2021 Fall Newsletter

Bull Creek Occupation

Saving Native American history before the filling of Hillsdale Lake

By: Gordon Geldhof

the archaeological information that would be lost when the government decided to dam Bull Creek and create Hillsdale Lake as a means for improving flood control. Once the building of Hillsdale Lake was completed, archaeological resources that could inform our un derstanding of previous indigenous habitants of that location would be destroyed. In total, 118 sites were recorded. This article provides information discovered from those sites. Although the present document is not intended to be fully comprehensive as to all of the indigenous people who may have lived along the Bull Creek and surrounding areas, this summary illustrates the diver sity of the peoples who have occupied the land now known as Miami County. Cultural Chronology for the Bull Creek Locality Cultural remains discovered in conjunction with the Hillsdale Lake project date back to approximately 2000 B.C. We know that different peoples lived here at different times, but it is important to note that we do not know the names of the different tribes that inhabit ed the lands in Miami County before interactions with white settlers. Archeologists have given names to the peoples who inhabited certain areas during different time periods. These periods are called “phases” or “as pects”. Each phase or aspect reflects a unique culture defined by the types of tools people used, the kinds of food they consumed, the types of pottery they created, and possible trade with other cultures during a specific time period. In other words, a phase or aspect is de fined by the kinds of materials a group of people left behind and that tell us about who they were. Artifacts do not necessarily tell us about a culture di rectly. Instead, Archeologists uncover artifacts and features that they then have to interpret. We may not find an intact house that existed long ago but can ex trapolate that a house once stood in an area from the data we collect. An example of this would be uncover ing postholes, rock formations and other artifacts bur ied underground. Here is one example of something that has been uncovered from a Pomona Phase site:

When most people think of Native American oc cupation in Miami County, they imagine nomadic tribes living in tee pees and hunting buffalo. They think about the Miami, Pottawatomie, Shawnee and The Confederated Tribes (Piankeshaw, Kaskaskia, Wea, and Peoria). In reality, these tribes only occu pied what is now Miami County during the relatively recent past. They were relocated from their homes in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio in the 19th century. The Shawnee reservation embraced a strip of land across the northern end of the county. The Pottawat omie reservation in Miami County included what is now Mound and Osawatomie townships and a small portion of Stanton and Valley township, in all about eighty square miles, or 51,000 acres. This tribe was removed to a reservation on the Kansas River in 1847- 48 where a portion of them still remain. The Confederated Tribes were composed of the Weas, Piakeshaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. They inhabited the northern part of the county, border ing the Shawnee Reservation. The Confederated Tribes formerly lived in Southern Illinois. The Miamis were the first settlers in Miami County. They, as a portion of the Shawnees, were originally from Ohio. The original Miami reservation consisted of about 500,000 acres of land and was bounded on the east by Missouri, on the south by the reser vation of the New York Indians, on the west by the Pottawatomie reservation, and on the north by that of the Confederated tribes. Treaties signed in 1854 cost these tribes much of their land. Each member of the tribe was allowed to retain 160 acres if they became American Citizens, with the rest of the land being granted to the U.S. government. Discovering the Past Intensive archaeological studies can help us un derstand the lifestyles of Native Americans who oc cupied an area prior to contact with White settlers. One such study began in 1965 in order to preserve

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