Buffalo meat was preserved by drying and smoking it over a fire in the hunting camp. Vegetable foods, corn, beans and squash were dried or parched and buried in containers or in lined pits in the ground and covered over. Watermelons, muskmelons (?), gourds and tobacco were also grown. Wild strawberries, paw paws, pecans, lotus roots, wild tubers, grapes and plums formed part of their diet.
The winter buffalo hunt usually took place a long way from the village. The hunting units each consisted of several families under a rigid police system and regulation to prevent the herd from being stampeded by an over-eagerfamilybefore all were amply provided with meat. Violations of hunting regulations were punished by destruction of the offender’s property to which no resistance was ever attempted. The group surrounded the herd, at times encircling it with fires made at intervals near which the hunters stood and killed the stampeding animals. At times as many as 120 buffalo were killed in a day. The women cut out the tongues, skinned the animals, and, peeling off the sides of meat, dried and smoked them on wooden grates over a slow fire. The smoked sides were carried back to the village on the back, or when practicable indugoutboats. Carcasses and bones were left on the hunting grounds. Other animals were stalked by one or two hunters. Dog meat was considered a great delicacy.
Fish were caught in nets, by hook and line, speared or shot with bow and arrow. They were dried for preservation. Maple trees were tapped late in the winter, the sap caught in bark containers and made into a maple drink or reduced by boiling to syrup and sugar. Corn was ground into meal and baked into bread, or prepared as hominy.
Vessels and utensils were made of wood or clay, ladles from a section of the buffalo skull. Fire was produced by the hand drill in the usual manner.
The cabin type seems to have varied at different periods or in different tribes. In early times, cabins had rectangular floors and vaulted (barrel-shaped) roofs. They were roofed and floored with “double-mats” of flat rushes and were impervious to wind or rain. Occasionally they were erected on low mounds (two feet high) to keep the floors dry. Large cabins of the vaulted type had four fires, with one or two families at a fire.
Bark-covered hemispherical huts or wigwams may have been used on hunting trips. They were apparently common in some villages in 1723.
Overland travel was on foot. On streams thedugoutboat was propelled by pole and possibly by paddle. Large boats were 40 to 50 feet long, capable of carrying 40 to 50 men. While dugouts were admirably suited for travel and trade between the Illini tribes along the Illinois andMississippirivers, they were, on account of their weight and unwieldiness in portaging, generally useless in raids against enemies.
Fig. 33. Native Illiniartifacts. A, Indian-made gunflint; B, C, D, chipped flintarrowheads; E, flint scraper; F, grooved abrader of sandstone; G, expanded base drill (grip only, point broken off); H, I, polishedstonependants. From Illini village site near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County.
Fig. 33. Native Illiniartifacts. A, Indian-made gunflint; B, C, D, chipped flintarrowheads; E, flint scraper; F, grooved abrader of sandstone; G, expanded base drill (grip only, point broken off); H, I, polishedstonependants. From Illini village site near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County.
An Illini man, desiring to get married, sent presents to the girl’s parents. If the suitor was acceptable, the parents kept the gift and took the bride to the man’s hut the following evening. Apparently there was no wedding ceremony.
Women had somewhat lower socialstatusthan their husbands. Wives did not eat with their husbands. A man was permitted two or more wives and often married two sisters. Children were well-treated. Infants were bound to a cradle board that the mother carried around. The cradle was pointed at the lower end and was stuck in the ground when the woman wanted to rest. Divorce was accomplished by a simple agreement to separate.
The explorers and writers to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of Illini social and religious organization were, unfortunately, casual and untrained observers who, on the whole, held the Indian and his customs in contempt. Important activities were often dismissed with meaningless generalizations, or omitted entirely, as if generally known. Consequently great gaps are left in the information that has come down to us.
