Barron County, Wisconsin - Chapter 3: The Aborigines, 1922

The first residents of Barron county who have left definite evidence of their occupancy are the Mound Builders. The county contains about 250 mounds, more than the number occurring in any region of similar size in northwestern Wisconsin. The Lake Chetek region, especially, was a favorite resort of these Aborigines, as were the Prairie Lake and Rice Lake regions. The region around all these lakes was formerly covered with a dense forest of pine and other timber. Fish and game were abundant and large fields of wild rice grew in all of them.

At one time it was believed that the Mound Builders were a separate race of people living here before the Indians. Scholars now believe that they were Indians, differing in no important ways save in their mound building propensities from the Indians whom the whites found inhabiting portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Tradition would indicate that some time before the discovery of America by Columbus, the Siouan peoples, to which branch belong both the Winnebago and the Dakota, were inhabiting the region about the sources of the Ohio river. Pressed upon by neighboring Algonquin peoples they slowly progressed along the Ohio valley, leaving great earthworks as they advanced. In the course of several centuries they reached the Ohio's mouth, and there divided, one branch passing northward along the Mississippi and gradually separating into many tribes, that located chiefly west of the great river. One branch penetrated the Rock Valley in Wisconsin and gradually spread toward Green Bay, becoming the Winnebagoes. Another branch established itself at Mille Lacs in northern Minnesota, and became the Medewakaton branch of the Dakotas, or as they are commonly called, the Sioux.

Along their way they built mounds. There are many varieties of mounds, probably built at different periods. Some scholars believe that the Siouan peoples were in the upper Mississippi valley previous to their occupancy of the Ohio region, and that the migration from the Ohio region to the upper Mississippi region was merely a return to land formerly occupied. Thus far it has been impossible to separate the different type of mounds into different periods.

It is the generally accepted belief among scholars that the mounds of Barron county were built by the immediate ancestors of the Dakota (Sioux) found in the upper Mississippi region by the early explorers, but thus far there is no definite proof. Indian tradition indicates that the Dakota once occupied the region south of western Lake Superior.

The first scientific examination of the mounds of Barron county was made in 1890 for Prof. Cyrus Thomas' report in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethology. The portion of this survey in Barron county concerned the Rice Lake region.

The collection of archeological data in the Chetek region was begun by J. A. H. Johnson, former county sheriff, and now county surveyor, in 1912. In August, of that year, Charles E. Brown and Robert H. Becker, of the Wis¬ consin Archeological Society, accompanied by H. A. Kirchner of Milwaukee, visited Chetek, and with Mr. Johnson's assistance, undertook the making of plats and surveys of the mound groups located by him. A. T. Newman, of Bloomer, also a member of the society, later joined the party, and with him a visit was made to a pipestone quarry, located in section 3, Sumner town¬ ship.

On the shores of the Chetek lakes, thirteen mound locations have been reported to the Wisconsin Archeological Society, containing 152 mounds.

Of these, the greater number, 122, were situated on the shores of Lake Chetek. Twenty-nine were found on the shores of Prairie lake and a single mound on Lake Pokegema. In the two Chetek river groups there are 14 mounds.

The total number of such earthworks about Rice Lake (not including the two groups recorded by J. D. Middleton from section 21, and of which the Wisconsin Archeological Society has no count) is 67. The total number of mounds in the entire Chetek-Rice Lake region covered by the survey, 233, is probably greater than that of those occurring in any region of similar size in northwestern Wisconsin.

It will be noted that with few exceptions all of the Indian mounds of this region are conical or oval in form, the conical mounds being the most numerous. Of these the largest and most prominent are in the Pleasant Point group on the shore of Prairie lake. Two short linear mounds and a tapering oval mound occur in the Chetek river group and at least one mound which may be classed as a linear in the Pleasant Point group. Much interest is attached to a pear-shaped oval mound in the latter group and a double conical or dumb-bell shaped mound in the Rice lake group.

Of the conical and oval mounds which have been explored, most have been found to contain burials, most of these were bundled burials, or human remains which had been interred in temporary graves and afterwards buried in separate bundles or deposits in the mounds. Some of the burials disin¬ terred from mounds at Rice lake by J. D. Middleton, he decided were intrusive, that is, made long after the mounds were built. Of the mounds explored in the entire region but a small number appear to have contained implements or ornaments of any kind. The presence of charcoal and charred human bones in some of the mounds indicates that a fire ceremony accompanied the burials.

While it is very probable that the mounds of the Chetek and Rice lake region were constructed by the Dakota, who were the earliest known Indian occupants of the region, this contention yet lacks of proof. Elsewhere in northern Wisconsin there are burial mounds, which, although they were not a mound building tribe, the Chippewa appear to have erected. Some of the intrusive burials found in the Rice lake mounds are probably more or less recent Chippewa interments.

Indian garden beds in the county have attracted much attention. The arrangement of these Indian garden beds on the shore of Rice lake (on the Nelson farm) differ from any which have been found (up to the fall of 1917) among the many plots of such planting grounds found in Wisconsin. Other Indian garden beds are reported to exist near old Indian camp sites along the Red river between Cameron and Chetek.

The following report, based on the survey begun in 1912, was published in October, 1917 (The Wisconsin Archeologist, Vol. 16, No. 3). The edition was limited, and the salient features are here reproduced where they may be available to every citizen in the county:

Lake Chetek. 1. Chetek Village Site. The west shore of Lake Chetek, from the northern limits of Chetek to its outlet appears to have been in stone age' times the site of one or a series of Indian camps. Evidences of Indian occupation occur in many of the gardens in the rear of the houses fronting on Main street, which' runs parallel to the shore of the lake. On a vacant lot, recently under cultivation, adjoining the Yellow Lodge hotel property on the south, numerous flakes of light brown and white quartzite, a few chert flakes, potsherds and scattered, burned, and fractured stones from Indian fireplaces were found. In early days of settlement the Chippewa Indians fre¬ quently camped on this shore of the lake. A considerable number of arrowpoints and other stone implements have been picked up on this site in past years. There are said to have formerly been a few scattered mounds here. Of these nothing is known except that they were burial mounds.

2. Chetek Mound Group. On several vacant lots fronting on a narrow street running parallel to the lake shore, and extending from the rear of Pokegema Inn and the city boat landing to opposite the bridge at the outlet is a group of seven conical mounds. These have been long under cultivation and are now only from one to about two feet high at their centers. Four of these lie wholly or partly in gardens, two have been cut in two by the street and one lies on a grass grown lot. One of the largest is said to have been at one time six or more feet high. It is not known whether any of these mounds had been excavated or whether the group formerly included additional mounds. In the gardens in which some of the mounds are located the usual evidences of Indian quartzite chipping are scattered about. This site is about one-half block south of the Yellow Lodge hotel grounds.

3. Young Mounds. On the lawn of what is known as the Young prop¬ erty at the junction of Main and Tainter streets, at the southern limits of Chetek, is a fine oval mound. This mound measures 30 by 40 feet in size and is about 4% feet high at its middle. Growing on its eastern edge is an oak tree having a diameter of one foot. Several other young oaks grow about the mound. Another mound was formerly located on the front of this lot. Its outline could still be plainly traced on the lot and in Tainter street, it having been destroyed in improving the street. It was conical in form with a base diameter of about 34 feet. No information concerning its contents could be obtained. This place is about two blocks southwest of the Chetek group of mounds.

4. Douglas Street Mound. According to J. A. H. Johnson, a conical mound was formerly located in front of the Catholic church property, in Chetek. It was destroyed in the grading of Douglas street. This locality is a short distance from the railway track. William Carey, an old settler of Chetek, says that he believes that there were at one time other mounds located in the village limits between this place and the Olson and Young mounds.

