Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

This week’s article is a continuing story about an archaeological dig at Rebecca Creek, Turkey Creek Township, the east 80 acres in the NW * of Section 23.

It occurred on June 20, 2000 at 2:00p.m.

For those of you reading my continuing story of the unearthing of a grave on the side of an eroding bank, let me simplify the order of ownership of this 80 acres: Dr. Nathan L. Whitney homesteaded the 80 acres in 1878. This was the year when he applied for his final patent. I am probably safe in saying he came here at least 5 years prior to 1879. James O. Douglas owned this land in 1905. Soon after, he sold these 80 acres, plus other land, to Jacob Schnuerle. Today, Jacob’s son, Herman Schnuerle and his son, Neil, own it.

I was in the yard of Neil and Shirley Schnuerle on this warm summer day, with a ball cap in hand and a small cooler of water, when I met Rob Bozell, the state archaeologist. He looked the part of his profession, wearing colorless cargo shorts and a cool cotton shirt. Accompanying him were Herman, Neil and three of Herman’s great-grandchildren, Hunter, Dillon, and Tanner Schnuerle, and Franklin County Coroner Patrick Duncan.

As we drove west from Neil’s yard and made a left turn down Rebecca Creek, one could almost think this creek has regressed backward so far that we might be seeing it as the pioneers saw it for the first time. The dry pasture grass is so low we could see the impressions of the dugouts of the old timers as we drove down the dirt road, going south about a mile. We made a left turn east and going up the hill, we saw the old road on the north side that Herman and his father took so many times to their old house. The road rut is so deep road crews finally had to move the road up and a little to the south on east about a half mile. We continued east about a mile with the pickups, down through the pasture and over to the hill, just before it falls into Rebecca Creek. Stopping there we were all to have a wonderful experience.

Herman, my son, Patrick and his family, and myself had already been here a couple of weeks ago. We knew there was a bone sticking out of the falling away hillside to the south where the skull had been found. That’s where Bozell started to dig, saying this bone was the tibia (bottom leg bone). He took the dirt from the area and put it into a screened devise and sifted the dirt from the bone fragments, finding charcoal along with the bones. Bozell pointed to the darker gray colored dirt abut two feet from the grass surface above, telling us that since this dirt was a darker color, this was the line of disturbance, showing us this part of the ground was shaped like a bell. From the charcoal alone, the archaeologist said the specialist will be able to determine the date of burial. This person was buried north and south with the head facing south on this high bank that had eroded away over the past centuries. A special item found in the grave area pleased Bozell more than anything else he found. It was a marine shell. This shell would have come from the ocean, maybe Mexico or California. He said that something this unique was used for a trade good. This was probably a grave good, meaning a gift or offering to this soul, showing that this person was very special to the one who buried it.

While all of the adults were busy with the purpose of being here, the great-grandchildren of Herman were busy playing on the simple path that led to the top of the hill. One of the children found the neatest article of all, for just around the hill a short way to the west was a large piece of pottery. This piece of a pot was two different colors of brown. It appeared to be part of the rim of a pot, and the rim was a darker brown. Under the paint the color of the pottery was a traditional gray color. I had come down that path probably ten times. And guess what? I hadn’t found that piece of jug. This child has his great-grandfather’s eye for finding the things that count.

Bozell continued to work with the soil while some of us talked and some listened about the reddish brown colored flint we found in the fields of the creeks in this area. We were wondering where it came from, since we know of no flint beds in our immediate surrounding area here in Franklin County. Bozell said there are huge flint beds of the color of our arrowheads on the Sappa and Beaver Creeks around Stamford, NE and some down into Norton County, KS. But the treasured agate the Indians used for trading came from Scottsbluff, NE, northeast Colorado and Wyoming. He said in times of drought and hard times, the Indian Tribes of this area would go off very far on summer and winter hunts for the buffalo and other game, and probably brought back this flint to work with.

Just when Bozell was about ready to give up the search, thinking all the rest of the bones must have already fallen to the bottom of the till and were covered with the falling dirt from the hillside, he came onto a few more pieces of bone, which were the ankle, foot and toes. These pieces were embedded into the hard ground and had to be shipped out from the person’s last resting place.

The only remaining pieces of this person’s days on Rebecca Creek were the skull, jaw and some worn teeth, a leg, ankle foot and the toe bones, a few pelvic bones, and many bone fragments.

I assumed, along with others present at this dig site, that all prehistoric Indian beings were of a smaller stature than Caucasian beings. “Not so,” says Bozell. The average height of an Indian is 5’ 9’’ to 5’10’’ tall. Until ten years or so ago, I also assumed all Indians lived in tepees. I am a bit ashamed to admit this, but I don’t remember Indian lore being taught at Comfort, WV grade school. I have since learned these Indians lived in earth lodges of different sizes. Some lived in hamlets of small family groups and some in communities of two or three thousand people. These lodges (sometimes square, sometimes round) were built by digging a pit three or four feet deep into the ground. Large upright poles were then put around on the inside edges of the hole leaning toward the middle of the lodge. Thatch was woven around the poles and covered with mud, leaving an opening in the top of the house for the smoke to escape the fire. This made quite a warm and cozy house. Bozell told me of an interested way the Indians would cut a large tree down. They would set fire to the bottom of the trunk, so instead of cutting it down, the fire would burn through its base and if would fall down. Inside of these lodges were cache pits. These bell shaped holes were used for storage of corn and vegetables and other food. “Corn was the main diet of the Indian, ”said Bozell. Sometimes new ones were dug and the old ones used for a refuge pit where the trash and ashes were put. These pits were also used for burial if the winter was cold and the ground frozen. He told us the body is laid in a jumbled fashion in most excavated Indian graves. This could be from animals moving the bones, or from the shifting of the ground, or just the way they were laid when buried. He said we have to consider the fact that in a lot of these burial cases, death came as a result of fighting with other tribes and in many cases the bodies were broken and in bad shape from the fight. These are the facts from state archaeologist Bozell.

Next week, we will continue with the summary of the probable finds of this archaeology dig on Rebecca Creek, Franklin County, Nebraska.

Oh, write of me, not “died in better pains,”
But emigrated to another star! Helen Hunt Jackson

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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