FIFTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I908 



63 



i By Robert Sheills, F.A.A. Scot., Neenah, Wisconsin, United 

 States of America. 



Indian socketed spearhead or knife of native copper, 4^ inches 

 in length by i}i inches in breadth, from Neenah, Wisconsin. 



Two Luckcnbooth brooches, three small pendant crosses (of the 

 shape shown in fig. 1), a circular mounting with five included 

 circles and 11 small buckles all cut out of thin sheet brass, found 

 together in excavating an Indian mound at Kaukauna, Outagamie 

 co., State of Wisconsin. 



Mr Sheills has supplied the facts for the following account of 

 the locality and circumstances connected with the discovery of these 

 curious relics of the old intercourse between the British and the 

 Indians. Kaukauna is on the Fox river, 23 miles west of Green 

 bay, which is one of the very oldest settlements in North America, 

 at the south end of a large bay of Lake Michigan and the mouth 

 of the Fox river. It was the seat of a Jesuit Mission and a depot 

 for fur traders. The river was the highway to the Mississippi. Its 

 sources are on the south side of the watershed of Lake Superior. 

 It runs in a southerly course to the city of Portage, where it turns 

 easterly to the bay. The Wisconsin river pursues a similar course 

 to Portage, where a slight watershed deflects it westerly to the 

 Mississippi. The two rivers come within three or four miles of 

 each other and are now joined by a canal. The Indian traders 

 used to take their canoes up the Fox river by Kaukauna and 

 Neenah to Portage, carry them over the slight ridge, and go down 

 the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi. Mr P. V. 

 Lawson, ex-mayor of Manasha, has written an account of the 

 circumstances in which these Luckenbooth brooches, crosses, and 

 other trade articles came to be buried in the Indian mounds on this 

 route. The method of obtaining the friendship of the Indian tribes 

 during the occupation of the French and English was by making 

 presents to the savages. By lavish gift making the British had the 

 strong support of all the savage tribes of the northwest, even after 

 the treaty of 1789, and up to and all through the War of 1812. 

 From memoranda found in the Canadian archives it appears that 

 there were given to a chief from the upper country, among other 

 items : " three hundred brooches, twelve pair ear-bobs." By means 

 of such gifts nearly every tribe in the great northwest fought on 

 the British side. 



A second letter of inquiry was sent to Dr Anderson, as follows: 



New York State Museum 



Albany, N. Y ., December 29, 1908 



Joseph Anderson, Esq. 



National Museum of Antiquities 

 Edinburgh, Scotland 



Dear sir: I have received your letter of the 15th inst., relative 

 to the silver brooches made by the Iroquois Indians after the 

 models of the old Scotch Luckenbooth brooches and am deeply 



