"
The Conservative.
AN ANCIENT BUST.
Unique Specimen of Aboriginal Handi
work.
During the mild days of January ,
1901 , Master Perry Eells , who lives near
the Roca Indian village site , picked up
the specimen of Indian handiwork which
is illustrated here in half-tone.
He informed me some days later that
lie had found "a face cut out of stone , "
and promised to bring it over for my in
spection. Perry is a boy who sees every
curious rook , and living near the quar
ries , which are noted throughout the
state for their rich fossiliferous deposit ,
ho finds many specimens which puzzle
him and frequently he brings them tome
mo to explain ; with the assistance of
the University professors , I satisfy the
boy's curiosity and his interest grows
apace. He did not appreciate the fact
that his find is an important one in
archaeology and two or three weeks
elapsed before he brought the specimen
to me.
In the meantime Hon. J. V. Brewer ,
whose valuable work in the Kansas field
has been mentioned in these papers , was
working out the northern limit of Cor-
onado's Quivera in Kansas. With the
assistance of Judge Keagy of Alma ,
Kansas , we induced him to come to Ne
braska and give us the benefit of his ex
perience and forty years of study in
western archaeology , in identifying this
Roca site.
Some of our readers seem to think we
are visionary in our theory of the Indian
remains in this state , because wo contend
that a race of beings superior to the
present lazy Indian , once roamed these
fertile plains. They seem to think that
the Indian came but little in advance of
the white man , and do not explain when
or how ; but a little thought will con
vince any one that ho must have brought
his customs here or else evolved them
while he lived here and in either case it
took time. Our Indian did not spring ,
mushroom fashion , from these smiling
valleys in one night he came from an
ancestry , who , in turn , sprang from an
ancestry , and the mind grows dizzy in
contemplating where they came from ;
only these little threads of evidence ,
woven carefully into a strong chain of
circumstantial evidence , will ever es
tablish the identity of the ancestors of
the American Indian.
I that "distance lends
am aware en
chantment" and old trappers and scouts
who visited the primitive red man have
not the appreciation of him that has the
student who has never come into actual
contact with a "painted savage , " but
who has studied the archaeology of other
bands and realizes the vast antiquity of
beings in human form. Most of us can
remember when six thousand years was
"in the beginning" now the date line is
pushed back to one hundred thousand
and at the present rate of progress the
day is not far off when it will be as
many more. All these things come into
account in the study of the American
aborigine. If our knowledge of the
Indian is derived wholly from the pre
sent , if our contact with him has been
during the past fifty years only , wo can
form but a narrow conception of his
archieology , and wo know the American
Indian , not as a primitive aborigine , but
as a product evolved by contact with
the whites. This contact may have
been at second hand the specimen
which you have studied , may never have
seen a white man before , but the in
fluence of the white man may still be
very marked and he is really a new
creature so far as ethnology is concerned.
These adverse criticisms made me
anxious to get the opinion of someone
who had a wide experience and estab
lished reputation. Nothing is farther
from my intention than to mislead. I
wish these papers to form a basis of
future study and I wish to chronicle
only that which will bear the closest in
vestigation.
Mr. Brewer came to Roca on March
16 , and we explored the Roca site to
gether. Under date of March 21 , 1901 ,
he wrote me as follows :
"I have entered in my journal a des
cription of the Roca village site , refer
ring to the same , as a general midway
camping-ground , half way between the
waters of the Blue River region , or
divide , and the Platte river. On exam
ination , you will surely find two con
siderable village sites : one near the
mouth of the creek up which the rail
road runs from Blue River to your Roca
region [ Indian creek ] and the other some
where near the mouth of Salt Creek. Both
sites will be found ougroundhigh enough
to avoid freshets and floods , but at places
desirable for water , wood , small corn
fields and shelter. Each site will yield
prehistoric Gwas implements and pot-
shards of Harahey type. I shall not be
surprised if you find six or eight nice
village sites , commencing at Beatrice
and ending at Ashland. That was a
thoroughfare for ancient man. The
identity of the Roca site is beyond any
question whatever , Harahey. "
MY
This statement , coming from such
eminent authority , justifies mo in all I
have written. He informed me , while
here , that the Roca site was occupied
from 800 to 800 years ago. His visit
convinces mo that "the half has not
been told. "
The foregoing taken in connection
with the articles which have appeared
in THE CONSERVATIVE , descriptive of the
Roca site , gives you a fair idea of the
place where this bust was found ; the
identification of the site as Harahey ( or
Pawnee from reasonable deduction as
shown in a prior article ) gives tenable
ground for supposing this bust to be of
Pawnee origin. I consider the artist
did much better than you or I could in
depicting a typical Pawnee.
Copies of the photograph were sent to
many parts of the west , and we have
comments from people who are best
qualified to enlighten us , with reference
to this bust.
The bust is "in the round" and is
about one and a half inches high. It is
made of hematite , which is a kind of
iron ore.
The material is not found in any
quantity nearer than the Black Hills ,
according to Professor Barbour of the
geology department , of the University
of Nebraska. He showed me a piece as
large as a man's head which came from
the Black Hills. The color is near
enough like the bust to be of the same
block , but the specimen of which the
bust is made , is quite hard and is a very
dark purplish-red on the outside , but if
scratched with a knife it is found to be
blood-red at no great depth.
The geological formation is not known
to exist in Nebraska in a pure state ; but
here at the quarries we find a streak of
very soft sandstone which is colored
with hematite. The specimen of which
the bust is made has no sand grains in
it and has every appearance of pipestone ,
until the tests are applied , except color
which is too dark for pipestone. It is
about as hard as well-seasoned pipestone.
The specimen was found on high
ground , nearly a mile from the banks of
Salt Creek. The prairie had never been
broken and many flint-chips may be
found near. It was partly covered with
earth ; only a small corner of the top of
the head was visible and the side was
uppermost ; one side shows deterioration
presumably the * side which was upper
most , but this is uncertain as the sides
are so nearly alike that the boy could
not be certain. The glass reveals a
faint tracing of feathers on the side , not
shown in the view presented , and the
marks around the eye are nearly oblitera
ted , but the dot made for the eye-centre
is plain.
The indentation , shown in the side of
the head , as though the sculptor had in
tended to make a hole that it might be
suspended as a charmleads one naturally
to conclude that this bust was made for