5. Bailey's Pond Camp Site. Mr. Johnson has reported the presence of an Indian camp site on the shore of Bailey's lake, a small lake, or pond, located a short distance west of the Chetek railway depot. A single conical mound located on the east side of the pond is nearly obliterated by the cul¬ tivation of the land. A plot of Indian garden beds is also located here. The

6. Olson Mounds. In a potato patch on the Steve Olson place, several hundred feet southeast of the mounds on the Young lot and in line with Main street, is a single conical mound. It has been somewhat injured by cultivation and is now about 25 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high at its middle. In the field about it quartzite chips and fire-place stones are scat¬ tered about. The Chetek River dam lies a short distance east of this mound. A son of Mr. Olson has a small number of quartzite and chert arrowpoints found on his father's place. These are stemmed forms similar to those found commonly in southern Wisconsin.

7. Chetek River Group. In a wooded pasture belonging to Steve Olson is & group of four linear and oval mounds. A linear mound, the largest mound in the group, extended at the time of our visit into an oat field. All of these mounds have been dug into at their tops by persons of the relic hunting class but are only slightly mutilated. One has been somewhat damaged by the tracking across it of the cows pastured here. These mounds have the follow¬ ing dimensions: No. 1, 31x46 feet; 3% feet high. No. 2, 17x27x73 feet; 2% feet high at its highest part, at its northern extremity. No. 3, 21x551/£ feet; 1 foot high. No. 4, 24x88 feet; 3 feet high. East of the mounds the land slopes toward a small drain which leads to the Chetek river, a short distance away. Two of the mounds lie within a few feet of the C., St. P., M. & 0. Ry. rightof-way fence and can be seen from the track in entering Chetek. In grading the right-of-way in 1881 several other mounds belonging to this group were destroyed. These are reported to have been conical in form. In the course of their destruction a large number of native copper implements were found with the Indian burials disturbed. A. T. Newman, of Bloomer, states that a Mr. Ebener, an Eau Claire civil engineer, informed him that hfe secured 1,788 of these from the men engaged in the grading operations. If this statement is correct, the number exceeds by far the number of such implements ever recovered from any single aboriginal site in Wisconsin. Unfortunately both the collector and these implements have been lost track of. Others were said to have been dumped into a railroad fill with the earth from the mounds.

8. South Shore Mounds and Camp Sites. Indian mounds were formerly scattered over the lands lying along the south shore of Lake Chetek from the Chetek river at the outlet to the Chautauqua Assembly grounds, a distance of two miles. There are said to have been a hundred or more of them located on what are now the F. W. Zeissner, J. C. Phillips and F. A. Southworth farms, land originally owned by the Knapp, Stout & Co., lumber firm, and still known as the Knapp, Stout & Co. farm. Doubtless these were arranged in several, or a number of distinct groups. In walking over portions of the cultivated lands of these farms with Mr. J. A. H. Johnson, the investigators were able to re¬ locate many of these earthworks. All were of conical or oval form. Some were formerly of quite large size. According to William Carey, an old settler, who assisted in their demolition, there was on the Zeissner place at the outlet of the lake a group of about seventy-five mounds. These earthworks were from a few feet to six or more feet high. This place was originally covered with a forest of pine trees. Some of the trees were from 18 to 20 inches in diameter. Stumps of this size were on some of the mounds when he assisted in the year 1866 in removing the mounds to obtain earth for the construction of the Chetek River dam, a few hundred feet below the outlet of Chetek lake. Only the tops of some of the mounds were removed and the remains of these mounds are still to be seen in the cultivated fields along the river. In the de¬ struction of the mounds a large quantity of human bones was disturbed and some native copper and stone implements obtained. Some of them had been previously excavated by Prof. T. H. Lewis, formerly of St. Paul. Others were explored by W. M. Carter, a former resident of Chetek. On the adjoining Phillips' place the number of mounds is said to have been much smaller.

Some of the mounds on the present Southworth place, adjoining the former place on the east, were destroyed in grading for the fair grounds which were once located here. Elsewhere in the fields and along the road at this place, mounds reduced by cultivation and road-making, are still to be seen.

Mound Park Group. On the Chatauqua Assembly grounds, now sub¬ divided into summer resort lots and known as Mound Park, is a fine group of twenty-eight mounds. Traces of two others, almost wholly removed, are on the same property and traces of five others in the road. Some others are in the Southworth field across the road. Of the mounds in Mound Park, four are oval and the remainder conical in form. The largest of the former meas¬ ures 55 by 30 feet, and the largest of the latter is 42 feet in diameter. The highest of these mounds is about 3J/2 feet. A number of them have been excavated by the method common to relic hunters of digging into their tops. The mounds are located in a grove of oak trees and are quite closely grouped. A few are very near the bank of the lake which here is from 18 to 20 feet high. They occupy a triangle of land whose greatest length is about 600 feet and whose base measures about 500 feet. Of this group a survey was made. It is highly desirable that a number of the finest of these earthworks be preserved.

In the cultivated fields of the Zeissness farm, on the east side of the out¬ let and along the south shore of the lake, quartzite and a lesser number of chert and quartz flakes and fragments and fireplace stones are to be seen on the surface of the ground. These fields have been collected from for years and a large number of stone arrow and spear-points, perforators, scrapers, celts, hammer stones, arrow-shaft grinders and other materials, obtained. Camp and workshop sites are also indicated by scattered evidences on part of the Phillips and Southworth places. A country road leading from Chetek across the bridge at the outlet parallels the lake shore and passes along the front of the several farms mentioned, to Mound Park.

9. Leinenkugel Point Mounds and Camp Site. This point formerly ex¬ tended into Lake Chetek for a greater distance than it does today. The rais¬ ing of the lake by the construction of the dam at the outlet has submerged and caused the erosion of a considerable portion of it. On the extremity of this point were formerly located three conical mounds. A. T. Newman, of Blpomer, remembers seeing these mounds in the year 1889. At this time one was being slowly destroyed by the gradual erosion of the lake bank. Two others were then still in good condition. These mounds were 25 or 30 feet in diameter and 3 to 4 feet high. The point is now occupied by a summer resort cottage, known as the "Red Club House", and by several other cottages. William Carey states that in the late eighties the Chippewa Indians camped on Leinenkugel Point. At this time two hundred or more bark-covered wigwams were to be seen here. On the occasion of some special ceremony, or council, when Indians came from other localities to be present, he has seen from 500 to 600 Indians on the lake in birchbark canoes. On the point and from the adjoining cul¬ tivated fields many stone implements have been collected. W. H. Smith, who formerly resided here, had a considerable collection of these. Mr. Newman also has a number of chert spearpoints and potsherds obtained here. Accord¬ ing to information given to J. A. H. Johnson by Daniel Beagle, one of the earliest settlers on the site of Chetek, an Indian trading post was in the years 1830-40, located on this point not far from the site of the present club house. The trader was one Louis Montra, of whom nothing further is known. The trader's log cabin was still standing in 1865.

10. Johnson Mounds. On the property of H. M. Knudson on the north side of a small bay on the north shore of Lake Chetek, J. A. H. Johnson, in 1916, located a group of two conical and an oval or short linear mound. These are on Government lot 4, section 20, at a distance of about forty rods west of the site of the old trading post. The oval mound, Mr. Johnson believes, may be a turtle effigy, this, however, is most unlikely as its location is far distant from the most northern range of such earthworks in Wisconsin.

11. Camp Roskinson Cemetery (S. W. Vi, Sec. 20). An' Indian cemetery was formerly located on the east shore of Lake Chetek just south of its union with Lake Pokegema. The graves were in a dry marsh. J. A. H. Johnson re¬ members that there were some forty or fifty graves in the cemetery which have now been destroyed by the raising of the waters of the lake. At times of low water many stone and copper implements have been collected from a sand bar along this shore by W. M. Carter, J. C. Phillips, and others. The shore is now occupied by a number of cottages.

12. Flynn Camp Site. On the W. W. Flynn place, on the east side of Lake Chetek, indications of an Indian camp and workshop site exist. Some quartzite points and other stone implements have been collected on this place. Fused and fire-cracked stones and potsherds were found in several places on the lake bank.