From the various accounts, the impression is given that the Illini tribes (and possibly before the 17th century, the Confederacy) had a political government (rather thanfamily social control) with formally appointed officers or civil chiefs. The Confederacy had one or more coats-of-arms (“totems”) that may have been recognized abroad as symbolic of the Illini (as was customary among the Natchez and other southeastern Indians). It had a GrandChief, chosen in some manner not now known, from one of the constituent tribes. At oneperiod“Prince Tamaroa” of the Tamaroas held the post, later Chief Ducoigne of the Kaskaskias. Whether or not the Confederacy acted as a nation after 1600 is doubtful. Each tribe had its own head chief and coat-of-arms, and the French appear to have treated directly with the tribal heads in matters of importance. Judging from other Indian Confederations, the individual tribe had probably retained its full powers, and concerted action by the Confederacy was possible only by unanimous consent.
Like most peoples in the simple plant-raisingstatus, the tribe dealt as a state with other similar units in intertribal affairs. These included alliances and treaties of peace. Ambassadors or tribal representatives were sent from Illini tribes to their neighbors. On such occasions, thecalumetwas carried and served as a safe conduct.[19]Tribal representatives met approaching strangers (and presumably the ambassadors of another tribe), raising the highly adorned calumet (and pipe) toward the sun as they advanced. Smoking the calumet—by the contracting tribal agents at the conclusion of an agreement—corresponded to our signatures and seals at the end of a written treaty.
Each village probably had achief, whose power (it was sometimes reported) was little. However, the chiefs wore, as badges of office, red scarfs woven of bear and buffalo hair. Their faces were painted red. The village men (or possibly the important men) met before the village chief’s cabin or in a large hut built especially for gatherings to deliberate on political or religious matters. The entire village often seems to have been in audience.
If there were social classes among the Illini, no mention is made of it in early reports. Men acquired prestige mainly through skillful hunting or success in fighting. The leader in a raid had to recompense the families of any followers killed in the fighting.
With so little description of the village and tribal assemblies and the chiefs in deliberation and judgment, it is difficult to determine the exactstatusofpolitical organizationof the tribe and its officers. It may well be that the powers of the chiefs immediately after European contact were small, and that in order to deal with the agency of a European state, the Illini found it necessary (as did the Delaware tribes) to grant greater authority and responsibility to their political leaders. It is probably also true that the chiefs would, under pressure from the whites, be reluctant to take responsibility for an unpopular concession and would declare that only the tribal council orassemblagecould confirm the agreement under consideration. In any case, the Illini were on the threshold of true political control if they had not actually adopted it.
The tribe in historic times seems to have been the war-making group. Raiding parties tried to sneak undetected into enemy country and conceal themselves. From their hiding place, they fell suddenly on small unsuspecting enemy bodies, scalping men, killing women and children, and slipping away again with a few prisoners if practicable. Back in the village, captive warriors were bound to a frame of green wood, suspended over a slow fire, and tortured until death released them. Warriors hung the scalps taken upon their cabins as evidence of their prowess. The Illini claimed not to have tortured or burned captives until their men had been taken and so treated by Iroquois raiding parties. On thewarpath warriors carried bundles containing objects sacred to their guardian spirits and invoked them frequently to obtain victory.
Bows and arrows in quivers, hatchets or tomahawks, clubs, and “arrowproof” shields consisting of several layers of buffalo hide were carried on raids. The bow and arrow was considered superior to the gun because it could “fire” more rapidly.
Earlier in the Europeanperiod, the Illini furnished Canadians with skins of beaver, raccoon, deer, bear and buffalo, but in 1776 the French (in Illinois) compelled them “to devote themselves to producing oil, tallow and meat which they traded with them.” (Deliette Memoir. See Pease in Bibliography under ILLINI.) The Indians traded for porcupine quills with more northern neighbors. After the European came, Illini trade was probably overwhelmingly with the whites, exchanging native products of the forest for coveted guns, iron knives, hatchets, brass kettles, cloth, glass beads and alcoholic liquors.
