The American Indian artifacts uncovered in Goodhue County digs will be taken to an archaeological research lab at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing.
Researchers will wash and catalogue them, and the artifacts will be taken to Minnesota State University, Mankato, and formally catalogued. Then they become part of the permanent collection at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
The digs, which focus on ancient Native American villages and burial mounds dating from 1100 to 1250, got a boost with a $100,000 pledge Thursday from the Prairie Island Tribal Community.
Researchers have already found "tens of thousands of things," according to Ronald C. Schirmer, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Minnesota State University Mankato. Found artifacts include stone tools, pottery and animal bones used as tools.
House floors and rubbish pits are among the features discovered at village sites.
The discoveries show that there was much more intensive interaction among people from different societies than previously believed. Not only were Native Americans very industrious, Schirmer said, but they also lived "very, very complex social lives."
The discoveries also give American Indians answers about their past.
While standing near burial mounds outside the Treasure Island Resort & Casino, Audrey Bennett, president of the Prairie Island Tribal Council, said she has many unanswered questions about her ancestry.
"It's like part of a tree missing a limb," she said.
The research will give children the chance to study their ancestry in a way they can't experience by reading a textbook, she said.
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