Beads, Beads, and More Beads!

Hi everyone,

If I were asked to say what makes Fort St. Joseph such a great site, I’d say it gives people a chance to literally hold history in their hands. For me, the chance to hold history in my hands has come in the last few weeks at our unit; good ol’ South 7 West 19. Though we hadn’t initially found more than a cluster of roots and one very imposing plant- which has been officially removed from the unit 😊. One of the largest variety of artifacts we’ve uncovered has come in the form of beads! Yes, I know, “What’s so special about beads?” you ask. While they aren’t the only kind of artifact we’ve recovered, I thought this post would be an excellent chance to shed a little more light on their cultural significance, such as their purposes as personal décor or valued tradables, just to name a few. 

Now, for those of you who don’t already know this, Fort St. Joseph has no shortage of beads which have served as continuing, supportive evidence of the historic economy between the French Traders and local Indigenous groups. What you might not know (unless you’re a curator or have spent time at the lab) is that there are literally tens of thousands of them which have been recovered... and very likely hundreds of thousands in total! From crinoids (a fossilized prehistoric plant material turned into a bead) to glass beads (typically used in fashionable neckwear or other kinds of jewelry) to the very smallest of seed beads (largely filler for personal attire or stylized accoutrements), the variety never truly ends and our site has several of each! 

Last week, my pit partner noticed something of particular interest in our Northeast corner... What it turned out to be was an especially interesting adornment item made of pipestone (or at least half of one!) This really made things interesting because of the scarcity of relevant artifacts at our unit prior to that point, so this was a tremendous morale booster that kept our focus sharper than our trowels. We’re definitely looking forward to more discoveries at Fort St. Joseph and history to hold in our hands!  

See you at the Wet Screens!

- Nick Harvey