| Now that I have
completed my explorations of the Fisher
and Adler prehistoric Indian
sites and have presented most of the material, together with field
notes, maps, and photos, to the University of Chicago, I feel in a
state of relapse. There appears to be nothing more for me to
do. Now I can get all the help I want if I choose to delve into
any good prospect. The fact is that scientists do not want me to
dig any more, now that they are warmed up and eager to do the digging
themselves. That suits me well enough. The work is hard;
and the mending, mapping, writing and getting together of the material
and records has taken a great deal of my time. My house and
office were literally packed with human skeletons, clay pots, and
implements of stone, bone, copper, and shell. Now, nearly all of
it is gone out of my possession, and I am experiencing a sense of
loneliness and depression. For four years, nearly all of my spare
time was devoted to finding and caring for the stuff that is mine no
more. I can now reflect upon what I have done, and to what it all
amounts. |
| Howard Calmer
and I made a first small exploration of the Fisher site in 1898.
We did no digging. In 1906 we did some slight digging, and a
little more in 1912. We did not find much, but I saw enough to
make me feel that this was a site to interest scientists.
However, when I broached the subject to them, they declined to
participate. I could well understand that. Mound-digging in
Illinois had, as a rule, produced very meager results, and I had
nothing to prove that Fisher's would be an exception. |
| Time went
on. Many times, Dan Fisher urged me to dig, but I
refrained. I had secured no relics to speak of in my 1912
digging, and the few skeletons I found dampened my ardor
considerably. Here was a cemetery of human burials. It
seemed to me fair enough to let the dead lie in peace. I remember
what a jolt it gave me when some of the farmers living near by cut into
one of the small outlying mounds to gather gravel for road
repairing. They came upon human burials and scattered the bones
around without compunction. They wanted the gravel, and human
skeletons didn't matter. |
| Then I got
another jolt. Dan Fisher leased the site to a tenant who brought
in a tractor and started plowing up the site. The soil was thin,
but the two big mounds had considerable black soil in them, and the
tenant wanted to spread it around so that he could grow corn.
That was what started me digging. I found human skeletons, but
they had clay pots and aboriginal artifacts with them. That
relieved me considerably. These were Indians. Neither the
road-menders nor the tenant cared a rap about the graves. They
seemed bent on destroying the place, and so I hastened to beat them to
it. I began to dig and kept at it for one day a week at least for
over four years. Gradually I hardened to the work, although I
never entirely lost the feeling that I was a grave-robber. But
nobody else seemed to care, and I found many things of unusual
interest. I kept quiet and staved off the newspapers as long as I
could, but finally the reporters ran me down, and we had plenty of
publicity and visitors. Then scientists began to take notice, and
my grave-robbing became more respectable. I met many of the
professionals who came to see what was going on, and there were some
fine men among them. I also met many amateurs and received many
letters. In general the scientific minds concentrated upon the
archaeological and anthropological features of the work, while the
amateur minds dwelt upon the things that contained elements of human
interest. I could readily understand both view points. I
had studied the subject I was engaged in, also related subjects, for
over thirty years and was actually no novice. On the other hand,
I had never studied these subjects in a class-room, and in that respect
I was a novice. |
| The Fisher site
comprises two large, conical mounds, surrounded by smaller mounds and
large, saucer-like depressions or "pits." The latter were
literally peppered with small food-holes. |
| From a
scientific viewpoint, the Fisher site was featured by a stratigraphical
arrangement of three or more human occupancies. Three or more
tribes of Indians had come and gone. They had no contact with
white men. This was true everywhere except in one small mound and
in several places among the pits. Here the Indians had many
things of the white man's manufacture buried with them. The first
occupants were mostly long-headed people, and those above them, short
heads. The former were buried with bodies flexed and had no
relics. The latter were buried in an extended position and had
many relics, such as clay pots, copper ear discs and necklaces, shell
spoons and brooches, and bone and stone artifacts. The small
mounds contained human skeletons but no relics. There were many
things to interest both the archaeologist and the anthropologist. |
| To the layman,
the site represented an Indian village and cemetery containing no less
than the 600 or more skeletons we found. Such a large assemblage
of dead might have suggested a battle of some sort, had not the
