864 



MINA MINES AND QUARRIES 



[b. a. e. 



castle, Spanish Am., 68, 1819. Mimbrerenos. — 

 Barreiro, Ojeada sobre Nuevo-Mexico, app., 3, 

 1832. Mimbres.— Anza ( 17(i9) in Doc. Hist. Mex., 

 4th s., II, 114, 18.56 Mimbres Apaches.— Cremony, 

 Life among Apaches, 33, 1868. Mimvre.— Ind. Aff. 

 Rep. 1859, 336, 1860. Yecujen-iie.— Esciidero, Not. 

 Estad. de Chihuahua, 212, 1834 (own name). 



Mina. The extinct Salt clans of Sia and 

 San Felipe pueblos, N. Mex. 

 Mina-hano.— Hodge in Am. Anthrop., ix, 3.52,1896 

 {haiiii = 'peop\e'). 



Minas. A Micmac village or band in 

 Nova Scotia in 1760.— Frye (1760) in 

 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st s., x, 115, 1809. 



Minatti. A village, probably Seminole, 

 formerly at the source of Peace cr., w. 

 central Florida, ])robably in the present 

 Polk CO. (H. R. Doc. 78, 25th Cong., 2d 

 sess., map, 768-9, 1838). The name evi- 

 dently bears no relation to the present 

 Manatee in Manatee co. 



Minemaung. A Potawatomi village, 

 called after a chief of this name, near the 

 present Grantpark, Kankakee co., N. e. 

 Illinois, on land ceded in 1832. — Camp 

 Tippecanoe treaty (1832) in U. S. Ind. 

 Treaties, 698, 1873. 



Mines and Quarries. The term mining 

 is usually applied to operations connected 

 with the procuring of metals from the 

 earth, while the term quarrying is ap- 

 plied to the procuring of stone. The 

 former term sometimes refers also to the 

 oljtaining of minerals occurring in minute 

 quantities, as turquoise, or of substances, 

 as clay, salt, and ocher, not usually re- 

 moved in solid or bulky bodies, especially 

 where deep excavations or tunneling are 

 required. Gold, silver, and copper were 

 used by many of the more progressive 

 American tribes before the discovery; 

 but copper was the only metal extensively 

 used N. of Mexico. The smelting of ores 

 was prol)ably imperfectly understood, 

 even by the most advanced tribes, and 

 iron, except in meteoric form or in the 

 ore, was unknown. Their most impor- 

 tant mines of copper (q. V. ) with which 

 we are acquainted were in n. Michigan 

 penin. and on Isle Royale in L. Superior. 

 Here the native metal occurs in masses 

 and bits distributed in more or less 

 compact bodies of eruptive rock. The 

 mining operations consisted in removing 

 the superficial earth and debris and in 

 breaking up the rock with stone sledges 

 and by the application of heat, thus 

 freeing the masses of metal, some of 

 which were of large size. One specimen, 

 partially removed from its bed by the 

 aborigines and then abandoned, weighed 

 nearly 3 tons. "It was I65 feet below 

 the surface, and under it were poles, as 

 if it had been entirely detached, but it 

 had not been much displaced" (Win- 

 chell in Pop. Sci. Monthly, Sept. 1881). 

 Another very large mass encountered in 

 the shaft of the Minnesota mine on Onto- 

 nagon r., Mich., which bad been partially 



removed by the native miners, is referred 

 to by MacLean: "The excavation [an- 

 cient] reached a depth of 26 ft., which 

 was tilled up with clay and a matted mass 

 of moldering vegetable matter. At a 

 depth of 18 ft., among a mass of leaves, 

 sticks, and water, Mr Knapp discovered 

 a detached mass of copper weighing 6 

 tons. This mass had been raised about 



5 ft. along the foot of the lode on timbers 

 by means of wedges and was left upon a 

 cobwork of logs. These logs were from 



6 to 8 in. in diameter, the ends of which 

 plainly showed the marks of a cutting 

 tool. The upper surface and edges of the 

 mass of copper were beaten and pounded 

 smooth, showing that the irregular pro- 

 truding pieces had been broken off. Near 

 it were found other masses. On the walls 

 of the shaft were marks of fire. Besides 

 charcoal there was found a stone sledge 

 weighing 36 pounds and a copper maul 

 weighing 25 pounds. Stone mauls, ashes, 

 and charcoal have been found in all these 

 mines" (MacLean, Mound Builders, 76- 

 77, 1904). The excavations were gener- 

 ally not deep, being merely pits, but 

 tunneling was occasionally resorted to 

 (Gillman). In McCargole's cove, on 

 Isle Royale, nearly a square mile of the 

 surface has been worked over, the pits 

 connecting with one another over a large 

 part of the area. Countless broken and 

 unbroken stone sledges, mostly roundish 

 bowlders of hard stone brought from the 

 lake shore many miles away, are scattered 

 over the surface and mixed with the 

 debris. As indicated by the presence of 

 rough grooves and notches, these imple- 

 ments were generally hafted for use. A 

 remnant of a withe handle was preserved 

 in one instance, and a wooden shovel, a 

 wooden basin, a wooden ladder, and a 

 piece of knotted rawhide string are among 

 the relics obtained from the ancient pits 

 by modern miners. 



In glacial times extensive surfaces of 

 the copper-bearing rocks were swept by 

 the under surfaces of the great ice sheets, 

 and thus many masses and bits of the 

 metal, more or less scarred and battered, 

 were earned southward over Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and even 

 farther s. These masses, deposited with 

 the rocky debris of moraines, were col- 

 lected and utilized by the natives. The 

 masses of copper, when obtained, were 

 probably in the main carried away to 

 distant settlements to be worked into 

 implements, utensils, and ornaments. 

 The distribution of the product was very 

 wide, extending over the entire country 

 E. of the great plains. Cinnabar, ocher, 

 salt, alum, and clay were mined in many 

 sections of the country, Indians some- 

 times going long distances in quest of 

 these materials. Coal was and is ob- 



