The Black Duck focus is the sole member of the
Head Waters Lake aspect. It is
also a member of the Lake Michigan
phase and the Late Woodland
pattern.The Black Duck focus is the sole member of the
Head Waters Lake aspect. It is
also a member of the Lake Michigan
phase and the Late Woodland
pattern.
The range of the Blackduck focus is from Southwestern Manitoba through Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin into Northern Michigan. Sites have been dated from 1100 to 400 years BP. Wilford has suggested that the Blackduck and Kathio may have both developed from earlier Malmo focus and that the Blackduck people moved north while the Kathio succeeded them near the Mississippi. Brasch has suggested that the Blackduck grew out of the Laurel culture and due to the population expansion, gave rise to the Blackduck culture.
The Blackduck people were the largest group to inhabit Northern Minnesota. They were hunters and gatherers and did not live in permanent residences.
Most notable of the culture was its' pottery and tools. Blackduck pottery is grit-tempered, cord-marked pottery with cord-wrapped decoration and thick rims. Mortuary pottery reveals several parallel horizontal rows of indentations, as well. Tool objects, such as harpoons or awls, were made from animal bones. Antlers were used as flakers. Projectile points are triangular or triangular with two side notches. Knives were rather thick, leaf-shaped objects with flat backs with a tendency to be broad and convex. The Blackduck culture made a shift from the use of the bow and arrow to the use of the atalatl.
The most common Blackduck habitations sites include Mud Lake, White Oak point, Shocker and Smith. In Wisconsin, there is a site near Clam Lake. McKinstry and Osufsen burial mounds are known sites, as well.
Birk, Douglas. "The Norway Lake Site: A Multicomponent Woodland Complex in North Central Minnesota." in Minnesota Archaeology, Vol 36, No 1, February 1977. pp. 27-8.
Brasch, Ivelise A., The Late Woodland Period in Northern Minnesota. Manuscript. May, 1986.
Evans, G. Edward. "Ceramic Analysis of The Blackduck Ware and its General Cultural Relationships" in The Minnesota Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol 29, 1961. pp. 33-54.
Wilford, Lloyd A. "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota". in American Antiquity. Vol. XXI, 2, 1955. pp. 136-138.