Winchell, N. H.

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University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM): Digital Well

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science Volume 4 Number 3 Article 5 1910 Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and Their Migrations N. H. Winchell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/jmas  Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Winchell, N. H. (1910). Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and Their Migrations. Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol. 4 No.3, 378-379. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/jmas/vol4/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science by an authorized editor of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact skulann@morris.umn.edu. Prehistoric Aborigines ln rich moist places, and Vicia linearu (Nutt.) Greene, a western species, has been collected as tar eas t as Ortonvllle. In conclusion 1t may be said that the prairie Legumes while be-longing to but few species were rich fn tndivlduals, and probahly con· trlbuted much to the fertility of the prairies. PREHISTORIC ABORIGINES OF MINNESOTA AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. N . H. Winchell. [Paper written !or the Minnesota Historical Society, and read Feb. 9, 1907.] (ABSTRACT.) Prof. Winchell based h ls dscussion on tbe latest results of the study of the Glacial period , and the conclusi.onB of the Bureau of American Ethnology. He said that by the former the farthest back that we hope to trace the human occupancy of Minnesota Is not, more than five or slx thou_sand years, that being the approximate date at which the stat~ became habitable after the ret1rement of the lee of the last Glacial epoch. He c~lled attention to the map of late major Powell showing the distribution of the original linguistic stozks of ihe American aborig-ines, which number between fifty and sLxty ; and to some of the re-markable features of that distribution. Be showed that after the Glacial period the tribes resident along t.bc Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, and on tbe gulf coast began a slow m igration. into the coun-try that had before b~n un inhabitable lying toward the north. The vanguard of the tribes moving from the southwest wa.S held by the Athapascan a.nd the Algonquian, and from the southeast by the Iro-quois and the Sioux. Rentnants of these tribe.s Sttill reslde in theh· pristine seats, and their dialects, nbich have been carefully studied, are found to be more r-rcbalc than the body of the same now k-nown further no1·tb, showing that these r )mn:.\nt.s were the parents or the more northern dialects. The va;!ey ot the Ohto and much o! the adj:!~ent country were occupied ~Y the migratJng Sloux and they bec,ame the celebrated mound bulldcrs of tbe region. ':'he Algonquian, moving from the southwest, took possession of the timbered regic-n of the northwest, extending to Hudson 's bay, the whole of Minnesota probably being occupied by tbcru. This eonstituted the fi rst great migratory move-ment. Then began a great war-the result of which was the disr uption and expulsiot. of the Ohio mound builders. Thl'l Is confirmed by traditions, and by son~e sub-bls torlc facts. The Al.;onqulans or the northwet>t moYed southea:::twardly and crossed the .Mississippi in a hostile Incursion near the southern boundary of Minnesota, and finally drove the mound builders who ha-re now been learned to have been D1g1t1z a by Coogle Prehistoric Aborigitres 379 the Cherokees and some cog:~ate subtrlbes, out of llllnols and Ohio and into Virginia an~ North Caroltna, where they were met by De Soto and where they were still building mounds. Many of them escaped down the Ohio valier, and at Its mouth they divided, a part of them returning agaln to Mlnn~sota and to Iowa, and there establlahlng, or renewing, the dynasty of the mound builder, this later phase being distlnetively called the Minnesota dynasty. It 1a thla migration that brought the present Sioux lnto the ~orthwest, an event which L9 believed to have been not more than 500 years ago. After this the Ojibwa (Algonquian) stock made another success· tul raid on the Dakota tt·Jbes, and gradually pushed them again fur-ther south, and recaptured the northern half of the state of Minne-sota.- This last mCJvement t.s verified by some historic facts, and by abundant tradition. It was duri.og this war that tho whltes appeared on the scene. The conclusion of the paper summarized the bum~n mlgratons that have pas.<!ed over Minnesota as follows : 1. Algc:aq~fan occupancy from the southwest. (During tbls epoch the Ohio mound builders nourished.) 2. ~ucral bosUlo movement against the mound builders by the Algonquian ( Klllstlno?) tribes from the northv.·est, resulting in the destructJon of the Ohio dy:1.asty. 3. Fugitive mound bulld~rs return up the Mississippi river and possess the country under the second. or Minnesota, dynasty, occupy-ing the southern pn.rt or the state, say 500 years ago. 4. The Sioux again driven away, at least from the northern part ot the state, by the A.lg0:.1quian stock, 150 years ago. 5. Aryan clvillzattc u. • • • • D1g1t1z a by Coogle 

Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and Their Migrations

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Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and Their Migrations

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