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A fragmentary mammothtusk, about thirty

inches long, found inGrant County

The PREHISTORYof the RED RIVER VALLEYE LD E N J O H N S O N

THE HISTORY of man in the Red RiverValley precedes the arrival of homesteaders,modern agriculture, towns, and cities bysome ten thousand years. American Indianshave lived in and adjacent to the valley forall of this immense period, leaving behindan archaelogical record which documentstheff cultural adaptations and changesthrough time. Because archaeological research is recent and the hundreds of habitation sites and burial places have been onlysampled scientifically, the record is stillsketchy and incomplete. The main trendsof these prehistoric cultures can be seen,how ever, and a re outlined in this brief pap er.Much of our knowledge of the prehistoricMR. JOHNSON is associatc professor of anthropology in the University of M innesota. He has

archaeology of the valley comes from thework of Theodore H. Lewis who surveyedmany buria l mound groups for the Minnesota Historical Society in the late nineteenthcentury. More comes from the work of Professors Albert E. Jenks and Lloyd A. Wilfordof the University of Minnesota who have excavated sites in the area.^ Most recently, a

' The resul ts of Lewis ' work in the Red RiverV al ley may be found in N ew ton H . Winche l l , ed..The Aborigines of Minnesota, 3 0 0 - 3 2 2 , 3 5 8 - 3 6 3(St . Paul , 1911) . See a lso Theodore H. Lewis ,"Mounds on the Red River of the Nor th ," in American Antiquarian, 8:369-371 ( N o v e m b e r , 1 8 8 6 ) .Mater ia l on the region is included in numerouswri t ings by both Jenks and Mr. Wifiord. See, forexample, Alber t Ernes t Jenks , "Recent Discover iesin Minnesota Prehis tory ," in Minnesota History,16 : 5 -14 (M a rch , 193 5) ; L loyd A . Wif io rd , "M in nesota . 'Vrchaeology: Current Explorations andConcepts ," in Minnesota Academy of Science, Pro

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three-year program of survey and excavationhas been carried out by the University ofMinnesota under a grant from the Nat ionalScience Foundation. This work was condu cted from 1959 throu gh 1962 by archaeologists from the university's department ofanthropology under the direction of the author. It was possible only with the help ofmany interested valley residents, and ourfindings were enhanced by the co-operationof the North Dakota Historical Society,which permitted us to excavate in North Dakota.^The Red River Valley is a product ofglacial and postglacial action. During thelatter phases of the most recent ice age, the

valley was overlaid by a section of the hugecon tinen tal ice sheet. As the last glacial sheetmelted and i ts margins withdrew to thenortheast, the melt water, seeking its normalnorthern drainage channels , met the edgeof the ice, wh ich blocked its flow. Th e w aterthen ponded against the edge of the glacialsheet, forming a huge lake whose depth wasaccentuated by the weight of adjacent icedepressing the crust of the earth. It established an outlet at La ke Traverse an d flowedsouth through Glacial River Warren, or thevalley of the present Minnesota River. Thisbody of water, known as Glacial Lake Agassiz, existed until about 4000 B.C. when theglacier had finally receded far enough toallow passag e for the normal northerly drainage.^Gravel and sand beaches formed duringthe existence of Glacial Lake Agassiz mark

stages in its history. The lake was not static,for as the ice front slowly receded, easterlyoutlets through Lake of the Woods and theborder lake chain were formed, reducing theexpanse of melt water and creating newbeaches w hich mark t he progressively smaller lake areas. These beaches are known bythe names of nearby towns. The Herman isthe highest and marks the lake's greatest extent . The Norcross , Tintah, and Campbel lbeaches represent successive levels reachedwhile the waters of the lake poured out to

as the McCauleyville, Blanchard, and Gladstone beaches, formed during th e final stagesof the lake's existence, when the watersdrained to the east and north.*At its maximum the lake extended overmuch of south-centra l Canada so that thesouthern tongue lying within the UnitedStates portion of the Red River Valley isonly a small part of the total. By arbitrarilyrestricting this discussion to th e region southof the international border we exclude manyimportant archaeological complexes described by Canadian scholars.^EVIDENCE for the earl iest inhabi tants ofthe region is obscure. The find which may