Chetek River. 1. Omaha Crossing Camp Sites (E. V2, Sec. 31). On cul¬ tivated ground on the Kelley, W. G. Malcolm, and Bernard Moe farms, located on the east bank of the Chetek river, south of the Omaha Railway crossing, the usual scattered indications of former camp and chipping sites were found in a number of places. The land along the river bank is low and marshy and these sites are on the higher land beyond. As usual, the scattered flakes and chips were almost entirely of light-colored quartzite. Only a very few chert flakes were found. In a potato field on the Moe place, just at the edge of a farm road and within about 50 feet of the river bank, has been found indications of a small shell refuse heap. Numerous broken and partly decom¬ posed valves of river clams were scattered over the surface of a piece of ground about 15 feet long. Investigations made with a trowel revealed fur¬ ther clusters of closely-packed shells. All of them, however, were within a few inches of the surface and no traces of a refuse pit were revealed. The clam shell valves collected here were identified by Dr. Frank C. Baker, director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, as specimens of Lampsilis ligamentina, Lampsilis luteola, Lampsilis anodontoides and Lampsilis alata, all of which species of Unio occur here. J. A. H. Johnson, who has collected here, has a fine flint blank found on the Malcolm place. A few quartzite arrow-points, blanks and a sandstone arrow-shaft grinder have been found by others.

2. Chetek River Site No. 2 (S. W. V4, Sec. 31). On the west bank of the Chetek River, on the J. Walsal place, in a cultivated field above the country road, scattered Indications of a camp site were found by the author and Mr. Kirchner. Several large quartzite blanks, an arrow-shaft grinder, a chert scraper and a number of arrow-points have been found here. From this place the investigators followed the course of the river southward for several miles but found no indications of camp or workshop sites in any of the numerous cultivated fields along its course.

3. Mortenson Mounds (N. E. Vi, S. W. Vi, Sec. 1, Dovre township). Mr. Johnson reported the presence of two conical mounds on the Chris Mortenson place, in woods near the west bank of the Chetek. These, because of the dense woods and underbrush, we were unable to find.

4. Junction Mounds (S. E. V*, Sec. 10, Dovre township). On the Nor¬ man Williamson (Ole Hanson) place, at the junction of the Chetek and Red Cedar rivers, are two groups of mounds. One consists of seven conical and oval mounds and is located in a tract of land bordering on the Red Cedar river and thickly overgrown with trees and brush. The largest of the oval mounds measures 21 by 45 feet. The single comical mound is 20 feet in diameter. All of these earthworks are low, the highest being only about 3% feet high at its middle. A few hundred feet northwest of these mounds on the river bank are two conical mounds. In a cultivated field adjoining this woodland on the east is a group of three conical mounds. These mounds are separated from one another by short distances. They are 40, 43, and 60 feet in diameter, respectively, and from 3 to 3% feet high. They are said to have been originally from 5 to 6 feet^high. Several hundred feet north of these mounds are scat¬ tered indications of an Indian camp and workshop site. J. A. H. Johnson states that a large number of stone and other implements have been col¬ lected from these fields. One collection of these was sent to Norway. On the bank of the Chetek river, at a distance of about 130 rods east of the second mound group, a Chippewa Indian camp was located in 1840-45. At this point the natives forded the river. Another camp was located at a distance of about 85 rods southeast of the mounds, at the junction of the two streams. On the Peter Knappen place, on the east bank of the Chetek river, are evidences of another camp and workshop site.

Prairie Lake. 1. Gregerson Cache (S. W. Vi, Sec. 18, Chetek township). On the Thomas Gregerson farm, on the east shore of Prairie lake, a cache of 27 quartzite blades was recently found in a cultivated field. It was disturbed by the finder in digging a post-hole. The blades lay in a small heap at a depth of about 2 feet below the surface of the soil. They were made of light brown quartzite and were from 2 to 3 inches long. In this field are scattered indica¬ tions of an Indian camp and workshop site. Many stone and some copper implements have been found here by Mr. Gregerson and his boys. Between this field and the lake is a fine tract of pine woods in which is a winding Indian trail leading west to the water's edge. It is not very deep and was probably in use for only a short time. Where this trail reaches the shore was the Indian portage across Prairie lake. The camp site on this place extends over on to the Christ Bruson farm adjoining it on the south. On this site the Chippewa Indians frequently camped in numbers in the years after 1870. Fireplace stones were found in several places along the lake bank on the Gregerson place. According to Indian tradition several fights between the Chippewa and Dakota (Sioux) took place in an early day on the shores of Prairie lake.

2. Olson Mound and Camp Site (S. Vfc, N. W. V4, Sec. 18). A single oval mound is located in the farm of Thorsten Olson. It is 43 by 51 feet in size and about two feet high. It is said to have been originally six or seven feet high, its height having been greatly reduced by cultivation. It lay in the middle of a clover field at the time of our visit. The mound lies about 60 rods back from the east shore of Prairie lake from which it is separated by a strip of woodland. In the cultivated fields about the mound are the usual indica¬ tions of an Indian camp site. In one place, a short distance north of the mound, J. A. A. Johnson has collected numerous fragments of pottery vessels. Several grooved stone hammers, a number of chert implements and two rusty bayonets have also been collected in this field.

3. Pleasant Plain Group (N. V2, N. W. Sec. 19). On the Christ Olson place, which adjoins the Thorten Olson farm on the north, is a fine group of twenty-seven conical and oval mounds. Fifteen of these are of conical and twelve of oval form. The largest of the conical mounds is 50 and the smallest 20 feet in diameter. The largest of the oval earth-works measures 94 by 46 and the smallest 20 by 15 feet. The lowest mound in the group is only lVfe and the highest 10 feet high at its highest part. Thirteen of the mounds are from 5 to 10 feet high. One of the oval mounds is of the peculiar pearshaped form, being slightly constricted near its nothern extremity. These mounds are quite compactly grouped, being separated from one another by only short distances. As may be seen by a minute examination, they appear to be arranged in four more or less irregular lines or series. They are located in a fine tract of pine woods. At the' time of the investigation the southwest corner of the woods had recently been cleared, the brush heaps lying about among the nine mounds in the clearing. West and south of the mounds are cultivated fields and north of them a pretty wooded ravine. In this ravine, near its opening into Prairie Lake, is a fine spring. The portion of this wood- land lying along the lake shore has recently been subdivided into summer resort lots and is now known as Pleasant Plain. Nearly all of the mounds in this group have been rifled by relic hunters. Deep and ugly holes have been dug into their tops and sides and as no effort has been made by the diggers to again return the earth thrown out in the course of their destructive opera¬ tions the mounds today resemble miniature volcanoes. As all of this digging has been done by persons having no archeological knowledge or experience and by methods generally disapproved it is hardly to be expected that any data of value to archeological science of the results of their operations could be obtained. Some of these destructive explorations are reported to have been conducted some years ago by a Chicago doctor, and W. M. Carter, a former Chetek collector, with the assistance of several men whom they employed. They secured a number of copper and stone implements. During the summer of 1911, Leroy Colbert of Chetek and others dug into one of the mounds and are said to have obtained a pottery vessel. This group of mounds despite its mutilation is still the finest of those remaining about the Chetek lakes. In none of the other groups are there earthworks which can be compared with these in size. By the expenditure of a small amount of money most of the injured mounds can be restored to their former beauty. Citizens of Chetek should see to it that these mounds are secured and preserved to posterity in a public park. Thus preserved they are certain to become one of the most interesting attractions of this favored region.

4. Museus Mound. J. A. H. Johnson reported the existence of a single oval mound on the Martin Bruson place, formerly owned by Charles Museus. This place is about one mile north of the Pleasant Point group. The mound is in a field and has been long under cultivation. It is about 20 by 30 feet in size and 3 feet high.