evidence pointed to the contrary. The people were small by white
man's standards. A great many of the skletons were those of
women, some of them young with tiny infants. Many more were boys
and girls of various ages. Broad-headed women and children had
clay pots buried near their heads; fair-sized pots for women, little
pots for children. Each pot, as a rule, contained a spoon made
from a clam-shell. In quite a number of cases of child burials,
one hand was placed very close to or in the small pot. A great
many children and infants lay buried in the mounds. Some of them
wore necklaces of copper plate beads. |
| In at least four
cases of women, a small stone tablet with cylindrical stubs of antler
accompanied the human skeleton. These artifacts have been
formerly defined as arrowpoint-making tools. Evidently this was a
misconception. Apparently they were some sort of feminine
furnishing. In no case was a skeleton accompanied by a profusion
of relics. In fact the relics were comparatively few in
individual cases, although the sum total was considerable because of
the great number of human skeletons. |
| In no cases were
pots buried with men. Such things were for women and children
only. Men had tools suited for war and chase. But men,
women, and children had articles of personal adornment in common.
However, they differed in their particular kinds of adornment.
The celt or ungrooved ax-head of polished stone was of common
occurrence. In only one case was there positive proof of its use
as a tomahawk with a wooden handle. The celts' frequent
occurrence suggested diversified usage; for man, for hunting and for
domestic purposes. |
| As a whole, the
human burials with relics pointed unmistakably to reverence for the
dead and beliefs in something more after death. Some at least of
the clay pots accompanying women and children had food in them when
buried. In the case of men, I found nothing suggesting food other
than the means for securing it, such as small arrowpoints and stone
celts. Presumably, men had to go forth and find food, while women
and children had to depend in the main upon food brought to them. |
| The Fisher site
represents a village and cemetery, and the impression which it gives is
one of peace and tranquility. Deaths from violence were
rare. In a few cases men and women had been pierced by
flint-tipped arrows. Many had broken bones partially and poorly
healed. |
| Diseases
affecting various bones of the body were not uncommon. There were
not a few broken forearms and occasionally other bones, usually poorly
knit after breakage. There was much dental trouble.
Although young people had fine white teeth, much decay and abcessing
appeared among the older persons. Various other parts of
skeletons were visibly affected by disease. Being community
tombs, the mounds naturally gave the impression of death and disease
and the difficulties of maintaining existence. No doubt the
bitter cold of Winter bore heavily upon them. Their degree of
civilization was extremely low, and they had little with which to make
do. They were not big and robust. Most of them were small;
some so small that they seemed like pygmies. |
| Work in the pits
was pleasanter than in the mounds, for they gave pictures of life,
whereas the mounds represented death. The fifty or more pits were
saucer-like depressions, sometimes oval but usually circular, with
raised earth rims surrounding them. They were of various sizes,
from over thirty feet down to ten feet in diameter. They appeared
to be old lodge sites. Some of them had central ash beds
suggesting fire places. Some were like semi dug-outs, being six
feet and more deep from the bottom center to the rim top. These
pits were featured by numerous food-holes, from two to three feet in
diameter and from three to five feet deep. We found many of these
holes; in the pits, in the rims, and around the pits. The latter
contained no sign of of wooden beams, only occasionally very light
branches of charred wood. |
| The food-holes
appeared to be combined Kelvinators [refrigerators - GL
III] and
garbage cans. Some of them contained caches of unopened river
clams. Several contained clay pots filled with charred corn and a
few acorns. A few had animal bones, suggesting a meat
supply. The Fisher site offered unusual opportunity for effective
use of these holes. It is pure, clean gravel for a depth of over
twenty-five feet, only the top foot or so containing earth. The
drainage facilities here are unexcelled. Rainfalls, no matter how
profuse, disappear rapidly into the porous gravel. The latter is
generally damp and cool. The holes would keep their contents
fairly cool in Summer and prevent freezing in Winter. However,
they would eventually become sour and tainted, necessitating the
frequent digging of new, fresh holes. The old, discarded hole was
then filled up with camp refuse. As a method of garbage disposal,
it was a very good scheme. |
| Our pit
excavations had to do with these garbage containers very largely
because the garbage contained many relics and potsherds, animal bones,
and implements of stone, bone, and shell, often accompanied by profuse
