CascAda History #17 - Ada's first inhabitants Traditional Cache

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bretina: Time for this one to go. Picked up the container this evening.

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Hidden : 11/22/2013
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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CascAda History #17 - Ada's first inhabitants
The Cascade & Ada Township History Series

On a high strip of land called Conservation Point, at the junction of the Thornapple and Grand Rivers, Ruth Herrick, a physician and archaeologist, excavated Ada's first "dig." It was 1958, and what she found tells us something about Ada's first inhabitants.

They were Potawatomi Indians, natives of this portion of the Grand River Valley. They camped at the junction of the two rivers during the years when the first white fur traders conducted business there. Herrick found fire hearths, beads used in trade, and bone pits - holes filled with the bones of bear, deer, and smaller animals. When Herrick examined the bones, she found the marrow was gone, carefully extracted by the Indians. Ada's native people left no waste.

Ruth Herrick also excavated two burial groups at the river mouth site. She found teeth showing evidence of a diet influenced by white people: milled sugar and flour along with alcohol. In the second burial group, she found what appeared to be a family, with two adults, an older woman, a child about four, and an infant. Herrick speculated they died during a smallpox epidemic, around 1835.

Herrick's report gives us only the briefest glimpse into native life and early settlement. But this we do know: Ada was once Michigan's western frontier, the farthest reaches of the territory. The Grand River was the highway for trade and exploration. Before it was called "Grand" by white men, however, the river was called "Owashtenong." And before white people arrived to trade furs and farm the land, the Potawatomi fished the rivers, hunted in the forests, and made camp where one day there would be a village.

Ada's first known photographer, Perry Archibald, adopted a Native American Indian as his son and named him Adam Fox. The pictures shown on this page were taken about 1910 and show both Perry and his son Adam.

What happened to Ada's native people? Most of the local indians remained in Ada township until 1860 or 1861. After 1861, many left for a reservation at Pentwater. But as late as 1905 to 1910, a few Indians were still living near the village. There were teepees on the river bank, and canoes stocked with furs still traveled on the Grand.

Soon after 1910 the remaining Indians disappeared. Some took European names, bought land if they could find a white man willing to break the law and sell it to them, and assimilated into the population as farmers. The rest probably went north, to the reservations.

Information provided by “A Snug Little Place - Memories of Ada, Michigan, 1821 - 1930” by Jane Siegel, published in 1993 by the Ada Historical Society

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

cnvagrq cvyy obggyr ghpxrq whfg oruvaq gur gbc bs n jnyy

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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