Southern Minnesota Muqafaa website reveals the history of the original tool industry

Along the gravel route in the rural Qasbah Province, amid the ranks of the emerald corn, is a sign that says “Grand Meadow Chert Quarry – WANHI YUKAN Trail”.

WANHI Yukan is the name Dakota means “there is Chert here.” Next to the mark, the walking path leads to a long garden of oak trees.

Chtart, sometimes called Flint, is the original stone population who usually use to make daily tools.

Oak -shaded along the walking path is another sign that offers both the archaeological and cultural interpretation of the site.

Work to create The Preserve is a partnership between the Historic Association of Dakah Province, the Indian community is the Prairi Island and the preservation of archaeological, a national organization.

Frankie Jackson is an employee of compliance with the Indian Pyrend community, the country of Dakota in the southeastern part of the state. He is also a tribal member of the Sistern Wahpeeton Sioux community in South Dakota.

Jackson said: “I always imagine that this is one of the last stations for you before you press the plains and went to the buffalo and all of that. This was one of your last stations to provide your tools, and get everything you need,” Jackson said.

The ancestors of Dakota, Iyay and Hun Shonk came to this region in the current state of Minnesota of the Stone of Stone about a thousand years ago.

The eight -acre reserve consists of more than eight pits, some of which reaches 15 feet and width more than 20 feet. The current quarry is the rest of what archaeologists believe is a much larger location with more than 2000 edge.

Archaeologist Tom True shared work to keep the site. Publish many research papers separating the history of the archaeological quarry.

Tro said that the archaeological records indicate that the indigenous people are coming to this site for 8,000 years. TROW is seen that people have collected their nearby river bank or the surface of the Earth. True said that the changes in agriculture that occurred about 1000 years ago created a request for high -quality stone, and people began in the quarry of materials.

“This is the best stone in Minnesota to create hiding scraps, this major promoter. Therefore, we know that they came here for this purpose. Because when we go to the archaeological sites along the Mississippi River, along the cannon, along the blue ground, the villages there that have a Marj T -shirt and have many of them,” said.

The reserve created a self -guidance tour with signs in English and Dakota. Signs act as road points for visitors to learn the reason for the importance of the materials for people.

Jackson says he remembers that the work to design and explain the region began when the elderly visited Dakota for the first time.

Jackson said: “It was a really real and magical moment to hear those who thanked your songs coming from the site here. This is for me, I have woke up somewhat on the site, if you will, and I raised these curiosity, not only within us, but with others who were standing with us on that day,” Jackson said.

One of these signs describes how BIMON presented almost everything people need, but only if they have hunting weapons, butchers and hiding cushions – the tools made of Chert. The reserve also recruited the help of a handful of artists to help people imagine what the quarry was seeing when it was in the most active about 700 years ago.

In addition to bilateral signs, Jackson and his team invented instructions for people to leave prayer and tobacco relations, a work of gratitude and respect.

Jackson said: “It makes the indigenous people visit the site.

Mainard Green theory

In the neighboring town of Austin, the local history exhibition tells the story of how the quarry was prevented from the plow to agricultural lands.

Inside a permanent exhibition at the MOWER COSTYOLICAL Society, rows of arrow heads and spears made from Grand Meadow Chert. The boycott was donated by the late Mainard Green, mosque and amateur archaeologist. The entire collection consists of more than 800 artifacts, and many tools have been collected at a short distance from the quarry.

A copy of a letter written by Green to the archaeologist is also displayed in 1952, and I called it to that Visit Grand Meadow to wipe the site.

A copy of Green’s message is part of the exhibition.

“There is a place close to here that confused me several years ago. It is in a small piece of wood. Woods are there because the Earth is very cigarettes for cultivation,” Green wrote.

In writing the letter, Green was hoping to confirm his theory about the reason that the area was rich in stone artifacts.

“On this correction of wood, it seems that there is an abundance of gray or white flint. It is my theory that this is an old Indian so -wallet. Can this be possible?”

The government archaeologist visited Green, but an imminent storm prevented him from visiting CHERT. It will take years before Green receives another visit.

Randal Forster, CEO of the historic Mwwer County County Association, moved to a schedule on the walls of the exhibition, which extends from a point while over 10,000 years to the present time. He said that the quarry and the boycott exhibition helps to link visitors to a much older story.

“You somewhat see how our part is compatible with the small boycott of Dakah with this great plan for the history of the world,” said Forster.

Just a few years later, in 1980, Tro was working on an archaeological survey in the area when he found a Green message. True and his colleague Lee Radzak visited Green, who was still living in the area.

Their visit and the research that followed the archaeological memorization of the site in 1994 pushed. In the same year, the site was added to the National Registrar for historical places.

A cooperative process, led by the indigenous population

A few years ago, True was making a presentation of the members of the Mower County Historical Association, and suggested that the group think about placing a walking path across the quarry.

True says that the historical community had no big budget enough to take over the project, so he decided to take it on itself.

He said from the beginning to obtain support from the local community in Grand Meadow and from the tribal nations in the region.

By that time, Tro worked two decades ago at the University of Minnesota, which leads the Foundation’s work with tribal countries to restore cultural tools. True said that his work on returning issues to the homeland is not his view of archeology as a field.

He says his work in Grand Meadow Chert Quarry was conditional on the presence of indigenous people participating in the project.

“There is a saying within the societies that I really eat,” True said.

The team from the Indian Prairie Island community led the effort to determine how to conduct research on the site.

“We also have some great technology that we can also move on regarding the lowest interventional effects. So, the employment of geophysics here will be one of the main tools that will be used to move forward,” Jackson said.

On a modern trip to the Ceciton house, SD, Jackson took a photo of a spear point and found it at a fishing location. He realized this immediately. It has been manufactured from the quarry shirt in and finished Yukan. He was excited to share his discovery with True.

“We have the responsibility for learning as much as possible and then share this knowledge with others,” Jackson said.

While taking a look around the quarry, Jackson says he is still treating what all this means.

“It calls for all this curiosity in my mind. Once again, I still treat somewhat how you feel able to touch something that has touched your ancestors for thousands of years.”