quantities of wood ashes. Many of the implements were fragmentary
or broken, but we found many whole ones. Some of these were
duplicated in the mounds, but the food-holes yielded a much wider
variety and a considerable abundance, giving in particular a very clear
picture of the fabrication of bone and antler into various implements
and ornaments. There were also spoons and ornaments made of
shell, as well as tools of stone, such as polished celts, chipped
arrowpoints, whetstones, and hammer stones. |
| The animal bones
in the food-holes gave a good idea of what these people ate.
Remains of deer and elk were very abundant. Dogs, racoons,
skunks, minks, rabbits, otters, beavers, and some other small mammals
were well represented. Wolves, bears, and bison were
conspicuously absent; but there were many species of birds.
Several kinds of fish were much in evidence, as well as turtles of at
least four species. Clams must have played a large part in the
food supply, judging from their abundance. |
| I came upon many
things in the mounds and pits and around them which impressed me
because of their personal nature. I had found several hollowed
bone sections about 1-1/2 inches in diameter that looked like small
napkin rings. I wondered what they were used for until finally I
came upon the skeleton of a young woman with two of these things at the
back of the neck, one on each side. Obviously, each ring
encircled a braid of hair. In several case of female burial,
there was a round copper disc on wood or leather close to each
ear. Evidently, these were hair or ear adornments. We found
a number of cases of small batches of burned stone and bone
implements. In one pit, such a batch lay upon a child's skeleton
whose bones were charred black where the burned implements touched
them. A male skull in one of the big mounds had a small
triangular chert arrowpoint projecting from one of its temples.
The skull was minus lower jaws. I looked for them very carefully
without success. |
| I could ramble
on without end about this and that at Fisher's without telling anything
that could be considered extraordinary. I would find much of the
same thing if I excavated one of our modern cemeteries, where I would
find human skeletons with various man-made objects. The personal
touch would be the same, the difference between the two being a matter
of degree in the state of civilization. |
| The discussion
thus far has been confined to human burials with relics or to the
finding of relics. All that I have described is pre-European;
that is, free from the White Man's influence. It pertains
particularly to what I have arbitrarily termed the Middle Level. |
| The Fisher site
is admirably adapted for stratigraphical observation. One only
has to keep his eyes open to see when and where the various graves were
dug. The top soil is very black and thin; the gravel below very
light-colored and thick. This combination of dark and light color
makes the fill-in of a grave brown. Wood ashes inject white;
charred matter, black. The mounds and pits are filled with these
color contrasts. They are most unusual. I have not seen
their like anywhere else. I used these contrasts continually to
find the originating surface of a grave and to determine the
chronological relationship of one grave to another. There were
pronounced differences, and from it all came my arbitrary arrangement
of Pre-European, Lower, Middle, and Upper Levels, with a Post-European
civilization at the top. This does not mean any great extent of
time necessarily. It does point, however, to the probability that
at least four bands or tribes of Indians dwelt upon the site at
different times. There is nothing surprising in this. It
was a desirable site near the DesPlaines River and high enough to be
safe from floods. It had a spring of pure and always cool
water. And, finally, it was well adapted for the Kelvinator and
garbage-disposal scheme previously described. |
| Certain
peculiarities in the stratigraphical arrangement were responsible for
my persistent digging at Fisher's. In the Lower Levels were human
burials whose planes of origin were below the present ground
level. The skeletons lay flexed upon their sides. They had
no clay pots nor relics of any kind, except in the case of a woman with
two small sea-shells. These burials were of Long-Heads or dolichocephals
as far as I have been able to determine. A Long-Head is one whose
skull, viewed from the top, is relatively long in relation to its
width. The apparent persistence of Long-Heads in the Lower Level
has aroused much scientific curiosity. |
| The Middle Level
as determined by plane of grave origin appeared to be given over almost
exclusively to Short-Heads. These were the people with clay pots
and many artifacts of stone, bone, copper, and shell. They lay
upon their backs, usually extended or nearly so. All features of
the Lower and Middle Levels were in strong contrast with each other. |
| The Upper Level
was not as easily placed as the two levels below it, due mostly to the
fact that this more exposed level had been previously disturbed by