Lake Pokegema. 1. Meadows Island Camp Site. This island is located near the northern part of Lake Pokegema. It is only a few acres in extent and is thickly overgrown with trees and brush. On its southern side the lake bank is quite high and steep. The northern shore is low and marshy. This island was in the early days of the settlement of this region a favorite camp¬ ing place of the Chippewa Indians. The high bank on the southern shore of the island is now being rapidly worn away by the combined forces of the wind, rain and waves and thus evidences of aboriginal occupation are being everywhere exposed. When on August 9, 1912, investigators visited the island in company with Mr. J. A. H. Johnson and Mr. A. T. Newman we found the burned and broken stones of a number of Indian fireplaces scattered over the slope. With these were numerous pieces of charcoal, pottery fragments and pieces of human and animal bones. Other fireplaces were partly exposed at the top of the bank below the sod covering. In October, 1911, Mr. Johnson found at the foot of this lake bank a number of human bones which had apparently been washed out from a grave at the top. Locating this grave he proceeded to explore it and found a human skull over which a small copper trade kettle had been inverted, or which by some accident had been overturned on the skull. In this kettle were a number of thimbles, rings with stone sets, bangles, glass beads and a bone implement, these articles plainly indicating that the burial was a recent one. On the top of the island and at short dis¬ tances back from the edge of the bank we located a series of shallow circular excavations. Some of the largest of these were five and six feet in diameter and from six inches to a foot in depth, being filled in with leaves and soil. Some of these pits were investigated. They appear to have been originally from three to three and a half feet in depth. Mixed with the soil which we removed from them were numerous fireplace stones and quantities of charcoal. It is quite probable that they were provision caches, being used for the storage of food.

2. Ellis Mound (E. V2, N. E. Vi, Sec. 17). In a potato field on the Eliza¬ beth Ellis' property, on the east shore of Lake Pokegema, a single oval mound was located. This mound measured 16 by 25 feet in size. It was rather inconspicuous, its greatest elevation being only about 2 feet and it could only be detected a short distance away by the greater height of the potato plants growing on its top and sides over those on the level about it. It is about 400 feet distant from the bank of Lake Pokegema. Along the shore of the lake, on the Ellis place, a narrow strip of pine and other forest trees has been permitted to remain. The lake bank is quite steep, from 25 to 30 or more feet high in places. In the rear of this strip of woodland and between it and the potato field in which the mound is situated is a strip of recently cleared land upon which at the time of our visit furrows had been turned for the first time. Here a few quartzite flakes and fireplace stones were found. Doubtless another plowing will reveal more abundant indications of a camp and workshop site. In another potato patch, on higher ground several hundred feet south¬ east of the mound, and separated from it by a buckwheat field, are found indications of a camp and workshop site. On a small knoll, several hundred feet northeast of the mound and in the same potato field, were found scattered about on the surface of the ground numerous fragments of the dark brown sandstone which the aborigines of this region employed for the making of arrowshaft grinders, and grinding stones and which is even today occasionally sought by the Indians for similar or other uses. On this knoll this material lies close to the surface and is encountered and broken up by the plow in cultivating the land. If the cultivated fields on the Ellis place could be examined at a time after the removal of the crops further indications of camp and chipping sites would doubtless be found. In examining the lake bank in front of the Samuel Calhoun place, which adjoins the Ellis property on the south, we found an Indian fireplace, the stones on the outer edge of which were just beginning to slip down the eroding bank.

A large number of Indian rice threshing pits are located on Indian Point, on the A. D. Johnson place, on the east shore of Prairie lake on a slough connecting this lake with Mud lake. Mud lake was a favorite field for the gathering of wild rice.

Rice Lake. 1. Nelson Garden Beds (N. W. Vi, Sec. 16, Rice Lake town¬ ship). On the H. C. Nelson place on the west shore of Rice lake, are a series of Indian garden beds. They are located in a pasture having in it a few scattered oak trees. The lake bank in front of this property is from 8 to 18 feet high and distance from the top to the water's edge from 20 to 22 feet. It is overgrown with young trees and shrubs. The garden beds lie from 7 to 10 feet back from the top of the bank. Mr. Nelson, who operates an extensive ginseng nursery at this place, accompanied the investigators and Rex Hamilton of Rice Lake in examination of this Indian planting ground on August 12, 1912. There appear to be two distinct plots of beds. One plot was found to measure about 114 feet in length and to contain 15 beds or rows, these being from 24 to 27 feet in length. A distance of about 50 feet separates this plot of beds from the second plot. The other plot measures about 200 feet in length. The beds are from 15 to 36 feet long. The investigators counted 38 beds, or rows, in this plot which extends to within about 80 feet of the north boundary fence of the pasture. The general direction of the beds is northwest. Although rather low they are quite distinct, much more so in some places than in others. They are from 3 to 3V£ feet wide and from 4 to 6 inches high. The paths separating them are from 1 foot to 14 inches wide. At the nothern end of the second plot there were three shallow circular depressions measuring from 5 to 6 inches across and from 6 to 8 inches in depth. A single similar pit was located at the southern extremity of the other plot. These pits were found to have been originally from 18 inches to 2Vfe feet in depth. Nothing was found in any of them and the investigators reached the conclusion that they were probably threshing pits and employed by the Indians in the hulling of wild rice, once growing abundantly in the lake. This was accomplished by placing the rice on a blanket or deerskin spread across the hole and treading out the grain with the feet. G. C. Soper says that in the early days of settle¬ ment the Indians frequently secured pork barrels which they sunk in the ground and employed as threshing pits sometimes using sticks to beat out the grain instead of the feet. It is impossible to determine whether the garden beds and threshing pits were made and in use at the same time, but they probably were. In Mr. Nelson's ginseng nursery, which adjoins this pasture on the south, numerous fireplace stones and occasional quartzite chips were exposed on newly turned ground.

2. Howard Camp Site. The M. T. Howard place, also known as Howard's Point, was a camping ground of the Chippewa in 1879 and 1880. Here, accord¬ ing to G. C. Soper, they also had in early days a dancing ground where medicine and other dances were held and in which considerable numbers of Indians took part, the ground over a small area being cleared of brush and beaten down for this purpose. One hundred or more Indians sometimes camped here. This place fronts on Rice lake on the east and on a slough on the south.

3. Rice Lake Group (Section 16, Stanfold township). A description of this group of Indian mounds is given by Prof. Cyrus Thomas in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The explorations were made by J. D. Middleton, an employee of the survey, in about the year 1890.

"This group, a plat of which has been published, is situated at Rice Lake city, on Sec. 16, T. 36 N., R. 11 W., about half a mile above Red Cedar river. The land at this point is somewhat broken, and the area occupied by the group is cut by a small ravine that runs northeast to the lake. Some of the mounds are on gravelly knolls, a few in the ravine, some on the slope up to the level which runs back to a ridge a quarter of a mile distant and some on this level. The location was well chosen for hunting, fishing, and procuring a supply of food, as game and fish are still abundant and wild rice formerly grew in the lake.

"The group consists of fifty-one mounds, chiefly of the ordinary conical form. There are no effigies or long slender embankments in it. The construc¬ tion varies so little that few only will be described as samples of the rest. No. 1, for instance, as representing Nos. 24, 26, 35, 39, 46, and 45. This stands in the bottom of a ravine about 10 feet above the water level and about 500 feet from the shore of the lake; diameter, 28 feet; height, 4 feet. The construc¬ tion, as shown by examination, was as follows, commencing at the top: First, a layer of dark vegetable mould 2 inches thick had formed since the mound was abandoned; next, a layer of sandy loam with a slight admixture of clay; third, the core forming the central and remaining portion of the structure and resting on the original surface of the gully. This consisted of clay mixed with sand and was very hard. It appeared to be composed of small rounded masses about 16 to 18 inches in diameter and 6 to 10 inches thick, doubtless represent¬ ing the loads deposited by the builders. Lying on the original surface of the ground underneath the core, were two skeletons bundled, as was the case with nearly all* found in this group. The bundling was done by placing the long bones together as closely as possible around the ribs, the vertebral bones being placed together here and there so as to render the bundle as compact as possible. Close to these were the charred remains of another skeleton pressed into a layer scarcely exceeding an inch of thickness, but, as there were no signs of fire, ashes, or coals on the surface beneath, burning must have taken place before burial. As all the skeletons were under the core, and as the small masses heretofore mentioned showed no signs of disturbance they must have been buried at one 'time.

