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Originally Posted by frank-e
It's a nice place to learn some cool Indians culture and history of Indian life.Arrow heads can be found in many places and I have seen them near rivers and lakes.If you do go hunting for arrow heads be safe and don't go near fast running rivers and cliffs or hills.Farm Fields are good places where Indians once lived too and as usual, always ask permission when hunting any privates property.
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ALWAYS ASK PERMISSION FIRST, AND OUT OF RESPECT SHOW THE OWNERS WHAT YOU FOUND. BEING FORMAL WILL ALLOW FOR YOU TO RETURN TO FIND MORE TREASURES.
I was 5 years old when I found my first 3 1/2 inch ceremonal flint knife in a field along the Manitowoc River. Its a beautiful point which is now on its own board full of the artificts which I've picked up over my years from Arrowhead hunting. My favorite item is a perfect 4 inch colbate axe which was in pristine condition so my hunch is its use was to cultivate the wild rice.
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Originally Posted by frank-e
One other item I have to mention...It is illegal to hunt in an Indian grave area, so don't do it because you would be disturbing Indian graves and it's the State law not to!
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Speaking of Ceremony Burials, you can visit them just do not remove any artifacts or disturb the sacred land. These are some of my family favorite sites in Wisconsin. If you would like any information about our Wisconsin Native Peoples contact either of my parents. Both have a significant amount of interest for our interlocked history and American Indian Cultures.
There were four different kinds of mounds constructed: linear, conical, effigy, and intaglio.
Linear mounds are simply low, long mounds of dirt which may be straight or somewhat curved in appearance. They may have been used for defense or for the foundations of longhouses.
Conical mounds look like simple heaps of dirt piled from three to six feet high. They were used for burial purposes.
Effigy mounds come in all different shapes and sizes. Most of them were built in the shape of an animals. Most common effigies in Wisconsin were mounds in the shapes of birds, turtles, panthers, deer, and bear. Its speckulated they may have had some religious purpose, but were more likely just the clan symbols and may have been used to mark the boundaries of territory.
Intaglios are actually the opposite of mounds. These are shapes that were dug down into the ground. Less than a dozen intaglios have ever been recorded, all in the shape of a panther or a bear. Unfortunaly most of these have been destroyed.
Sauk County
:arrow: Devil's Lake State Park
State Highway 33
Baraboo, WI
Devil's Lake State Park, located three miles south of Baraboo, preserves a number of effigy mounds that represent both the upper world and the lower world. The Ho-Chunk name for the lake is Tamahcunchukdah, or Sacred Lake, which was mistakenly given an evil connotation and translated as Devil's Lake. According to Ho-Chunk tradition, the famous bluffs were created during a battle between the thunderbirds and the water spirits. The effigy mounds in the park reflect this tradition. A 150-foot-long "fork-tailed" bird effigy is located on the southeastern shore of the lake. It is also possible that this mound form represents a "bird-man," combining characteristics of a bird and a human being. Effigy mounds at the northern end of the lake are from the opposing lower world and include a bear, an unidentified animal, and a water spirit or panther.
Jefferson County
:arrow: Aztalan State Park
County Trunk Highway Q
Aztalan, WI
Located on the Crawfish River, just south of the modern village of Aztalan, Aztalan is the premier archeological site in Wisconsin. Between A.D. 1000 and 1200, this large Native American town was home to a group of Missippian people who had migrated from Cahokia in what is now southern Illinois. The Missippians built earthen platform mounds and fortified the site with a huge timber and clay wall.
Beginning in the 1920s, the site was extensively excavated, and tow of the four platform mounds as well as segments of the wall have been reconstructed. To the northeast of Aztalan is a line of large conical mounds that mark the locations of ceremonial posts as well as the burial of a young woman who apparently was a member of the Missippian elite.
Panther Intaglio
State Highway 106
Fort Atkinson, WI
(THIS IS A VERY RARE MOUND, ONLY A COUPLE HAVE WITHSTOOD THE TEST OF TIME WORLDWIDE.)
Just west of downtown Fort Atkinson, along the northern side of the Rock River, is the last remaining intaglio in Wisconsin. It was discovered by Increase A. Lapham in 1850 and is one of only about a dozen intaglios recorded in the state. It was once part of a large effigy mound group that was destroyed by residential development. The 125-foot intaglio is a scooped-out area in the form of a water spirit or panther about two feet deep. The excavation of this reverse image of a panther mound may be related to the fact that such water spirits were believed to originate in a watery realm below the surface of the earth. In 1919, the Fort Atkinson chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution leased the land to preserve the intaglio. My family saw this one a few years ago when the SW Wisconsin was really flooded, the puma showed up perfectly because the basin was partially filled with water. :wink:
Linear Mode
