A Thousand Years of American Indian History in the Filson's Collection

In the scope of human existence, a millennium is not an impressive unit of time. However, placed in an archival context it has more gravitas. In the history of the Ohio Valley, where written records were nonexistent until relatively recently, archival collections spanning a millennium are remarkable. The Filson has materials—museum artifacts, photographs and prints, and manuscript records—documenting more than a thousand years of American Indian presence in the Ohio Valley. These collections reveal the region as a place where Indians once resided, socialized, traded, and interacted with European settlers.

The Ohio Valley was inhabited long before the first Europeans arrived. In the late eighteenth century, Euro-American settlers in Louisville were intrigued by prehistoric earthworks, mounds that rose above the floodplain next to the Ohio River. Roughly a thousand years ago, success in domesticating corn prompted native peoples in parts of Kentucky and areas to the south and west to settle and form agricultural communities. These mounds, one of which measured a hundred feet in diameter, were evidence of a Mississippian city. Indigenous peoples built city complexes at not only what is now Louisville but also other sites along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, including Cincinnati, Marietta, Evansville, St. Louis, and Cahokia. (Many of the earthwork mounds constructed by Indigenous builders have long since been obliterated, casualties of the rapid growth of cities. Marietta, Angel Mounds at Evansville, and Cahokia, opposite St. Louis, remain.)¹

Archaeology informs much of what we know about the region's earliest residents; in fact, scientific inquiry into the origins of prehistoric mounds in the Ohio Valley was part of a process that would lead to the development of American archaeology. Kentucky's soils contain evidence of not only Mississippian culture but also more than fifteen thousand years of Indigenous presence on the continent. The Filson's collection houses a number of objects related to the region's prehistoric past. Unfortunately, much of this suffers from a lack of documentation, a common problem for early archaeological assemblages. Amateur archaeologists often failed to record information, and much important data about these objects has been lost. The following items are housed in the Filson's collection of Indian artifacts. Most notably, the museum has a remarkable number of ceramic pieces from the Mississippian period, some of which are shown here.²

This stone full grooved axe head, found near the Lincoln farm in Larue County, Kentucky is a notable item. Such tools are rarely found in archaeological digs today, as they have been of interest to collectors for some time. The head would have been secured with rope or cord to a wooden shaft. This axe head shows little sign of use, indicating that perhaps it was a show piece or intended for exchange.

The Filson has a large collection of stone tools. The tools here are from a set Eli Lilly donated in 1932, many of which came from Cumberland County, Kentucky. Lay people commonly misidentify stone tools as arrowheads, which are actually quite small, no bigger than a thumbnail. Spear points are larger and notched for attachment to a spear shaft. Knives, larger still, fit into the palm of a hand and have sharpened edges. Only the Mississippians had bows and arrows, while earlier groups used darts, javelins, and thrusting spears.

This nutting stone was used to hold nuts such as walnuts or pecans, which would then be cracked open with a rock. The Filson's specimen is unusually large and could be used to smash several nuts simultaneously.

Men were the traditional stoneworkers. Meanwhile, women created fantastic works in clay, such as this octagonal bowl. The white speckles on the bowl's surface are Ohio River clam and mussel shells, smashed into fragments and integrated into the clay. This small bowl would have been used as a feasting dish.

Animals were often incorporated into works of pottery. This earthenware effigy pot excavated at Clinton, Kentucky...