350 A.NC1ENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



COPPER. 



Every one knows tbat the region where Lake Superior borders on the 

 northern i)art of Michigan abounds in copper, which occurs here in a 

 native state and in immense masses, the separation of which and rais- 

 ing to the surface contribute in no slight degree to the difficulties of 

 the mining process. Long before Europeans penetrated to those parts, 

 tbe aborigines already possessed a knowledge of this wealth of copper. 

 This fact became known in 1847, at which time the traces of ancient 

 aboriginal mining of some extent were pointed out in that district. The 

 circumstances of this discovery and the means employed by the natives 

 for obtaining the copper being now well known, a repetition of those 

 details liardly would be in place, and I merely refer to the writings 

 relating to this subject.* 



Copper was, indeed, the only metal which the North American 

 tribes employed for some i3uri)oses before their territories were colo- 

 nized by Europeans. Traces of wrought silver have been found, but 

 they are so exceedingly scanty that the technical significance of this 

 metal hardly can be taken into consideration. Gold was seen by the 

 earliest travelers in small quantities (in grains) among the Florida In- 

 dians ;t yet, to my knowledge, no object made of gold, that can with 

 certainty be attributed to the North American Indians, has thus far 

 been discovered-! The use of copper, likewise, was comparatively lim- 

 ited, and cannot have exerted any marked influence on the material 

 development of the natives. The copper articles left by the former in- 

 habitants are by no means abundant. As an example I will only 

 mention that, during a sojourn of thirteen years in the neighborhood of 

 St. Louis, which is i^articularly rich in tumular structures and other 

 tokens of Indian occupancy, I did not succeed in obtaining a single 

 specimen belonging to this class. Copper implements, such as axes, 

 chisels, gravers, knives, and points of arrows and spears, have been 

 found in the Jndian mounds and in other places ; but most of the ob- 

 jects made of this metal served for ornamental purposes, which circum- 

 stance alone would go far to prove that copper played but an indifferent 

 part in the industrial advancement of the race. If the ancient inhabit- 

 ants had understood the art of melting copper, or, moreover, had na- 

 ture furnished them with sufficient supplies of tin ore for producing 



* Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, Washington, 1848. Foster and Whitney, Report on the Geology and Topog- 

 raphy of the Lake Superior Land District, Part I, Washington, 1850. Schoolcraft, 

 Indian Tribes of the United States, Vol. I, Philadelphia, 1851. Lapham, The Antiqui- 

 ties of Wisconsin, Washington, 1855. Whittlesey, Ancient Mining on the Shores of 

 Lake Superior, Washington, 1863. Sir John Lubboek, Prehistoric Times, London, 

 18G5, &c. 



t See : Brinton, Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, Philadelphia, 1859, Appendix III. 



t In the Smithsonian Report for 1870, just published, the occurrence of gold beads in 

 a mound near Cartersville, in the Etowah valley, Georgia, is recorded. Native gold is 

 said to be found in the neighborhood, (p. 380.) 



