178 PRE-COLUMBIAN COPPER-MINING 



Wisconsin. This condition is no doubt largely due to the indefatiga- 

 ble zeal of Mr. F. S. Perkins, of Wisconsin, who has devoted himself 

 for many years to collecting copper articles of Indian origin from all 

 parts of the State, about four hundred of which are in the Smithsonian 

 cases. But the phenomenon can be explained in anotlier way when 

 one reflects that Keweenaw Point is directly nortli of the State and 

 was the seat of the ancient copper mines which have attracted the 

 attention of archaeologists, and was the center of distribution of the 

 native copper which was the object of the desultory mining carried on 

 there. Wisconsin is also in a very favorable situation for receiving the 

 drift which brought "float" copper from the copper-bearing rocks of 

 Keweenaw, which "float" was apparently often manufactured into 

 implements. The State covers a district which was near the mines and 

 is in a direct course for people leaving them going south. It may be 

 found that that district was the seat of the ancient miners themselves. 



The yield of mounds, graves, and fields, as shown in the colie(;tions, 

 confirms in a general way the observations of the first discoverers. In 

 the eastern and southern parts of the country the majority of the copper 

 articles whic;h have been found are breast-plates, bracelets, beads, 

 bobbin-like objects and other ornaments, while in the north and west, 

 and especially in Wisconsin, implements and weapons prevail. The 

 Wisconsin vSpecimens are like those figured by ^Yh\tt\esey{Smithsonia)i 

 Contributions, vol. xiii), which were found in the mining district itself, 

 and those found at Brock ville, Canada, and shown in Wilson's "Prehis- 

 toric Man." Otliers, apparently of the same character, are mentioned by 

 Wilson as being found near Marquette, Mich., east of the copper dis- 

 trict. 



The present evidence, therefore, sliowsthatcoi^per had not passed its 

 ornamental or precious stage on the seaboard and in the south at the 

 time this continent was brought to the attention of Europe. It was not 

 a part of the general native equipment, either for war, or hunting, or 

 other useful purposes, and its i)osition in the native economy was not 

 like the noticeable part it played in the armament of the Mexicans and 

 Central Americans of the same jjeriod. 



At the advent of Europeans copper w^as eagerly sought for in trade 

 with the whites. An olficial present of coj^per articles is particularly 

 mentioned in the account of Cartier's voyage before referred to, and 

 Ealph Lane writes from Roanoke, in 1585, to his company in England 

 that they could not do better than send over copper articles of all kinds 

 to trade with ; " copper carry eth the price of all, so it be made red," he 

 explains. The copper obtained from the whites was very soon, with other 

 imported things, disseminated by barter among the different tribes. In 

 Frobisher's third voyage to the Labrador coast (lat. 58°), in 1578, he 

 noticed the evidence of tliis aboriginal trade, and says " the natives 

 have traffic with other people, and have barres of iron, arrowe, and 

 speare heads and certain buttons of copi)er which they use to weare 



