| White Oak | Border Lakes | N/A |
The northern area of Minnesota, as designated by Elden Johnson, essentially involves a small western grassland division and a much larger eastern division of boreal forest cover. The boreal forest area is also distinguished by massive expansion of the Pre-Cambrian Shield with its immensely complex topography of lakes, rivers, and marshes, all created by glacially disturbed drainage.(Steinbring, 64) Throughout northern Minnesota, and especially in the northeastern quadrant of the state, there are evidences of a long persisting and effectively adapted Archaic tradition. Peoples migrating into the recently deglaciated Upper Great Lakes region formed a broad ecological adjustment, ever perfecting itself in time. Movement along the waterways at early times is effected by an evolving complex of woodworking tools, some of which produced the watercraft basic to such an expansion. Copper technology enters this general development around 3000 B.C., probably starting with hunting tools of a more southerly origin and coming finally to embrace and even typify the material culture of a lake-forest pattern. The exploitation of fish must soon after have become a central economic activity and undoubtedly served to stabilize some populations like those at Petaga Point, Houska Point, and Fish Lake West. (Steinbring, 73)
A distinct east-west migration, over a long period of time, can be traced along the geological features of the northern lakes and rivers system. For instance, The appearance of large stone gouges can be linked to the building of dugout canoes. The stone gouge is an early eastern tool, and its appearance at excavated sites gradually diminishes along the river routes to the west. Further westward movement of the population is marked by the later appearance of copper chisels, which replaced the stone gouges in the Great Lakes region, and are found as far west as Lake Winnipeg. (Steinbring, 72)
Some of the Far North Foci that are part of the Border Lakes Aspect include a possible Paleo-Indian site at Gold Island, the Smith Site, Houska Point, Pickerel Lake, South fowl Lake, and Fish Lake Dam.
Steinbring, Jack, Preceramic Archaeology of Northern Minnesota, Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology, Edited by Elden Johnson, Papers in honor of Lloyd A. Wilford, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1974.