Fig. 34. A, B, common forms of Illini pipes (restored) of red Minnesota pipestone, Illinois State Museum collections: A, “Siouan”; B, Micmac; C,stoneeffigy-head type, (A. J. Throop collection). All from village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. (B.B.)
Fig. 34. A, B, common forms of Illini pipes (restored) of red Minnesota pipestone, Illinois State Museum collections: A, “Siouan”; B, Micmac; C,stoneeffigy-head type, (A. J. Throop collection). All from village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. (B.B.)
Thereligionof the early historic Illini was apparently a complex one. The sun was evidently a powerful deity from whom thecalumetpipe had perhaps been supposedly received. A special calumet, apparently sacred to the sun, was revered as a palladium (like the Hebraic Ark of the Covenant) on which rested the safety of the nation. A special official had responsibility for its safe keeping. The smoke of the pipe was offered to the sun whenever the Illini prayed for rain, fine weather, or some other aid. Whether the Grand Manitou (Great Spirit), whom the French thought was the Supreme God of the Illini, was identical with the sun is not known though it seems probable.
In addition to the above gods, the Illini believed in numerous spirits and in reincarnation. A young man sought to secure a spirit as his superhuman helper or guardian for life. He fasted and prayed to the spirit to come to him in a vision. If successful (as he usually was), the spirit appeared to him in a dream and gave him instructions for a ritual by which he kept in contact with his protector. The objects needed for the ritual he collected on awakening and preserved them thereafter in a roll of painted matting. When calling upon his spirit protector, the bundle was opened and the rite performed, chiefly prayers and smoke offerings from a pipe blown toward the bundle.
It seems probable that there were true priests who were appointed by regular procedure and who received their power by virtue of their installation into office. The priests, we are told, painted themselves all over with clay on which designs were drawn. Their faces were painted with red, white, blue, yellow, green and black colors. The “highpriest” wore a bonnet or crown of feathers and a pair of horns, possibly young deer or buffalo.
Medicine men also seem to have existed, persons who sought power from spirits to use in behalf of others for private gain or a livelihood. Possibly they were interested on the side in black magic or witchcraft, an anti-social activity.
Dancing, probably singing, and supplication, together with the inevitable smoke offerings from a ceremonial pipe doubtless formed a large part of public worship for which the whole community assembled. Details of the Illini ceremonies and their meanings are not known.
The French priests severely denounced native religious customs and “juggleries” of the Illini. The Peoria chiefs and priests resented this and resisted Christian attempts to convert the tribe (1693).
Funeral and burial customs seem to have been generally similar to those of other plant-raising peoples. All dead were treated with respect, decked in their best apparel, painted in preparation for burial. A dance was performed in honor of the deceased. A skin stretched over a large pot formed a drum which was beaten with a single stick as accompaniment for the dance. The participants were rewarded with presents at the conclusion of the dance. The gifts to be distributed were displayed in full view of the dancers and the duration of the dance was determined by their relative richness. An important personage was given special consideration and the whole community probably attended the funeral. Corn and a pot to boil it in were placed beside the dead. Friends standing around the grave threw into it bracelets, pendants and “pieces of earthenware” (pots?). The graves of chiefs were marked by a painted wooden post taller than the markers for ordinarypeople. Illini chiefs and persons of distinction as a signal honor were placed in tree-tops in a coffin made of bark. The tribe danced and sang for twenty-four hours during the funeral of a distinguished man.
Fig. 35. Illini arrowshaft “wrench” or straightener of bison (?) rib engraved with figure of bison and cross-hatched triangles from Illinois village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County.
Fig. 35. Illini arrowshaft “wrench” or straightener of bison (?) rib engraved with figure of bison and cross-hatched triangles from Illinois village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County.
