Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1901)
Conservative * 11 up the south branch four miles and down the main stream three miles. 1 'The branches mentioned unite their waters in forming the main stream near the city of Alma , where our explorations commenced. "The distance traveled within the limits mentioned was over two hundred miles , and the results amply repaid us for the efforts expended. "Over that portion of Mill creek valley covered by our explorations , within the limits of nearly every mile of distance , the flint ohippings and the completed points of the ancient implement maker , indicated a certain and somewhat ex tended prehistoric occupancy of the en tire locality examined. "The time of year , however , on ac count of'growing vegetation , was un favorable for successful work , but , over the surface explored , it can be safely stated , no such abundance of chipped flint implements exists as has been described as obtainable on the Briggs farm , in Geary county , by Mr. Brewer , in his book , 'The Missouri River. ' "Observations over u traversed dis tance of one hundred and fifty miles , up the creek , on both sides of the stream and its branches , brought to our notice about two hundred pieces of broken flint implements and one hundred perfect flint points , spears , knives and other forms , to be described hereafter. " Here follows a detailed description of implements found. Many mounds were opened ; and , while the description of each is interesting , but one quotation must suffice for this article : "All the mounds , except the two on section 25 , were alike in construction , having bases about twenty-five feet in diameter and two feet in height. They were constructed of limestones weigh ing from one to fifteen pounds , covered over with loam. Fully one-half of the material is limestone rock , as described , a portion of which indicates the action of fire. No calcined human remains were noticed among the considerable quantities exhumed. " The following refers to the potteiy found here , which is generally absent in this part of the field. However , there are localities in the Kansas field , which wo shall treat in the future , where pot tery is abundant. ' 'During the continu ance of the explorations described , at several points along Mill creek , pot- shards wore noticed and gathered , usually made of clay , pounded stone and sand. " Mr. Brewer makes mention in his 'Quivera , " page 44 , of a pink or flesh- colored flint being found here ; similar in every respect to the specimen found at the Roca ( Nebraska ) site and des cribed in THE CONSERVATIVE of Feb. 14. "Mr. Keagy has also found an oc casional chipped knife or other imple ment , made from a flesh-colored flint , foreign in its nature to the chert de posits in place near the village sites on the upper waters of Mill creek. " This ' is not at all a curious coincidence , as it proves that the pre-historio peoples of TC this region had communication with each other and that this trail was used by the same tribes which inhabited the Roca site. This forms a strong addition al link in the chain of evidence proving that the old Santa Fe trail was a fre quent route of travel in prehistoric times. During Mr. Brewer's last trip in 1898 , it seems that many points of evidence were more carefully noted. On March 17 , 1898 , Mr. Brewer started at a point near the Arkansas river known as Paw nee Rock and traversed the whole dis tance to the Elliott village site near Manhattan , a distance of over one hun dred and thirty miles in a direct line north-east. He became fully convinced that this route , known as the old Santa Fe trail , was a prehistoric route from what is now New Mexico ( then , prob ably the Zuni cities , now in ruins ) to the group of Indian villages discovered by Ooronado in 1541. He traversed this distance on foot and by team carefully exploring every part of it and fully proving every step as ho proceeded. According to the ancient accounts loft in manuscript by Coronado - ado and Jaramillo , who wore over the route , and Castaneda , who wrote this part of the Corouado expedition at second end hand or from heresay , wo can but believe that the route was traversed by Corouado in 1541 , while ho was being guided by Ysopeto to the permanent settlements of the people they met near what is now Pawnee Rook. At the risk of proving tedious I wish to elaborate some points barely touched upon by Judge Keagy in his admirable article. It will bo noticed in following Corouado in his march across the plains from what is now New Mexico , that while the army was under the guidance of the "Turk" the chronicler says they bore too much toward Florida , and so had gone much farther east than was necessary to reach the province of Quivera , so "guarded by the needle , " they bore due north until they came to the river which they called Saints Peter and Paul. This river , Ysopete , the other Indian guide , recognized. Cross ing this river , they went , as the chron icler says , up , but , as Judge Keagy re marks , he meant down. As you will note the top of a map being north , it is a very plausable error on the part of the writer to think of the country as a map rather than to think of the course of the stream. One must take these Span iards as they mean and not always as they say. In another place the writer ( Jaramillo ) says they followed the course of the river ; this doubtless means their course was the same as the river's course , or that they were going down stream. At least there is no stream that can possibly answer the requirements of the manuscripts except the Arkansas ; there is no doubt , after all the sources of information have been exhaustively handled , but what Coronado crossed the Arkansas at a point where its current flowed north-east , and that they fol i ; lowed the north bank in that direction. That a native of these settlements should guide the army over the well- known trail between his native country and the country of his captivity is not a violent presumption and the account of Jaramillo says that Ysopete recognized the river ( Saints Peter and Paul as Cor ouado named it , or the Arkansas , as less ecclesiastical mortals persist in colling it ) and could communicate with the natives ho mot here. It is not a great stretch of imagination to believe that the route traveled by Coronado after ho crossed the river , was a well-known ancient trail ; but Mr. Brewer has added positive proof to probability. He notes a line of ancient village sites throughout the whole route and so pronounced are these evidences that ho was able to es tablish the very point at which this route made a branch , or was joined by another , near MoPhersou , Kansas ; one coming from north-east toward Man hattan and one coming from more nearly east , toward Cottonwood river. Assum ing that the former was traversed by Corouado , ho proceeded to trace this one to the group of village of which the Elliott site is an important center. As ho came near Paint creek in his journey of investigation , the view of the "Smoky Hills" in the distance was enough to convince the most sceptical that these are the mountains referred to by Coron ado in his letter to the king in 1541. The fact that this trail leads into a country that abounds in beds of chert , used so extensively by the aborigines for arms of warfare , as well as implements of agri culture and domestic economy is in itself an evidence that Coronado followed it , as he makes frequent mention of these same implements of flint , of which Mr. Brewer has 26,000 in his collection. The natural relief of the country shows that this is an easy route and these aborigines were governed , as are their more recent brethren ; they , like the great transcontinental railway , would naturally go along the lines of the least resistance. Mr. Brewer arrives at the conclusion that at least three and possibly four races of people had successively inhabi ted this field ; he noted the difference in the general locations of the sites , a simi lar difference to the one noted here in Nebraska , that the ancient aborigines occupied high ground with their villages the second terrace , as italicised above. The great number of village sites dis covered in the field would naturally lead one to think that Coronado's "not above twenty-five villages in all" placed the number too small by far ; but if we divide the number of village sites by the number of different races which Mr. Brewer thinks have inhabited this region , we may give Coronado credit for