animal inroads and by diggers. The skeletons lay in all sorts of
postures and had few relics with them. These few, however, showed
no evidence of contact with the White Man. Such evidence was
restricted to two burials among the pits and to one of the small mounds. |
| This small mound
contained many burials, all of Short-Heads. The adults lay upon
their backs more or less extended. They had some aboriginal
implements of stone, bone, and shells, also things of metal and glass
made by white men. In this instance the so-called Mound Builder
seemed to have resolved himself into a modern Indian equipped with
things made by white men. This seems to be something in the
nature of a scientific curiosity. |
| The final period
of our work at Fisher's was devoted largely to the observation of
intrusive elements; that is, where food-holes, pits, and human burials
intruded upon one another. |
| Our work on the
Adler mounds was of relatively short duration. We found three
levels there, featured in the most part by the lowermost one.
This was very different from anything observed at Fisher's. There
were eight mounds; one, fairly large; the others, more or less small
and inconspicuous. But we found a goodly number of human burials
and also burials of bundled human bones. Many of the skulls were
flattened in front by artificial deformation. The bodies were
often painted. Some of them had snake skeletons near the
waist. One clay pot was different from anything observed at
Fisher's. There were a few bone and chipped stone
artifacts. We did pretty well at Adler's; much better than
expected. |
| In addition to
the material, I have sent my books of notes, maps, and photos to the
University of Chicago. I understand that they will use these as a
yard-stick to work out a system for determining the relationship of one
Indian culture to another. This may have some value, although our
human history seems to be all Indian and moving about of bands and
tribes differing, more or less from one another culturally. Just
what there is in this to interest the public, I cannot see at present,
although it may command scientific attention. I judge that the
curtain is now rung down on Fisher's and Adler's, as far as the public
is concerned, for the material which I have so long gathered is no
longer available to the public. In this I confess to feelings of
regret. The public has shared in my adventure, but I see that my
presentation of the whole thing to science has ended that. |
| Illinois seems
to have set a time limit on its history to match with written
history. Most of it starts with Abraham
Lincoln, although the D.A.R. goes
back to Revolutionary
War days, and occasionally LaSalle, Tonti,
Marquette,
Joliet, and a few
other
early explorers come in for
bits of publicity. Cahokia
has been made a
state park, but Ilinois seems to be rather timid about its prehistory,
that is, history of Illinois before the coming of white man. In
Ohio, all or nearly all of the Indian mounds and earthworks have become
state property. They represent the history of Ohio before
white
men came there. The early history of these white men is being
carefully preserved. The much earlier history of Ohio represented
by mounds, earthworks, village sites, and cemeteries is also being
preserved by the state for the people who appear to be proud of them. |
| It is difficult
to accomplish things of this kind without something outstanding with
which to begin. Ohio has long been famous for its prehistoric
anthropology and archaeology. The mounds, etc., might in
themselves fail to hold popular interest, were it not for the fact that
what the mounds contained is well known and placed where anyone can go
and see it. Ohio's wealth of Indian material has received
generous state recognition. It leaves little to be imagined when
one looks upon the mounds and other prehistoric works that were erected
over it. The same thing is true of prehistoric works in Great
Britain and Europe. The
ancient cave drawings, sculptures and
paintings of France are being cared for by the state and are always
available to the public. This would not have happened, had not
public interest been aroused. It cannot happen in Illinois if
there is no popular interest. |
| But the mass of
people in Illinois are not going to feel any particular interest in
their prehistory unless they see some of it; enough to make them
appreciative of it. The fact is that there has been very little
to show them. For a long time Illinois had not been explored
anthropologically. Mounds in various parts of the state had been
dug into, but very little worthwhile had been found. I know that
this was true up until 1924 when I began excavating the Fisher
site. I found a great deal to interest the public as well as
scientists. It was not that the various relics were so fine and
beautiful; far from it. What these Indians had was quite simple
and crude; extremely plain compared with the fine things of the Hopewell
culture found in Ohio. But I got a very complete picture
of what the lives of the people had been. The mounds showed their
mortuary customs, and the pits gave a picture of how they lived.
