Program Notes from 10/25/05 Meeting of LKWA
The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chairman, Linn Duesterbeck, at 6:05 pm at the DNR office in Janesville. There were 21 persons in attendance.
The events at the prehearing conference that was held this morning (Oct 25) in Fort Atkinson were reviewed. The purpose of the meeting which was called by the Administrative Law Judge, William Coleman, Jr., was to set the ground rules and identify the parties in the contested case hearing requested by RKLD (the Lake District), LKRA (Lake Koshkonong Recreation Association), and RRKA (Rock River –Koshkonong Association).
The dates of the hearing will be March 28-30 for “non-expert” testimony. This can include anyone (citizen) who wants to provide facts about the effect of lake levels. It will probably be held in Fort Atkinson, Jefferson or Edgerton. April 10-14 will be for expert testimony. This will be held in Madison.
The business meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm.
Amy Rosebrough of the Wisconsin Historical Society gave a program on the Indian Mounds of Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Arkansas and presently is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin studying the effigy mound culture of Wisconsin.
People have inhabited Wisconsin for 13,000 years. Methods of studying how these people lived include Ethnology, the study of living people (comparisons with recent cultures and interviewing descendents) and Archeology (study of the physical remnants that have been left buried or hidden).
There are three general periods of history of the inhabitants of Wisconsin: 1) Paleo-Indian (ice age) 13,000 to 7,000 years ago. 2) Archaic (pre-agricultural, pre-burial) - 7,000 to 3500 years ago. From this period, one finds some art objects, copper tools, and shell work.. There was a transition period from 3500 to 2500 years ago when forests formed. Large spear points are associated with this period and there is evidence of violence. 3) Woodland Indians. From 2500 years ago. Now there are burial mounds (conical), pottery, evidence of trade (marine shells from the gulf) and agriculture.
As the Woodland age progressed, more elaborate burial mounds were built. Fine pottery, copper birds and obsidian pieces were included for the afterlife journey of the dead person. The obsidian came from the Yellowstone area.
Around 700 A.D, the elaborate graves stopped. Instead, more elaborate effigy mounds were built. Often there was only one person buried in a mound (compared to many persons buried in the earlier conical mounds). The later mounds often included very beautiful pottery. About 1500 to 700 years ago corn appears and also a lot of attention to deer hunting.
Lake Koshkonong has examples of all of these types of mounds with sites more common on the north side of the lake. Some of the mounds were in the shape of Waktcexi (water spirits). These were cat-like creatures with very long tails who were thought to live under the water. They were mortal enemies of the Thunderbirds. The result of one great battle between the Waktcexi and the Thunderbirds is said to be the large boulders that lie all around Devil’s Lake. http://hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.BouldersDevilsLake.html
Most of the thousands of mounds around the lake were destroyed by the early settlers. Two large groups remaining are the General Atkinson group and Hoard group. These are located on Vinnie Ha Ha and Koshkonong Mounds Road. In 1904-7 Skavlem and Stout mapped out all the mounds for Charles Brown who published the findings in the Wisconsin Archeologist. Of note, Susan Yates’ dad lives in Skavlem’s former home.
Amy noted that a very different culture, the Middle Mississippian, is represented by the Aztalan site. This site has a string of conical mounds covering a pit where there was a large post. There is one large burial mound that contained the remains of a princess who was found wrapped in three belts of beads. This mound was burned at least 1000 years ago. This culture used Birdman figures, large earrings, carried large maces (made of hardwood) and were apparently very warlike. They were probably an offshoot of the Cahokia mound builders who lived in the St. Louis area. Just outside of St. Louis, there is an excellent National Park with a large visitor’s center and a huge, pyramid-like mound.
The Oneota culture lasted from 1050 to 300 years ago. Their pots look intermediate to those of the Cahokia and Woodland types. The Oneota survived up to the arrival of the Europeans evolving into the Siouxan culture.
Amy finished by noting that all world cultures show many commonalities of death rituals, belief in the afterlife, and the use of burial markers.
We all greatly enjoyed Amy’s very interesting presentation.
The next meeting will be November 29. It will be at 6:00 pm at the Janesville DNR office. The program will be on the structure and care of nest boxes for Wood Ducks and Prothonotary warblers.
Also save Saturday morning, January 28 for assembly of nest boxes. This is a lot of fun for children.
Respectfully submitted,
Penny Shackelford