Illinois Antiquity Volume 47(3) Illinois Contested Lands: Archaeology of the War of 1812 Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month – September 2012 Illinois Association For Advancement of Archaeology Illinois Antiquity (47) 3 2 Archaeological Sites and Localities in This Issue 1 1. Saukenauk- Crawford Farm 4 2. Rhoads 10 3. Grand Village of the Kickapoo 3 8 2 4. Windrose 5. Young Tavern 6. Fort LaMotte 7. Williams Fort 8. Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis 6 9. Lively farmstead 9 5 and graves 10. Fort Madison, Iowa 7 Map of Illinois and Missouri, 1828. Courtesy Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Illinois Antiquity is published quarterly by the Illinois ON THE COVER . ILLINOIS WAR OF 1812 Association for Advancement of Archaeology. Editor, Alice Berkson; Assistant Editor, Layout and Design, A sketch of Fort Dearborn forms the BICENTENNIAL Kelvin W. Sampson. Illinois Antiquity is distributed to the members of the Illinois Association for Advance- background for images showing archaeo- Be sure to check the Illinois War of ment of Archaeology. Items published in Illinois logical investigations at Illinois War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission web site Antiquity reflect the views of the authors. Publica- 1812 period sites, and some of the artifacts for information on historical sources and tion does not imply IAAA endorsement. Subscrip- tion information is can be found by visiting www. uncovered at the sites. events around the state from 2012 to 2014 museum.state.il.us/iaaa/membership.htm commemorating the bicentennial. illinoiswarof1812bicentennial.org ISSN 8756-0070 copyright 2012 3 Illinois Antiquity (47) 3 Illinois Contested Lands: Archaeology of the War of 1812 FROM THE EDITOR . Prior to Illinois becoming a state in 1818, the territorial period here was marked by significant conflict that is not well known to many citizens. Mary McCorvie and Mark Wagner provided an overview of the War of 1812 in Illinois, and their additional articles Contents give insight into the Native perspective on warfare and vengeance (“covering their CONTESTED LANDS: AN INTRODUCTION dead”) and into the role of Native American TO THE WAR OF 1812 IN ILLINOIS By Mary McCorvie and Mark J. Wagner ................................. 4 prophets, who advocated a conservative ap- proach that is reflected in the archaeological FARMSTEAD, FORT AND TAVERN: WILLIAMS FORT record (Prophets and Nativists). IN WHITE COUNTY, ILLINOIS Other articles that follow touch on BY Monica SHAH Lomas AND Cally Lence ....................... 8 many aspects of frontier life that are not re- corded in documents of the period. Monica “COVERING THEIR DEAD AND DRYING Shah Lomas and Cally Lence describe ex- THEIR TEARS” CIVILIAN CASUALTIES cavations at Williams Fort (Farmstead, Fort DURING THE WAR OF 1812 and Tavern), while Joseph Bartholomew, By Mark J. Wagner and Mary McCorvie .............................. 12 Steven Tieken, and David Nolan relate the decades-long story of the ultimately suc- SEARCHING FOR FORT JOHNSON, cessful search for a period fort at Warsaw, HANCOCK COUNTY, ILLINOIS Illinois (Searching for Fort Johnson). Rich- By Joseph L. Bartholomew, Steven L. Tieken, ard Fishel (War of 1812-Era Buttons) and and David J. Nolan ......................................................................... 16 Robert Hickson (Bayonets in the Wilder- WAR OF 1812-ERA BUTTONS FROM ness) then provide a detailed look at some FORT JOHNSON AND CANTONMENT DAVIS of the artifacts recovered from the site, with By Richard L. Fishel ........................................................................ 19 buttons a category often found at military sites, but bayonets seldom found on sites of BAYONETS IN THE WILDERNESS: this period. AN INTRIGUING PRESENCE Joe Artz, John Doershuk, Cynthia Pe- IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD AT terson and William Whittaker contributed FORT JOHNSON AND CANTONMENT DAVIS an article on Fort Madison, Iowa, across By Robert N. Hickson ..................................................................... 22 the Mississippi River and not far from Fort Johnson (Always Been in Peril). This site, PROPHETS AND NATIVISTS: along with many others of the period, fac- THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NATIVE PEOPLES es an uncertain future, and learning about OF ILLINOIS DURING THE WAR OF 1812 them is an important step in preservation By Mark J. Wagner ............................................................................ 23 efforts. We appreciate the authors and illus- trators who prepared the articles, as well as ALWAYS BEEN IN PERIL: FORT MADISON, IOWA By Joe Alan Artz, John F. Doershuk, Design Editor Kelvin Sampson who wove Cynthia L. Peterson, and William E. Whittaker ........... 26 the whole into this attractive issue. If you would like to receive the 2012 REFERENCES AND ADDITIONAL READINGS .............. 28 IAAM poster depicted on pages 30-31, please get in touch with IAAM Chair Eve ILLINOIS CONTESTED LANDS POSTER IMAGES ..... 30 Hargrave at 23 E. Stadium Dr., Cham- paign, IL 61820 ([email protected] ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY or phone 217.390.8385). We appreciate the AWARENESS MONTH SPONSORS ................................. 