Fort Ancient Mounds

Ohio History

Earthen Wall

Now it was time to see the Fort Ancient mounds themselves. We drove down the length of the enclosure from the museum to the more narrow central area. Up close, the walls of earth looked almost like small hills; they were overgrown with grass and trees. Inside are conical and crescent-shaped mounds, flagstone pavements, and stone circles, some of which you can see in the aerial view below. There are also 67 "gateways" or openings in the wall of the enclosure, turning down the possibility of the wall being built for military defense. Instead, archaeologists believe the site was used as a religious and social center for the Hopewell Indians who built it. Some of the walls and mounds may even function as astronomical calendars. The Fort Ancient people who came after the Hopewell may have used it for similar purposes. These people likely lived in villages along the Little Miami River and possibly within Fort Ancient itself. Below is an aerial map of Fort Ancient that we saw on a sign:

Indian Canoe

Ohio History

Transportation by Water

Outside the Native American dwellings were a few things you might have found in an Indian's backyard. The canoe above was very interesting. We could see the marks where it had been carved out of a solid log. The ends had been carefully chiseled to a point to glide smoothly through the water. I was struck again by how small it was. I can't imagine sitting in this little boat out in a wide river though. I wonder if these canoes ever tipped over? I think I might opt to walk if I was an Indian. But then, there were no real roads, and waterways served as the highways in Indian days. Travel could be accomplished so much more quickly, and these shallow canoes could navigate all but the smallest streams.

Herb Garden

Nearby was a pretty little garden. It is amazing to think how much the Indians know about different plants and what they could do medicinally. I recognized the yarrow although it was not yet flowering; its yellow flowers can be dried and used for tea for a cold or infection. I believe that is bee balm in the back, and possibly some lavender in the front right corner. The Indians also knew how to gather many wild plants and herbs that were beneficial for all kinds of ailments. However, some plants were cultivated out of necessity or for convenience. 

Indian House

Ohio History

House of Grass and Sticks

I guess you could call this house a step up from a wigwam. It is a typical dwelling from the time of the Fort Ancient people. Villages could hold 200-500 people, and were sometimes surrounded by a stockade for protection from hostile tribes near by. There is even evidence that people may have lived inside the walls of Fort Ancient. This house reminded me of the Indian longhouse and may have held just as many family groupings. It was constructed of larger, sturdier sticks than the wigwam, and covered with sheaves of dry grasses. I imagine that the top would also have been covered, perhaps with more grass or bark. We enjoyed walking into the house and imagining what it would have been like to live there so long ago.

Indian Wigwam

Ohio History

Wigwam Frame

After our walk through the museum, we stepped back outside into the bright sunshine. There were more things to learn about Native Americans outside. Above is the beginning of a life-sized wigwam that we saw. The frame was built of long, flexible sticks that were thin yet strong. I can imagine sapling trees being cut down and having the branches stripped off. Poles were inserted into the ground to form hoops, and then the horizontal sticks were lashed on with thin strips of bark. The wigwam would then be covered with layers of some kind of bark to keep out the snow and rain. It's a warm weather version of an igloo, really. I was surprised at how small this one was, and it would seem even smaller once it was covered in bark. A slight contrast to today's houses...

Trading

Ohio History

Meeting of Two Worlds

The Historic Native American time period, 1700 to present, is characterized by interaction with the Europeans. Tribes in Ohio included the Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee, Iroquois, and Miami. Native Americans began to trade with white men, as seen above, until those white men became settlers taking over their land. The 1795 Treaty of Greenville created an Indian reserve in northeastern Ohio, but by the 1800s even this area was taken over for European settlement. Missionaries made efforts both to convert the tribes and to teach them to become farmers in western-style settlements. Some tribes established successful settlements, such as the Shawnee at Wapakoneta. However, even these were suppressed by the U.S. government. Leaders like Tecumseh rose up, charging the Indians to go to war to stop the takeover of their land. Though they had temporary victories, eventually all tribes were pushed out of Ohio. However, they left behind many things to be remembered by, including Fort Ancient.

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.

Indian Eskimos

Ohio History

First Indians

The Fort Ancient Museum traced the history of Native Americans through a series of life-size dioramas. This scene depicts the people believed to be the original ancestors of Native Americans. They may have migrated from Asia, down through Canada, to settle in present-day Ohio. Their rich furs and strong stone dwelling would have been very important for survival during this journey. These immigrants would have become the Early Woodland Indians (around 800 B.C.), the earliest people described in the museum; they included hunters and gatherers, as well as the Adena who built small mounds. The Middle Woodland/Hopewell Indians followed them, building more complex earthworks and using pottery and flint. In A.D. 500, they become the Late Woodland Indians, utilizing crops and the bow and arrow for food. A.D. 900-1600 is labeled with the Prehistoric Indians; last of all are the Historic Indians from 1700 to the present. We will see both of these groups next.

Fort Ancient

Ohio History

A Relief Map of Fort Ancient

It's time for another road trip to an point of interest in Ohio. We will be heading for the Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve in Oregonia, Ohio, an hour northeast of Cincinnati. This National Historic Landmark was Ohio's first state park, owned by the state since 1891. But, of course, its history goes much further back than that. Fort Ancient consists of almost three and a half miles of earthen walls up to 68 feet wide and 23 feet high. They enclose roughly 100 acres on the top of a high plateau that overlooks the Little Miami River. The 3D topographical map above shows the earthen walls at the edge of the clearing, just before the descent to the river valley begins. Despite being called a fort, archaeologists now believe this enclosure was a space for social and ceremonial events rather than for defense.

Another View of Fort Ancient

The Fort Ancient museum was located inside the earthen walls of Fort Ancient, at the other end of the enclosure. If you look closely at another segment of the topographical map shown above, you can pick out the earth walls. The white-roofed building in the center is the museum, which we will be visiting here in a minute. Then we will take a hike to see some of the walls themselves.