Dugout Canoe Found Under Bluff Shelter In North Alabama
A friend of mine, who is an auctioneer, told me recently about a canoe he was contracted to auction. All I know is what he told me. The canoe was found under a bluff shelter on private land inside the bounds of the Bankhead National Forest. When it was excavated, there was an human skeleton underneath with "a lot" of native artifacts. This was in the late 60's or early 70's. The skeleton was re-reburied. I am not sure what happened to the artifacts, but the canoe belongs to this man now.
The youtube channel Townsends did several videos about dugout canoes recently.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqO5sG14x38&list=PL4e4wpjna1vzOraz87_RqqOVgGPPGk7AL
Thanks for the link Aaron. I love watching that guy's videos. He is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI never knew dugouts were stored underneath the water when not in use. Also, when the other guy says they were basically the same all over what is now the eastern U.S., I believe that is correct. I saw one in museum in Cozumel, Mexico that looked just like the one pulled out of the river at Horeshoe Bend National Military Park in Tallapoosa County, AL.
Today, I actually spoke with the man who has the canoe. He told me that he hired a young boy to help him dig it out and take it out of the woods. It took them three days. He said he would have never disturbed the canoe had he known there was an Indian buried underneath it. He said he "properly" buried the 4'-2" skeleton with Creek rites. This man is 80 something and a half-Creek Indian himself.
ReplyDeleteI believe the old guy when he said he would have never bothered with the canoe had he known there was a skeleton under it. The bottom of the canoe was exposed. When and where this was found there wasn't any local Indian tribes to call. The old guy whose land this happened to be on told the man "his boys had found a canoe. If you want it, you can have it". If I get a chance to talk with the man again I am going to ask him if he realized it was a native American artifact or if it was just a "homemade" canoe. When I was a kid I used to dig in rock shelters and found some stuff (pottery flint shards, some points, some blades, etc), but never any human remains. Around here I have only heard of one other burial in a shelter. If had ever found anything like that, I would stopped. A friend of mine in Tennessee found the skeleton of an app. 14 year old boy in the back of a bluff shelter years ago. He showed the site to some local college anthropology/archaeology folks and they surmised the boy was probably traveling, became sick, and died in the back of the shelter. We will never know. Thanks for stopping by.
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