For a repor t on the prehminary survey of s i tesin the val ley , conducted in 1959, see Elden Johnson and G. E. Evans , "An Archeological Survey ofthe Glacial Lake Agass iz Bas in ," a paper on f i le inthe of f ice of the depar tment of anthropology. Univers i ty of Mirmesota , Minneapol is .^The most complete d iscuss ion of Glacial LakeAgassiz and the formation of its beaches is inW a r r e n U p h a m , The Glacial Lake Agassiz {UnitedStates Depar tment of the In ter ior , Geological Survey, Monographs Vol. 25 W a s h i n g t o n , 1 8 9 6 ) .For more recen t inves t igat ions see Fra nk Lev eret tand F reder ick W. S ardes on , Quaternary Geology ofMinnesota and Parts of Adjacent States, 1 1 9 - 1 4 0(United States Depar tment of the In ter ior , Geological Survey, Professional Papers N o. 16 1 Was h ing ton , l932 ) ; J ohn A . E l s on , "Lake A gas s izand the M anka to -V a lder s P rob lem," in Science,1 2 6 : 9 9 9 - 1 0 0 3 ( N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 1 9 5 7 ) .* Modern s tudies reveal the lake ' s s tory to be acomplex one. Geologis ts have tentat ively reconstruc ted it as follows: After th e form ation of th eTin tah beach an eas te rn ou t l e t w as opened , on lyto be c losed again by a re la t ively shor t - l ived g lac ia l advance du r ing the Campbe l l beach pe r iod ,w hen the l ake once more d ra ined to the s ou th .

Fol lowing th is another eas tern out le t was formedth rough w h ich the l ake d ra ined comple te ly . I t s bedremained d ry fo r an inde te rmina te pe r iod , w hen anew advance o f the i ce s hee t p roduced more mel twater and formed so-cal led Lake Agass iz I I , somew here a round 6000 B.C. This second lake drainedto the south until the final retreat of the ice sheetopened out le ts to the eas t and eventual ly to thenor th . I t was dur ing th is las t per iod that the lowerbeac h l ines w ere fo rmed . Leve re t t and S ardes on ,Quaternary Geology of Minnesota, 137 , 139; Elson,in Science, 1 0 0 3 .^ An excel lent d iscuss ion of the prehis tor ic ar

chaeology of th is more nor thern region is RichardS . M acN eis h , An Introduction to the Archaeology ofSoutheast Manitoba {National M u s e u m o f C a n a d a ,

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Ice Sheet

APPROXIMATE area covered hy Lake Agassiz.The po sition of the ice sheet is conjectured.have the greatest antiquity, and whichsome have claimed indicates the presence ofman in the terminal Pleistocene, is the famous Minnesota Man. This skeleton wasaccidentally discovered in the process ofhighway construction near Pelican Rapidsin 1931, but i t was removed and the covering earth disturbed before archaeologistshad examined the site. Thus questions havealways remained as to the importance of thefind. Those who claim a Pleistocene age forthe skeleton point out that i t lay beneath avarved clay lake sediment deposited in thenow extinct Glacial Lake Pelican; that it wasdeeply buried beneath these sediments; andthat if i t had been a later intruded burial,the varved clay would have shown the disturbance made by excavation of a burial pit .Because of the conditions surrounding itsdiscovery, however, there is no conclusiveevidence that the skeleton was not a muchlater intruded burial, accidentally associatedwith a glacial lake sediment. It should benoted that the extreme depth of the skeleton

below the surface would tend to supportthose who argue for an earlier age. Nativeburial pits in cemeteries or burial moundsare seldom found to be deeply intruded intothe earth. *Two artifacts were discovered with the

bones, one an antler object, perforated at thebase, and the other a shell pendant, interesting in that it is a marine or saltwater shell,probably from the Gulf of Mexico and perhaps indicative of trade with peoples to theRED River Valley, showing southern arm ofLalce Agassiz at highest, or Herma n, stage(shaded) and Campbell stage (hatched line).

"For a discussion of this f ind see Albert Ernest

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south.^ Neither artifact is diagnostic tha tis , both are generalized and cannot be compared typologically for purposes of age determination. Shell pendants are commontoward the close of the prepottery Archaicstage, and they also occur in later horizons.

