History Unearthed

UTICA, Ill. — People gather Native American arrowheads out of curiosity, and Schaumburg, Ill., collector Ray Fraser is no exception.

“We’re all just naturally curious about things in our past, or in the country’s past,” Fraser, president of the 600-member Illinois Archaeological Society, noted last Sunday, at the eighth annual American Indian artifacts show at Celebrations 150.

Many collectors grew up in farm country, where they came across artifacts, and their fathers and grandfathers before them found arrowheads, drills, axes, bannerstones and pottery shards.

“That’s how I became interested,” Fraser said. “I saw something that I didn’t understand, and I wanted to find out more about it. That’s why a lot of people are involved in this.”

About 65 collectors participated in the one-day event, their collections shown in frames under glass. Hundreds of some of the finest examples of Indian craftsmanship from centuries long gone were on display.

The show primarily featured prehistoric artifacts crafted by American Indians. The pieces went as far back as to cover 11,000 to 12,000 years of history in Illinois, primarily from the Illinois River Valley, show host and IAS member Jeff Hipskind of Rock Island noted.

“You can still find artifacts. I went out a couple weeks ago and found a nice blade. They’re still found every day in plowed fields, creeks and the like. As erosion keeps going, artifacts keep washing up,” he said.

“There can be some very expensive artifacts, especially for nice quality pieces, and those with a lot of history that have been in collections for a long time. Most of the artifacts you find anymore are $5 on up.”

Hipskind’s best find to date is a bannerstone. He likes stone axes and tomahawks, too. A fourth-generation collector, he and his family have found more than 50 stone American Indian axes. He hunts for artifacts in the Mississippi River valley, and finds them at locations like ancient campfire sites.

“This whole area is very rich in Indian artifacts, what with the Illinois and Little Vermillion rivers and larger springs in the region. Native Americans have been here from early Paleo times to historic times, including Starved Rock. That’s 12,000 to 13,000 years of continual occupation,” he said.

“There are a lot of American Indian artifacts, and a lot still in the ground. Walk through today’s show and see how many artifacts are on display. There’s many, many more than that still in the ground.”

Scott Carruthers of Peru is a third generation arrowhead walker and hobbyist. He, his father and his grandfather strictly concentrate on surface finds.

“We walk the fields that have been plowed. Generally,  it’s those fields on bluffs or close to water, or areas of high ground or would have been high ground when the glaciers were here,” he said.

“A lot of times, arrowheads are laying out flat on the ground. Other times, you catch a small glimpse of a tip or side of an arrowhead. Unfortunately, most of the time they are broken. We still keep them, though, because everything has an archeological value, not necessarily a monetary value.”

Carruthers suggests that Indian artifacts finders document their finds by the location of their discovery.
Like with so many other interests, fakes and reproductions abound in the world of American Indian artifacts, too.

“There are a lot of fakes. They put out a million artifacts a year that come onto the market. Real honest makers will sign their points or do some sort of marking to show its a reproduction,” Carruthers said.

“Unfortunately, money is king, and people will try and take advantage of other people. They’ll try to make the fake artifact look old by soaking it in all kinds of mixtures like cow manure or oil. It happens, and you’ve got to be able to weed through the bad stuff.”