Men tattooed their “whole bodies.” They painted themselves in solid colors and with designs in red, black, yellow, blue, and other colors. The body was adorned with nativejewelry, the nose and earswere pierced for ornaments, and feathers of many colors were worn attached to the scalp lock. Moccasins were decorated with porcupine quill embroidery. Men clipped or shaved most of the head, leaving the scalp lock and four other tufts of long hair, two on each side, one in front of and behind each ear. After European trade goods were available, glass beads and cloth were obtainable in considerable quantities and largely replaced native dress materials and ornaments.
The Illini played lacrosse, an athletic game. The straw-and-bean game was a game of chance in which the players each took a number of straws from a bundle. The straws in each hand were discarded by sixes, the number left determining the winner of the round. Beans were used as counters. The Illini made wagers as to the outcome, even putting up their sisters as stakes in the game.
Fig. 36. Shapes of Illini pots (MiddleMississippiware) reconstructed from sherds found in association with other native and European objects on the Illini village site near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. (B.B.)
Fig. 36. Shapes of Illini pots (MiddleMississippiware) reconstructed from sherds found in association with other native and European objects on the Illini village site near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. (B.B.)
Two village sites of the Illini have been investigated by the Illinois State Museum, one near Utica, LaSalle County (jointly with the University of Chicago) and one in Randolph County near the mouth of the Kaskaskia River. This last site was occupied for over a century by descendants of the Kaskaskias and other Illini tribes. Except for a small area whereArchaicartifactsare found, it is a “pure” site.
The Illini tools, weapons and ornaments of native make were the usual chippedflinttriangulararrowheads, simple flint drills and scrapers,rough stonehammers and abrading stones, small groundstonependants, polished stone “Micmac” or “keel-based” pipe bowls (many of catlinite), the long-stemmed L-shaped catlinite pipes (sometimes called “Siouan”), and cut and engraved bone ornaments. An arrowshaft straightener carries an etching of a buffalo cow. Pottery is rare, but the pieces found in association with European trade goods are characteristically Middle Mississippian.
Fig. 37. European trade goods andartifactsmade from European materials. All from Illini village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. A, conical arrowhead of sheet copper; B, chipped glass arrowhead; C, brass arrowhead; D, hammer of flintlock gun; E, iron blade of clasp knife; F, an iron scissor-blade; G, part of a jew’s-harp.
Fig. 37. European trade goods andartifactsmade from European materials. All from Illini village near mouth of Kaskaskia River, Randolph County. A, conical arrowhead of sheet copper; B, chipped glass arrowhead; C, brass arrowhead; D, hammer of flintlock gun; E, iron blade of clasp knife; F, an iron scissor-blade; G, part of a jew’s-harp.
The Illini madeartifactsfrom fragments of European materials, iron spear- andarrowheads, brass and chipped glass arrowheads, brass pendants, and beads of broken porcelain.
European trade materials far exceed in number the native products. Usually they are fragmentary (except for colored glass beads of many kinds): parts of copper and brass kettles, iron handles, gun hammers and other parts, lead balls and the molds for making them, molds for casting crosses and ornaments, iron spoons, kitchen and clasp knife blades of iron, “Dutch” white pottery pipes, scissors, jew’s-harps, bottles for wine and olive oil, brass buttons and finger rings.
The Illini seem to have cast lead into musket balls and chipped gun flints into shape but beyond that made no attempt to learn machine-age technologies. For firearms, gunpowder, iron knives and hatchets they were wholly dependent on the white invaders, a great disadvantage in event of hostilities and one that eventually cost them ownership of their ancient homelands.
For historic tribes of the state other than the Illini little is known of theirarchaeology. Culturally it is almost a certainty that all were, soon after contact, largely disorganized due to partial economic dependence, European diseases and the alcohol trade, to diminishing game, loss of other resources, and to military pressures from white governments and contiguous Indian groups.
Only the broad outlines of the movements of the historic tribes that lived, hunted, or made forays in Illinois need to be noted here. The Iroquois, Winnebago and Chickasaw made no attempts to permanently occupy Illinois territory as a result of their raids.
