Before Euro-American Settlement
Several Native American cultures had lived or were living in the tallgrass prairie region a long time before Euro-American settlers arrived.
During the Paleo-Indian Period (12,000 to 8,000 years BP), the region's inhabitants depended on hunting and gathering for subsistence. People lived in small, highly mobile groups, following the game on which they were so dependent. As the climate warmed and agriculture became more feasible, plants became an increasingly important part of their diet. Perhaps because of the tremendous labor involved in tilling the dense, prairie sod for agriculture, large semi-permanent summer agricultural villages were established. In the winter, the inhabitants of these villages would break up to form smaller hunting groups, with some women or elderly unable to make the journey to the hunting camps staying behind in the village.
The region's population was multinational. Members of the twelve nations of the Illinewek (the Illinois Confederacy) traveled through the area as well as members of other nations, including the Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and refugees from warring factions of eastern regions.
Though the first known accounts of Europeans coming to Illinois are of the passage of Louis Joliet and Father Marquette through the area on the Des Plaines River in 1673, European influence was already present through trading going on in the Great Lakes region. By the 18th century, rivalry between the French and the British for control of the Native American trade had come to a head. Conflict was rife between the Europeans, the Europeans and the Native Americans, and among the Native Americans. The French and Indian War (1754-1760) resulted in British control of western trade. According to the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), the French gave up almost all of their holdings east of the Mississippi River.
Since 2016, University of Notre Dame professor Mark Schurr & Dr. Madeleine McLeester have been leading a group of summer volunteers with the Passport in Time program in archaeology explorations. Schurr and McLeester have been exploring the Middle Grant Creek Site under an Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) permit.
Recent findings are telling how people of the Oneota Culture (1150-1700) lived here during the Huber phase (1600).
In recent years, a remnant of Huber pottery was found in a six-foot-deep pit. The pit is one of several pits believed to be on the site. The pits were utilized around 1600 for storing game & agriculture and later for discarding things – including broken pottery, projectile points (“arrowheads”), shells and other evidence of life.
The pit was likely dug by two or three 17th century Huber women using horns as shovels. A projectile point made of chert was also found last week. It would have been used for hunting game. Needles made from bones have been found. The needles were likely used to weave mats, roof coverings and other items that were likely made from tallgrass.