Kalamazoo & St. Joseph County Michigan finds -- Potawatomi

[MichiganMan]

Hello all. My name is Terry. I have not hunted Indian artifacts in over 25+ years. But recently, while cleaning out our family farm I found a few odds and ends somehow made it through the years when I was 1) a bad boy and 2) a lot of my artifacts were stolen or scattered to the four winds. What remains is probably nothing compared to the beautiful artifacts I did have. We have property that butts up to the Pine Creek Reservation in Athens, Michigan: These are the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, and I will make the assumption that the bigger part of what I found will be related to this tribe. Of all I found or my friends found we never did much, if any, research on these things.
The house that I lived at is about a mile from our family farm and was rumored to have been an Indian campground. WE never seriously hunted artifacts as teenagers but would lackadaisically look whenever our buddy would come down and plow a spot by the house with his Ford 8N tractor and a 1 or 2 bottom plow. And even then it was a "Wow, look what you found!" and then the artifact would disappear onto a shelf or into a drawer. Time passed and the house was sold and I was best friends with the son of the couple who bought it. Kind of private hippie-types but not extreme. So they always wanted to let the land "rest" and no plowing or artifact-finding was ever done again. Fast-forward to today, well... last year really, and I saw the step-father of my best friend [who is in prison] and I stopped by to chat with him after not having chatted for years. To make a long story short I highly doubt even I would be able to seriously look for artifacts on that property again. But it's not out of the question. I even thought of contacting Western Michigan University to see if they had an archeological team that might be interested in doing a search... but time and change fades those ideas into a misty, smokey, and rainy London evening.
Now my 10 minute talk with the owner of the property did produce a new-found gusto to make the effort to try and get my foot in the door, to search around our family farm, and the surrounding farms to see if I can establish certain--"campgrounds", trails, and other clues to figure out the best areas to start hunting. And after I get back into the swing of things and some knowledge and good finds I will then approach the seriously serious spot to try find the good stuff.
The pictures I post will no doubt be a hodge-podge of artifacts and just "rocks". I will post all I found and if those with the knowledge would please weed out the real stuff from the not-real stuff, and the stuff that is "a possible".
Later on I will draw a to scale picture of one artifact I remember finding that blew my socks off!

I definitely have "artifact fever" and am passionate like a little kid but consider me new to this as I need to learn about this-the right way-as if I was starting afresh (which I am).
Surprisingly I do not have any arrowheads.
So I will post a picture of one artifact; and then I will set all I gathered together and take a few pictures of that. I had a thing for round rocks and some of them may be just that... nice naturally round rocks... but enough of me...







What is it? It's obviously not a "natural" rock formation. Notice how the edges are "cut" into it like a barb on a hook...

 

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[GatorBoy]

Mother nature can make some neat shapes.
It's much easier to point out what is an artifact than it is to explain why something is not

 

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[MichiganMan]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I just need to get out there and "hoof it" as grandma used to say. That means walk around on your own two feet.

I'm trying to contact my friend that has/had the possible Bannerstone. His number is not working so I will have to drive out there. I seem to remember that somebody either offered him $400 or told him it was worth four hundred dollars: This was back in 1980-1983.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Believe it or not, these are all natural formations. Mother Nature and millions of years of erosion can do some strange things to stone.

 

[rock]

I found a flint nodule in the creek last week that looked just like a Celt. It even had a bit on it but none of the cortex had been altered. Not a chip on it removed. I knew it was natural and tossed it in the woods so I wouldn't make that mistake again. You can find all kinds of cool looking rocks that are natural

 

[alpinestar1982]

Hey MichiganMan! I have a similar story and am now just getting back into looking for arrowheads and artifacts. Have you been able to get out on your family property and look around yet? I live in Allegan and I know there is alot of native american history in our neck of the woods. Good luck to you and maybe we could go on a hunt together sometime if you are interested.

Russell

 

[rock]

@ alpinestar you would do better by sending him a Private Message. I checked his latest post and he is still active on the site but it doesn't look real active for the artifact forum. GL, rock

 

[alpinestar1982]

Thanks rock. Will do

 

[MichiganMan]

@ alpinestar you would do better by sending him a Private Message. I checked his latest post and he is still active on the site but it doesn't look real active for the artifact forum. GL, rock

I'm "active" but just not physically active more than a few miles from home because I have been sick [since 2002] with a few gastrointestinal disorders. It makes going very far from the house very difficult and I have to weigh how I am feeling with distance and amount of physical work before I go anywhere. Digging holes while metal detecting can be quite physical. I suppose arrowhead hunting wouldn't be all that difficult... just haven't done it in a long time. ...used to hunt some fields after they were plowed. Now I will do research by looking at very old maps before I go out hunting to maximize the find potential while keeping physical labor to a minimum. Thanks for the maps Alpinestar.