"Mound 26, but 25 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, contained four skele¬ tons of the original burial and three of intrusive burial, as did also No. 35.

"No. 8, oval in outline, 36 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 5 feet high, differed from the others, as it lacked the core and layer of sandy loam. With the exception of the top layer of vegetable mold it consisted of yellowish clay mixed with sand, probably taken from the immediately surrounding vicinity. Six skeletons were found in it; the first, 3 feet south of the apex and at a depth of 2 feet, No. 2 a foot and a half south of the first. These two appeared to have been buried at the same time, or nearly so, and most likely were intrusive burials. No. 3 was at the bottom, on the original surface, under No. 1; No. 4 a foot northeast of 3; No. 5 two feet east of the last; and No. 6 a foot north of No. 5. The last four skeletons were probably the first interments in the mound, and appear to have been buried about the same time from the fact that they were bundled, and the bones clean and white, although so soft as to fall to pieces when exposed to the atmosphere.

"Mound No. 11, standing east of No. 8, is also, oblong, 35 feet long and 23 feet wide. The construction the same as the preceding. There have been five original and five intrusive burials, the latter in the center at a depth of 3 feet, the others at the bottom of the mound, in the north end. All of the skeletons were bundled, those near the surface being in a better state of preservation than those in the bottom. A large pine stump was standing over the latter, the roots of which had broken them up to a considerable extent.

"Mound 42, standing in the ravine, measured 27 feet in diameter and four feet high. The construction was found to be similar to that of No. 1 ; first, the thin layer of vegetable mold; then sandy loam and the clay core; but here was a pit in the original soil, rectangular in form, 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, and one in depth, the sides and ends flaring. In this mound there had been three intrusive and two original burials. Two skeletons of the former were in the southwest part, at the depth of 2 feet; the third in the center at a depth of 4 feet, a cut having been made in the top of the core to receive it. The material of the layer over it had a disturbed appearance, indicating that these were intrusive burials.

"Two other skeletons were found at the bottom of the pit, bundled as usual. The bones of these two are larger than those of any other skeletons in the group. Mounds numbered 41, 47, and 48 were so similar in every respect to 42 as to need no further notice.

"Mound 49 stands on the lower margin of the gravelly ridge south of the gully, 20 or 25 feet above the water level of the lake; its diameter being 26 feet and height 5 feet. It was found to consist, except the top layer, of an unstratified mass of dark brown loam with a considerable mixture of sand and gravel, having the same appearance as the soil of the ridge on which it stands; an occasional lump of clay, similar to the load masses heretofore spoken of was observed. Under this main layer or body of the mound, near the center, was an oval pit, diameters 2 and 2% feet, and 1 foot in depth. This mound furnished evidence as usual of both intrusive and original burials. The original burials were two adults in the pit; these, as also the skeletons of the intrusive burials, being bundled, an indication that the two people buried here belonged to the same race. Mounds 28 and 36 were similar through¬ out to No. 49."

The extension of the northern - limits of the city of Rice Lake since the time of Professor Thomas' survey has caused the destruction of a large number of the mounds in this group. Several others (Nos. 9 and 10) have been obliterated by the levelling of the fair grounds. On August 11 was made a survey of the portion of the group which is still in existence. It will be noted that one of the cluster of mounds in the M. T. Howard woods is of the rather unusual double conical or "dumb-bell" shape. Its length is 53 feet and the round extremities each 18 feet in diameter. The width at its middle is 15 feet.

All but one of these mounds have been explored by the very unsatis¬ factory method of digging into their tops. In several instances the ekcavation has been continued through one side of the mound. The tops of two have been cut away leaving them now quite low and level. This was done to obtain soil ior some purpose.

William Dietz of Rice Lake, who, with a Mr. Monteith, explored some of the mounds in this group in about the year 1887, states that in some as many as a dozen skeletons were found. These he believed had been interred in a sitting posture. He believed that the bundle burials were skeletons which had collapsed from a sitting position, a very natural conclusion. No implements accompanied these burials. Other mounds, we were informed, had been opened by a Dr. Farness of the results of whose digging nothing is known. K. E. Rasmussen of Rice Lake also dug into several of the mounds. He found not more than two burials in any of these. With them were a few chert arrowpoints.

G. C. Soper, who formerly owned the property now belonging to C. F. Stout, levelled several of the mounds which stood near the lake shore on this place. These may be the mounds which we were informed were once located just west of the Stout residence. He states that several others stood on the lake shore opposite what is now known as Soper's Island. These were destroyed by the raising of the waters of the lake by the construction of the dam at its foot. These mounds had disappeared at the time of the making of the Thomas survey and are not included in his plat.

A private road, an extension of main street, today divides the remaining mounds of this group. Five of them are on property belonging to C. F. Stout and the remaining eighteen in a tract of woods owned by M. T. Howard, on the east side of the road. One mound in this tract is the curious dumb-bellshaped earthwork. It has a uniform height of about 4 xh feet.

As these are the last mounds now remaining on the west side of the lake, Rice Lake citizens should take advantage of the present opportunity to perma¬ nently preserve some of them. This place is a portion of what is known as Howard's Point. It is well located for use as a city park.

4. Middleton Mounds. Every trace of two groups linear mounds which J. D. Middleton reported as located south of the then village of Rice Lake, in Section 21, has now disappeared. These were located west of Main street on the city blocks now occupied by the public library and other buildings. The growth of the city caused their destruction. No one whom we could find appeared to know much, if anything, concerning these earhworks.

5. Red Cedar River Camp Site. In a patch of cultivated ground on the north bank of the Red Cedar, near the Omaha railroad bridge, evidences of an Indian camp and workshop site were found. This field is about 50 feet wide and extends about 120 feet along the river. In its rear is elevated ground which is being slowly cut away by the Rice Lake Stone Co., which is operating a gravel pit here. In this field, which at the time of the visit was being used for the growing of potatoes, were found numerous fireplace stones and scattered quartzite chips and flakes. Some chert and quartzite implements and a few pebble hammerstones have been found here by boys of the city. The field is rather level and is elevated about 5 or 6 feet above the river. This site formerly extended further east along the river as far as Main street or nearly as far over a tract now occupied by the back yards of a number of cottages.

5. Cyrus Thomas Group (Sec. 10). These mounds are also described by Professor Thomas. We were unable to visit the location. It is proper that the group should be named in his honor.

"These mounds, which are on the opposite side of the lake from the preceding, are all of the round or conical type and are located on a point of land some 25 feet above and overlooking the lake and the other village just described. No. 8, one of the largest of the group, measured 45 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Commencing at the top, the first 3 feet was a layer of sandy loam; the remainder was a core of hard clay mixed with sand, made up of small masses, like those heretofore described. The latter rested on a layer, about an inch thick, of what seemed to be the decayed vegetable material of the original surface of the ground. A skeleton was discovered southeast of the center, only 3 inches below the surface, bundled. Fragments of a skull were found near the center at a depth of 2 feet. Here there were evidences that a grave had been dug in the mound after it had been completed, and a body buried in bark wrappings, but all save the fragments of the skull had completely decayed. A third was at the same depth. Four feet east of the center was another at the depth of 3 feet, but the skull in this case was wanting from the bundle. In the apex of the central core, in which a cut had been made for its reception, was a fifth at a depth of 3% feet from the top and 6 inches in the core. No skeletons were found in the lower part of the mound, though at two points the earth was similar in character to that which results from decayed bodies and probably marked burial places. At the bottom of the mound, south of the center, was the only relic obtained, a copper drill or spindle, similar to that shown in Fig. 34; this is inches long, a little over one-fourth of an inch square, and pointed at each end. When found, it was upright.

