Paleoethnobotanical inquiry of early euro-American and Ojibwa Gardens on Grand Island, Michigan

Northeastern Naturalist, 1998 by Silbernagel, Janet, Martin, Susan R, Landon, David B, Gale, Margaret R

One piece of wood charcoal from WLI was identified as A. saccharum (Barefoot and Hankins 1982, Brown and Panshin 1934). All other wood fragments were too small to identify. The larger carbonized nutshell fragment from sample WL1 was identified as F. grandifolia. Although the smaller fragments of both carbonized and uncarbonized nutshell appeared similar, they could also have been fragments of Carpinus caroliniana Walt. (hornbeam) or Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch. (ironwood or hop-hornbeam) nutshells (Martin and Barkely 1961, Montgomery 1967, USDA 1974).

Seeds, both charred and uncharred, were the most abundant macroremain type. Uncarbonized seeds, except Portulaca, were all identified as species that currently occur on the island (Martin and Barkley 1961, Montgomery 1967, WWA 1991). Sample WL1 contained most of the carbonized wood and nutshells, with few seeds. All carbonized seeds came from WL1-F. Samples from MB1 and MB2 contained few macroremains, mostly uncharred, except that MB2 had a proliferation of Cenococcum sp. Sample FC had many uncarbonized seeds with a high proportion of Portulaca oleracea L. (purslane). Recovered species identified through historic documents as culturally important (Table 1) included Prunus virginiana L. (choke cherry), Rubus spp. (raspberry or blackberry), Sambucus sf. pubens Michx. (red-berried elder), Scirpus spp. (bulrush), and Vaccinium spp. (blueberry or cranberry). All except Vaccinium spp. were charred. Cenococcum sp. sclerotia (mycorrhizal sclerotia) were identified in all samples (McWeeney 1989, Howlett and Jackson 1976, Mikola 1948), but have no known cultural significance.

After removing unidentified, fragmented, or uncounted remains, we recovered an average of 85.4 macroremains (charred and uncharted) from each sample ranging from two (sample MB1-F) to 387 (sample FC) macroremains (Table 7). The percentage of culturally important remains ranged from 3% (sample FC) to 96% (sample WL1-F), with an average of 48%. Taxa currently present represented in remains ranged from 4% (sample FC) and 100% (samples WLl, MB1, MB2). Again, a proportion of CI to CP was used to compare archaeobotanical to ethnohistorical correspondence. Sample WL1-F had the highest ratio (1.04) of culturally important to currently present remains. The FC sample also reflected a high CI:CP ratio (0.93), while the other samples had ratios of 0.50 or less (Table 7, Fig. 6).

The level of identification obtained on the macroremain data permitted calculation of richness and diversity indices. In our analysis, richness ranged from 7.0 (sample WLl-F) to 2.0 (sample MBI). Diversity was also highest from sample WL1-F (0.74) and lowest from FC (0.08), with the remaining three samples reflecting similar diversity measures around 0.40.

DISCUSSION

Our culturally important plant list included 32 uncultivated taxa, (most to the species level though several such as Rubus spp. were grouped), and ten cultivated species. The plants were listed by season of use (Yarnell 1964). Pollen and macroremains analysis recovered 16 of the 32 uncultivated taxa and none of the cultivated taxa. The largest group of unrecovered taxa were those typically used in late summer. These results indicated a fair correspondence of archaeobotanical remains to ethnohistoric accounts. The lack of taxa used in late summer supports written accounts claiming that historic Native Americans inhabited Grand Island seasonally. They allegedly arrived in spring to collect maple sap, fished the bays with nets and spears, cultivated corn, squash, and potatoes, traded with other villages or bands, and often left the island in the fall for their hunting grounds (Roberts 1991). Further analysis could assess whether different activities in late summer resulted in fewer plant remains, if late summer plants were used in equivalent amounts to plants in other seasons but they produced fewer remains (e.g. fewer but larger seeds), if the late summer plant remains were less durable, or if it reflects seasonal use patterns of the sites by Late Woodland and early historic Ojibwa.