Chapter XXX: Objects of Copper (2)

1. The first are short, flattish points seldom exceeding two and a half inches in length. (Fig. 605, to the left.) One edge of these implements is either straight or presents a continuous curve from extremity to extremity. The other edge is curved or straight from the point downward to about opposite the middle of the implement, where it terminates in a barb. From thence it narrows to the other extremity, thus forming a stem. Occasionally this is notched on either side near its base. Small numbers of these points have been recovered from the village-sites along the Lake Michigan shore.

2. A second and less frequent form is cylindrical in section and tapers to a sharp point at each extremity. (Fig. 604, second from right.) Removed from one extremity by several inches, more or less, is a stout and very pronounced barb. All are of large size. A particularly large specimen measures ten and three fourths inches in length and about one half inch in diameter at the middle. Others are to be seen in the State Historical Museum and H. P. Hamilton collections. Mr. Clarence B. Moore has figured and described a large example obtained by him in Florida.

FIG. 611. (S. 2–3.) Copper crescents. Collection of Logan Museum,
Beloit, Wisconsin.
]

Iron harpoons of similar form, but frequently possessing from two to three barbs, sometimes alternating on opposite sides of the implement are still in use by Wisconsin Indians for spearing large fish.

FIG. 612. (S. 1–1.) Ear ornaments from the Hopewell Group, Ohio.
]

3. Another form of harpoon is represented by a specimen in the Milwaukee Public Museum. This implement is somewhat triangular in section, about eight and a half inches in length and about three fourths of an inch in breadth at the middle. The ends taper to a blunted point. The thinner edge of the implement is furnished with four stout, broad barbs, separated from each other by a distance of about one and a half inches. Bone harpoon-points of this pattern occur in New York and Ontario. (Like Fig. 606.)

4. A fourth type, the so-called “socketed harpoon-point” (Fig. 604), has one edge of its blade prolonged into a barb at the base. This barb may be on either the right or left side. Otherwise this type does not differ in shape from some of the flat-backed, socketed spear-points. Only a small number of these points have been found. All these are provided with a rivet-hole in the socket. An example in the Logan Museum is about four inches in length, and comes from Mequon, Ozaukee County.

_Pikes and Punches._ (_See Fig. 602._)

In this class of objects, which are as yet alluded to by students and collectors by either of the above or other names, are included the largest copper implements found in Wisconsin. They are rod-like in form, usually circular or square, less frequently rectangular in section, and taper to a point at one or both ends. Large specimens of each of these several patterns have been found. The largest is in the Field Museum. It is about forty inches in length, one inch in diameter at the middle, and tapers to a point at either extremity. It weighs five and a quarter pounds and was obtained from a burial-mound on the Abraham place, at Peshtigo, Marinette County.

FIG. 613. (S. 1–1.) Copper crescent-shaped object obtained near
Chattanooga, Tennessee. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.
]

FIG. 614. (S. 1–3.) Copper crescents. Collection of Wisconsin
Archæological Society.
]

A specimen in the H. P. Hamilton collection is twenty-nine inches in length, seven eighths of an inch in diameter, and weighs two and three fourths pounds. About one inch from the pointed extremity there is a broken projection which Mr. Hamilton believes to have been a barb. The other end terminates in a small claw or broken out eye. It comes from Maple Creek, Outagamie County. In the T. W. Hamilton collection there is another fine specimen which is eighteen and a half inches in length and weighs one and a half pounds. A specimen found at New Haven, Adams County, is fourteen and a half inches in length and weighs one and three eighths pounds. Other large specimens are to be seen in the Logan Museum, State Historical Museum, and Milwaukee Museum collections. Some of these are rather flat, rectangular in section and one inch in width and less than three eighths of an inch in thickness. They are pointed at one extremity and rounded or blunted at the other. Some other large specimens are known to have been cut in two and otherwise maltreated by the persons who found them.

In the Field Museum collections implements of this pattern ranging from eight inches or less up to the largest size are classed as “pikes.” That they were employed as weapons is extremely doubtful. It has been suggested that they may have been heated and employed in the burning-out of wooden canoes or wooden vessels. There is reason to believe that some of the lighter forms were mounted in wooden handles, at least one example with an accompanying copper ferule having been found at Milwaukee.

