Outside the Fort: Investigations at a Kickapoo Village Adjacent to Fort Ouiatenon, Tippecanoe County, Indiana

Summary

Fort Ouiatenon was a French fur-trading outpost constructed in 1717 on the Wabash River. Wea, Kickapoo, and Mascouten villages were located in the surrounding floodplain. The area remained a focal point of Native American habitation and fur trade through 1791. In past years, extensive excavations have been conducted within the fort proper, resulting in a fair amount of knowledge of the non-indigenous inhabitants of the area. Little attention, however, has been paid to the Native American residents of the Ouiatenon vicinity. The current project consisted of extensive magnetometry across site 12-T-9, coupled with targeted excavations of a structure of probable Kickapoo construction. The 6.2 meter diameter structure was circular, built by digging a shallow trench, into which saplings were placed. It was covered with bark. The structure was also burned, likely intentionally. These excavations add considerable information to our knowledge of eighteenth century Kickapoo lifeways and subsistence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Poster Session   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): POS-98,20