Cross Creek flows in 36 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 front of the Rockshelter. Copyright 2008 Ed Massery. “What do you feel was the most significant artifact to be excavated during the Meadowcroft dig?” asked a participant at one of Dr. James Adovasio’s recent “Insider’s Tours” of the Rockshelter archaeological site. As principal investigator since the excavation began in 1973, Adovasio was in a good position to comment. Although his teams had discovered more than 20,000 artifacts, including the Miller lanceolate spear point and the Mungai stone knife, Adovasio declined to name a specific artifact. Instead, he used the opportunity to explain that the most significant thing to emerge from the sandy soils of the Rockshelter was not an object, but the discovery that every major cultural group of people to inhabit the region over the past 16,000 years had used the Rockshelter as a place to camp and carry out the activities of their daily lives. In essence, the Meadowcroft Rockshelter is a microcosm of the much larger story of the peopling of Western Pennsylvania.1

By John Boback, Ph.D.

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 37 Unfortunately, most American history only about 20 centuries ago. For that matter, school texts and college survey courses even the earliest Egyptian pyramid dates to a relegate American Indians to an introductory relatively recent 46 centuries ago. Meadowcroft, background chapter that all too quickly on the other hand, served as a campsite to moves on to Christopher Columbus, the Age Paleoindian hunter-gatherers 160 centuries in of Discovery, and European colonization. the past. Over the course of those 160 centuries, When American Indians do make an almost 800 generations of people have lived and appearance in later chapters, it is typically died in Western Pennsylvania. within the context of frontier warfare. The Despite the many centuries that separate purpose of this article is to emphasize that modern Pennsylvanians from the first Indians have inhabited Western Pennsylvania Pennsylvanians, we are all united in a very for a very long time and that their cultures fundamental way. Regardless of when we have evolved considerably since their first may have lived, everyone has experienced the arrival over 16,000 years ago. daily challenges of providing for the needs of Admittedly, long spans of time can their families and communities. What will sometimes be difficult to mentally grasp. our children wear for clothing? How will It might help to think of 16,000 years as we put a roof over our heads? What’s for being equal to 160 centuries. For the sake of dinner? Basic questions such as these have perspective, consider that the United States been the topics of conversations in Western gained its independence barely two centuries Pennsylvania for over 16,000 years. But ago. Christopher Columbus reached the where the questions have remained the same, Americas only about five centuries ago. The the ways that we answer them has evolved in ancient Roman Empire rose to prominence some very profound ways. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Rockshelter. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.

Map of possible paths of human migration and settlement. The most widely supported theory postulates that a modest population of nomadic hunter-gatherers migrated eastward from Siberia onto the broad tundra-like expanse of Beringia no later than about 23,000 B.C.

38 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Our knowledge of the first Pennsylvanians is some point, at least a portion of this founding far from complete. Although the Meadowcroft population embarked on a multi-generational eastern side of the Rockies. Once south of the excavation documents people living in the migration southward into what is now the glaciers, the Paleoindians could have spread region 16,000 years ago, it is unclear who continental United States. From the outset, out across the continent. Regardless of which they were, when they first arrived, or by what the imposing continental glaciers of the last route they followed, we know that small route they got here. Fortunately, traditional Ice Age presented formidable barriers, which bands of hunter-gatherers had established archaeology is today being augmented by limited these first Americans to only two hunting territories in Western Pennsylvania innovative genetic testing methods that possible routes. One option was the Pacific no later than 16,000 years ago. provide valuable insight into where the First Coastal Route, which would have involved An intimate connection existed between Americans may have originated. The most using small boats to skirt the coastline as the First Americans and the land, climate, widely supported theory postulates that they traveled southward toward present-day plants, and animals of their hunting grounds. a modest population of nomadic hunter- California. The second option, which would For the Paleoindians, late Pleistocene gatherers migrated eastward from Siberia only have been available prior to 24,000 Pennsylvania presented a harsh world by onto the broad tundra-like expanse of years ago and again after 15,000 B.C., was the modern standards. The overall climate was Beringia no later than about 23,000 B.C. At Ice-Free Corridor route that ran along the decidedly colder with longer, frigid winters and

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 39 Flint spear points, stone knives, basketry, a bone snare trigger, roasting pits, food storage pits, freshwater mollusk shells, nuts, hackberry seeds, and the bones from a diverse array of animals ... indicate that the Meadowcroft Rockshelter served as an important food procurement and processing camp.