FIG. 615. (S. 2–3.) Copper saucer-shaped object. Hopewell Group, Ohio.
]

_Awls and Drills._ (_See Figs. 593 and 603._)

These have been obtained nowhere in greater numbers than in the Lake Michigan coastal region in Wisconsin. They vary in size from about one to six inches or more, and in thickness from one sixteenth to one half an inch. The greater number are of very small size.

The simplest and most frequent form is a slender cylindrical piece of metal pointed at one or both extremities. A second and usually stouter form is either round or square in section and tapers from a well-marked shoulder at or near the middle to both extremities. Sometimes one end only is pointed. Occasionally also the upper half of the implement is straight and the lower half tapers to a point. Many of these small implements were probably mounted in handles of wood, bone, or antler, the object of the shoulder being to prevent their passing too far into the handle. Several specimens mounted in antler handles have been found. Similar implements of bone and stone have been found in Wisconsin. Most of them were probably employed in drilling holes in wood, bone, or stone, in piercing skins, and for similar purposes. The Eskimo are said to employ somewhat similar implements of bone for catching waterfowl. They are used by attaching a line to the centre, the bone spindle being baited with a small fish into which the implement is inserted lengthwise. Large fish are captured by them in the same manner. We have no record of the employment of such methods by Wisconsin Indians.

FIG. 616. (S. 1–2.) Possibly this was the crown of a head-mask. It
seems to indicate growing antlers, or those of a young buck. When
found the horns or projections were downward and the raised surface
uppermost. Hopewell Group, Ohio.
]

_Spikes._ (_See Fig. 580, lower left-hand specimen._)

In a number of Wisconsin cabinets are to be seen copper implements locally known as “spikes,” taking their names from the close resemblance which they bear to the modern articles. These vary somewhat in shape and size.

FIG. 617. (S. 1–1.) Pendant of sheet-copper. C. B. Moore’s
explorations.
]

One specimen is four and a half inches in length, one fourth of an inch in thickness, with one extremity pointed and the other enlarged and blunted to form a head. Another is seven inches in length and tapers gradually downward from the head, where it is three fourths of an inch in diameter, to the point.

A few specimens are decidedly square in section.

An examination of the heads indicates that they are not the result of pounding while in use, but constitute an intentional feature of these implements. No suggestion has been offered as to their function. They may be simply perforators or drills. Some of the stouter implements, with broad, flattish points, may have been employed as chisels.

_Needles_

These are obtained from the same sites as the foregoing and are frequently associated with them, though not nearly as numerous. All are provided with eyes, and except in their somewhat ruder fashioning do not differ from the needles in ordinary domestic use at the present day. Their purpose requires no explanation.

These implements range in size from less than two to as much as eight and an eighth inches. The average size appears to be between two and three inches. Such implements are to be seen in many of the eastern Wisconsin collections. In the Milwaukee Public Museum is a small series of copper needles from Mexico.

_Fish-Hooks._ (_See Fig. 603._)

Hundreds of these and fragments of many others have been collected from the aboriginal village- and camp-sites on the west shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. They have also been obtained in numbers from the village-sites at Green Lake and at various other localities along the upper Wisconsin, Fox, Wolf, and Little Wolf rivers, and elsewhere in this part of the state where good fishing was to be had. Some have also been found far to the north along the Lake Superior shore.

Most specimens are of small size, from less than an inch up to two inches in length. The largest known example is four inches in length. They are generally circular, though sometimes decidedly square in section. The points curve and slant outward and inward at all angles and degrees of curvature. None possess any indication of a barb.

The shank at the point of attachment to the line is most frequently straight. Sometimes, however, it is notched, flattened, bent over and flattened, or bent over to form an eye. A few specimens have been collected which have bits of sinew or twisted fibre still attached to the shank. Fine series of these useful articles are to be seen in many local collections.

