Vrooman Road Bridge

Vrooman Road Bridge. . , Just 16 the east of this location spanning the Grand River Valley is the Vroomah Road bridge. Notice the designs on the piers and railings. These aesthetic treatments, prepared by the Seneca Nation of Indians and the Ohio Department of Transportation, call our attention to the people who lived in this regiorflong before European settlement., Bridge Railing Design , Like ceramic vessels today, per-contact Native people often decorated their pottery with scored lines, tool stamping, fabric or cord-marked patterns, and fingernail impressions. The design running along the railing of the Vrooman Road bridge replicates a common diagonal pattern used by per-contact potters along the southern shore of Lake Erie from Cleveland to western New York. This decoration was applied to the top of the vessel just below the rim and comes from pottery found on a nearby archaeological site dating to AD1500 (see image on right)., In the Delaware/Lenape language, the word for "clay pot" is siskëwahus., Lacrosse , Native people invented the game of lacrosse and played variations of the sport since time immemorial, long before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The game, known as "The Creator's Game" to some Native peoples, symbolizes the movements of celestial bodies like stars and comets. To all Native communities, the games were a significant social occasion and were sometimes played in honor of someone, occasionally to honor the first anniversary of a death. Lacrosse gatherings provided a meeting place to trade items, create or renew alliances and friendships, and settle disputes. In per-contact times and even in some Native communities today, hundreds of players take the field of play, often from sunup to sundown. Traditional accounts report some games lasting a week., Myaamiaataweenki (the Miami language): peekitahaminki (lacrosse); pakitahaakanı (lacrosse stick); pakwaahkoni (lacrosse ball), Raccoon Prints , Several rivers and streams in the area are named after game animals like elk, beaver, and deer. Per-contact Native people commonly named places after game animals or other plant and natural resources associated with a place, especially in tribes where hunting and collecting wild plant foods accounted for the large part of the diet. These clues, or "hunter's hints," gave insight into the types of animals, plants, and rocks common in certain areas. Many of these names continue in use today, reminding us of the long occupation of this land by various Native American tribes whose descendants are still here. In the Seneca language, the Grand River is known as the Raccoon River., Seneca language: gëzhöwa:nëh (big river); "Ohio" [ohlzyoh'] is also a Seneca word meaning "a beautiful river", Ice Fisher , In addition to netting, trapping (fish weirs), and angling (bone hooks), spearing was an effective fishing method. Spearfishing continued even when rivers and other bodies of water froze in the winter. Several strategies were employed. Some used fish decoys to draw larger predatory fish to the hole in the ice. Another technique required people to work in teams. One ice fisher waited with spear ready by a hole cut in to the ice while a team of helpers formed a circle around the spear fisher. Pounding the ice with poles, they slowly moved towards the hole. The fish, driven toward the opening, were then speared by the waiting ice fisher., Potawatomi language: bbon (winter); mkwëm (ice); glgokéwen (spearfishing), Torch Fisher , Using a torch to lure fish to the surface at night was one of the many fishing techniques used by per-contact Native fishers along the rivers and Lake Erie shore. Torch fishing can be done from the shore, a canoe, or simply by wading into the water. Insects and small fish drawn to the light by curiosity, in turn lure larger, more desirable fish to the area. The torch fisher then spears the fish,, Shawnee language: skoteelake'kwi (torch); holakeesi (cance); name'ta (fish), Biodiversity , Just as large super markets provide us with the widest variety of food and other useful items, stream valleys once provided pre-contact Native peoples with the greatest diversity of plants and animals. Offering a permanent water source and often a variety of settings (riverbank, floodplain and terrace), these arenas would support a wide range of plant life. The reliable source of water and diversity of plants attract variety of animals. The wealth of resources in stream valleys made these land-forms essential to meeting people's needs from food to shelter and clothing to r per-contact peoples cultivated (heir fields on these rich bottoms and terraces growing varieties of maize, squash and beans, which became important parts of their diet., Delaware/Lenape language: sipu (river); slputët (stream), mplsus (medicine)