The material evidence of all this was present in great abundance.
Furthermore, there were four or more tribes or communities represented;
not merely one. The public took a great interest in reading about
it and would have been more interested if they could have seen
it. But the way we worked [had to work, given
the salvage nature
of the project and Fisher's requirement that the holes they dug had to
be re-filled every day to protect cattle from injury - GL III] was
not
much to look at, and the many human skeletons, clay pots, and artifacts
were not put on exhibition. When I presented it to the University
of Chicago, it disappeared from view, as far as the public was
concerned. In 1926 I considered buying the site for preservation
as a state historic monument and made overtures to Dan Fisher, the
owner. But others were negotiating with him, and title soon
passed to the Congress
Construction Company, and although I did not
know it, the place was marked for destruction. The gravel was to
be removed for construction of the Dresden
Dam several miles further
down the river. I was never fully hardened to the idea of
despoiling the graves on a large scale and was willing to cease after
getting a fair picture of what the place contained. It would have
suited me to stop further digging, restore the mounds and pits to their
original sizes and shapes, and to preserve all as an historic
monument. But I could not obtain ownership nor prevent others
from digging. And nobody seemed to care what became of the place
and everything in it. So I continued to dig for over four years
until finally the owners made me stop. |
| Then I found out
that something had been going on about 175 miles to the southwest near
Lewistown. It appeared that a young man named Don Dickson had
been excavating and finding Indian remains. I have been recently
down to have a look. What I saw will take me a long time to
forget. |
| Dickson's father
had a farm with a hill on it. In the course of removing soil from
the hill, he found many clay pots and various things of Indian
make. In about 1927 his son Don systematically excavated the site
and found it to be an old Indian cemetery literally packed with
skeletons, together with many fine clay pots and various kinds of
ornaments and implements made of stone, bone, and shell. He
removed the dirt very carefully from over and around each burial,
leaving the skeleton and artifacts buried with it exposed. He
uncovered two hundred or so graves and then put on an exhibition of
them which people came to see. As they walked around and looked,
Dickson told them about the Indians represented there. It was a
good show. I had never seen anything like it, even after all my
own Indian grave digging. At first glance I was apalled by the
harvest of death. No doubt others felt the same. But soon,
as with others, curiosity and interest overcame my first squeamishness,
and I examined as much as I could in the time permitted before I had to
drive back home. |
| It is a
remarkable exhibit. Dickson has done his work well, and he tells
it well to visitors. There is so much of it that I could make
only a general examination. The human skeletons are crowded
together at various depths. Most of them were lying extended, and
they appeared to be Short-Heads. Many had fine-looking clay pots
and other objects, and much resembled my Fisher burials of the Middle
Level. I saw no pits or food-holes and judge that there were
none. It was a cemetery only, but its contents were so well
displayed and lavish, that with Dickson's prompting, the visitor could
absorb much archaeology and anthropology in a comparatively short
time. Those who came there to see were evidently much
interested. But the roads to the Dickson farm are not good and
there is an admission fee. It is a modest and reasonable fee, but
no doubt more visitors would come if they could see it all for nothing. |
| Why not let them
see it for nothing ? It has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln or
the American Revolutionary War, and yet it is truly a historical spot
and a valuable and interesting one. It holds Don Dickson's