Attempts at radiocarbon dating of thefind have been inconclusive. An early attempt to extract organic carbon from theantler artifact failed because the artifact ishighly mineral ized and did not produce therequi red carbon.^ A later processing of bon efrom the actual skeleton proved equallyfrustrating for two reasons: The skeletonhad been carefuUy cleaned and then treatedwith a coating of shellac in the laboratory.Shellac is an organic substance and bone ishighly porous. As the modern shellac penetra ted the bone, i t contaminated the oldercarbon present. Professor WaUace Armstrong of the University of Minnesota carefully prepared the carbon sample from thebone submitted, after treating the bone toremove the shellac. Much of the contaminating shellac must have been removed, butit is impossible to say how much remainedto alter the subsequent date. The secondreason for lack of acceptance of the radiocarbon date is that the residue carbon testedfel l below the minimum amount requiredby the radiocarbon laboratory for accuracy.The date produced falls within the timeperiod allotted to the Archaic stage, whichextende d from 5000 B.C. (perh aps earlier)until nearly 1000 B.C. Together with theslim typological evidence from the shellpendant, this may indicate that MinnesotaM an is Archaic and not as early as many ha dhoped.

Other archaeological evidence for theearhest inhabitants of the Lake Agassiz region is slight and with one exception consistsof various types of spear points found onthe surface of the ground. The exception isa site in Browns Valley found accidentallywhen crews were removing gravel from apit on the south edge of the town in 1933.William H. Jensen of Browns Valley noticed

on the road in front of his grain elevator.Recognizing the possible importance of thisfinely made point, Jensen went to the gravelpit on the south edge of the town in 1933.Wilham H. Jensen of Browns Valley noticeda projective point in a load of gravel spreada human buria l and associa ted with i t wereother points and knives of the same fineworkmanship. Fortunate ly Jensen real izedthe importance of documenting this findand pho tograph ed th e buria l in place beforeit was completely removed. He also notifiedProfessor Jenks and allowed the Universityof Minnesota to study both the points andthe skeleton.^

The Browns VaUey site is important, forthe burial pit was intruded into a gravel barla id down during the Tintah beach s tageof Lake Agassiz. Because the pit fill appeared to contain li t t le humus and becausethe earth over the pit seemed to have beenundisturbed, i t is felt that the burial wasintruded into the gravel after the outletchannel which drained the lake during itsTintah stage had ceased to be active butbefore there had been much soil accumulation on the gravel bar. As we have no wayof determining the rate of soil accumulationon such a surface, we do not know theelapsed time involved, and because therehas been no radiocarbon age determinationfor these remains, we cannot date the siteexactly.

While there are no exact typologicalequivalents for the Browns Valley pointsand knives, they are hke others which havebeen found on the Plains and grouped into abroad category called parallel flaked points.These are the most recent in a sequence ofprojectile points associated with a big-game-hunt ing Paleo-Indian cul ture which wasfound over the eastern half of the United

' J e n k s , Pleistocene Man in Minnesota, 1 6 4 - 1 6 6 ." Lloyd A. Wilford, "A Revised Classification ofthe Prehis tor ic Cul tures of Minnesota ," in American Antiquity, 2 1 : 1 3 0 ( O c t o b e r , 1 9 5 5 ) ."A lber t Ernes t J enks , Minnesota's Browns Valley Man and Associated Burial Artifacts, 6 - 1 1

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BROWNS Valleypoint (top)and two Folsom

fluted points.

States between 12000 and 2000 B.C. (perhaps beginning much earher) . The BrownsValley burial probably dates from about6000 B.C., but another site with datable materials is needed before th e age can be statedwith any certainty.'^'^OTHER Paleo-Indian sffes in the LakeAgassiz basin have not yet been discovered,although characteristic projectile points appear in some of the region's private collections. Early sites rarely can be located bynoting surface conditions. Generally theyare deeply buried, and it is only throughaccidents, such as those which resulted inthe M innesota M an and B rowns Valley finds,that we actually see such a site in place.Unfortunately also, these sites are not always reported, which means that their scientific va lue is lost.

" S e e J enks , Browns Valley Man, 3 3 - 4 6 ; L l o y dA . Wi l fo rd , "The F i r s t M innes o tans , " in Law rence

In studying the points in private collections, others of Paleo-Indian origin havebeen noted, and in some cases the collectorhas had accurate knowledge of the locationof his find at least the township, and occasionally the exact section and even quartersection. It is not necessary to list all thesefinds and their possible significance, butone important earlier type should be noted.

