The Silvernale,
Great Oasis, and Cambria foci are strongly linked, located in the
Minnesota/Mississippi river valleys of south-eastern Minnesota. The ancient
city of Cahokia, was
a massive center of trade along the rivers of the Mississippi. It linked many
of the river cultures including Silvernale. Silvernale is also a part of the
Upper Mississippian phase.
The Silvernale focus is not well understood. It was a village area
on the terraces in the Redwing area. Due to destruction of the evidence by
farming and industrial expansion of Red Wing, very little can be learned by
excavation. What is known is that the Silvernale people were a part of the
Mississippian tradition and
possibly a part of the Oneota as well.
Silvernale pottery is
very distinctive. It was shell tempered and had chevrons imprinted on it.
There are a great deal of burial mound and sites located around the Red Wing, MN. Area, but unfortunately many of these sites have been damaged due to construction and unreported excavations. The defining site is the Silvernale site.
"The Mississippian occupation of the Red Wing area" by Guy Gibbon, St. Paul : Minnesota Historical Society, 1979.