University of Connecticut |Chapter 4 - Natives and the Lake-Forest Ecosystem : Beyond Walden: The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds. Between the time of lake stabilization and the time of European exploration were ten millennia when bands of human foragers were an integral part of the lake-forest ecosystem. Hunting, fishing, gathering wild rice, and making maple sugar for these peoples of Algonquin descent, are well documented by archaeology and ethnography. Spread over much of the lake-forest region today is a cultural nation known as the "Anishinaubag." For the purposes of U.S. Government policy, they are the "Chippewa," though tribal mmbers and scholars prefer the more phonetically accurate "Ojibwe," the name assigned by the 16th and early 17th century French Voyageurs.
Large-scale grain agriculture, here indicatedby fossil threshers, is about the opposite of native food gathering in the lakes-woods north region, where maize grew poorly, and thus the natives didn't rely on it much. Beyond Walden: “Stone adzes gave way to steel axes. Crude pots and containers made birch bark and woven reeds gave way to kettles made of iron. Gunpowder and bullets replaced bows and arrows. Trade beads replaced wampum… broken whiskey jugs and glass bottles began to appear.” [page 63] Related Links PHOTO BANNER : Portrait of Niskigwun, an informant for anthropologist Francis Densmore (from Plate 2 of Bulletin 86, Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology), reprinted by the Minnesota Historical Soceity. Mississiip River just upriver from Lake Bemidji is typical of many mid-sized streams in this region of northern Minnesota. Walleye at Cathio, Mil Lacs Lake , a prize game fish today, was also an important resource for native Americans. Photo of Lamoka Lake, type site for the Archaic Period in North America. It lies at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River in upstate New York at the south end of the Finger Lakes.
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