Moccasin Bluff Site Essay

The Moccasin Bluff Site is located along Red Bud Trail and the St. Joseph River north of Buchanan, Michigan. This archaeological site is protected by a half-circle of hills to the north, west and south with a radius close to 2000 feet. Because of its archaeological historic significance, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. People have lived on the terrace between Moccasin Bluff and the St. Joseph River for eight thousand years. The first inhabitants stayed in small temporary camps as early as 6300 B.C. Then in 500 A.D. the natives traded with groups in Indiana and Illinois. It was not until 600 to 900 years ago that the area was had farms and more permanent villages.

By the late 1820s, European settlers moved into the area to log and farm the land. The US government then adopted a policy to move the local Potawatomi tribe out of the area and further west. This bluff is said to be named for the Cogomoccasin leader of one of the nearby displaced Potawatomi villages from 1828. Furthermore, in the late 1940’s the site was in endangered by highway construction but John C. Birdsell donated a large amount from the site to the Museum of Anthropology. Due to this gracious donation, excavations were done on the historic site. In 1948, the site was excavated by a University of Michigan team,

Ceramics material falls into two major categories that reflect two distinct traditions. The earliest tradition used crushed rock as the tempering material in the manufacture of ceramics. This tradition first appears during the Early Woodland period around 500 B.C. and continues in the northern areas. The second tradition is based upon the use of the ground shell of freshwater mollusks as the tempering material and is usually associated with the prehistoric culture of the Mississippian Period. This first appears in southwestern Michigan around 1000 A.D. and continued until the Historic