War in the Old Northwest: Prehistoric Conflict

The First Installment of the War in the Old Northwest Series

Dec 10, 2024

December is a time of “peace on earth, good will to men.” So naturally, the Old Northwest is starting a series on warfare.

The goal of this series is to give a chronological overview of the wars and battles fought in the region. Individuals and units that came from the Old Northwest, but fought outside the region, will not be covered. Sorry if anyone was hoping to read about the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg.

Certain battles will get their own articles, but not every battle or skirmish will.

New articles in the series will be published monthly.

With that out of the way—

What do think of when you read the word prehistoric? Dinosaurs? Mammoths? The Flintstones? What if I told you that everything that happened in the Old Northwest before the 17th century is prehistoric? According to Merriam-Webster, “prehistoric” means:

of, relating to, or existing in times antedating written history1

Written history in the Old Northwest didn't begin until the arrival of the French.2

But no written record doesn't equal no record. So what evidence is there of warfare in the region prior to European contact? Let’s find out.

Weapons

Go to any historical museum across the country, and odds are you’ll find arrowheads like the ones below on display.

If you look around, you’ll probably see other stone implements, like spear points, knives, and axes. All of those items could be used in warfare—could. An arrow could also be shot at a deer. A knife could cut reeds. Still, artifacts like the above give us a clue to what prehistoric warfare was like. Consider that the next time you see an exhibit. (And visit your local history museum.)

If you want to learn more about stone tools, try making some yourself. It's surprisingly easy to do, and there are a lot of books and videos out there with step-by-step instructions.

Defenses

By the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers sits a once proud city. A city once known for its thriving economy, thrilling sports matches, and stunning monuments. A city that is now in ruins. I’m talking of course about the city of Cahokia in present day Illinois.

Across the Mississippi river from modern day St. Lewis, Cahokia at one pont may have had as many as 40,000 people living in it. For comparison, New York City in 1790 had 33,131 people living in it.

Around 1175, a palisade (wooden wall) was built in the center of the city. Why exactly it was built is unknown, but it’s possible the city’s rulers were afraid the city would be attacked by another people group. Part of the city's urban area was burned around the same time—though the fire may have been an accident and not the result of an enemy attack.

The remains of other palisades have been found throughout the region, including one at Angel Mounds in southwestern Indiana.

Battlefields

But have any prehistoric battlefields been found in the Old Northwest? As far I can tell—no. (I’d love to be wrong. If you know of one, please tell me in the comments.) However, in That Noble Country by Dorothy Marie Mitts I found the following:

One mound along Black River near the vicinity of the Campau Tract exhibited not only a large number of human bones, pottery, and unusual stone implements of great length, but also a grave lined with pottery, a peculiar circumstance which archeologists had not found in any other mound. The ornimented side of the grave was different, too, from any other specimens seen by the archeologists; it was rough, with every appearance of having been pressed while plastic, with sand and pebbles adhering to it. The explanation attributed to the peculiar formation was the “coagulation and final hardening of blood,” and to account for the presence of such large quantities of blood it was assumed that a battle had been fought in the vicinity.3

The location of that mound is in modern day Port Huron, Michigan. Port Huron is where Lake Huron and Black River empty into the St. Clair River. Being a rich fishing area and an important thruway, it makes sense that at least one battle would have been fought in the area sometime in the past.

Final Thoughts

There are two common conceptions of the Native Americans who lived in the past. One is that they were all “blood thirsty savages” who had to be “tamed” by the white man. The other is that they were “noble savages” who lived in peace and harmony with each other and with nature. Both are false. The Native peoples of the Americas were and are only human, like any other group of people. It can be difficult to think of people who lived in the past like people who live in the present, but one must try to, for that is who they were. While there might not be recorded history or much archeological evidence of war amongst the native peoples, we know from human nature, they warred.

War is all over history, and it's not going away anytime soon. As George Santayana said,