Petaga
PointPetaga
PointPetaga Point, discovered in the 1920’s, is a multi-component site that was occupied during the Archaic, Middle Woodland and Late Woodland periods. The site is located on a peninsula of land between the outlet of the Rum River and Lake Ogechie in central Minnesota, about twenty-five miles northeast of the Snake River Site.
The site was discovered by T.E. Moore and his family while clearing and farming his homesteaded land during the 1920s and 1930s. Moore uncovered numerous artifacts including pot sherds and native copper implements. The site was visited by Lloyd A. Wilford who recorded the presence of the artifacts, but decided not investigate the area more fully. Eventually Petaga Point was acquired as part of the Mille Lacs Kathio State Park in the early 1960s. The University of Minnesota undertook a survey of the site, directed by Leland R. Cooper, and discovered that the site had been used repeatedly during prehistoric times. In the summer of 1966 the site was excavated under the direction of Peter Bleed. His published report provides most of the material used here.
The soil consisted of red sand and clay drift deposited by the Superior lobe of the Laurentide ice sheet during the Late Wisconsin Glaciation. During aboriginal times the area was covered with spruce, pine, and hardwood forests of maple and birch. As the name would imply, the site is located on a point with Lake Ogechie to the northwest, and the Rum River to the south. Along the waters edge is a dense wet bog, which still supports a rich growth of wild rice, just as it did in prehistoric times.
The earliest component of Petaga Point dates to the Late Archaic Period (5,000 to 3,000 B.P). Archaic artifacts recovered from the site include copper points, awls and knives, as well as a variety of stone tools. Recovery of copper tools and pure copper nuggets are typical of those assigned to the Old Copper complex of the northern Great Lakes region.
Direct dating through stratification was difficult because the entire sight was very shallow. The assemblages were mixed together and it was apparent that they had been disturbed by the forces of nature and man. Since there is no evidence of Early Woodland, and very little Middle Woodland occupation at Petaga Point, stone and copper artifacts found there but absent from other Middle or Late Woodland sites of the Mille Lacs area must logically have been deposited during the pre-ceramic Archaic Period.
The tool assemblage which was deposited at Petaga Point during the Archaic Period consists of hammered copper implements (conical points, an ulu knife, round and square awls) and a range of stone artifacts, including large stemmed points, eared side-notched points, rectangular side scrapers, asymmetrical stemmed knives and large conchoidal flake choppers. Other possible constituents of the pre-ceramic assemblage are irregular stone end scrapers and engravers, small pointed knives and ungrooved hammerstones.
Something that Bleed thought was notable at Petaga Point site was that the Archaic inhabitants favored gray slate to use for stone tools. This use is not generally associated with any other site in Minnesota, but clearly links the pre-ceramic cultures of the state to others of the northeastern United States.
A Middle Woodland occupation is indicated by side-notched convex-based points, pointed bifacial knives, St. Croix pottery, and possibly round double-pointed awls. This occupation is very small in comparison to the Late Woodland and Archaic components.
The Late Woodland (3,000 BP - 300 BP) occupation of Petaga Point was the most extensive. Recovered artifacts include small notched and unnotched stone points; end scrapers and gravers, sandstone shaft abraders, and Late Woodland pottery types. Six pottery series linked to the Late Woodland period are in evidence at Petaga Point. The six series, listed in order of the most numerous found are Onamia, Kathio, St. Croix Stamped, Ogechie, Sandy Lake, and Checked Stamp.
Two burials have been uncovered. One contained the remains of a forty-year-old female with one cord-marked pot sherd. The other burial contained the skeleton of an eight-year-old, and an infant, and were found with copper coils thought to be European trade goods. Both burials and one other single human phalanx can be linked to the Late Woodland period or early historic period.
Some of the more interesting features of the Petaga Point site have to do with processing the wild rice. These include ricing pits which were used to store the grain, jigging pits used for threshing and a rice parching ring. Many ricing pits were observed around the area, but only two were excavated. Generally they were circular depressions about fourteen inches wide and eighteen inches deep. Ricing jigs were found to be shallow pits lined on the bottom with a thick basin-shaped layer of unfired clay. Ricing jigs are a common feature in Late Woodland archaeological sites throughout northern Minnesota. Three such jigs were found at Petaga Point. The rice parching ring was a circular trench, with the soil in the middle undisturbed and compacted. The soil around this compacted area, within the trench, was stained with charcoal, and contained pieces of unburned wood, and parched grains of rice. These features were dated during the early historic period.(Bleed, p. 6-7)
Johnson, Elden, Editor, Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology, Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1974.
Caine, Christy A.H., The archaeology of the Snake River Region in Minnesota.Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology, Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1974.
Steinbring, Jack, Preceramic Archaeology of Northern Minnesota. Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology, Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1974.
Stoltman, James B., An Examination of Within-laurel Cultural Variability in Northern Minnesota. Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology, Papers in Honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1974.
Jennings, Jesse D., Prehistory of North America, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1974.
Johnson, Elden, The Prehistoric Peoples of Minnesota, State Archaeologist, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1969.
Krieger, Alex D., "Early Man in the New World". Prehistoric Man in the New World, Symposium at Rice University, November 1962.
Griffin, James B., "The Northeast Woodlands Area". Prehistoric Man in the New World, Symposium at Rice University, November 1962.
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Griffin, James B., Editor, Lake Superior Copper and the Indians: Miscellaneous Studies of Great Lakes Prehistory, Anthropological Papers, No. 17, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1961.
Bleed, Peter, The Archaeology of Petaga Point, The Preceramic Component, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1969.