This is the kind known technically as Folsom fluted and documented in actual siteselsewhere on the Plains. Folsom points havebeen dated between 8000 and 6000 B.C.Several private Northwest collections contain examples. Their distribution is interesting, for although they occur with greatestfrequency in North Dakota along the JamesRiver and on the upper Sheyenne, they havealso been found in the Sheyenne delta ofLake Agassiz. This sandy, dunelike areaeast of Lisbon, North Dakota, was formedas the Sheyenne discharged sediment-ladenwaters into Lake Agassiz, building up a

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A four-incli copper spearpoint in the museum ofthe Grant County HistoricalSociety at Elbow Lake

bison were hunted in this region after themaximum or Herman lake s tage, but probably while the diminishing Lake Agassiz IIwas in existence. Although Folsom flutedpoints have also been found on the surfacein southern and central Minnesota, nonehave been noted in the areas along the eastern shore of Lake Agassiz.^^Early cultural developments reflected inarchaeological sites distributed along theeastern margins of Lake Agassiz seem to beassociated with a second prepottery culturalstage called the Eastern Archaic. This ischaracterized by the presence of ground andpolished as well as chipped stone work andby local adaptations to specific environmental situations. The projectile points, unlikethe Paleo-Indian points, tend to be variable in form and are usually stemmed andnotched.^-

The earliest phases of this stage are vague,but several habitation or camp sites havebeen located and some have been excavated.As with the earlier Paleo-Indian culture,burial sites are difficult to locate fromthe surface. Our archaeological survey ofthe Lake Agassiz basin in the summer of1959 revealed many instances of gravel operations, particularly along the Campbellbeaches, where pit burials had been foundand removed, but unfortunate ly documentation of these sites at the time of theirdiscovery did not take place, and our information consists of after-the-fact reports,sometimes fil tered through rather hazymemories .

One interesting aspect of this region'sArchaic culture is the frequent occurrenceof large copper spear points made of rela

the CampbeU beach near Fertfle, consistedof a flexed primary burial in a circular pitexcavated into the gravel beach. With theskeleton were found two large tanged copper spear points.Though there is a tendency for accidentalfinds of copper to occur in the vicinity of

the Campbel l beaches, this probably doesnot mea n th at the A rchaic complex is associated with the Campbell stage of the lake.Instead it probably indicates that a naturalgravel ridge was a preferred burial zone.This fact, combined with the numerous modern gravel excavations along the Campbell ,would account for the frequency of finds.Carefully documented private collectionscontain similar copper points and other arti

facts from areas well within the Red RiverValley proper. One collection from Crookston includes several copper artifacts foundin a cultivated field west of the town, andfairly close to the present Red River. Thiswould indicate that the copper is post-LakeAgassiz, and if the radiocarbon dates forsimilar copper sites in Wisconsin are accurate, Lake Agassiz had ceased to exist, atleast in this southern area, sometime beforethe period of 5000 to 3000 B.C."An Archaic site of importance, not yetfully studied, was found a few miles southof Roseau on the banks of the Roseau River.

^ See George A. F laskerd , "Some Folsom andY uma Type P o in t s f rom M innes o ta , " in MinnesotaArchaeologist, 11:32 (A pr i l , 1945) .^ See Wif iord , in Minnesota Heritage, 4 6 ." For a d iscuss ion of the Archaic copper cul tureof the Upper Great Lakes area , see George I .Q u i m b y , Indian Life in the Upper G reat Lakes(Ch icago , 1960) ." S ee War ren L . Wi t t ry and Rober t E . R i t zen

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Excavations b egu n in Aug ust, 1960, revealedthat though apparently lacking copper, i tis characterized by a series of concave-basedprojectile points. It seems to have been acamping area for hunters, as considerablebroken and charred animal bone is foundthroug hout th e s ite .The Archaic stage is of particular importance, for it is very poorly defined in Minnesota, and the Agassiz basin offers a goodopportuni ty to understand i t in greater detail. The region is important also, for itseems probable that the postglacial valleyitseff has always been praffie. In addition,large areas east of the lake margins whichare now wooded may have been prairie formuch of the time period in which the Archaic cul ture developed. Understanding therelationship of these cultures to such ecological factors is one of the major goals in thestudy of the region's archaeology.