ABOVE: Meadowcroft Museum founder Albert Miller on left with lead archaeologist James Adovasio. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. tailed deer, the elders knew where to find the RIGHT: At approximately 12 -14,000 years old, the needed resource, thus helping to ensure the Miller lanceolate point from Meadowcroft is one of success of the band. the oldest spear points ever found in North America. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. Although nomadic, hunter-gatherers did not move about randomly. Instead, they shorter, cooler summers.2 Continental glaciers moved intentionally from one base camp to still dominated half of North America, although another in an annual cycle aimed at exploiting they had withdrawn northward to present-day seasonably available resources. For example, Erie by the time Paleoindians first camped at access to a variety of natural resources. the band might camp along a major creek Meadowcroft. The overall cooler climate in Considering that each ecosystem contained in the early spring to take advantage of the combination with local variations in elevation its own distinct suite of plant and animals annual fish spawn. Then they might relocate had a profound impact on the vegetation of the species, it is evident why Pleistocene to a marshy area to gather the freshly laid region. The landscape comprised a mosaic of Pennsylvania’s mosaic of different plant eggs of migratory waterfowl. By late spring different ecosystems that are simply not seen communities proved so beneficial to and early summer, the band might camp in in our region today. Boreal forests of spruce the nomadic Paleoindians who lacked an upland meadow to harvest a succession of and fir trees likely dominated much of the permanent villages, agriculture, or even ripening wild strawberries, raspberries, and landscape, while short grasses and diminutive, domestic animals aside from the dog. For blackberries. The location of late summer slow-growing flowers characterized the higher hunter-gatherers, the forests and fields base camps may have been influenced by elevations.3 Of particular significance was the functioned as supermarkets, pharmacies, the need for edible walnuts, acorns, hickory existence of scattered stands of hardwood and hardware stores. A deep familiarity nuts, and hackberries. During the winter, deciduous trees such as oaks, hickories, and with the local plant, animal, and mineral the desire for a sunny southern exposure walnut that grew within scattered groves.4 resources allowed the Paleoindians to hunt and protection from the wind may have Paleoindian hunter-gatherers could easily for and gather all the food, medicinal herbs, influenced the location of a base camp. The have visited all three of these major ecosystems and raw materials necessary to provide for arrival of early spring started anew the annual within just a few days walk. their daily needs. Whether it was a specific cycle of seasonal movements. The success or failure of a band of medicinal plant, a rich deposit of flint, or the Archaeological evidence from the hunter-gatherers hinged on having ready most likely spot to locate a herd of white- Meadowcroft Rockshelter reflects the

40 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 seasonal nature of the hunter-gatherer collectively indicate that the Meadowcroft not opportunistically exploit the discovery of lifestyle. Lead investigator Adovasio points Rockshelter served as an important food a recently deceased or weak mammoth, but out that the Rockshelter saw its heaviest procurement and processing camp. if they did, all evidence of this is absent at use as a base camp during the late summer Just as significant is that Meadowcroft Meadowcroft. In a community where the loss and fall. In addition, the presence of bird lacks the remains of any late Pleistocene mega- of even a single able-bodied adult might spell eggshells indicates that people occasionally fauna. Although the Paleoindians shared the the difference between the success and failure camped at the Rockshelter during the landscape with mastodons, mammoths, giant of the band, it made good sense to avoid the spring.5 Of special note is the fact that beavers, dire wolves, and short-faced bears, large and dangerous mega-fauna.6 most of the Rockshelter artifacts in some Paleoindians apparently did not hunt them. The bands of hunter-gatherers that way relate to the quest for food. Flint spear The absence of mega-faunal remains helps to visited Meadowcroft tended to be modest points, stone knives, basketry, a bone snare dispel the long-standing misconception that in size with eight to ten men, women, and trigger, roasting pits, food storage pits, Paleoindians specialized in big game hunting. children likely being typical. They might freshwater mollusk shells, nuts, hackberry Instead, in Western Pennsylvania, they appear camp at the Rockshelter for a week or so seeds, and the bones from a diverse array to have primarily been small game hunters and before moving on to their next base camp. of animals ranging in size from elk to frogs intensive foragers. This is not to say they might On occasion these small bands joined