The Illini came under French influence after 1673 and leaned heavily on their military support. At times the Illini warriors fought bravely alongside the French, but generally they had little stomach for fighting even in their own defense. They shifted their settlements frequently after the Iroquois attack of 1680 and later under repeated pressure by the Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo and Potawatomi, who invaded and occupied the northern part of Illini territory.
Due to their dwindling courage and lack of incentive, more perhaps than to their losses in enemy raids, the Illini tribes decreased rapidly in numbers and importance. When they were removed to the west of theMississippiin 1832, the population of the once great Illini Confederacy totalled little more than one hundred persons.
Even before this, the Miami had been pushed out of Illinois due to inroads of the Kickapoo and Potawatomi. The Shawnee, too, probably abandoned their permanent settlements in southern Illinois early in the contactperiodthough these lower counties may have still been considered their territory. Other groups did not settle or hunt there and the Shawnee did establish some villages there (e.g. Shawneetown) briefly in the eighteenth century. Bands of Shawnee continued to hunt in this region until 1828 or later.
The Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo and Potawatomi did not long enjoy the territory they had wrested from the Illini and Miami. Immediately after the Black HawkWarin 1832, steps were taken to move all Indians from the state. By the Treaty of Chicago, the Indians gave up all their lands in Illinois, and in 1837 the last bands (Potawatomi) crossed to the western bank of theMississippi. No land is reserved today in this state for Indians. Its former resident tribes now live in reservations in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and in the state of Coahuila in Mexico.
Thearchaeologyof Illinois in its present position seems to indicate that the state did not at any time form a distinct singlecultureorsubculturebut that it was rather the meeting place of many, due possibly to the rivers that enclose, lead to and intersect its territory. It was atone and the same time a part of one or more widespread patterns or phases and a patchwork of subcultures thatextendedinto neighboring states. There was a tendency for the cultures of the northern four-fifths of the state (roughly north of a line joining East St. Louis with Evansville, Indiana) to be more like the adjacent regions, while those of the remaining counties were more closely related to those of Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Indiana and Missouri and rather readily distinguishable from those of their northern neighbors.
There are few instances when it appears probable that a part of the state was invaded by apeopleof a distinctly differingculture. The Paleo-Indian Big Game Hunters presumably found in Illinois virgin country without previous human occupants. The Baumerians probably entered Illinois from south of the Ohio and expelled or absorbed the conservative Terminal Archaics. Possibly Mortonians intruded into the Black Sand-Red Ocre culture of Illinois from the northwest. Less plausibly, theStone Vault Gravepeople may have pushed their way into Adams County from the Gasconade River region of Missouri.
The emphasis in this paper has been placed perhaps on the change of cultures. To keep one from getting an erroneous impression of cultural stability, it should be said that, in the writer’s opinion, acultureandsubculturecontained in greater or smaller areas change gradually through a process of invention here and there and through interchanges of improvements back and forth over a long time. When the change is sufficient to be noted as a “new” culture, the various cultural elements or features are apt to be widely distributed over much the same area. Thus, Baumer seems to have existed for a time alongside TerminalArchaicbut finally spread through the southern counties; Hopewellian may have persisted in Calhoun County for a century or more after its collapse to the north and east; and theFinal phasemay have lingered on in remote portions of the state until Cahokia was past the height of its glory. In general, perhaps it could be said that the southern fifth and the remaining four-fifths of the state were out of step with each other most of the time.
As previously noted, some of the Paleo-Indian families, upon the retreat of the last glacier, settled in Illinois as they did in the neighboring states, adapted themselves to the changed surroundings, and in so doing developed theArchaiccultureor way of life. Thisphasedeveloped through a series of subcultures though not necessarily identical sequences in all the states or even within Illinois. In southern Illinois, Terminal Archaic seems to have persisted until about 2000 B.C. while in the north, it apparently had developed into Initial (early)Woodlanda few centuries earlier. The Baumersubculture, probably arising from the Archaic of Tennessee, appears to have been carried by its bearers into southeastern Illinois along the Tennessee andCumberlandrivers. Although widespread in theMississippiValley, the Archaic population was thinly scattered.