WOODLAND cul ture , which fo l lowed theArchaic in this area, differs in that both themaking of pottery and the burial of the deadin artificial earth mounds were added tothe inventory of culture. Careful surveyindicates few locations within the presentvalley where peoples of the Woodland culture mainta ined permanent abodes, thoughmany thin, scattered camp sites exist . Thelarger Woodland habitation sites are foundalong the margins of the valley in themoraine and lake country to the east, andin the small river valleys to the west. Burialmounds are numerous, however, and themajority are situated on the surface of theraised gravel beaches which were laid downmuch earlier.

Though no buria l mound radiocarbondates have yet been obtained from the region, i t seems probable that this methodof interment spans a two-thousand year period ending sometime in the very early historic era, with the last of the Sioux moundburials. Many of the Red River mounds

'"'For a discussion of the Arvilla complex, see

have been excavated and they show considerable variation in burial mode throughtime. Air. Wilford defined an archaeologicalcomplex called the Arvilla on the basis ofexcavations in the 1930s, and in our recentwork addition al Arvilla burials w ere en-countered.i^ Although the ArviUa complexis in the process of revision for it is tooinclusive and contains complexes irorq' different time horizons the Haarstad buria lmo und near New F olden excavated in 1961,would seem to fall within this category.Like most Arvilla mounds, this one isbarely discernible. It is long, low, and hnearinstead of the usual cffcular, hemispherical

form. Built directly on one of the Campbellstrand-line beaches, and in a field cultivatedfor many years, the mound itself was visibleonly to one expecting to find it. The fillrose only about six inches above the surfaceof the beach, and its 250-foot length made itappear to be a natural feature.Excavation of this long mound revealedtwo burial pits below the mound fil l andexcavated deeply into the underlying Camp

bell gravel. One pit , whose base was ninefeet below the surface, had been previouslydisturbed by amateur excavations and contained no burial or mortuary offerings.The second, slightly smaller pit containedthe skull and larger bones of the extremitiesof a single human, and associated with theburial were a number of personal belongings. Bone needles, a bone awl, a necklaceof perforated eagle talons, another of shells

from tiny snails, a piece of red ocher, a lumpof green clay, and a single clam shell pendant were clustered near the skull, as if theyhad been in a bag or container placed withthe buria l .The mound fill of this and other ArviUasites contains no cultural evidence. That

is , there are no pottery sherds, projectilepoints, stone fragments or other debris. Occasionally an Arvilla mound will contain oneor several burials in the upper fill, but without exception these are intrusive burials

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noa'g'-fiA-

Si^lfj^^S.^J'ife.^S'lfcJ.^ ^ t

Th e original m oun d of this type excavatedby Mr. Wilford near Arvilla, North Dakota,show ed some of the characteristics described in the Haarstad site. It was also alinear mound built on a gravel beach andburials were in large subsurface pits. Theburial method differed, however, in that theskeletons were found in a sitting positionwith legs drawn up and knees under thechin. One burial was particularly interesting, for i t had two large crescent-shapedsheet copper ornaments over the chest. TheArviUa burial pits were very deep and penetrated through the gravel to a pure whitesand subsoil . In excavating, the pit outhneswere not visible at the top of the subsoil,and it was only after several levels of thewhite sand had been removed that theburials were exposed. AN EXAMPLE of the most recent formof burial mound in the valley was excavatedat Crookston in 1960. This circular moundon the banks of the Red Lake River hadbeen surveyed by Lewis in 1880. His mapof the mound shows it as circular and nearlyseven feet high and approximately 120 feetin diameter at that time.^^ When the moundwas excavated in 1960 it had been cultivated

AN Arvilla complex burialexcavated in MarsfmllCoun ty. Scale is shown byone-inch stripes on stake.

have located the mound. Its surface contours had disappeared.Excavation showed a single intrusivesecondary burial in the mound fil l at oneextreme edge. This grave contained no artifacts. The original burials were again inpits excavated into the tough clay subsoil

The centra l mound pi t was oval shaped andcontained a mass secondary burial consisting of skulls and larger extremity bones ofsixteen individuals. The base of the pit hadbeen covered with a layer of red ocher ashad several of the skulls. No grave goodswere found. Surrounding this pit was aseries of smaller ones spaced at an equadistance from the center. Each of the smalpits, with one exception, contained a singlesecondary burial. The exception proved tobe the primary buria l of an adul t badgerAll were without grave goods, though atubular copper bead was found in the upperfill of one pit. Several of the smaller pitshad rock cairns above them, and the largecentra l pi t had the charred wood and charcoal remains of a fire that had been builtever the top after the burials had beenplaced and the pit filled in.