In the H. P. Hamilton collection there is a series of ten fish-hooks obtained from the bank of the Little Wolf River, in the township of Muckwa, in Waupaca County. These are from two and a half to two and three fourths inches in length, the strongly and broadly curved hook reaching up to about opposite the middle of the shank. Some are circular and others square in section, and all are of a nearly uniform thickness of one fourth of an inch. Several have the tips of the shank flattened, and all are heavily incrusted with soil and verdigris, plainly indicating the manner in which they had lain upon and across each other.

_Peculiar Implements_

In a few of the large Wisconsin cabinets are to be seen a very small number of implements whose exact functions are unknown and which cannot be placed in any of the various classes here described.

FIG. 618. (S. 1–2.) Remarkable effigy in copper. Collection of J. M.
Wolfing, St. Louis, Missouri.
]

One of these, in the H. P. Hamilton collection, is eight and one quarter inches in length. It is circular in section and tapers to a point at either extremity. It is seven eighths of an inch in diameter near the thicker extremity and is knotty all over the surface. Mr. Hamilton suggests that it may have been employed as a club or bludgeon. It weighs eight and one half ounces and comes from Little Chute, Outagamie County. In the same collection there is also to be seen a long, curved, flattish implement which, it has been suggested, may have served as a sword. It is about twenty inches in length and about one inch in width near the middle. It was obtained with a cache of six other copper implements at Oconto, Oconto County, Wisconsin.

_Banner-Stones_

The only specimens in native copper of this interesting and widely distributed class of ceremonial objects are in the H. P. Hamilton collection. One is of the ordinary butterfly pattern with expanding wings. Both specimens were found at Oconto, Oconto County, and were included in a remarkable cache of copper implements and ornaments, consisting of a crescent, sword, chisel, leaf-shaped blade, and two arrow-points. This specimen, weighing five ounces, is three and one half inches in length, and one and one fourth inches in width across the elevated part at the middle. The broad wings are one and one fourth inches in length and one and one half inches in width across their outer edges. The perforation at the middle is of one inch in length and has a short diameter of half an inch. A second specimen in the same cabinet is of the so-called “pick” shape. It weighs two and one fourth ounces. It is five inches in length and only one inch in width across the widest part, near the middle. The narrow wings are two and one fourth inches in length and taper to a rounded point, the perforation at the middle being half an inch in diameter.

_Beads._ (_See Figs. 569, 570._)

The most common local form of copper bead is somewhat spherical in shape and was fashioned by rolling together a small, narrow strip or welt of native metal, varying in thickness from less than one eighth to one fourth of an inch or more, only one or two turns of which were necessary to make a rude bead of quite large size. Beads of this kind have been obtained in large numbers from Wisconsin village-sites, graves, and, sometimes, from the mounds. Quantities of them, as many as one hundred or more, have occasionally been taken from a single grave.

FIG. 619. (S. 1–3.) Unknown symbols in sheet-copper, Hopewell Group.
]

In several Wisconsin collections fine strings or necklaces of such beads may be seen. Beads of this form have also been obtained in Ohio, northern Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota. The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp has mentioned their occurrence in New York.

A second and quite common form of copper bead is made of a thin sheet of metal rolled into the form of a cylinder.

They vary in diameter from one eighth to one quarter of an inch or more, sometimes exceed two inches in length. They are of quite common occurrence on the Lake Michigan shore and on some inland village-sites. From aboriginal village-sites at Two Rivers and on the shores of Green Bay small cylinders formed by twisting thin sheets of native copper between the fingers in a spiral shape are found.

_Bangles._ (_See Fig. 569._)

These are also made of thin sheets of native copper. They are of small size, conical or somewhat conical in shape, and open at both extremities. It is believed that these served as bangles, probably taking the place, in the past, of the small metal discs, brass or tin cones, brass thimbles or bells with which it was the custom, among the later Indians, to ornament dress fringes or other articles of wearing apparel. They occur on aboriginal village-sites in the Fox River Valley and in the Lake Michigan shore region.

_Finger-Rings_

These consist of small, narrow rods or strips of metal bent into the form of a simple circlet, the ends abutting or nearly meeting. Occasionally the rods are thickest at the middle and taper to a point at the extremities. Some may have served equally well as ear-rings. Specimens are occasionally found in the Lake Michigan shore region, as well as elsewhere in the state.

