The Ancient Peoples Who Once Walked Here

The Ancient Peoples Who Once Walked Here. . We seldom pause to think of the peoples who long ago (some say 13,000 B.C. - 8,000 B. C.) Moved back and forth across this land. We know nothing, about these “Old Ones” and their times, they left no traces visible to us. They are known to archaeologists as the Paleo-Indians., Later, another wave of migration flowed across the centuries. The people of the Woodland Culture were here by 1,000 B.C. Those of the Mississippian Culture were here (900 A.D.) Before Columbus discovered America. Members of several tribes - - Miami, Shawnee, Potawatomi and Delaware - - were relative latecomers. It is believed that the original inhabitants of North America came across the Bering Strait and that these people all descended from them., This area was reserved for hunting, fishing and gathering of nuts, berries and other foods, which were always plentiful. For this reason, we find no permanent villages here. Villages were to the north and to the south. But there are many small settlements where these people camped temporarily when they came to replenish their food supplies after long hard winters and again in the fall. They must have loved this land - - with its great walnut stands, its flowing creeks - - in flowering springs and golden falls. Pottery shards are little in evidence here, they are found in the more permanent villages. However, a few have been recovered. It is said some were found on the old Julian farm, southwest of Greencastle., Through the years, many arrowheads have been picked up, and evidence still lingers in the stone chips left at various sites where they were painstakingly cut. These long-ago people have left them here in token and remembrance of their passing.