| Summary: | en stone arrow or spear point, and maybe a few beads made of shells or hollowed out bones, perhaps a bit of copper ore from far away mines on Lake Superior or in the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes in the graves or on some abandoned camp would be found a red ceremonial pipe from the Pipestone quarry in southwest Minnesota. It is remarkable how far some of these artifacts had been brought by raids or trading or even visiting. Sea shells from California and Gulf of Mexico have been found in graves in North Dakota. There is little material to tell of the lives of the tribes who came and went in the years gone by. Sometimes there were fragments of pottery perhaps secured from the village Indians on the Missouri, and various stone spear or arrowheads. The material for these usually came from the flint or chalcedony quarries they had opened along the Knife River far up toward the Killdeer Mountains. While the lone graves on hilltops are interesting, there are other signs left by the people who lived here before the whites came. There are literally hundreds of circles made in the sod by placing stones on the ground and leaving them to settle down in wet weather or be gradually covered by grass growing over and dust settling in as well as action by insects removing dirt from below. There are frequently several of these rings near each other. They are usually found on elevated places, at least not in low ground. They vary in size from 15 to 25 feet in diameter and in one or two cases they have been found to measure nearly 50 feet across. The latter were probably ceremonial sites or a memorial to some chief or an event. Some well informed people think that all these circles were for some mystic rites, the purpose not understood by us. Other people think that the stones were used to hold down the edges of the tents in summer camps and that when the people moved on they just left the stones behind. Certainly these arrangements are not natural. Someone collected these medium sized stones and used them for a purpose. There were other patterns of stone found on hills of the coteau region. Some are in long single lines like a string of beads. There is one east of Lidgerwood about 300 feet long. In other sites are two lines of stones about six feet apart and 20 to a hundred feet long. In some of these double lines old graves have been discovered. At one point on the north slope of Prophet's Mountain is a row of little stone piles, spaced several feet apart and extending nearly a quarter of a mile. They are not near any cultivated field. Someone took the trouble to pile those stones. They had some significance at the time, now lost and forgotten. With the close cultivation of the prairies most of these old signs have been destroyed but in Sheridan County there are several hilly areas that are undisturbed where there are probably many of these old Indian works to be found. They should be carefully examined and reported to the Historical Society, so they may be mapped and preserved. The society would be glad to have a small area turned over for safe keeping, so that these remains can be preserved forever. At the time the Verendry party crossed from Canada in 1738 to the Missouri River they probably passed by the Turtle Mountains and not far from the northwest corner of Sheridan County, They definitely mention the Assiniboine Indians but no others in this area. These "Stony" Indians were a seceding branch of the Sioux or Dakotas who originally spread over most of North Dakota. The Sioux wars of 1862 on, led to several military expeditions which beat the Sioux Indians into submission. The Chippewa half breeds of the Red River area were quick to take advantage of this and spent their summers following the buffalo herds over the northern half of North Dakota, but keeping in compact groups, as they were involved in a feud with the Sioux and did not dare scatter too far. These half savage bands killed thousands of buffalo and preserved the meat as pemmican, or dried meat, called jerky and saved the tallow and hides for trade or camp purposes. They were probably largely responsible for the extermination of the buffalo herds of North Dakota. But the final act was by the white professionals who shot herds for the hides or tongues. Sporting parties from east also did what they could to kill the last remnants. The stone patterns seen on the original prairies were not confined to graves or lines. The primitive artists who designed them sometimes tried to imitate the form of birds, animals, people, stars or other objects. In some cases they moved dirt into Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
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