American Indians have fished with nets in Western Pennsylvania for thousands of years. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 41 She Claims the Rockshelter by Andrew Knez. Two 18th-century Eastern Woodland Indians visit a rockshelter only to discover it has already been claimed by a family of black bears. Andrew Knez, Jr.

with adjacent bands for the purposes of bending degraded the cartilage in their joints lived 16,000 or 5,000 years ago, they basically gathering particularly abundant resources and contributed to widespread osteoarthritis. lived a nomadic lifestyle that revolved or for members to find suitable mates.7 Anyone surviving into their 40s would likely around hunting and foraging for all of life’s Unfortunately, nothing is known of their have been considered an elder.8 Although necessities. Unfortunately, we will never marriage or child-rearing practices. Evidence the hunter-gatherer lifestyle may not have know most of the details of their lives. from other hunter-gatherer archaeological been “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and Being an ancient people who preserved sites suggests high mortality rates. An short” in a classic Hobbesian sense, it no knowledge through oral tradition, we know estimated half of all children likely died prior doubt would have been exceedingly difficult practically nothing of their languages, to the age of five. The physical rigors and by modern standards. spiritual beliefs, interpersonal customs, or dangers of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle also Change came very slowly for the even what they called themselves. Most of took a heavy toll on adult men and women various hunter-gathering peoples of Western what we do know is based on the artifacts alike. Excessive walking, running, and Pennsylvania. Regardless of whether they and other material objects they left behind.

42 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 Archaeological evidence from Meadowcroft lifestyle while only cultivating small garden example, often have thick, protective seed and the surrounding area indicates that even plots on the side. These first horticulturalists coats while their domestic counterparts though the Paleoindians and their archaic initially had no domestic plants. Instead, they have thinner, more vulnerable seed coats. descendants lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, cultivated several wild plants species which Likewise, high yield domestic crops growing their material culture evolved over time. already had been gathered for centuries by in a densely planted field are more attractive For example, the earliest hand-held stone their ancestors. By saving and cultivating to animal pests than are low yield wild chopping axes eventually gave way to finely seeds from their best plants, the American varieties. In short, the success of domestic made hatchets with ground-stone heads Indians, over time, created domestic varieties. plants is generally dependent upon the close and wooden handles. Likewise, the earliest In total, Indians in eastern North America attention and care of a nearby farmer. stone spear points went through a series of domesticated seven previously wild plants. Farming produces a greater abundance of improvements over time that made them Squash, sunflower, and sumpweed provided food than nomadic gathering, further leading easier to affix to wooden shafts. Additional them with edible seeds. Goosefoot and erect to a more sedentary lifestyle for American innovations came in the form of new tools knotweed supplied green edible leaves. Indians. Consider the Hopewell mound- such as carved soapstone cooking pots and Maygrass and little barley produced grains building cultural group that lived in extreme ground-stone mortars and pestles. Despite all suitable for grinding into flour. The cultivation Western Pennsylvania about 2,000 years ago. of these changes in material culture, the first and domestication of plants altered the course It is estimated that a one-acre Hopewell field Pennsylvanians still lived a nomadic hunter- of American Indian history. planted equally with marsh elder and goosefoot gatherer lifestyle for over 12,000 years. One of the most profound changes could produce a quarter of the calories needed wrought by the Agricultural Revolution was for a family of ten for an entire year. Although The Agricultural Revolution the transition it sparked from native peoples hand-processing all of those seeds would have Around 3000 B.C., an unknown Indian hunter- living a nomadic lifestyle to inhabiting been tedious and time-consuming, the actual gather did something truly revolutionary. permanent villages. The impetus for this harvest itself would have required only a He or she planted a seed in the ground with shift came from multiple directions. From a week’s worth of work for the family.9 full intentions to return later to harvest pragmatic perspective, living close to one’s Despite the advantages of agriculture, whatever had grown. With this simple act, fields made it considerably easier to tend the Indians did not entirely abandon hunting the Agricultural Revolution in eastern North crops and to protect themm from animal pests. and gathering. gathering One reason for this is that, America began. Despite the game changingchangi chan ing After all, the more domesticated a plant nature of this act,, fully developed farming becomes, the more assistance it requires from Nutting stones made it easy for Indians to break open hard hickory did not appear overnight.rrnight. Quite the contrary, humans in order to survive. Wild grains, for and walnuts to extract the as over the next feww thousand years Indians nutritious meat. Meadowcroft Rockshelter continued to live a mostly hunter-gather and Historic Village.

