Archaeological atlas of Michigan [by] Wilbert B. Hinsdale...

CULTURAL FEATURES NOT INCLUDED ON MAPS

Battlefields.-It is impossible to locate, except very rarely,
scenes of battles that occurred in prehistoric times. The usual
comment by people who happen to discover a burying place of a
number of skeletons is that a battle was fought there; as if the
Indians did not die and were not buried except as a result of a
fight. A number of battles were fought in various parts of the
state in which reds and whites contested, but those sites are recorded in books of narrative and history. Occasionally a human
bone is dug up in which an arrow is embedded, or which shows
clearly the crushing effects of a bludgeon or missile. If a number
of such specimens were found in a single location, one might note a
"battlefield," -but no such finds have been reported in Michigan.
Bullets, fragments of firearms, and sheath knives can still be found
in various places in association with bones of Indians and whites,
but they are within the historic period.
Dance circles.-The villagers were much given to dancing,
not so much for amusement as for ceremony, often of religious
purport. Dancing was a form of worship, if the Indians can be

said to have been worshipers. Near or in every village there was
a space usually circular in outline trodden down by the jumping
and dancing that took place at feasts, preparations for hunting,
war parties, and other expeditions, and at other times when the
spirits and energies of the neighborhood needed to be aroused.
Some of these old dancing places can still be identified and two or
three of them are noted upon the maps.
Rock carvings and drawings.-Very few rock carvings and
drawings have been reported. There are some crude carvings of
men, animals, birds, tracks, etc., upon rock outcroppings on the
north bank of Cass River, in Greenleaf Township, Sanilac County.
It is doubted whether they are of genuine Indian work. If not,
whoever made them was undoubtedly familiar with carvings in
Ontario, Canada, which he endeavored to imitate. At the entrance of a cave at Burnt Bluff, near Fayette, on Big Bay de Noc,
Delta County, there are some red paintings on limestone that appear to be genuine Indian types if not of genuine Indian execution.

FIG. 2. Henry Shawnosga, an Ottawa Indian of Missaukee
County. Modeled by Carleton W. Angell in 1928

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