Rapid River Phase II

Well, spent the week in Baudette again. Let me tell you, it is not an exciting place to be.

It was a very slow week, we put in two units, and one was so disturbed that I might as well have been digging in a road bed.

In Unit A we found some ceramic, and some flat pieces of granite that look like ceramic. SO, some of the pieces might be rock and not pottery. Under that we found some lithics, all flakes, and nothing too exciting. Pretty much all that indicates is that people have been there before they made pottery, around 1,8oo-2,000 years ago.

Then we had an exciting meeting with a bunch of big shots from the regional MNDoT department out of Bemidji. We discussed where the new bridge was going and what, if any, impacts would take place to the site. Turns out they aren't going to do anything on the site, so we took GPS points around the site, every 10 feet, or like every 3 steps. It was a little overkill, but that is what they asked for.

Like I said before the second unit was disturbed as hell, and it doesn't really matter what we found because there is no integrity or context. We did find some big nails and some fence staples which was about as exciting as it got. We did put some cores in to see how deep it was disturbed, and after seeing that we called it quits.

Somewhere in there a lady from the county historical society stopped by to talk to us. She acted like she knew a lot, but after talking with her, she doesn't know squat. I found her ignorant or racist. She doesn't understand why native people don't live the way they did before the Europeans came over. In fact, she asked "Why don't the natives still make and use arrow heads?" Well lets see, if you could use a gun or a bow and arrow or spear in which you had to MAKE the point, which would you choose? And she got on my nerves so I asked her why Europeans didn't use them or snares or traps anymore. That shut her up quick.

Why do people think that natives are stupid? That sure pisses me off. They understood SO much physics. In order to create a point they needed to know how hard to strike the stone, at which angle, and then be able to know how everything is going to turn out so they can plan their next few moves! Come on people, Europeans aren't gifts from God.....

Anyway, off to Ely next week, on Birch Lake. A Minnesota Power reservoir. I may have internet, but don't count on it.

Till next week!