Regardless of whether they lived 16,000 or 5,000 years ago, American Indians basically lived a nomadic lifestyle that revolved around hunting and foraging for all of life’s necessities. WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 43 Indian foragers unlike prehistoric Eurasians, the Eastern being over 2,500-years-old, the cobs survived gathered a wide Woodland Indians lacked domestic farm in the ground because they had been charred, variety of edible nuts, animals to use as a source of meat. Eventually, or carbonized, in a campfire. How this corn Indian farmers began to keep wild turkeys came to be at Meadowcroft and who carried it berries, tubers, greens, in a semi-domestic state, but this was not there is unclear. Regardless, the appearance of quite the same as keeping a domestic flock. Mesoamerican corn and squash in the region and mushrooms from Even the horse, which is so often associated signaled the future direction of indigenous with American Indians, did not become agriculture in Western Pennsylvania. the surrounding available until Europeans later brought Despite the many advantages offered by riding horses to the Americas. In short, sub-tropical plants such as corn, the climate of forests. The Indians’ the Indians had little choice but to hunt, Western Pennsylvania simply proved too cold trap, and fish to procure animal protein. for it to become a widespread crop. Although continued reliance Besides the absence of a domestic meat the last Ice Age had ended about 10,000 source, native farming also involved too few years earlier, overall average temperatures on hunting and domestic crops to meet their total nutritional were cooler than they are today and did not gathering is evidenced needs. To compensate for this shortcoming, provide a sufficiently long growing season. Indian foragers gathered a wide variety of This all changed around A.D. 900 when global by archaeologists’ edible nuts, berries, tubers, greens, and temperatures increased by a few degrees. mushrooms from the surrounding forests. Known as the Medieval Optimum, this warm discovery of a dozen The Indians’ continued reliance on hunting period had a profound impact throughout the and gathering is evidenced by archaeologists’ North Atlantic. The warming temperatures 2,000-3,000-year- discovery of a dozen 2,000-3,000-year-old melted arctic ice allowing Viking explorers campsites in the vicinity of Meadowcroft. to venture westward, eventually colonizing old campsites in At least eight of these likely served as short- Greenland and Newfoundland around term campsites while three or four others A.D. 1000. More importantly for the people the vicinity of functioned as intensively used base camps. of Western Pennsylvania, the warming climate The Meadowcroft Rockshelter falls into this allowed the Eastern Woodland Indians to Meadowcroft. latter category.10 cultivate new local varieties of Mesoamerican Eastern North America was not the crops on a large scale. Acorns have been a staple of the Eastern only place on earth where indigenous After the year 1000, corn, beans, and Woodland Indian diet for over a millenium. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. people invented agriculture. In all, this squash became the dominant crops of happened at about ten different places Eastern Woodland Indian farmers. Unlike throthroughoutughout the world,wo including Mexico. Eurasians who possessed draft animals By about 2,000 yyears ago, a couple of key capable of pulling plows and creating MesoamMesoamerican domestic plants furrows in a field, the Indians used digging had been introduced into sticks and hoes to form the topsoil into WWestern Pennsylvania. small, mounded hills. One acre of farmland TThese included several contained upwards of 2,500 hills.11 In each varieties of squash hill the Indians cultivated all three plants. and corn (maize). Known to the Iroquois as the “Three Sisters,” In fact, the oldest corn, beans, and squash are mutually known corn cobs in beneficial when planted together. The corn the eastern United serves as a living beanpole around which States were found the beans vine. In return, the beans possess at the Meadowcroft bacteria capable of extracting atmospheric Rockshelter. Despite nitrogen and storing it in nodules on the

44 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 Dianne Anestis demonstrates how the Eastern Woodland Indians prepared food during Meadowcroft’s annual American Indian Heritage Weekend. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.

