Rethinking the Dawn of History: The Schedule, Signature, and Agency of European Goods in Protohistoric Illinois

Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Fall 2007 by Mazrim, Robert, Esarey, Duane

Abstract Interpretations of the archaeological record of the seventeenth century Illinois Country have been temporally compressed, and the richly stratified archival, ethnographic, and material records from that era have not been applied to the archaeological information at hand. A muddied view of the remarkable changes that occurred within the cultural landscape of Illinois is the result. European goods first appear in the region between 1580 and 1630 and the pottery of the Illinois Indians-the Danner series-is present in each early Illinois sample that includes these imports. A reexamination of the Zimmerman, Palos, and Oak Forest sites suggests that temporal changes in trade good assemblages can be better understood in the context of historically documented trade schedules. Further, it is argued that the Illinois Indians actively positioned themselves in the political and economic landscape of the fur trade many decades prior to the arrival of the French in the Illinois Country, serving as the principal agents of the great changes that are associated with protohistory in Illinois.

The archaeological literature of Illinois has tended to either compress or ignore the concept of a protohistory in the region, treating this period of interaction and transition as a murky prelude to the actual physical presence of the French. In the 1960s and 1970s, artifacts of European manufacture were thought to postdate the arrival of the French in the region. The acceptance of down-the-line trade has pushed back the potential age of such artifacts, but these goods have still tended to be regarded as the accoutrements of European agents as they acted (however indirectly) upon passive, isolated aboriginal inhabitants of the region. Far less attention has been paid to the recognition or stratification of a protohistoric era. Also left unconsidered, then, have been the active, self-deterministic roles of the consumers of those trade goods, who in fact were also the principal distributors of the material during the first half of the seventeenth century in Illinois.

As will be discussed below, it has become dear that European goods appear in Illinois between 1580 and 1630. Importandy, the pottery of the Illinois Indians-the Danner series-is present in each early assemblage. It is argued here that the arrival of the immigrant Illinois populations and die coming of the physical manifestations of me fur trade are inseparable. Any exclusive affiliation between such goods and the Oneota populations of Illinois begins to strain upon dose inspection of the archaeological contexts and samples.

The record of the fur trade and its partidpants predating the arrival of Europeans in Illinois must be reconsidered, along with a revised schedule of down-the-line trade, as fundamental to the study of those archaeological samples understood to predate the 1670s. A more detailed calendar of the introduction and ebb and flow of trade goods can be used as a template for more closely defining and braketing the ardiaeological remains of the seventeenth century in this region.

The first part of this paper presents a reconsideration of the introduction of trade goods to the western Great Lakes, the fluctuations of that trade, and the movements of the Illinois Indians who, it is argued, played a pivotal role in bringing these goods to the region well before the arrival of the French. The second part of the paper summarizes and discusses the affiliations of European goods with the archaeological remains of the two principal aboriginal groups residing in the region during the seventeenth century-the Illinois and the people responsible for the archaeological manifestation known as Huber Phase Oneota. Specific artifactual data from the Oak Forest and Palos sites are examined. Also presented here is the recent reassessment of the origins of Danner series pottery, and the origins and arrival of the Illinois diemselves. Finally, this paper reexamines the nature of the European artifact assemblage from the Zimmerman site, and compares this with samples from five additional sites in Illinois and the western Great Lakes. The result of these comparisons suggests that temporal changes in trade goods assemblages are indeed present.

History, Trade, and the Illinois: The Written Record

The time of written history in the Illinois Country began suddenly with the arrival of Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in the summer of 1673. The exploratory party was looking for a riverine route to the Pacific, and Marquette was also hoping to find the lost sheep he knew as the Illinois Tribe. Descending the Mississippi River, the party encountered footprints in the mud that led to a village of the Peoria band of the Illinois, near the mouth of the Des Moines River. After receiving a calumet from the Peoria, Marquette continued down the Mississippi to learn that it flowed south and not west. On their return trip north, Marquette and Jolliet ascended the Illinois River, where they found a village of the Kaskaskia band of the Illinois Tribe. In the spring of 1675, Marquette returned to this place to establish the Mission of the Immaculate Conception-the first European edifice in the Illinois Country.