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Imagine the time from one birthday to the next. Think about the things you did. The places you went. The people you saw. It probably feels like a long time.
Now imagine 12,000 of those birthdays. Twelve thousand years ago, the ice from the last ice age melted. That’s when humans and animals moved into present-day Wisconsin. Scientists call these first inhabitants Clovis people. We know about Clovis culture from their stone tools.
▲ Clovis tools include spearpoints used for hunting. And scrapers used for cleaning animal hides. The spearpoints were made by hitting a rock so flakes broke off. After a while, the rock would have a point. The point was then tied to a stick to make a spear. Early people may have used spears like these to hunt. They probably hunted large animals like mammoths and mastodons. Scientists have learned that plants were also part of early people’s diet. Clovis people are known as hunter-gatherers. They didn’t stay in one place for long. Instead, they followed the animals.
▲ Clovis people traveled long distances to find the stone needed for their tools. One of those places was Silver Mound. This is in west-central Wisconsin. People dug pits into the mound. They looked for a hard kind of sandstone called quartzite. While collecting the stone, they would stay in rock-shelters. These were small caves in the side of the mound.
▲ As the climate changed, people adapted. This marked the start of the Archaic Period. That was around 10,000 years ago. By that time, all mammoths and mastodons were dying out. So people hunted smaller animals like elk and moose. They also hunted rabbits, birds, and fish. Deer were very important. They were a source of meat. Of hides for clothing and shelter. And of bone used for making tools. There’s also evidence of tamed dogs. These probably helped with hunting and guarding the camp. Scientists think an atlatl, or spear-thrower, was first used during this time.
Copper objects 3,500 years old have been found in the state. Where? In the east and along the southern shores of Lake Superior. The copper used to make these objects was mined in these places as well. Objects include fishing hooks, points, and wedges. Bracelets, rings, and beads have also been discovered. Scientists estimate that millions of tons of copper ore were mined during this time. Copper ore is rock that contains copper. ▶
▲ The Woodland Indians built mounds. Some mounds were cone-shaped. Others – called effigy mounds – were shaped like bears and other animals. Nicholls Mound in western Wisconsin is one of the biggest. It’s 90 feet wide and 11 feet high. Many mounds were used for burials. Some contained special objects. Like stone knives, copper axes, and ornaments. They were often made from materials from as far away as the Rocky Mountains.
Think Piece!
How do you think materials from the Rocky Mountains ended up in Wisconsin?
About 3,000 years ago, Mississippians from present-day Illinois probably moved north to Wisconsin and shared their culture. One of the changes they brought was farming. Especially large farms of corn and squash. People had a steady source of food. Villages of 50 to 100 people formed. One of them was on the banks of the Crawfish River. Its name was Aztalan. ▶
▲ Mississippians in Aztalan played a game called tchung-kee, or chunkey. It was played with a small stone disk and a spear. One player rolled the disk while others threw their spear toward it. The player whose spear landed closest to where the disk stopped rolling was the winner.
The Oneota were present in southern Wisconsin when Europeans arrived in the 1600s. The Oneota were farmers. They lived in villages of 100 or more along the shores of large rivers and lakes. The villages had pits used to store crops and, later, garbage. Archaeologists have learned a lot about the Oneota from the trash found in these pits. The Oneota buried their dead in cemeteries rather than building burial mounds. ▶
◀ Some scientists believe that the Oneota were the region’s first true farmers. They grew corn, beans, and squash in fields with ridges. The ridges were small hills. They were made by piling soil in long, parallel heaps. People planted corn and beans along the top of a ridge. This protected them from floods and frost. Corn stalks supported the bean plants as they grew. Squash covered the ground and kept weeds away.
