On some occasions the fields on Buffalo Lake coughed up bones because the farmers plows eventually dug into the mounds and graves they lay scattered across the land. Never thought much of it but in looking at it now, it seems almost macabre. There were bodies out there and we had no respect, no real interest. It was like, "Hey, tough luck buddy". As time went along, we did learn about the peoples that were here not much before we arrived, really only a couple hundred years. For that matter even as a kid there were still a few passing through to fish. The graves were probably not all that old.
We did learn ultimately that the Natives had been in the area for some 10-12 thousand years at least, the so called paleolithic Indians. They were here living their mostly-sustainable lives hunting and gathering right out in front of the retreating glaciers. As time passed their "arrow points" went through many transitions with each age being identifiable by an educated individual. As a result, we would find small triangular points we called bird points that actually were arrowheads but very recent. We also found the bigger points we know now were used on hand thrust spears and for darts thrown with the use of an atlatal, or throwing stick.
Turns out the bow and arrow has not been around very long at all, so mostly what we see are dart points. These points are just too big to be useful with a piddly little bow.
Among the knowledgeable, certain points are known to be associated with the earliest Natives, so that when one is now found it can be said to be 10 thousand years or better old. One of these is the Folsom Point. They are now found over the entire USA, thus confirming the paleolithic man wondered the entire nation at a very early age--and it would appear there were lots of them, more than originally thought.
All in all, it is exciting stuff, that is to hold a ten thousand year old point in your hand, knowing the last person to touch it was from that time. Also interesting is that each point tells a story of sorts, not that it still has DNA on it but it can show the piece had been sharpened repeatedly, that the top had been ground to prevent cutting of the hafting. Here is a Folsom Point (upper one) found just south of here. A rare find indeed, a magical find if you will. I'm still a bit puffed up thinking I was the second person to handle the tool since Bill-Travels-With-the-Wind tossed it over ten thousand years past. Maybe it got him a nice caribou so he and the family could spend a nice couple of weeks hitting the hot spots on the Fox River. Then again----
It also tells me, we late arrivals, we have been here only a short time and while the First Nations peoples are still around, we may not be doing real well at being even slightly sustainable. They may have tripped through these parts for up to 20 thousand years. What do you suppose we will look like in that amount of time? A person recently noted that prior to the oil boom in N. Dakota the only thing increasing in numbers up there was buffaloes and Natives. That oil will go away real soon.
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