" See Mr. Wilford's f ield notes, on file in the

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The traits found in this burial mound,consisting of pr imar y bu rials in shallow p its,no grave goods, use of red ocher, primaryburial of an animal, rock cairns, and firesbuilt over the site, conform to the typicalKathio focus burials found quite commonlyin central Minnesota. These burials are attributed to the late prehistoric Sioux whosedescendants practiced a primary exposedtree or scaffold burial in histoiic times.i**

Other mound groups of the late prehistoric period are seen at the southern end ofthe valley, and are concentrated along thehigh bluffs overlooking Traverse and BigStone lakes. Some of these mounds are associated with the Cambria focus, which ischaracterized by large permanent villages,ma ize farming, globular, smooth-surfacedpottery, and burials which are primary andextended on the mound floor. The Cambriamounds are circular and conical, and someare flat topped. ^ Peoples of the Cambriafocus account for the only sizeable habitation sites on the valley itself during the lateprehistoric period. Our recent surveys disclosed that they occupied the Strader sitenear Wheaton and the viUage site near FortAbercrombie , North Dakota . These farmingpeoples moved north from the MinnesotaRiver and Big Stone Lake and settled alongthe Red River and some tributaries wheret imbered bot tom lands could be cut and

'"For a description of the Kathio focus see Wilford, in American Antiquity, 135; in MinnesotaHeritage, 6 1 ." For a more complete descr ip t ion of the Cambria focus see Wilford, in American Antiquity, 138 ;in Minnesota Heritage, 56 . Cambr ia bu r ia l p r ac t i cesare descr ibed in Elden Johnson, "Cambria Bur ia lMounds in Big S tone County ," in Minnesota Archaeologist, 2 3 : 5 3 - 8 1 ( J u l y , 1 9 6 1 ) .^For character is t ics of the Blackduck focus sesWilford, in American Antiquity, 136; in MinnesotaHeritage, 6 1 .

T H E D RA W IN G S on pages 157 and 162 a re byJ e remy G . We ls h . Th e pho tog raph on page 161w as t aken by Eugene D . Becker , and the one opposite is from the files of the department of anthropology. Univers i ty of Minnesota . The maps ar ;bas ed on U pham Lake Agassiz, plate ix ; and

burned to provide sui table garden plots .Having a hoe technology, they could notcope with prairie grasslands, and it was notuntil white settlers arrived with plows anddraft animals that the rich Lake Agassizlake bed began to reach its full economicpotential .Other habitation and camp sites in thevalley during the Woodland stage tend tobe quite small and scattered. A small Blackduck focus site on the Snake River west ofWarren is typical in that i t provided a thindeposit of camp lit ter including broken pottery, fl int and chert implements, and a quantity of bison bone.-" This was probably ahunt ing camp where people s tayed temporarily while on the prairies in search ofbison. Slain animals were apparently butchered here and the meat then taken backto a larger village found farther east in thespruce and lake country.

Valley mounds normally show good preservation of bone, probably due to the quantities of limestone in the soil. Those in partsof Minnesota where the soils are acid areoften completely devoid of skeletal material.Many mounds in the valley and elsewherein the state are badly disturbed by rodentburrows, although next to man, the mostserious violator of mounds is the badger.Th e soft m ou nd fill and in western pitburial moimds, the deep pits themselves are apparent ly ideal badger homes. The human skeletal material is frequently chewed,broken, and scattered by these powerful animals. Excavations of mounds by casual collectors or by people who are just curious isperhaps the major destructive force. ThoughgeneraUy well meaning, these people unfortunately destroy scientific evidence, for abadly disturbed mound asks more questionsthan it answers.

The story outlined here is only the barestsketch of the rich prehistory of the RedRiver Valley. As archaeological work continues, greater detail will appear and thesignificance of this area bordering bothprairie and timber, plains and lake country,

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