"Mound 12, situated west of No. 8, in a thicket, measured 32 feet in diameter and 3 V2 in height. The upper layer consisted of loose sandy loam, like the surrounding surface. The remainder, of sand and clay, very hard, rested on the original surface of the ground. Under this was a pit, length 7 feet, width at one end 4 feet, at the other 5V2, depth 2 feet, its walls perpen¬ dicular and bottom flat. Three bundled skeletons, the only ones found in the mound, were in this pit. With one were a few copper beads.

"Mound 14, standing 120 feet from the lake shore, measured but 26 feet in diameter and a little over 3 feet in height. The construction was somewhat similar to that of No. 8; first a layer of sandy loam, 1 foot thick, then the core, 2 feet thick; but in this case there was, immediately below the second layer, a stratum of charcoal 4 inches thick and covering the same area. Under¬ neath this, on the original surface, were the remains of three bundled skeletons partially burned. The remains of two logs, which had been nearly consumed by fire, could be traced in the layer of burned earth. They must have been about 6 feet long and 4 or 5 inches in diameter. They were parallel, within a foot of each other, and had evidently been laid on the earth covering the skeletons, but there were no indications of a wooden vault. The evidence seemed conclusive that the fire had been kindled here after the skeletons and logs were in place. The first skeleton was in the center under the two burned logs, and the indications were that it had been wrapped in birch bark, parts of which, although both wrappings and bones were charred, were obtained. The other two skeletons were north and east of this central one, and one of them showed but little effects of the fire, while the other was nearly consumed.

"Southward, outside of this burned area, but under the core or layer, were two other skeletons, which seemed to have been buried at the same time as the other three."

6. Hiawatha Park Camp Site (W. V2, N. W. V4, Sec. 15). On the east shore of Rice lake and on the north side of the Red Cedar river which here enters the lake, abundant evidence (fireplace stones and quartzite chips) were found in a potato patch. The larger portion of this beautiful point is still occupied by a woodland of deciduous trees and it was therefore impossible to determine how large an area this camp site may have covered. In the culti¬ vated fields along this stream beyond this site arrowpoints and a few stone celts had been found. This property has been subdivided into summer resort lots and is known as Hiawatha Park.

7. Draak Mounds (S. V2, S. W. *4, Sec. 15). On the property of Herman Draak, on the east shore of Rice lake, are located two conical mounds. These were within a short distance of the lake bank. The larger of the two was 32 feet in diameter and about 2 feet high and the smaller 24 feet in diameter and IV2 feet high. The mounds were in a grove of mixed woods. This property was in former days a Chippewa Indian camping site and a few box covered graves were located here. Campers have dug into numerous tree falls on this property believing them to be Indian burial places.

8. Narrows Cemetery. A Chippewa Indian cemetery was formerly located at the north end of the railroad bridge, at the narrows between Rice lake and Lower Rice lake. The graves were covered with the customary wooden shelters. They were destroyed in grading the approach to the bridge. Several cottages now stand near the lake bank, near this place. Between the wagon road and railroad track, which cross the river within a short distance of each other, is a pond. Geo. C. Spore, Geo. Colon and others well remember these graves.

9. Colons Point Camp Site (N. E. V4, Sec. 27). On this point in Lower Rice lake, the well known Chippewa chief, Chenini, had his camp until the removal of all the Indians to the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in 1833. He remained for several years after the others had gone. Mr. Geo. Colon, the former owner of this point, states that several hundred Indians encamped here at different times, frequently having festivities and ceremonies of various kinds. There were several Indian graves here also. One of these, the grave of a niece of the old chief, was disturbed by local summer resorters several years ago. A small amount of cheap jewelry, metal forks and other articles were found in the grave. The extreme end of this beautiful wooded point is now occupied by a number of summer resort cottages.

10. French Trading Post (S. W. Vi, S. E. V\, Sec. 27). The Wisconsin Atlas of 1878 locates a French trading post at the narrows of Rice lake. According to George Colon, this post was really located on J. J. Silesky's place at the foot of Lower Rice lake. The investigators in 1912 visited this place and found several slight linear depressions said by local residents to be the remnant of a ditch which formerly surrounded the trader's cabin, and in which a palisade of upright logs is said to have stood. The longest depression was about 15 feet long. Mr. Colon states that stones from the trader's chimney formerly lay on the ground. These have evidently been removed as no trace of them could be seen. This site is in a level space at the foot of a small slope in the woods a short distance in the rear of the Silesky summer cottage. A short distance to the south of it is a small swamp. The site is opposite the portage (now occupied by a country road) between Lower Rice and Mountain lakes.

There are also mounds about Bear lake in the northern part of the county, and about the outlet of the Red Cedar lake into the Red Cedar river in the northeastern part of the county.

The student of Barron county antiquities will find valuable information concerning its Indian remains in several other reports published by the Wis¬ consin Archeological Society. These are "A Record of Wisconsin Antiquities" (1906), "Pipestone Quarries in Barron County" (1910), "Aboriginal Evidences in Northwestern Wisconsin" (1914), and "The Chetek and Rice Lakes" (1917). The various publications of the Wisconsin Historical Society, especially the "Collections" and the "Proceedings," also teem with valuable information regarding this region.

At some period, the mound builders of this region ceased their mound building. If indeed, as it is believed, they were the Dakota, or as they are popularly called the Sioux, then their descendants mingled with Siouan peoples to the south and west.

pewa or 0 jibway as they are sometimes called. The Chippewa belong to the great Algonquian family, and probably originally worked their way from the St. Lawrence river region until they occupied the area south and southwest of Lake Superior, including Barron county.

The Chippewa were not a mound building tribe, though there are burial mounds in northern Wisconsin which some investigators believe the Chippewa erected. In most of the places where Chippewa are found buried in mounds, however, it is fairly evident that the burials were comparatively recent and that the mounds had been built long before they were used for Chippewa burial places.

The woods and streams supplied the Aborigines their simple needs of food, clothing, and shelter. From the skins of animals they fashioned their garments, by hunting and by harvesting wild rice they gained their food. Their lodges were built of slender trees, covered with bark, and with mats formed of plaited reeds. Gradually they learned a rude form of agriculture, by cultivating the ground with hoes of bone and plows of wood, corn and pumpkins were added to their food supply. They had no domestic animals except dogs, which also served as an addition to their food supply. Their tools and implements of warfare and of chase were made of stone, flints chipped to a point tipped their arrows, axes and hatchets were of edged stone, war clubs swung a heavy stone head. The only metals known were lead and copper. The former mined in a crude fashion was mostly used for ornament. Copper, secured by intertribal trade from Lake Superior, was beaten by hand into oramental shapes, and occasionally used to tip weapons and domestic imple¬ ments.

The change of seasons brought to Wisconsin Indians changed modes of living. During the winter season they left their permanent villages and in small groups scattered through the forests, subsisting as best they might on the products of the chase. They built temporary wigwams of pelts thrown over poles, within which fires were kindled that kept them from freezing. Upon the return of spring they sought their villages and corn fields. The sum¬ mer was the time for religious rites, for council and for warfare. Raids upon neighboring enemy groups were a normal part of the Indian's life. In every village a council house was built where questions of war and alliance were discussed by the chiefs and elders. The religious rites clustered about a unit resembling a clan; the effigy mounds were the symbols of the clan totems. Near to these totems burial mounds were placed. The sacred mysteries of the tribe and clan were there celebrated.

