Contemporary Archaeology, Indigenous Communities, and the French Absence from the Upper Mississippi Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Critical Issues in Contemporary Archaeology & Historical Archaeology: Limits, Opportunities, Challenges", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper examines a locale of Ho-Chunk and Oceti Ŝakowiŋ territory in the late seventeenth century in the area now called western Wisconsin, along the upper Mississippi River. Place-names there reflect the significance of French explorers in settler colonial mindsets of American culture in subsequent centuries and today. At Trempealeau, a French translation of the Ho-Chunk name Hay-nee-ah-cha, “soaking mountain,” refers to a unique landform, a landmark and sacred place for Indigenous people for thousands of years through to the present. Today, archaeological sites there are within “Perrot State Park,” named for an explorer who ostensibly established a trading post over the winter of 1685 to 1686. A re-examination of previous archaeological excavations and a new soil chemistry analysis in consultation with the Ho-Chunk Tribal Historic Preservation Office is presented. Results contrast the relative absence of French objects with the significant yet overlooked continuity of Indigenous Nations at Trempealeau.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Critical Issues in Contemporary Archaeology & Historical Archaeology: Limits, Opportunities, Challenges   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow