The Rainy River serves as the
international boundary between Canada and United States. On the southern bank
of this river, near the town of Pelland, Minnesota lie two burial mounds. These
mounds are situated near the bank of the river and are within sight of Canada.
They are known as the McKinstry Mounds and were explored thoroughly toward the
end of the first half of this century by
Lloyd Wilford, a
Minnesota archaeologist. Both mounds had been previously disturbed.
The first and largest mound was
approximately 83 feet in diameter and 8 and ½ feet high. It was explored
by excavation and found to yield a nice selection of artifacts. A total of 7780
potsherds were recovered. Almost all of them were of the
Laurel
type. Of the sherds recovered,6206 were body sherds, 99.84% of these had smooth
surfaces. The use of thick and pointed bases was attested by many of the sherds
that were uncovered. None of the decorated sherds were of the
Blackduck
type. The sherds that were decorated closely resembled the Laurel sherds found
in the Pike Bay mounds.
It is thought that the area once covered by Mound 1 was a living area. Firehearths and village debris was found in the topsoil beneath the mound. The debris included broken artifacts, potsherds, flint chips, and bones of mammals, birds and fish (mostly sturgeon).
Within the mound itself, 2 groups of thick shell beads were found. One group, thought to be a necklace, consisted of twenty-two hundred disc beads laying face to face in rows. With it, a partial skeleton was found. Interestingly, Mound 1 did not yield much for human remains.
Some of the more interesting artifacts recovered from mound 1 were a few objects of copper (including an open bracelet perforated at each end), 29 socketed antler points, 25 cut beaver incisor teeth, a total of 128 objects of chipped stone (including 12 stemmed arrow points and 40 two end scrapers). The 2 necklaces contained approximately 100 beads per foot. One of them was 22 feet long and the other was 8 feet long.
Mound 2 proved to be very interesting. It contained approximately 96 skeletons. These showed evidence of primary and secondary burial, disarticulation and burial in place. Some of the skulls recovered had the eye sockets filled with clay that was then fire-hardened. Also, some of the skulls recovered had a portion of the occipital area removed. This, coupled with some recovered long bones that were smashed, suggests endocannibalism.
About 1/3 of the 8256 potsherds recovered from mound 2 were of the Blackduck type. The rest were Laurel. Interestingly, Mr. Wilford states in his work that the mound yielded "a rich treasure of artifacts" but states that they are "not pertinent to a study of Rainy River culture". This was most likely done to fend off looters.