Ground-truthing a Historic Database: Chequamegon Bay Archaeological Survey 2016

Summary

In summer of 2016, the authors investigated two northern Wisconsin sites with long legacies of regional recognition as key seventeenth-century interaction locales among Native American communities and French explorers, missionaries, and traders. These historic locations, known as the Fish Creek Village and Shore’s Landing Trading Post, are significant to descendant communities, including local Ojibwe peoples and Wendat diaspora groups. In addition, the locations are some of the first archaeological sites recorded in Wisconsin’s Archaeological Site Index (ASI). Like the ASI, which is maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society, many states keep databases of historically recognized places, such as villages, trails, and colonial fortifications, serving as valuable tools for archaeologists working in both CRM and academic settings. This paper demonstrates the importance of tracing the context and development of such databases, continually revisiting primary historical source material when surveying for historically documented sites, and developing collaborative relationships with descendant communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Setbacks and Solutions Within Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 259

File Information