FIG. 620. (S. 1–2.) Copper fish. Hopewell Group. Field Museum
collection, Chicago.
]

_Ear-Rings_

The fondness of the later Indians for such ornaments is well known, and it is quite probable that they were also in rather general use among the earlier aborigines.

In the S. D. Mitchell collection is a small crescent-shaped copper ornament which may have served as an ear-ring or nose-ring, being well adapted for such use. It measures one and three eighths inches in extreme width, and was obtained from an Indian village-site in Green Lake County. Similar specimens are in several other local collections.

The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp states that the earliest metallic ear-rings in use among New York aborigines were probably those of copper wire coiled and flattened, and believes it possible that perforated discs and coins may have served the same purpose in early historic times, but that they were more likely to have been employed in some other way. Glass and shell beads, and probably many other things, were so utilized.

FIG. 621. (S. 1–4.) Copper eagle. Hopewell Group. Field Museum
collection, Chicago.
]

_Ear-Spools or Ear-Plugs._ (_See Fig. 612._)

Professor T. H. Lewis has obtained ornaments of this class during mound explorations conducted by him at Prairie du Chien, Crawford County, and Wyalusing, Grant County, in Wisconsin. Ear-spools have been obtained from various localities in Ohio, Illinois, and the South. Some of these are rather elaborately ornamented with embossed figures. In the Field Museum collections are specimens which were taken from the mounds of the celebrated Hopewell Group in Ohio.

A specimen in the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society’s collections has still attached to it a fragment of the string or cord by means of which it was probably attached to the ear of its aboriginal owner. Similar objects of stone overlaid with sheet-copper have been described by various authors.

_Gorgets and Pendants._ (_See Figs. 570 and 617._)

Careful inquiry has shown the existence of only a small number of these in Wisconsin collections. It is quite possible, however, that such ornaments were in more common use among Wisconsin aborigines than the present limited number would indicate. Being fashioned of sheet-copper, they would even under ordinary conditions be more likely to suffer destruction, through decomposition, than many other less fragile artifacts, which show very plainly the effects of chemical action during their interment. One form of pendant is triangular in shape and is provided at the broad upper extremity with two perforations, by which means it could be attached, by a cord, to the person of its aboriginal owner. Such pendants have been found in Winnebago, Jefferson, Crawford, and Barron counties. One of the largest measures three and one eighth inches in length, and one and one fourth inches in width at the upper edge.

Sheet-copper pendants of circular shape have also been obtained. These have perforations near the edge or at the middle. The largest specimen known is about three and one quarter inches in diameter. Pendants of this form have been obtained in Kenosha, Jefferson, Dane, Columbia, Grant, Crawford, Barron, Burnett, Winnebago, and Brown counties. A few specimens of other forms have also been recovered.

_Crescents._ (_See Figs. 611, 613, 614._)

In this class of copper ornaments are at present included a number of thin, flattish objects, the basis of all of which appears to be the crescent, either plain or variously modified by the addition of prongs or other prolongations arising from the inner or upper edge, near the middle or extremities.

There is probably little doubt that the greater number of the objects included in this class were worn by our primitive Indians as breast ornaments, being fastened to the neck by means of cords. In this way several of them may have been worn, one below the other. The adaptability of certain of the pronged forms for use as hair ornaments is noticeable.

Large numbers have been collected in Wisconsin, and others will probably be found as old sites are more thoroughly explored, and new lands opened to cultivation. The existing examples appear to have been obtained, for the most part, from the village-sites and graves, where they sometimes occur in association with copper beads and other articles of personal adornment. But very few have been recovered from the burial-mounds of the state.

A few have also been found in Minnesota, northern Michigan, and Illinois. The finest series of these copper crescents, representing nearly all of the known types, is in the H. P. Hamilton collection. The following is a brief description of the Wisconsin types of copper crescents:—

1. One of the simplest, although uncommon forms, has the upper edge quite straight and the lower ones broadly curved. Specimens have been found in Manitowoc County, and in Houghton County, Michigan.

