questions about villiage / camp locating.

[pursuit]

Hi all, I am relatively new to native american fur trade artifacts and retrieval. My first question would be locating a camp..... say from a main village, how far may an average distance be to first camp. I know it can be in any direction and distance varies ... just looking for an average. And the second question would natives place their villiage on a main trail or a distance away? I know I should know this lol! But I am new to this and yes I have made nice finds... just looking to streamline. Thanks

 

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[CrazySlasher]

Bumping your thread!

 

[pursuit]

Hey hi! Thanks. Guess my question was to vague. lol! Just looking to stir up some story's or stoke some ideas or .......... I know one cannot go into the woods and just happen onto a camp site but what experiences do others have in relation to their discovery's pertaining to small satellite camps from main villages.

 

[Swartzie]

I really don't have an answer to your questions. Just some information to share. On the map I posted you can see "Old ------ Town" on the top portion of the map. This town was here in the 1750's and does have a trail running through it. From what I have read about this town it sounds like it was a burden being right on a main trail. All sorts of folks would end up coming right into the village. Later in the 1760's the town is mentioned in journals as being on the other side of the river. Why they moved it I don't know. Perhaps to get it off the main trail and avoid unwelcome guests. Unfortunately, this area now has an interstate running through it and has been tore up with heavy equipment. It would be nice to hunt right where the village was, but I am limited to hunting the outskirts. So, I don't really have an answer to your question. But, this is one example of a village being right on a trail and later being relocated. But, just right across the river.

Hopefully somebody else will chime in.

-Swartzie

 

[pursuit]

Well thank you for your piece ....it was fine as to what you wrote. To get a definate answer on my vague question would be impossible lol! I was actually hoping to stir a conversation. The idea that Old Town actually moved because it funneled people unwittingly into a native American village sounds very reasonable and also gives me some ideas as to possible relocation sites that dot the ohio country.I am new to this portion of history, principally the Fur Trade era. Once again thank you for your reply.

 

[jeffwhite35]

Here in Alabama there were Indian agents that recorded the locations a lot of times these towns moved two of main reasons were firewood and game normaly they were located onhigh level land above the flood plain.If there is afresh water spring near that is even better. Another hint is where every the trail crosses a river or large creek , there is usualy a camp site

 

[pursuit]

Thank you for your information, appreciate it. Hunting here in Ohio is good but waiting for the weather to break. Calling for -20° tonight! Ground is going to be stubborn for a spell!

 

[longcut]

In open fields that border streams with high banks , look for the white residue from mussels ....................... few yrs. ago , I watched a group of university folks dig a known village .. they were there for a whole Mississippi summer ... fun time lol ............ anyway , about a mile from that dig , just last week , I was detecting an old mussel residue deposit and picked up a nice glazed marble ...... I love detecting those kind of sites ,,, civilizations build on civilizations ................. Point is , that mussel bed was only a mile from the village and there is absolutely not a single piece of evidence where they chipped rocks for points or tools at the mussel bed .... but there is broken shards of pottery .................I suppose their camps were where the food was, sometimes ....
Just for conversation , I know where one shell deposit is, that when the tractors plow through it ,the dust turns white the shells are so thick .....................

 

[Tnmountains]

Any high ground by a spring or where two river meet is always good for artifacts or relics. Also Islands if hunt able by law were heavily used in trade routes both fresh and salt water. I use google earth to help locate sites and it works very well.

 

[GatorBoy]

Good advice TN.
And about that muscle bed where pottery was found... Pottery is much less dense than chert/flint.. and tends to stay on the surface... Much like mussel shells.. And get washed away from its original source. It winds up on top of things and higher up on shorelines.
Any stone on top of those muscles would have likely been washed down from above not all that long ago.. While there is likely much of it beneath them.
Even on dry land with no water involved the stone items will tend to always be beneath surface pottery and shells.. Unless mother nature or man has turned the material over

 

[jeffwhite35]

Ya'll talking about the mussels , we had hunted one on the Tennesse River in north Ala. years ago that waswashing out of the bank it must have been 8ft from the river bank to the top, found pottery shards, mostly triangle bird points. some bone tools,and broken drills, but the most amazing thing found as we dug into the refuse pile the mussels were stacked in a ring about 2ft high as anyone that has dug shell midden they preserve a lot . what we found appeared to be human dung . It appeared as if that had built them a toilet with the mussel shells. have never heard of a thing or seen anything like ever. give me some feed back on this if anyone has encounter this before

 

[GatorBoy]

My first feedback would be I hope it was on private property and you had permission to do so.
Most river banks are state property.
Secondly human excrement is quite normal actually... Don't know about the toilet but the shells seem to stack pretty well when layered on top of one another.
A lot of animals likes to scavenge those piles... also they could have dug into it or something and relieved themselves while they were there

 

[jeffwhite35]

My first feedback would be I hope it was on private property and you had permission to do so.
Most river banks are state property.
Secondly human excrement is quite normal actually... Don't know about the toilet but the shells seem to stack pretty well when layered on top of one another.
A lot of animals likes to scavenge those piles... also they could have dug into it or something and relieved themselves while they were there

This was about 35 years ago. TVA will get for walking the shoreline now. Had afreind a couple of years ago that had been walking the banks, and had parked on one of the wildlife managment areas and was topped coming , arrested him and towed his vehicle in. I want in fish the Tennesse River because I would be tempted to get out and hunt , last time as did hunt I found a lower section of a fluted point .the first for me.

 

[GatorBoy]

It's a mess in the law books at the moment.. I honestly believe the honest isolated find washing down in the river was never meant to be affected... It just became impossible to keep those separated from ill gotten gains... It's a shame it really is

 

[GatorBoy]

We can still take photographs..lol
That is before some development seawall or other inevitable force destroys the stuff.

 

[jeffwhite35]

Seawalls,progress whatever that is okay collectors ,is the drigs of the earth in the professional world.