roots. Corn, a type of grass, thrives in the high nitrogen soil. Furthermore, the broad leaves of squash and pumpkins discourage derived from hunting and gathering.14 Local the growth of weeds and keep the soil moist agrarian societies emerged with names by shading the ground. A new field typically such as the “McFate,” “Fort Ancient,” and suggest that this trend is attributable to produced upwards of 30 bushels of corn per “Monongahela” cultural traditions. Just like several factors. One problem faced by the new acre.12 With such high corn yields, Indian their hunter-gatherer ancestors, they lacked agrarian societies was communicable diseases. farmers abandoned less productive crops written languages; hence archaeologists The advent of village life brought increasing such as maygrass and knotweed.13 named their cultures according to where numbers of people into close proximity. By Over the next few centuries, Three Sisters evidence of them was first discovered. For 1492, it appears that tuberculosis and syphilis agriculture became the foundation of the example, the “Monongahela” are named after may have become endemic. The new agrarian Eastern Woodland Indians’ subsistence. Corn, the Monongahela River Valley, which served societies also experienced increasing amounts beans, and squash could be dried and stored as the core of their homeland. of tooth decay and dental infections due to away as insurance against possible famine. Despite the many benefits of the the high levels of starch in a corn-based diet. As food supplies became more reliable, Agricultural Revolution, the Indians’ new Not only did starch promote the growth populations grew and people began to occupy village and farm-centered lifestyle had a dark of oral bacteria, but corn meal itself often permanent, year-round villages surrounded side. Although overall populations rose due contained tiny grits of enamel-eroding stone by agricultural fields. An estimated half to to the greater reliability of food, average life left over from the grinding process. Rising three-quarters of the Indians’ food came spans and health declined. Paleopathologists population densities may have contributed to from their farms while the remainder who study prehistoric human remains increased physical conflict over living space

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 45 Eastern Woodland Indians often used wooden mortars to pound corn kernels into meal. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.

and resources. This conflict is evidenced by no direct contact between the Monongahela a prehistoric seashell trade network that the trauma seen in many pre-1492 skeletal and European colonists is known to have may also have involved the beginnings remains. Examples of trauma include taken place, the presence of glass beads and of the beaver skin trade. By 1635, the concussions, bone fractures, and cut marks European brass at some village sites confirms Seneca had defeated the Monongahela. on skulls indicative of being scalped with a that at least indirect contact occurred. It is Some Monongahela survivors may have stone knife. When considered as a whole, theorized that Susquehannock Indians from been adopted into Seneca communities perhaps only two percent of the population the Chesapeake Bay area may have carried while others went east to live among the survived to the age of 50.15 the beads and brass across the mountains Susquehannock.17 Thus, after inhabiting on hunting expeditions. Unfortunately, Western Pennsylvania for over half a The Death and Rebirth of they also may have inadvertently introduced millennium, the Monongahela cultural Native Western Pennsylvania European diseases to the Monongahela tradition disappeared from the earth. The Monongahela cultural tradition existed villages.16 Never having been exposed to The disappearance of the Monongahela in southwestern Pennsylvania from about microbes such as smallpox and measles, left Western Pennsylvania devoid of a resident A.D. 900 until about 1635, when it ended the death toll would have been very high. native population.18 After 16,000 years of abruptly. The disappearance of the American Additional turmoil befell the Monongahela occupation, the forests of the region fell silent. Indians is somewhat of a mystery although world when warfare erupted between Occasional travelers and hunters surely passed solid theories exist regarding their fate. While them and the Seneca over the control of through the area, but no one is known to have

