Fletcher Site

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Fletcher Site
Fletcher Site Bay City MI.jpg
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Location Btw Marquette Ave. and the Saginaw River, Bay City, Michigan [1]
Coordinates 43°36′30″N83°53′30″W / 43.60833°N 83.89167°W / 43.60833; -83.89167 Coordinates: 43°36′30″N83°53′30″W / 43.60833°N 83.89167°W / 43.60833; -83.89167
Area less than one acre
NRHP reference # 71001018 [2]
Added to NRHP April 16, 1971

The Fletcher Site, also designated 20BY28, is a Native American cemetery and archaeological site, located on the west bank of the Saginaw River in Bay City, Michigan. [3] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. [2]

Native Americans in the United States Indigenous peoples of the United States (except Hawaii)

Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term "American Indian" excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaska Natives, while Native Americans are American Indians, plus Alaska Natives of all ethnicities. Native Hawaiians are not counted as Native Americans by the US Census, instead being included in the Census grouping of "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander".

Archaeological site Place in which evidence of past activity is preserved

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved, and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use.

Saginaw River river in Michigan

The Saginaw River is a 22.4-mile-long (36.0 km) river in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is formed by the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Shiawassee rivers southwest of Saginaw. It flows northward into the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron, passing through Bay City, which developed around it in the 19th century. The watershed area is 8,595 square miles (22,260 km2).

Contents

History

It is likely that occupation of the area around the Fletcher Site dates back to the Early Woodland period. [4] However, trade goods found in the cemetery portion of the site date the burials to the mid-1700s. Manuscripts from this time indicate that the area around Saginaw Bay was inhabited at the time by Odawa and Ojibwe people. Maps indicate the presence of a village at the site of this burial ground, and trade goods found in the site date the cemetery to about this time period. There is no record of this village after 1765, and it seems likely that the settlement was disbanded around this time. [3]

Woodland period period of North American pre-Columbian cultures

In the classification of Archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologists distinguishing the Mississippian period, from 1000 CE to European contact as a separate period. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic term for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures. The Eastern Woodlands cultural region covers what is now eastern Canada south of the Subarctic region, the Eastern United States, along to the Gulf of Mexico.

Saginaw Bay bay within Lake Huron in eastern Michigan

Saginaw Bay is a bay within Lake Huron located on the eastern side of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms the space between Michigan's Thumb region and the rest of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Saginaw Bay is 1,143 square miles (2,960 km2) in area. It is located in parts of five Michigan counties: Arenac, Bay, Huron, Iosco, and Tuscola.

Odawa Indigenous people of North America

The Odawa, said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the northern United States and southern Canada. They have long had territory that crosses the current border between the two countries, and they are federally recognized as Native American tribes in the United States and have numerous recognized First Nations bands in Canada. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi peoples.

The Fletcher Site was discovered in modern times during construction activities in 1967. Archaeologists from Michigan State University excavated the site in 1967, 1968, and 1970. [3]

Michigan State University Public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States

Michigan State University (MSU) is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU was founded in 1855 and served as a model for land-grant universities later created under the Morrill Act of 1862. The university was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, one of the country's first institutions of higher education to teach scientific agriculture. After the introduction of the Morrill Act, the college became coeducational and expanded its curriculum beyond agriculture. Today, MSU is one of the largest universities in the United States and has approximately 563,000 living alumni worldwide.

Description

The Fletcher Site is located on the outer bank at a bend in the Saginaw River only a few miles upstream from Saginaw Bay. The elevation of the site is only a few feet above that of Lake Huron. When occupied, the site was likely directly on the shore of the river. [5]

Lake Huron one of the Great Lakes of North America

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as its westerly counterpart, to which it is connected by the 5-mile-wide (8.0 km), 20-fathom-deep Straits of Mackinac. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the state of Michigan in the United States. The name of the lake is derived from early French explorers who named it for the Huron people inhabiting the region. The Huronian glaciation was named due to evidence collected from Lake Huron region. The northern parts of the lake include the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Across the lake to the southwest is Saginaw Bay. The main inlet is the St. Marys River, and the main outlet is the St. Clair River.

Remains of 93 individuals from 85 grave sites were recovered during archaeological excavations. At least two dozen other graves were completely destroyed. Graves were laid out in at least five rows, with bodies interred in wooden boxes apparently aligned with the direction of the rising sun. European trade goods, including beads, knives, and silver, were placed with the bodies. [3]

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References

  1. ↑ The NRIS lists the Fletcher Site as "Address Restricted." Mainfort shows the site as being between Marquette Avenue and the Saginaw River. Geo-coordinates are approximate.
  2. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Robert C. Mainfort (July 1985), "Wealth, Space, and Status in a Historic Indian Cemetery" (PDF), American Antiquity, 50 (3): 555–579
  4. ↑ Timothy Pauketat (2015), The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology, Oxford University Press, p. 430, ISBN   9780190241094
  5. ↑ William A. Lovis (1985), "Seasonal Settlement Dynamics and the Role of the Fletcher Site in the Woodland Adaptations of the Saginaw Drainage Basin", Arctic Anthropology, 22 (2): 153–170, JSTOR   40316096
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