In northern Illinois and in Wisconsin the Black Sand-Red Ochrecultureseems to have developed from the native TerminalArchaic(and Old Copper) possibly around 2500 B.C. The Morton (Central Basin)peopleappear to have had their cultural roots outside the state and to have combined with the native groups (Black Sand-Red Ochre) they found in the northern counties. Average populational distribution was still low with the small settlements perhaps somewhat more numerous though no more populous than during Archaic times. The earlyWoodlandpeoples differed from their predecessors mainly in being pottery-makers. In southern Illinois only they practiced storage of acorns and hickory nuts extensively.
About 500 B.C. in northern Illinois the Mortonpeoplemore or less contemporaneously with similarly advanced peoples in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, passed into the Hopewelliancivilizationwhich was erected on the cultivation of maize, beans, squash and tobacco, and the technologies of the earlierWoodlandperiod. In southern Illinois Baumer developed into theCrab Orchardculturewhose people traded with the more northern Hopewellians, intermarried with them and finally adopted the Hopewellian way of life about 100 B.C.
A century or two later, Hopewellian in the north of Illinois began to deteriorate and eventually broke up into a number of small subcultures, obviously closely related but still distinguishable archaeologically. The same disintegration of Hopewellian took place in southern Illinois a few centuries later, and by 400 or 450 B.C. Hopewellian had disappeared from all Illinois except possibly in Calhoun County in the west, while south of the Ohio River it still continued to spread and flourish inMississippiand Louisiana for some centuries.
In Illinois aperiodof decadence set in for the next few centuries (possibly 250 to 1000 A.D.). The larger settlements or settlement clusters dwindled to mere hamlets, whose remains are scarcely distinguishable from the earlyWoodlandartifactsexcept that the tobacco pipe is present. Though they must still have retained a tradition ofplant-raising, they seem to have avoided it and reverted to a pure hunting-collectingeconomy. Even in southern Illinois the storage of food seems to have played an insignificant role. Nevertheless throughout this cultural recession, certain trends occur in all the six Final Woodland subcultures which foreshadow later developments in the Middle (Mississippi)Phase.
Fig. 38. The Stream ofCulture. The archaeological cultures within Illinois are included within the two heavy lines, openings in which indicate cultural extensions beyond or intrusions into the state. Vertical positions indicate sequences in a general way. (Drawing by Jeanne McCarty.)
Fig. 38. The Stream ofCulture. The archaeological cultures within Illinois are included within the two heavy lines, openings in which indicate cultural extensions beyond or intrusions into the state. Vertical positions indicate sequences in a general way. (Drawing by Jeanne McCarty.)
About 1000 A.D. or possibly a little earlier, the FinalWoodlanddeveloped into an early Protomississippi (Protomiss) and, at last, (possibly 1000 to 1100 A.D.) into the full-blownMiddle Phasecivilization. The Cahokiasubcultureappears to be primarily, though not exclusively, Illinoisian while theCumberlanddevelopment in the southeast of the state was shared more generously with adjacent Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Judging by the distribution ofstonebox (cist) graves, the Cumberland subculture seems to have expanded westward at the expense of the Cahokia peoples to envelope most of the southern counties from Monroe to White. (Another interpretation might be that the grave type of their eastern Cumberland neighbors was adopted by the Cahokians.) The Crable Village, possibly a late Cahokian settlement, yieldsartifactssuggesting cultural influences brought in from Iowa, Missouri and possibly Arkansas. It is probable that theculturecame to an end in Illinois by 1500 or 1550. This fact coupled with the pottery evidence makes it highly probable (though possibly not conclusive) that the disorganized Illini Confederacy embraced the tribes whose members were the descendants of thepeopleof the great Middle Phase civilization in Illinois.
