THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE ONCE INHABITING 

 A LIMITED AREA MAR SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, 



AS H LUS 1KA 1KI) l;\ MA IT.KIAI. IN 1 III. AN 

 THROPOLOGICAL DEPAR IMIAT OF THE AMER- 

 ICAN MUSEUM 01 NA rURAL HISTORY. 



By H \ki w i. Smi i h. 

 I 



THE rude archaeological objects found in the Saginaw valley, 

 Michigan, and exhibited in the American Museum of Natural 

 History show that the prehistoric people who lived in that area 

 were largely occupied with striving for the necessaries of life. 

 The region, although not at all desolate, was still too far north to 

 support a civilization that would leave traces of a culture so 

 largely given to art and ritual as those to be found in Mexico, the 

 Southern States or even in the Ohio valley. Such a collection 

 of rather rude implements and objects has value, however, in that 

 it gives evidence regarding the lives of the early inhabitants of 

 the country. 



The objects from the Saginaw valley were found in such places 

 that we now know where there were a number of rather important 

 villages and a still larger number of small villages or camp 

 sites, besides what were probably scattered habitations and 

 burial-places — all of the early people of this region. It is quite 

 evident from areas where certain stray objects were found, and 

 from the scarcity of other evidences in such areas, that the peo- 

 ple also made trips to points remote from the villages, probably 

 for fishing and hunting, the gathering of fruits and roots or the 

 securing of material out of which to make arrow-points and 

 pipes; and that the objects were lost on the way. It would 

 seem that the character of the country, with the scattered dis- 

 tribution of its products, was the cause of the segregation of the 

 people into small trill :id possibly of their establishing 



small outlying camps for the purpose of being, at certain 

 near points suitable for such occupation e noted. 



The importance of the collection exhibited in these 

 jflly that it indi iracterofthc >f the people, 



the location of their habitations, burial-places, caches and 



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