20MD534 BEADS

Black and white cylindrical beads, as illustrated in this picture, are the most common variety of bead found at 20MD534. This was also the most common variety at the Cater site.

BLACK AND WHITE CYLINDRICAL BEADS

Several shell wampum beads, as illustrated in the picture below, have also been recovered from 20MD534. Wampum beads have also been recovered from the Cater site. Both 20MD534 and Cater Chippewa occupations probably date to the 1820's. Wampum beads occur on Chippewa sites in central lower Michigan as late as the 1850's. A cellar from an 1850's cabin excavated at the Shingwahkoosking village, located about 25 miles up the Pine river, produced about a dozen shell wampum beads (Beld 1990:63-65). Also, the German traveller Johann Kohl noted shell wampum beads during his travels around Lake Superior in 1855 (Kohl 1985:135-136).

SHELL WAMPUM BEADS

A few other types of beads have also been recovered from 20MD534. These include the yellow and green barrel shaped beads illustrated below as well as seed beads (mainly black, white, blue, and green). Notably absent at the present stage of analysis are facetted glass beads as found at the Cater site (see TRADE BEADS), the Ponton site (see BEADS), and the 1850's Shingwahkoosking Village (Beld 1990:62-63).

MISCELLANEOUS BEADS

References

Beld, Scott G. (1990) Gratiot County Archaeology, Phase V, S89-273: Shin-gwah-koos-king / Bethany Mission (20GR186/187/199). Archaeological Survey Completion Report and National Register Documentation. Submitted to the Bureau of History, Michigan Department of State for the National Register Grant Program by Alma College, Alma, Michigan. Copy on file at the Office of the State Archaeologist, Michigan Historical Center, Lansing Michigan.

Kohl, Johann Georg (1985) Kitchi-gami: Life among the Lake Superior Ojibway. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul. Reprint, originally published in 1860.

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