32 continuing support of the IAAM commit- tee for our publication. Alice Berkson Illinois Antiquity (47) 3 4 CONTESTED LANDS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 IN ILLINOIS By Mary McCorvie and Mark J. Wagner The United States officially declared faced were the result of a loss of spiritual large parties of Kickapoo, Sauk, Fox, and war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812, values and their turning away from tradi- other peoples began traveling to Prophet- primarily because of American anger over tional ways. If they would only stop using stown to see the Prophet in person, spread- the stopping of American ships on the high American goods and animals and return to ing his message into the Illinois country seas and the seizure and “impressment” Native forms of dress, housing, and food- when they returned to their home villages. into the Royal Navy of sailors claimed to ways, the “Master of Life” would return his be British citizens. Tensions had been sim- favor, enabling them to defeat the Ameri- THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY IN 1812 mering between the United States and the cans. The most well-known of these proph- The major Native groups in Illinois in 1812 consisted of the Sauk, Mesquakie (Fox), Potawatomi, and Kickapoo, with other groups such as the Winnebago, Illi- nois, Ottawa, and Piankashaw represented in smaller numbers. The Kickapoo, Potawa- tomi, and Sauk alone may have numbered over 10,000 people at the start of the War of 1812. These groups occupied lands in central and northern Illinois not yet ced- ed to the United States, although Illinois became a territory in 1811. At this time, Native Americans in Illinois followed a traditional way of life that involved move- ment between big summer villages where they raised crops such as corn, beans, and squash, and smaller winter camps where they hunted animals for both food and furs to barter to fur traders for items such as cloth, blankets, guns, kettles, and silver ornaments. The Euro-American population of Il- linois, in contrast, was only 7,275 people in 1810. Settlement was largely confined to the southern third of the state with the exception of an American military post A Map of the North Western Territory, 1796. (Fort Dearborn) at Chicago. Settlement Courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum. was largely concentrated in the “Ameri- can Bottom,” the broad floodplain of the Native peoples of the “Old Northwest” ets was Tenskawatwa, or the Shawnee Mississippi River in present-day Madison, (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Prophet, who together with his brother Te- Monroe and St. Clair Counties, and the U. Michigan) for at least a decade before the cumseh began to organize Native peoples to S. Saline Reservation in Gallatin County. official start of the war, however, due to resist Americans. Another important leader American settlement between the two ar- incessant American demands for land ces- was the Potawatomi Main Poc (“Withered eas was like a string of pearls, with isolated, sions coupled with the government “Civili- Hand”), a feared war leader who had great single-family farmsteads located along the zation” program that was designed to turn influence among the Kankakee River Po- old buffalo traces and Indian trails connect- Native peoples into small farmers on indi- tawatomi of northeastern Illinois. ing the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. vidual homesteads similar to American set- In 1808 the Prophet established a large Americans began immigrating to the tlers of the period. village named “Prophetstown” in Indiana Illinois country after the Revolutionary As they had in earlier times, prophets that became the heart of the Native Amer- War. Many of the earliest settlers were arose among the various Native groups who ican resistance movement, which he and individuals who had served with George told their followers that the problems they Tecumseh led. Over the next several years Rogers Clark and returned to Randolph 5 Illinois Antiquity (47) 3 County, where they earlier served in the them to reassemble at Prophetstown in the throughout the war, their ability to launch military, with their families. Others fol- spring of 1812. There they received black a force of hundreds of warriors at one time lowed the natural migration routes from wampum (or shell bead) belts from the against the American settlements had been the backcountry of Pennsylvania, Virginia, British in Canada as a sign to prepare for seriously compromised. and the Carolinas, by way of the Shenan- war. The British, whose best soldiers were Native American raids on block- doah Valley, the Wilderness Road and the fighting Napoleon in Europe, planned to houses and farmsteads in southern Illinois Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio and Missis- use the Native peoples of the Great Lakes increased in intensity in 1813 following sippi Rivers. region as their first line of defense in hold- the destruction of the Potawatomi and ing Canada by Kickapoo villages at Peoria. At the Kicka- supplying them poo village in particular, a large number of with arms and women and children reportedly had been ammunition for killed in the attack.