Aside from warfare, intercourse was maintained with other tribes by means of trade. The extent and volume of intertribal trade was considerable. Sea shells found in Wisconsin mounds prove that they had passed from hand to hand among all the tribes between its inhabitants and the Atlantic coast. Shells, bits of metal, articles of dress and ornament, constituted the bulk of the exchange. Shells pierced and strung or wrought into belts were both the medium of exchange and the binding symbol of intertribal treaties and agree¬ ments. While the fate of captives taken in war was horrible, envoys were sacred, and the treaties were observed inviolate. .

The red man's life was by no means as idyllic as children of nature have been supposed to lead. Famine and disease stalked his footsteps ; war and wild animals carried away his young; struggle and hardships made up his lot in life. None the less it is open to question whether the contact with the white man did not make the condition of the Indian worse. He soon became depend¬ ent upon the farmer's products for clothing, implements and weapons. He for¬ got the art of his primitive economy. Urged on by the greed of traders he rapidly killed off the wild game or drove it farther into the wilderness, which he had to penetrate in order to secure the store of furs with which to purchase his necessities. Thus, hunting became more and more important to his existence, and with increased efforts and superior weapons brought very diminishing returns. The red man became dependent upon the trader for the very means of life. After the French and Indian war, when all traders of the French race were withdrawn from Wisconsin, the English traders, who, after a lapse of two years, went to Lake Superior and found naked, starving savages, who in less than one hundred years had ceased to be self-sufficing and could live only by means of relations with white men. Thus arose the fur trade, which was not only a commercial or an economic regime, but a system of government, a form of social life, a means of exploitation and a stage in the development of the American frontier.

At the close of the Seventeenth century, Wisconsin was swarming with Indians. In the last quarter of that century the Miami, Mascouten and Kickapoo moved to the Illinois river valley, out of the state. The Potawatomi moved south along the shore of Lake Michigan. The Foxes ventures from Wolf river to the river now called by their name. The Menomonie surrounded Green Bay, the Sauk and Foxes controlled the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, the Winne¬ bago occupied the upper Rock river. The Huron and Ottawa, who for a time had occupied the headwaters of the Chippewa, left nothern Wisconsin for homes on the straits of Mackinac. Thus the southern shore of Lake Superior was practically abandoned to the Chippewa, although the Sioux still bitterly contested their occupancy.

It was in this lake Superior region that the early explorers found the Chippewa. At that time the hereditary enemies of the Chippewa, Sioux (Dakota), had their headquarters in the Mille Lac region in northern Minne¬ sota, and ranged the St. Croix and upper Mississippi and the region to the westward as well as the region toward Lake Superior.

The Chippewa continued to press onward and having obtained firearms from the whites, they took possession of the Mille Lac region, and forced the Sioux down the Mississippi where they established a number of villages, the most southern of which was at Winona.

War between the Chippewa and the Sioux continued, and the Sioux still continued to make many raids into the Lake Superior regions. Barron county, especially, was hotly disputed territory. In fact it is believed by investigators that the main cause of the wars fought by the Aborigines in this region was due to a desire to possess the rich rice fields. The desire to obtain pipestone was probably another factor.

"Almost every bend of the Red Cedar river," it has been said, "has been the scene of an Indian battle." Others took place on the shore of Prairie lake, the story of which is still preserved in Indian tradition.

By the Treaty of 1825 various tribes agreed upon the boundaries of their respective territories. The line between the Chippewa and the Sioux in this region fell a little south of Barron county and is described as follows: "From a point on the Chippewa river, half a day's march (ten miles) from Chippewa Falls to the Red Cedar (Menomonie) river, just below the falls (the city of Menomonie), thence to the St. Croix river, at a place called 'Standing Cedar,' about a day's paddle in a canoe above Lake St. Croix."

Benjamin G. Armstrong says (Early Life Among the Indians, 199-201) that in the fifties the Rice lake band numbered about 200, their chief being one Na-nong-ga-bee. "This chief with about 70 of his people came to La Point to attend the treaty of 1854. After the treaty was concluded he started home with his people, the route being through heavy forests and the trail one which was but little used. When they had reached a point a few miles south of the Namekagon river and near a place called Beck-gua-ah-wong they were sur¬ prised by a band of Sioux who were on the warpath and then in ambush, where a few of the Chippewas were killed, including the old chief and his eldest son.

file. This made their line quite long as they were not trying to keep bunched, not expecting or having any thought of being attacked by their enemy. The chief, his son and daughter were in the lead and the old man and his son were the first to fall as the Sioux had, of course, picked them out for slaughter, and they were killed almost before they had dropped their packs or were ready for war. The chief had just brought his gun to his face to shoot when a ball struck him square in the forehead. As he fell his daughter fell beside him and feigned death. At the firing Na-nong-ga-bee's band swung out of the trail to strike the flank of the Sioux and get behind them to cut off their retreat, should they press forward or make a retreat, but that was not the Sjoux intention. There were not a great many of them and their tactics were to surprise the band, get as many scalps as they could, and get out of the way, knowing that it would be the work of a few moments, when they would be encircled by the Chippewas.

"The girl lay motionless until she perceived that the Sioux would not come down on them en-masse, when she raised her father's loaded gun and killed a warrior who was running to get her father's scalp, thus knowing that she had killed the slayer of her father, as no Indian would come for a scalp he had not earned himself.

"The Sioux were now on the retreat and their flank and rear were being threatened, the girl picked up her father's ammunition pouch, loaded the rifle and started in pursuit. Stopping at the body of her dead Sioux she lifted his scalp and tucked it under her belt. She continued the chase with the men of her band and it was two days before they returned to their women and children, which they had left on the trail, and when the brave little heroine returned she had added two scalps to the one she had started with."

Henry Schoolcraft gives the name of the Chippewa chief of the village at Lake Chetek as Kedug-e-be-shew (The Spotted Lynx), his village being located here during the latter part of the eighteenth century. There is some qustion, however, as to whether the Lake Chetek, of Schoolcraft, was the Lake Chetek in Barron county.

Many Indian trails traversed Barron county. Some of the most important were along the Chetek lake, Menomonie river, Rice lake, Cedar lake region. Some of these trails have been traced by J. A. H. Johnson, of Chetek, with the aid of early settlers and others.

One of these, which he had named the "Bayfield Trail," came from the vicinity of the west side of Cedar Lake and crossed the country to Rice Lake, passing down the west side. According to G. C. Soper, an old settler, who came to Rice Lake in 1876, the Bayfield Trail came from Howard's Point on the shore of Rice lake, passed through the mounds located here, and followed in a southwesterly direction along a rise of ground, now graded away, to the southeast corner of Knapp and Main streets. It continued on from this point, passing a pond then located near the present corner of Stout and Main streets, and proceeded down Main street to the corner of Main and Humbird. Here it forked, one branch continuing down the Red Cedar (Menomonie) river at the foot of the city, and the other taking a northwestwardly direction to the site of the present First Ward school and thence across the country to Bear creek. The branch down the Red Cedar continued on the west side of the river to the vicinity of the present village of Cameron, near which place it crossed to the east side of that stream and pursued a southeasterly direction to the shore of Prairie lake and down its shore and that of Chetek lake to the present site of Chetek.

The Superior trail coming from the west through the present site of Barron united with the Bayfield trail near the present shore of Prairie lake.

The so-called Flambeau trail coming from the banks of the Chippewa river passed between Lake Pokegema and Prairie and Chetek lakes, meeting the Bayfield trail near the present site of Chetek.

To-go-ne-ge-shik and forty other chiefs and braves of the Chippewa executed a treaty at La Point, on Chequamegon bay, Lake Superior, Oct. 4, 1842, ceding all Chippewa lands in Wisconsin to the United States. A reserva¬ tion was set aside for the Chippewa above Sand lake in Minnesota.

But several bands of the Chippewa were much dissatisfied with the agree¬ ment and especially with the reservation. Therefore, the government returned to them a considerable tract on Lac Court d'Oreilles (Couderay lake) and the branches of the upper Chippewa.