More or less contemporaneous with theMiddle Phaseculturewere the so-called UpperPhasepeoples of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. These were represented in Illinois by the Fisher peoples of the Langfordsubcultureknown chiefly from sites along the Illinois, Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers in northeastern Illinois and (chiefly on a pottery basis) in northwestern Indiana and southern Michigan.
Beset by enemies on the east, south, north and northwest, with their traditions of former greatness fading, the demoralized Illini tribes welcomed the protection of French soldiers. Their own resourcefulness, courage, pride, and confidence in themselves and theirculturecontinued to deteriorate, their numbers to diminish under the softening influence of alcohol and the persistent assaults of the ruder more aggressive Winnebago, Sauk, Fox, Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes invading Illinois from the north until they were reduced by 1833 to a mere handful of a hundred odd men, women and children. The demands on the part of citizens of the United States for Illinois lands was brought to a head by the scare of the Black HawkWar, and the Illini, their traditional Indian friends and enemies, were transferred to new territory west of theMississippi. Thus ended the aboriginal occupation of Illinois that had endured for at least 10,000 years.
ADVANCED PHASE: The earliest pottery-making cultures ofWoodlandin southern Illinois. The peoples seem to have been storers of acorns and hickory nuts. It is sometimes called early Woodland.
AMERINDIAN: The American Indian of Mongolian racial stock so named to distinguish him from the Asiatic Indian who is of the white or Caucasian race.
ANTHROPOLOGY: The study of man and his cultural activities.
ARCHAEOLOGY: The division ofanthropologythat studies peoples of the past through the remains of their works that are found in the ground.
ARCHAIC(SUBCULTURE): An archaeological subdivision of theLithicPatterncharacterized by broad-bladed barbedspearheads,spearthrowerweights and “bannerstones,” small camps, and a hunting-collectingeconomy(without plant-raising or food-storage).
ARROWHEADS: Projectile points less than three inches long presumed to have been used to tip arrows.
ART: A form of human endeavor in which the individual or artist, with more or less skill, tries to produce an object or activity of such a nature that it is esthetically satisfying in some sense both to himself and to his group generally.
ARTIFACTS: Any object made by man, or a natural object modified by man, in order to satisfy a cultural need. (Only the names and uses of artifacts that are not self-explanatory appear in the glossary).
ATLATL: SeeSPEARTHROWER.
ASSEMBLAGE: In this paper assemblage refers to the selected significant artifact types of an archaeological unit. In a more general sense, it signifies the aggregate ofartifactsfound at a particular site, or in a deposit belonging to a singlecultureat the site.
AX: Refers in this paper to the grooved groundstonehead resembling the modern steel ax in general form and presumably used for chopping in a somewhat similar manner.
AZTALAN: The site of aMiddle Phasefortified village with mounds in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in the CahokiaSubculture. It was investigated by the Milwaukee Public Museum. See S. A. Barrett in Bibliography.
BARB: A projection or shoulder near the base of the blade of a spear, dart or arrowhead that serves to retain it in a wound and to stimulate bleeding. One of a number of “backward” projections on a harpoon that serves a similar purpose.
BAST: The inner bark (phloem) of a tree.
BREECH CLOTHor CLOUT: An article of clothing consisting of a narrow band or fold of cloth or skin that passes around the waist and between the legs.
BURIAL MOUND: Any man-made hill or knoll erected primarily to enclose the dead.
CACHE: A deposit of a large number ofartifactsin a grave or, in general, a number of artifacts found together in the earth.
CALUMET: See note,page 48.
CELT: An ungroovedstoneor copperhatchethead.
CHIEF: An official selected and formally installed in office by some social process who exercises civil authority by virtue of office.
CHIPPING: SeeFlaking.
CHOPPER: Generally any tool used for chopping, hewing, or hacking. Specifically, a chippedflinttool roughlyhatchetshaped. Some hand choppers have the edge of the blade paralleling the longer axis of the piece.