46 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 ... the Mingo were Monongahela. Also living among them were 3 J. M. Adovasio and Jake Page, The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery (New descendants of the so-called “Mingo,” or Ohio Iroquois. York: Modern Library, 2003), 178. Although not a tribe per se, the Mingo were 4 K.A. Cushman, “Floral Remains from Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Washington County, Southwestern Iroquois hunters and descendants of Iroquois hunters and diplomats Pennsylvania,” in Meadowcroft: Collected Papers on who had taken up residence in the Three the Archaeology of Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Cross Creek Drainage, ed. R.C. Carlisle and James Adovasio diplomats who had Rivers region. It was these recent arrivals (1982), 218. whom colonial settlers, fur traders, and Fort 5 Adovasio, “Insider’s Tour” (3 November 2012). taken up residence Pitt soldiers interacted with during the middle 6 Ibid. of the 18th century. By the outbreak of the 7 Ibid. in the Three Rivers Revolutionary War, however, these Indians too 8 Robert L. Kelly and David Hurst Thomas, Archaeology: Down to Earth, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA: were gone. The relentless pressure of European Wadsworth, 2011), 156. region. It was these colonization had pushed them further west. 9 Ruth Selig, “A Quiet Revolution: Origins of Agriculture in Eastern North America,” National Today, Pennsylvania is one of the few Museum of Natural History Bulletin for Teachers recent arrivals whom states that contains no state or federally 15 (1993). recognized American Indian tribal 10 R.F. Fryman, “Prehistoric Settlement Patterns colonial settlers, fur in the Cross Creek Drainage” in Meadowcroft: governments. By no means, however, Collected Papers on the Archaeology of Meadowcroft does this imply that no American Indians Rockshelter and Cross Creek Drainage, ed. R.C. traders, and Fort Pitt Carlisle and James Adovasio (1982), 65. currently live within the commonwealth. 11 Conrad E. Heidenreich, “Huron,” in Northeast, On the contrary, the 2010 federal census vol. 15, Handbook of North American Indians, ed. soldiers interacted Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian revealed that 26,843 Pennsylvania residents Institution, 1978), 380. with during the middle identify themselves as either being American 12 Ibid., 381. Indian or an Alaskan Native. An additional 13 Modern farmers using genetically engineered hybrid seeds and chemical fertilizers achieve corn yields in 54,249 Pennsylvanians identified themselves of the 18th century. excess of a hundred bushels per acre. 19 as having partial American Indian ancestry. 14 Daniel K. Richter, Native Americans’ Pennsylvania Even though the Monongahela and their (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania Historical Association, 2005), 21. ancient Paleoindian ancestors may be 15 Douglas H. Ubelaker, “Patterns of Disease in Early gone, the rich heritage of America’s First North American Populations,” in A Population History of North America, ed. Michael R. Haines and Richard Nations lives on within the native families, H. Steckel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, communities, organizations, and annual 2000), 59, 62, 64, 67-68, 80-83. lived there. The lack of significant archaeological powwows of our region. Meadowcroft 16 Stanley W. Baker, “Neale’s Landing Site Ceramics: A Perspective on the Protohistoric Period from evidence from the region immediately Rockshelter and Historic Village celebrates Blennerhassett Island,” West Virginia Archeologist following the demise of the Monongahela the long history of native people in Western 40 (Fall 1988), 49-50; Michael B. Barber and Eugene B. Barfield, “Native Americans on the testifies to the emptiness of the land. The Pennsylvania with its annual American Virginia Frontier in the Seventeenth Century: Meadowcroft Rockshelter contains only one Archaeological Investigations along the Interior Indian Heritage Weekend, which is held Roanoke River Drainage,” in Diversity and post-Monongahela American Indian artifact. during the third weekend of every September. Accommodation: Essays on the Cultural Composition of the Virginia Frontier, ed. Michael J. Puglisi Archaeologists found small pieces of European (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997), glass that may have been from a rum bottle. John M. Boback, Ph.D., is a historian at Prickett’s 148; Francis Jennings, “Susquehannock,” in Fort State Park located near Fairmont, West Northeast, vol. 15 Handbook of North American The glass showed evidence that someone had Indians, ed. Bruce G.Trigger (Washington, D.C.: sat inside the Rockshelter and “flint knapped” it Virginia. Prior to working at Prickett’s Fort, he Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 364. served as director of education at Meadowcroft presumably into a glass arrowhead. 17 William C. Johnson, “The Protohistoric Monongahela Rockshelter and Historic Village. He holds a and the Case for an Iroquois Connection,” in The former Monongahela territory doctorate in history from West Virginia University Societies in Eclipse: Archaeology of the Eastern Woodland Indians, A.D. 1400-1700, ed. David S. remained a veritable no man’s land for almost and has taught courses at several regional colleges. Brose et al (Washington: Smithsonian Institution a century. Starting in the early 1720s, bands of Press, 2001), 75-82. refugee Shawnees and Lenapes from eastern 1 James Adovasio, “Insider’s Tour of the Meadowcroft 18 Fryman, “Prehistoric Settlement Patterns,” 65. Rockshelter,” lecture at Meadowcroft Rockshelter and 19 Pennsylvania began to re-occupy portions United States Census Bureau, The American Indian Historic Village, Avella, PA (6 October 2012). and Alaska Native Population: 2010 (January 2012). of what had once been the homeland of the 2 Adovasio, “Insider’s Tour” (3 November 2012).

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2013 47