RADiN] WINNEBAGO ARCHEOLOGY 85 



Nicollet's time, some even within the recollection of Winnebago stiU 

 living. All were miquestionably erected by the Winnebago, and 

 since there is no reason for believing that this tribe entered Wisconsin 

 many centuries before the first appearance of Europeans in America, 

 it is quite erroneous to state, as Mr. Stout does, that the evidence at 

 hand justifies us in dividing the occupancy of Wisconsin into two 

 principal periods, the effigy mound-building era and the time that 

 has elapsed since that period. 



The use of copper by the Winnebago prior to their contact with 

 Europeans is another of the rather bafflnig questions connected with 

 Winnebago archeology. There are references to its use in the myth 

 of the Twins, but the sections of the myth where it is mentioned 

 show marked evidences of European mfluence and can hardly be 

 accepted as reflecting the original mode of life of the Winnebago. 

 •Copper is found in a number of mounds, but we have no way of 

 determinmg whether these mounds are pre-Columbian or not. 



In aU likehhood, almost all the copper foimd in Wisconsin comes 

 from the original copper workmgs at Isle Royale, Keweenaw, Onto- 

 nagon, and elsewhere, in the Lake Superior district. "A provisional 

 description of the territory m which the greatest number of such 

 artifacts have been recovered up to the present time may be given 

 as extending from about the middle of Milwaukee Cotmty, northward 

 along the west shore of Lake Michigan to Door County, thence west- 

 ward to the Wisconsin River or slightly beyond, thence southward 

 along this stream to Dane County and eastward to Milwaukee County, 

 the starting point. Embraced within this territory are the extensive 

 lake shore vUlage sites, from which thousands of articles have already 

 been recovered, and certain well-known sites in Green Lake and 

 adjommg coimties, the Rush Lake and similarly productive regions."" 



The region thus described embraces the Winnebago territory and 

 that subsequently occupied by the Central Algonquian tribes. It does 

 not follow the line of Winnebago migrations farther than the Wis- 

 consin River to the west or farther than the southern boundary of 

 Dane County to the south or southwest. As far as the writer knows 

 no one has ever been able to obtain any information from the Winne- 

 bago that would hi any manner connect them with the authorship 

 of the copper Lniplements foimd associated with their old village 

 sites. All Indians questioned denied that their ancestors had ever 

 used copper before the arrival of the early French traders. For the 

 Winnebago, it seems to the writer, the problem connected with the 

 occurrence of copper implements is not whether the Winnebago made 

 them, but how they came to obtain them. The solution of this 

 problem would be unmensely facilitated if we had accurate knowledge 



" Brown, in the Wisconsin Archeologist, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 58. 



