Take a walk and discover the past

Many readers like to hunt and/or fish, and lots more do neither, but like to be outside and enjoy the countryside with their families getting exercise and fresh air. Hiking is good, as is camping and similar sports, but one activity that costs nothing and can produce exciting moments is hunting for Indian relics. All that’s needed is a field that was plowed last fall, then rained on enough to wash dirt off freshly plowed up relics. Add a four foot or so pole with a bent nail in its end to turn over likely looking stones and bits of flint, and you’re in business.

Any field that you can walk with landowner permission might turn up relics because there were lots of native Americans living in Ohio through the centuries. Even grade school kids have probably heard of the Shawnee, Miami, Delaware, Ottawa and Wyandot tribes, and some readers who like to study history have also heard of the Erie, Seneca, Mingo, Chippewa, Iroquois, and Mohawks. But there were any number of other little known tribes that also roamed, hunted, fished and occasional warred on our fertile lands. And I’m betting you never heard of such as the Cauganewaga, Plankeshaw, Wea, Kickapoo, Kaskashia, Miliseet, Kayuga, Munci and plenty more who were here, too.

There were others long before these. The first native Americans in Ohio were Paleolithic people who go clear back to 15,000 BC when the mastodons still roamed this land. Then there were Archaic types who existed back to 8-9,000 years BC, and were the first to use pottery. Next came the Glacial Kame people who buried their dead in the sides of hills or glacial embankments, then the Mound Builders who were farmers as well as hunters and fishermen, and raised squash, corn and beans to supplement their food.

They and their descendants had a technique that allowed them to live in one spot and plant the same land year after year. They buried a fish, then raised a small hill above and planted three corn seeds, one bean seed, and one squash seed in the hill. The corn grew apace feeding on the fish below, the bean grew up the corn stalks, and the squash crawled down the rows between with Indian women using clam shell hoes to keep the weeds down. I tried the tactic in my own garden, and found the three vegetables grew green and healthy, and produced a good crop.

The reason that almost any field will produce relics is that the men hunted in all parts of Ohio, and left relics wherever they went. They hunted woods buffalo, elk, deer, black bear, wolves, cougars and other animals for their meat and fur, and the youngsters of the tribes used their small bows with bird points to supplement the family larder with abundant squirrels and sometimes rabbits, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys and groundhogs. During spring and fall migration times, the skies would blacken with waterfowl which could be taken with arrows and throwing sticks, and huge flocks of passenger pigeons which provided rich eating with little effort.

Not only was the hunting generally good, but fishing was too, and fish hooks could be found at many village sites. The streams and lakes were filled with smallmouth bass, catfish, sheepshead, perch, walleye, muskies and other species and were taken easily with willow weirs, nets made of fiber or rawhide, hooks and spears. You can find relics of the hunts and fishing almost anywhere, but village sites are always best since they provide not only arrowheads and spear points, but burins, scrapers, pipes, drills, mortar and pestles and so on. And the best places to find temporary villages is high ground near a creek or river. Walk such places after gaining landowner permission and look for bits of flint, broken pottery fragments, hammer stones, and similar relics. When you find such, settle down and do some serious looking. Not only will you and your family get exercise and fresh air, but you’ll find bits of history from long ago. Good reasons to try this sport.

Dick Martin is a retired biology teacher who has been writing outdoor columns for 30 years.  You can reach him at richmart@neo.rr.com.