MI-IONIA-BELDING-L Archives

From: "Kimberly Pennock" <>
Subject: [Belding] Beldings's Yesterday Chapter II
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 14:46:53 -0700

Editors Note:
Daily News June 7, 1982
Belding observes its 125th anniversary this year. Belding Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a special week to celebrate Belding's history. The event, "Belding Day's", is being held June 5-12. As part of the celebration, the Daily News is printing a history of Belding written in 1961 by the late Helen A. Cusack, assistant librarian at Alvah N. Belding Library.

Chapter II Indians of the Flat and Grand River Area
Do you remember that poem you learned in the first grade.......
"Where I walk to school each day, Indian children used to play"

We can be very sure that Indians once lived about Belding. Some of the oldest people hereabouts remember seeing Indians, even talking and perhaps playing with them when small children. Many folks, even boys and girls with sharp eyes, have found objects once used by Indians. At your home, do you have tucked away an Indian arrowhead, a stone axe or one of the big smooth stones the Indians used to pound grain?

Many other Indian signs are still found in the Belding area. While out for a ride perhaps on the Johnson or Lincoln Lake roads have you noticed some of the huge old trees with one large branch bent out, straight above the road? Johnson and Lincoln Lake roads were once trails used by the Indians and these bent branches were trail markers, a bit like the highway signs we have today.

If you explore the shores or Morgan Mills you may find a smooth, hard, deeply grooved path, almost overgrown with small trees - it was once a trail worked deep into the earth by Indians moccasins.

A few years ago in the woods above Lightening Bend of Flat River, two men while on a hike noticed a smooth, grass-covered mound. When they investigated and dug into the soft earth, they found dozens of imperfect arrowheads and a pile of broken and chipped stone - a type found only in the Upper Peninsula and not native to this area. The men had found an Indian arrowhead factory! Perhaps 200 years ago, and old Indian known for his careful work and craftsmanship had crouched by his wigwam making arrowheads for the braves of the tribe. Painstakingly be worked with the stone, shaping it with crude tools, chipping and sharpening arrowheads of various sizes. Sometimes he blundered and the broken or poorly shaped heads were thrown upon a pile by the wigwam. There they waited until discovered by a sharp eyed hiker a few years ago.

South of Smyrna on the way to the covered bridge, clearings in the woods, the land smooth and clear of stones and still in near rows or ridges, have been found. These were the Indians' gardens - pumpkins, maize and squash planted in the late spring by the squaws and left in the care of the oldest members of the tribe while the younger ones escaped the heat by going north in the summer.

Today for a vacation we visit the beaches of Lake Michigan or breezy Mackinac Island - just as the Indians did 200 years ago.

Indians loved the woods, the lakes, the rivers of this part of the state, and there were many Indian villages hereabouts. there was a large village of the Blacksmith Tribe at what is now Morgan Mills. The flats a the junction of the Grand and Flat rivers in what is now Lowell. Cobmossa's people have also camped frequently on the banks of the Grand River at Ionia, the fairgrounds, a spot you have often visited. You next visit to the fair, look about near the Floral Building and see if you can discover a plaque bearing the name of Cobmossa.

There were also Indian camps on the river banks near Lyons, while a high hill, Arthursburg, just west of Muir was a one-time Indian fortification. Fierce battles were fought to capture this steep hill, and woods topping it are, even today, a treasure trove for arrowhead hunters.

We know little about the earliest Indians who lived in what is now Michigan. they were the Mound Builders, sometimes called the Hopewell tribes, and were here about 600 A.D. Traces of the huge earthen mounds, sometimes round, oval, or square or in the shape of animals are found in various parts of Michigan. Many of these mounds served as burial tombs - sometimes for 1,000 people. Other mounds, but not in the Michigan area, were used as fortifications for temples.

Six tribes occupied this area, the Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Miami, Menominee, and Wyandots. The Ottawas, Chippewas, and Potawatomies were found in this part of Michigan. But since all Indians moved about frequently, staying in no one place for very long at a time, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact territory of any one tribe.

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That's Chapter II. Does anyone know where Morgan's Mill was?
Have any of you found Indian items in the Belding areas?

Kim

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• [Belding] Beldings's Yesterday Chapter II by "Kimberly Pennock" <>