Indian Papoose

Ohio History

Indian Baby

This adorable little papoose was in the next diorama featuring the late Prehistoric Indian time period (900-1600). Groups in Ohio included the Monongahela, Sandusky, and  Fort Ancient. The Fort Ancient Indians from this time period were originally thought to have built Fort Ancient (hence the name), but archaeologists now believe it was built much earlier by a Hopewellian people. The Prehistoric Native Americans lived in villages, hunting and farming the fertile land for food. Each tribe had distinctively decorated pottery. Perhaps that is what the mother of the little Indian papoose is doing nearby in the picture below. Although these groups of people never directly contacted Europeans, they began to feel the effects of colonization through disease, technology, and loss of hunting lands.