From the Couderay reservation the Chippewa continued to range Barron county. Wild game was plentiful in the heavy forests and along the water courses. The lakes abounded in fish and wild fowl. Beaver sported in the brooks and supplied pelts which were readily sold and traded.

Rice lake and the Chetek lakes were a favorite resort of the Indians every fall. There they gathered their winter's supply of wild rice. When the dam was built at Rice Lake, late in the sixties, raising the water and flooding the rice fields, the Indians were much incensed, and for a while danger was threatened, but the excitement in time died down.

"The Indians in the month of September repair to Rice lake to gather their rice. In no other place does it grow in such large quantities as there. The water is not over five feet deep, and its surface is almost entirely covered with rice. It is only in morasses or muddy bottoms that this grain is found.

"It was formerly the practice of the Indians when the grain was in milk to pass around in canoes and gather up the tops in large shocks or branches and fasten them to render the collecting of the grain much easier after it was ripened. By this means they obtained it in much larger quantities than at present.

"This work of harvesting is performed by the females. It is now gathered by two of them, passing around in a canoe, one sitting in the stern and pushing it around, while the other with her back to the bow, and with two small pointed sticks about three feet long, one in each hand, collects it by running one of the sticks into the rice and bending it over onto the edge of the canoe, while with the other she strikes the heads suddenly and rattles the grain into it. This she does on both sides of the canoe alternately and while the canoe is moving. About a gill is generally struck off at a blow.

"One method of curing the rice, and that which makes it the most palatable, is by putting it in a kettle in small quantities and hanging it over the fire until it becomes parched. A round hole is dug in the ground one and a half feet deep and three in circumference, into which a moose skin is usually put. Into this hole the parched grain is then poured, where it is trod by an Indian until completely hulled. This is very laborious work and always devolves upon the men. The grain is then taken out and cleaned in a fan made of birch bark, shaped something like those used by early farmers. This is the most expeditious method of curing it.

"The other method differs from this only in drying. In the drying process a scaffold is made of small poles about three feet from the ground, and covered with cedar slabs. On this the rice is spread and under the scaffold a small slow fire is kindled, which is kept up until the grain becomes entirely dry. It takes nearly a day to dry the quantity contained on one of the scaffolds. The grain cured in this way is more nutritious and keeps much

"The rice when cured is put into sacks containing about a bushel. A sack is valued at two skins or about $4. A fathom of stroud or a blanket will buy two sacks.

"One family ordinarily makes about five sacks although those who are industrious sometimes make twenty-five. The last, however, is very rare. A few provident Indians save a little for the spring of the year to eat with their sugar, manufactured from the sap of the maple trees, though generally by the time they have done curing it, the whole is disposed of for trinkets, ornaments and whiskey."

Another of the features which attracted the Mound Builders and the more modern Indians to Barron county was the ridge of pipestone in Sections 27 and 34, Doyle township, and Section 3, Sumner township. This formation, called by the geologists "catlinite," is mentioned in the chapter in this volume on geology. It is a dark red clay, easily worked into shape with a knife, which hardens upon exposure to the air. The Aborigines came here, secured blocks of the soft clay, and fashioned it into pipes, beads, and other ornaments, which rapidly hardened into a substance which takes a high red polish.

G. A. West made an investigation of the pipe stone quarries in Barron county in 1910. He writes (The Wisconsin Archeologist, Vol. 9, p.p. 32-33) :

"The quarry in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 27, Town 35, Range 10 (Doyle), was long worked by the Indians and an excava¬ tion formerly existed over an area of about 25 feet square and 3 feet in depth. This seems small and unimportant but as the material was used almost exclusively for pipes the amount of waste material being small, and there being other ancient quarries in the neighborhood, it seems safe to conclude that enough catlinite was mined in this district to supply the demand of the Wisconsin Indians for several centuries.

"Because of the swampy land surrounding it, this quarry is almost inacces¬ sible during the summer months, but in winter when the swamps are frozen, for several years past farmers have drawn upon it for building stone, thus almost completely destroying all evidences of aboriginal work.

"Along the highway leading from Rice lake in the direction of the quarry may be seen outcrops of shaly rock, much resembling pipestone, but coarser in texture.

"On the northeast quarter of Section 34, Town 35, Range 10, (Doyle) are other primitive workings. This outcrop falls back from near the bed of the creek in a succession of terraces up the slope of a hill, thirty feet above the stream. The side of this hill contains a dozen or more pits, ranging from 4 to 10 feet across, and about four feet in depth. Some of these excavations have been defaced by white men and by modern Indians, who annually make pilgrimages from the Couderay reservation several miles to the north, to this location for pipestone. Large quantities of rejected rock lay scattered about the excavation. The entire stone face of some of the cliffs, and the undis¬ turbed portions of others, showed much weathering, and upon the dumps were several large trees.

"In cleaning out one of these pits, the writer found two oblong boulders weighing about thirty pounds each, which were probably used for breaking the rock, a slight abrasion at their ends would appear to indicate. The portion of this outcrop near the surface or overcapping is a very dark red, siliceous rock, somewhat harder than pipestone, and quarries into slabs often four feet in length and from one to six inches in thickness. Its surface is often beauti¬ fully ripple marked. Bands of light colored quartzite often traverse.it. Scales of mica are somewhat dispersed throughout these bands. Examples taken from below the waterline, or even from the damp ground, were found to be much softer and more readily cut and whittled with a knife. A nearby settler showed a paper knife about twelve inches long made by him from this stone, he using simply an ordinary pocket knife in its manufacture. In experiment, the writer found that this rock is easily wrought when fresh from the damp earth, but hardens rapidly when exposed to the air.

"Continuing the search, other primitive workings were discovered about a mile down the same stream to the south (Section 3, Township 34, Range 10 [Sumner]). The rock here was found to be of the same texture and color as the last described. There are several small pits on the sloping banks of the creek, but the principal excavation is in the bed of the stream.

With the establishment of each important lumber camp in Barron county, Indians belonging to the Couderay reservation camped near by and were insistent in their begging. It is said that in the sixties when Mrs. Isaac Sprague was cooking for the lumbermen at Prairie Farm it was necessary to detail two husky lumberjacks to keep the begging and pilfering Indians at a respectful distance.

One of the largest Indian villages in lumbering days and one of the last to vanish was that near Almena where the Indian burial ground is still pointed out.

For many years after the opening of Barron county the presence of these Indians was tolerated. Some of them were related to the lumbermen by marriage, for such prominent leaders as Capt. Andrew Tainter and John Quaderer and others took brides of Indian blood.

But as the farms increased in number and acreage, and there were more and more little isolated cabins in which the women and children were left alone during the long winter months while the men folk were away working in the lumber camps, many of the whites considered it wise that the Indians be expelled.

These Indians were receiving an anuity from the Government and were supposedly civilized. But some were rapidly reverting to the most primitive conditions. They disregarded game laws, and were rapidly ridding the county of the best of its game by fire hunting for deer in the summer time. These deer the Indians wantonly wasted, using only a little of the meat for food, but bartering the skins for whiskey, which, according to observers, was "drank by nearly all, regardless of age or sex." With the whiskey thus obtained the Indians held drunken orgies, during which several brutal murders of their own number took place. At times they even became bolder and threatened the whites.

As the result of such conditions, on Jan. 1, 1878, the county board memorialized Hon. Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior, asking that the Indians be removed to their reservation, both for their own benefit and to the advantage of Barron county. At that time there were but three voting Indians in the county, two being homesteaders and the other a freeholder.

This memorial to the interior department provoked a spirited controversy between the county board and I. L. Mahan, Indian agent at Bayfield. The agent blamed the local authorities for not enforcing the liquor laws, and officially declared that "almost every man in Barron county is either a candi¬ date for office or expects to be before he dies."

In time, however, the bands were duly removed to the reservation, and as the heavy timbers were cut off the Indians disappeared, and their old hunting grounds, now converted into rich farms, know them no more.