FIG. 622. (S. 2–3.) Mica ornament. Hopewell Group.
]

2. A closely allied type has both edges curved, approaching more nearly the true crescent form. The degree of curvature varies considerably in the small number of specimens known. Specimens have been found in Washington, Sheboygan, Marquette, Crawford, and Barron counties. Minnesota has produced several specimens: one from Monroe County, having both extremities notched to allow for suspension. (Fig. 611.)

3. A third type, the so-called “canoe-shaped” crescent, usually has its lower and upper edges curving equally and formed at the extremities into a short point or embryo prong, directed inward. This is the most frequent Wisconsin type, and examples of it are to be seen in many collections. The largest and finest example now known (10 × 2¼ inches, weight 20 ounces) is in the Hamilton collection, and was found in the city of Oconto, Oconto County. Michigan and Minnesota have also yielded a number of specimens. (See Fig. 611.)

4. A fourth type has the prongs or points at the extremities of greater length and directed upward or inward. Specimens have been found in Calumet, Door, Sheboygan, and Marquette counties. They vary in length from five to seven and one half inches. (One in Fig. 568.)

5. In a fifth type the prolongations, arising from the extremities of the upper edge of the curved base, approach each other and unite to form a central spike, which is usually circular in section and formed by the prolongations being twisted about each other. Specimens have been obtained in Price, Manitowoc, Green Lake, Waukesha, Washington, and Columbia counties. One has been found in Minnesota. (Fig. 614, specimen D.)

6. Another peculiar type is furnished with a pair of spikes or prongs, usually rather long, and either flat or cylindrical in section, which arise on either side of the middle of the curved top (or base). (Fig. 613.) Specimens have been obtained in Columbia, Pierce, Washington, and Vernon counties. One has been found in Ottertail County, Minnesota. These specimens range from four to eight inches in length, the prongs being from three to four inches long. A modification of this type has the prongs united at their points by a short cross-bar. (Specimen G in Fig. 614.)

_Other Ornaments_

In the Milwaukee Public Museum are two broad, flat strips of native copper which may have been worn as headbands.

Both of these fragments, originally curved, have the appearance of having been straightened, by the finders, and may have formed a part of the same band. The larger (six inches by one inch) and the smaller (three and five eighths inches by one inch), and less than one fourth of an inch in thickness, are ornamented along either edge and down the middle with a row of deep indentations. The locality is Sheboygan County. On the skulls of two skeletons in a mound in Crawford County were found thick copper plates. The larger of these was ornamented along two edges with a double row of indentations, and measured eight inches long by four inches wide. The other plate was about four and one half inches square.

Mr. Brown has called attention to the distribution of copper and has described these objects so thoroughly that no remarks on my part are necessary. However, I wish to offer, briefly, one or two suggestions.

Copper seems to have played an important part in aboriginal life in this country. As the natives possessed neither gold nor silver and because silver ornaments are extremely rare, one may say that silver was not in use; copper appealed to them as being something beyond the ordinary, if not possessing supernatural powers. There was no other substance which they could hammer into shape, or slightly anneal and work more easily. No other malleable material possessed that bright, beautiful color and was capable of such polish. Therefore, copper appealed to the aborigines, and they made general use of it more as an ornament, or a totem, than for ordinary utility; that is, save in the “copper belt,” where it was so common that tools were made of it.

FIG. 623. (S. 3–4.) Mica ornaments. Ohio mounds. Collection of W. C.
Mills, Columbus, Ohio.
]

What the Northern Indians received in exchange for the copper has always been a mystery to me. In Wisconsin and Michigan where drift copper occurred in large quantities, and where it still may be found, it is likely that the natives carried on an extensive trade in copper and that the peoples of Ohio passed it on, one may suppose, to the South. This trade was extensive because not only in our museums are there thousands of copper objects, but there are many more in the hands of private collectors, and in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley where there has been much digging, great quantities of hatchets, plates, nose-rings, and spools are dug up from time to time.

