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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1902)
The Conservative * 9 homa , came back in 1898and searched on this very hill for the grave of his sister , where his mother told him she was buried , ' ' when the Pawnees lived on this hill. " Ho was evidently wrong , as Judge Hudson , of Colum- bus , told me that ho passed over this ground many -times in the early 40's au the ruins looked as ancient then as they do now. I speak of this to show you the conflicting - flicting testimony with which one has to contend in this connection. If wo are to take the form , size and general mode of structure in the village , which we know the Pawnees built , as a criterion , I am quite sure the Pawnees had something - thing to do with the building of the Wright site. Thisisuotasafopremico , however , so wo * can only say with a certainty that the manner of building was similar to the Pawnee mo o of construction. None of the early travelers mention this as an inhabited village , so far as my reading has yet shown ; many of them speak of this territory as "Pawt nee country , ' ' but the location is not specifically mentioned anywhere that I have been able to find. So may we not safely assume that it at least an ti-dates the white traveler ? A careful tracing of the Pawnee tribe proper , or the Chou-i , the Kit- ke-hahk-i and the Pita-hau-erat bands leads ono to believe that they never lived so far west , but the Skidi baud was found further west ( on Horse Creek , west of Fullortouby ) Elsworth , in 1882. Elsworth followed up the Platte river that year on a trip to make treaties with the Indians , and , if so large a village existed so near his route , would he not have been likely to at least mention it ? Howqver , he found the Skidi baud farther west , but wo know that these same Skidis came form the south , so it is possible that they occupied the Wright site on their way up the Loup in an early day. That it was occupied before contact with the whites is quite evi dent , as no iron has been found and not a single article shows contact ex cept a small piece of substance that has every appearance of bone or ivory I ) . which came up on a small auger with which I was prospecting ; it was ten feet under ground and found in black ' * earth which was mixed with charcoal and ashes ; I had passed through five feet of yellow olay before I cumo to the ashes. This bit of bone is about an inch long and a quarter wide ; it is a part of a circular piece , or moro properly a ring ; it seems to bo ou- graved too accurately for hand work , but the piece is so small that it js hard to determine , and it may bo only a piece of a tooth with natural tracing on it. Wo hope to open the cache next summer and will know moro about it then. Copper is not common in the state , a md when I found a copper bracelet on t ihis site , I thought it proved contact with the whites , but upon careful ex- a imination it was found to bo beaten o mt of native copper and had never t jeen through a mill , as can bo seen l iy the uneven edges. ' A number of c : opper bangles wore found and one rery fine knife , showing an uneven t : hickness as if beaten out by hand ; t ; his kuifo is two inches long and nearly an inch wide. The pottery found hero is not the s same as that found on the Kocasite , , , but is better preserved and more elab orately ornamented. The handles are a different design in general. No fabric f impressions are to be found ex cept a very few found near the more ancient lodge circles. The difference j in the pottery first drew my attention to { the difference in age shown on the t site. To the north of the village site are steep bluffs and at their base runs the Beaver ] creek ; these bluffs are so steep t that a horse can scarcely climb them j ; they formed a good barrier to the \ north , while at the south side of the j village still may be traced a trench and the bank of earth which came out of , it , reaching from one draw to the other < ; the draws are deeply worn and the banks are scarcely less than on the north , so the east and west are both protected , as is the north , by steep bluffs ; the south was evidently pro tected by a ditch and bank , and the site was admirably situated from a military point of view. The ditch is sixty yards long , and this part of the sitn covers over ten acres. Many of the lodge circles are sixty feet across ; they are very plainly defined , as the laud was first broken a year ago. They show that the lodges were built on top of the ground , not dug down as so many are. The fire place ( when it can be found at all ) is at the surface. The depressions are three feet deep in some instances , or more properly , the circular ridges are three feet high. There arc also a few "mound houses" found here , of which I shall have occasion to speak when I describe another site , not far away. On the next ridge to the east is the place of sepulchre , five acres com pletely covered with graves ; it was here that the Pawnee boy thought he found the grave of his sister , but the Pawnees never buried hero but on low ground near their village. The graves are plowed up every spring. The bones plowed out on this hill are very much decayed , where graves were opened in an early day ( in the GO's ) the bones wore entirely decayed in some instances , I am informed. The most important point by which wo will bo able to identify the people who lived hero , if at all , is the class of chipped flints found scattered over the entire country as far as I have ex plored in the vicinity. The material is a brown jasper in the best speci mens and grades down to a light yel low color and a softer quality of stone. Some specimens have a chalky appearance and look as if they may be changed by the weather. I am not sure about the place from which this brown material came , as I have not seen any of it in the quarry , but par ties living in Franklin county told mo "t is found there and I hear of a quarry u the Niobrara river also. The chipping is much finer , the im plements much more artistic and the 'orms ' much different than any I have rot described , in detail. The 'Scraper. " is g'reatly in evidence in ; his locality. This is a blunt instru ment which is flat or concave on one side and chipped to resemble a thumb on the other it was used to dress hides by being fastened in the end of a piece of elk horn. This elk horn was a tri angular piece with a handle about ten inciies long and the part to which the scraper was attached was about five inches long ; this made a sort of hoe with a flint edge and must have been quite effective. We are enabled to give such an accurate description because - cause we have found them with the flints inserted , and the recent Indians used the same tool with a piece of iron in place of the flint. A great quantity of thesesorapors _ has been gathered on the \vright site. Large implements are numerous ; one is unique ; it is about four inches long and over two wide ; it looks like a knife that has one edge longer than the other , which gives it the appear ance of an apple leaf when one-half has grown larger than the other. Its use is , a mystery ; it would make a very effective corn knife if fitted with a handle. The large implements found along the Platte and its tribu taries are to bo studied carefully , as they form a class not common. Hero is where Nebraska excels , and I hope to see the day when wo will know more of these massive flints. One was found near Fullertou that measures twenty-three inches in length , which I have mentioned before. When wo know the use of this huge implement , we can better tell what the smaller ones were used for. A number of very small "war points" were found. These are not over an inch long and many are half that length. They have no notches in the side , but were fastened loosely in the split end of the arrow shaft , so that upon pulling out the shaft the point would be left in the wound. These little bits of flint are chipped so skillfully and made so sharp that one must conclude that much pains was taken in their manufacture. Another small point is also quite common ; these are called "bird poirits"by our eminent archaeologists , and are scarcely larger than the war points ; they have notches cut in the sides , sometimes two pairs of them , and some have been found in the east with three pair of notches. The notches were to fasten them securely to the shaft so that they could bo pulled out and used again in hunting. Good authorities say that these small bird points were used in killing buffalo as well. My space limit for this article is reached , but I have so much more to tell that I shall devote seine more space to it next time. E. E. BLAOKMAN.