Greatest finds in 20 years

ramer · Sep 20, 2017

I was given permission to hunt an area where the 2nd largest Seneca Indian tribe in New York State lived. In 1630, several Jesuit priests from France visited this area and brought with them rings (known now as Jesuit Rings), tiny bells (known as French Trade Bells), and copper cooking pots. The priests lived amongst these Indians from 1630 to about 1660 when after the Indians became increasingly hostile towards them, they got out of dodge....in a hurry.
I believe these items brought by these French priests were an attempt to bribe the Indians into becoming Catholics. Indians had never seen ANYTHING made out of metal. Indians had never used metal because they never knew about metals. These priests were the first whites they had ever encountered.
These finds may be some of the oldest finds ever uncovered in the US. They are the greatest finds of my 20 years of metal detecting. Amongst the pics you will see musket balls fired by the French army when they invaded this area in 1667 and wiped out this Seneca tribe, burning their lodges and crops.
As icing on the cake I also found a large cent and an 1864 Indian head penny.
And also, not sure of their dates, but two buttons.

Ice Scratcher · Sep 20, 2017

Really awesome finds!

I love trade era items...

<°)))>{

TriadHunter · Sep 20, 2017

First of all, amazing finds. One thing I wanted to say is that your comment about metals and Indians may be slightly inaccurate, depending on what you meant. There are numerous cases of Natives working with precious metals; finding it, forming it and bartering with it. Or, were you just making a general point that, for the most part, Indians did not utilize metals such as iron for tools and other parts?

Sorry, not trying to be a jerk or detract from your awesome post. I am an avid reader of early American history and much blood was shed in the Europeans (and then Americans) pursuit of precious metals that the natives often held the key to. In one case Tecumseh even played a joke on Simon Butler (aka "Bahdler by the Indians), the renowned frontiersman, for an alleged cache of a precious metal.

Ice Scratcher · Sep 20, 2017

Triad makes a point, also the Copper Culture, around the Great Lakes, was also way before trade era...

<°)))>{

ramer · Sep 20, 2017

Indians and metal

In upstate New York, the Indians never used metal in the 1600's and early 1700's. They knew nothing about metals. This is why you will only find flint and bone arrow heads during that era. The methods of cooking meat was to hollow out a log, fill it with water, dump in the meat and put in red hot rocks from a nearby camp fire.
Now in the upper peninsula of Michigan, the Indians in that area did use copper metal because copper was laying on top of the ground in sizes of boulders, likely from long ago volcanic eruptions. But in general, Indians knew nothing about metals in the 1600's.

ramer · Sep 20, 2017

Indians and metals

Tecumseh was from the mid 1700's and by that time, lots of European metals were introduced into the Indian cultures.

zeemang · Sep 20, 2017

Awesome finds, I can imagine the feeling of history when you find something like that, WOW!
How early did native americans work metal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy_in_pre-Columbian_America#North_America

TriadHunter · Sep 20, 2017

ramer said:
Indians had never seen ANYTHING made out of metal. Indians had never used metal because they never knew about metals.

Tecumseh was from the mid 1700's and by that time, lots of European metals were introduced into the Indian cultures.

I just pulled up the text in my book. I got the Indian wrong; it was actually Blue Jacket who played the joke. Sorry, it's been a year since I read the book (The Frontiersmen by Eckert). But the mining and forming of metals was very real, and the Indians did see it. They also knew how to mine it and form it.

As for the silver, remember, as with most things with Indians it was a generational thing. Just because Blue Jacket (a white man who became a Shawnee) first came into written records around 1773 (as a grown man), it does not mean that he discovered the silver in the 1700's. In fact, it's implied in the text and the citations indicate that it may have been a generation or two prior to Blue Jacket, at a minimum, putting the dates of mining and forming easily in the 1600's in today's Ohio.

Here's some text from the book:

"One of the prevailing puzzles among the pioneers was the question of where the Shawnees mined all the silver they used for their ornaments. That they had a fantastic supply of it was obvious, for rare indeed was even the lowliest of Shawnee warriors who did not own many beautiful hand-beaten armbands, necklaces, medallions and other objects of the purest quality silver." (The Frontiersmen, pg 434).

cellrdwellr · Sep 21, 2017

EXCELLENT digs!

oaktree · Sep 21, 2017

Incredible history and finds! Congratulations that is amazing

Ice Scratcher · Sep 21, 2017

<°)))>{

BuscaPlata · Sep 21, 2017

Awesome looking rings ramer! Man i'd love to find one of those, congrats!

Waveoff · Sep 21, 2017

Very cool finds! Congrats!

Cal_Cobra · Sep 21, 2017

Great site you got there!! In California we find Indian trade trinkets too, they range from Phoenix buttons, to pretty much anything made of metal - buttons, rings, coins, tinklers, etc.

Seems like anywhere the Indians were, so were the Spanish.

hh,
Cal

mudwhale · Sep 21, 2017

Unreal. Congrats!!!

Greatest finds in 20 years

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