday. Mr..
Harrington will report his findings
TO the Museum of the American In
dian and an exploring party may
come down later to make further
excavations with a view to finding
out all that can be found out at this
late date about the life and habits
of the aborigines of this region.
Near Wuterlily on Church Island,
a few miles from Coinjock is an
other great mound of oyster shells.
Read builders have been eXcavat-
ing these mounds for the past two
or three years, carting off thou
sands of loads of shells for road |
building. Frequently they have
found bones and the bones of stall
wart Indians who once made mar
row trails thru the forests of Cur
rituck have gone into the making
of modern bOulevards on which |
white men speed in automobiles that
would have scared an Indian to
death.
We know very little about the !
Currituck abOrigneS. 1t is out
dent that they were great oyster
eaters. In days gone by, when the
sea flowed into Currituck from
numerous inlets along the coast
Currituck Sound was the home OF
oysters as fine as ever grew III
Lynnhaven Bay. The Indians gath
cred these luscious bivalves and
hauled them up on the marshes Ill
their crude wicker baskets. Wheth-
er they ate them raw or roasted
them. we do not for sure know.
But their shell piles grew ana
spread year after year. And Ill
these shell piles they put their dead
away where white men would find
them centuries later.
No arrow heads were found in the
Indian grave by Raymond Harring-
ton, If the Currituck Indians
hunted with bows and arrows they
probably used arrow heads made OF
bone. But maybe they didn't hunt;
they lived entirely on fish
and oysters. The number of oyster
shells they piled up at Point Harbor
and on Church Island indicate that
they certainly at one whale OF
mess Of oysters in their day.
The Museum of the American In
dian i'm New York City had its in
ception % years ago and is to-day
housed in d group of beautiful fire
proof limestone buildings covering
several acres at 155th st. and
Broadway in. New York City. Its
aim is TO gather everything useful
in illustrating and calculating the
anthropology Of the aborigines OF
the Western Hemisphere, and it
houses to-day more than 100000
exhibits.
Brown. cOlOred youth. is i'll