FIG. 624. (S. 1–3.) Mica ornaments from mounds of the Hopewell Group.
Field Museum collection, Chicago.
]

One may question whether the presence of copper in the Ohio Valley really means extensive aboriginal commerce or trade. I say Ohio Valley because more mound copper is found there than elsewhere, although the South should by no means be excluded. Copper and other foreign materials abound in the middle and lower Mississippi Valley. Yet upon the shores of Lake Superior, about the copper range, on the streams and lakes of Wisconsin and Michigan where lived the Indians who possessed so much copper that they made of it hatchets, fish-hooks, knives, spear-points, etc., usually are to be found no Southern types save a few pipes and problematical forms in slate. What did these Northern natives receive in return for the quantities of copper which they must have bartered? Did they receive bird-stones, gorgets, pipes, etc.? Their bird-stones are very like those of Indiana and Ohio, yet they have a broad bird effigy usually with ears on both sides of the head which is not found save occasionally in southern Ohio and Indiana, and seldom in the South where mound copper is common. Their gorgets and pipes appear to be local. It has occurred to me that the peoples of Indiana and Ohio, and possibly the South, made raids in the copper country, or found copper nuggets in the drift, or mined their own copper, or robbed the Northern peoples of such copper as they wanted. If there had been any extensive aboriginal trade, we should surely find more evidence of it.

Mr. Clarence B. Moore[28] has conclusively proved that the copper taken from the Southern mounds and Ohio mounds is prehistoric and not of European origin. Some of the gentlemen connected with the Smithsonian Institution and affiliated museums contend that the fine _repoussé_ work, on sheet-copper, could not have been made by aborigines working with stone tools.

A few words regarding the illustrations. An inspection of all the figures in this chapter, marked from the Hopewell Group, give some idea of the remarkable copper effigies, ornaments, cut designs, etc., comprising the Hopewell collection. This is now on exhibition in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and can be seen by any person who will take the pains to visit that institution. It is justly considered the greatest prehistoric copper collection in the United States. In the Hopewell Group altars hundreds and hundreds of copper ear ornaments were found, all more or less affected by heat. Professor Mills has dug up many ornaments of these same kinds and says of them:—

“Copper ear ornaments were frequently met with in the graves, and twenty specimens were secured. They were invariably found in pairs. The manufacture of these ornaments required skill, as well as a high degree of advancement in ornamental art. The mode of manufacture of the ear ornaments, although two different types were found, was similar. One type was made of two concavo-convex plates, and were connected by a cylindrical column; but only a few pairs of this type were found. The other type, which was most common, was made of four plates of copper, two of which are circular, and two concavo-convex. The concavo-convex plates are attached to the circular pieces, which form the inside of the ornament. The discs are connected with a small cylinder of copper. This figure is a good illustration showing two views of the second type of ear ornaments. Other copper ornaments were found sparingly in the burial cists. From one grave a large copper crescent was removed, and from another, six large copper balls.”

Sometimes the copper plates were highly ornamented and cut or trimmed. Fig. 610 is thus described by Professor Mills:—

“The plate shown in this figure is perhaps the heaviest and smoothest of all the plates taken from Seip Mound. The scroll pattern cut upon one side of the plate represents the first specimen of the kind taken from the mounds of Ohio, as far as known. The plate was wrapped in leather when it was placed in the grave, and portions still adhere to the plate, as shown in the cut.”

Of the interesting pendants in sheet-copper, Fig. 617, exhumed from a mound in Moundville, Alabama, Mr. Moore has to say:—

“The upper part of the pendant has parts excised to form a six-pointed star within a circle. On the body of the star, _repoussé_, is a symbol to which we shall revert later. Below is an excised triangle; beneath which is part of an arm encircled by a string of beads and an extended hand bearing on it the open eye, all _repoussé_.”

The decayed cloth, the fragments of skins and the curious, fine silt, usually about a handful, lying around copper objects, indicate that they were at one time carefully wrapped up. If we had preserved to us some of these wrappings, not a little light might be shed on the use of the more highly developed copper problematical forms in the United States.

I am indebted to the directors of the Milwaukee Public Museum for making illustrations of the finest copper objects in their collections: Figs. 574, 579, 582–89, 595, 597, 599, 602, 605, 613.