MICA
Algonquian
Delaware.
use.
Manufactures
Pottery, which was used for boiling, is found abundantly in Lenape
territory. It was made of clay mixed with pounded sea shells, mica or sand
and various combinations of these ingredients (Herman 1950:53).
Material Culture
Stone tools are common in archaeological deposits and include "plain or
pitted hammerstones, anvil stones, abrading stones, sinew stones, pestles,
shallow mortars, choppers (or hoes), picks, netsinkers, paint stones and
amorphous pieces of mica (Newcomb 1956:28).
Ojibwa.
meaning, social category, use.
THE FUR TRADE AND THE OJIBWA
First Steps
In attempting to understand how Native people regarded these trade items,
we should note first that much of what circulated in the pre-historic trade
included light-colored, reflective, and red materials such as shell,
crystalline stone mica, quartzite, and exotic flint), and copper. Early
references to the use of these materials in northeastern North America
indicate that they were associated with the forces of life and well-being,
and items made from them carried connotations of supernatural power22
(Peers 1994:9).
Note 22: George Hammell, "Trading in Metaphors: The Magic of Beads,"
in Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, ed. C. Hayes III
(New York: Rochester Museum and Science Center, 1982), pp. 18, 23. On
items traded pre-historically, see Harris, Historical Atlas of Canada, vol.
1, plate 14, list of trade goods.
Caddoan
Pawnee.
use.
MATERIAL CULTURE/CERAMICS
Tempering is usually of fine sand, sparingly used, but crushed granite, fine
white siliceous material, and possibly mica were also employed; ground
shell appears to be uniformly absent (Wedel 1936:66).
Page: 1
Some of the sherds show tiny flecks of mica all over the surface; this
feature appears to be particularly prominent in pottery from the earlier
sites on the Loup River and is probably due primarily to environmental
factors (Wedel 1936:66).
Muskogean
Seminole. use.
Ceramic Technology
Vessels of this style are generally shallow, open or shouldered bowls,
often with flat bottoms. Tempering is variable but usually is fine sand;
often there is mica in the paste. These vessels seem to have been serving
or eating dishes (Goggin 1964:208).
Mica is present in the paste of these types, but it is not found in the area.
Thus the pottery, the micaceous clays of West Florida and Georgia, or
mica tempering was imported (Goggin 1964:208, n11).
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Goggin, John M.
1964 Seminole Pottery. In Indian and Spanish Selected Writings, edited by
Charles H. Fairbanks, Irving Rouse, and William C. Sturtevant.
University of Miami Press, Coral Gables.
This source is an analysis of Florida Seminole pottery as it existed prehistorically,
historically, and ethnographically in the early twentieth century. The data consist of
historical writings, archeological field reports, and museum specimens. Photos and
illustrations of the items are provided. Ceramic techniques and styles are examined as
well. The Florida Seminole ceramics are compared with those of several other
Southeastern groups.
Herman, Mary W.
1950 A Reconstruction of Aboriginal Delaware Culture from
Contemporary Sources. Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 1:4577.
On the basis of the available literature, Herman, an anthropologist, reconstructs Delaware
culture in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, southeastern New York, northern Delaware
for the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Information is included on food getting,
material culture, social organization, political organization, war, religion, and medicine.
Although brief, the source summarizes much information.
Newcomb, William W.
Page: 2
1956
The Culture and Acculturation of the Delaware Indians.
Anthropological Papers 10, Museum of Anthropology. University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
This monograph is a survey of the literature available in the early 1950s on the Delaware
in eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York, and northern New Jersey of the
fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. While the author spent two summers among the modern
Delaware, and uses some of the material gathered to show how the culture has changed,
most of the material in the book has been gathered from the literature from contact time
onward. The author describes the development of Delaware culture from a number of
autonomous groups, and reconstructs the culture under the following headings:
technology, economics, material culture, life cycle, kin groups, social control, war,
religion and magic, and folklore. In addition to this balanced description, the last third of
the work deals with the historical changes which occurred in Delaware culture as a result
of contact with the whites, and the extent to which acculturation occurred at various time
periods up to the present.
Peers, Laura L.
1994 The Ojibwa of Western Canada, 1780 to 1870. Historical Society Press,
St. Paul.
The western Ojibwa are the descendants of people who migrated into the West from their
settlements around the Great Lakes in the late eighteenth century. This work traces their
origins, adaptation to the West, and the way in which they coped with the many
challenges they faced in the first century of their history in that region between the years
1780 to 1870. These challenges, examined in detail in this study, involved the surviving
of epidemic disease, the rise and fall of the fur trade, the depletion of game in the region,
the establishment of European settlements in the area, the loss of tribal lands, and the
Canadian government's assertion of political control over them.
Wedel, Waldo R.
1936 An Introduction to Pawnee Archaeology. Bureau of American
Ethnology Bulletin 112. U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington.
This monograph is a study of Pawnee archaeology and culture history based primarily on
artifacts in the Hill Collection at the Hastings Museum in Nebraska that were excavated
from the thirteen archaeological sites in 1930. He uses journals and records of early
explorers and adventurers to the region for interpretation. Although new archaeological
fieldwork makes the archaeological data described in this monograph outdated, the
historical information and analysis of material culture make this document a useful
addition to an understanding of the Pawnee. The monograph is divided into four major
Page: 3
parts. The first is an introduction. The second part details the historical background of the
Pawnee. The third with Pawnee archaeology presents evidence obtained from the
excavation of prehistoric, and early historic sites. The fourth involves the material culture
of the early Pawnees (Skidi/Skiri, Chawi, and Kitkahahki bands) in northern Kansas and
Nebraska. Pages 94-102 contain a summary of all data presented in the monograph.
Page: 4