interest now, but in time he may be induced to part with it. It
is a fine historic site and the State of Illinois would do well to buy
it unless Dickson demands too exhorbitant a price. What a place
for the people of Illinois to have as their own; free to them and to
tourists from other states. |
| Don Dickson is
now putting on a great show for the people, but it is a big show, and
from my own recent experiences at Fisher's and at Adler's, it seems too
big a show for Dickson to hang onto indefinitely. I did not spend
the money at Fisher's that Dickson has spent at his site, and I was
making a decent living in other business. So I could afford to
give all of the results of my digging away. I judge that he does
not feel able to do a thing like this. In time he may find it too
expensive to keep up. It would be difficult to find a buyer,
other than the State of Illinois. The State might refuse to buy,
with the expectation that taxes and expenses may wear Dickson down and
force him to sell for little or to give much of what he has away.
But it appears
to me that the State of Illinois should buy that hill
and be fair about it so that the people of Illinois may see and own an
historic site which they can see and know is historic without drawing
upon their imaginations. I don't really know, but I am guessing
that Don Dickson would be pleased to have things that way. He
might be greatly displeased if the State of Illinois refused to have
anything to do with it. |
| Briefly,
Dickson's hill is now an historic, rather a prehistoric spot, one of
the finest in Illinois. The
State should buy it in the near
future, and Dickson should be willing to sell. Who knows what
may
happen if nothing is done ? The cemetery with all of its valuable
archaeological and anthropological material belongs to Dickson.
If he feels that he is not being fairly treated, he can and maybe will
destroy all that he has created; smash
all the skeletons and relics to
bits and cover them up again. That would be a tragic end for
a
prize historical site. I have witnessed the destruction of one,
and I hope that Dickson's will not share the same fate. I am now
harking back to Fisher's. |
| I stopped the
ploughing up of the two big mounds and other earthworks at Fisher's in
the Spring of 1925 when my digging got under way, and I took
measurements of everything so that they could be restored to what they
were when my work was done. I also stopped the complete
destruction of the whole site by the new owners, although this resulted
in my ejection. The removal of gravel did not encroach farther
than upon a few of the outlying pits, but all the other pits and small
mounds were obliterated by the huge Caterpillar tractors churning over
them. The tractors obliterated nearly everything except the two
bigs mounds, and any ideas I have had of restoring the place seems to
have no chance for accomplishment. A fine historic monument has
been lost to the people of Illinois. The area it covered was not
large - only a few acres - and the early civiliztion it represented was
a very humble one. But in its day it was a relatively large and
important community, as much so then as our large cities are now.
Others than myself might have appreciated this and might have done
somthing to preserve it before the interest aroused by the discoveries
had cooled. But now the site is about rubbed out, and the
material taken from it has disappeared, as far as the public is
concerned. |
| As one of our
historic land-marks, the destruction of Fisher's seems to be now
complete. A similar important landmark still survives. I am
wondering how it will end. The public is not indifferent to such
things, as I well know. With a little more understanding and
guidance, I do not think the public will not take kindly to the
destruction of our prehistoric monuments. |
| (This article is
a composite of several of my previous writings; soon after my visit to
Dickson's in 1928; after my ejection from the Fisher site in the Summer
of 1929; and after I had presented almost everything of my Fisher and
Adler findings to the University of Chicago in January, 1930). |
| George Langford Joliet, Illinois |