MSU researchers search for history of Delaware tribe in the Ozarks

Archaeologists and volunteers from the tribe have been digging and researching the movements of the tribe; they lived in Christian County for roughly ten years in the early 1800s.
by Paul Adler, KY3 News
NIXA, Mo. -- A team of researchers at Missouri State University is working to unearth a bit of invisible Ozarks history. Archaeologists and volunteers from the Delaware tribe dug into the ground in northern Christian County recently, and their efforts could make the sites eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

It's a search for history but this history isn't written in a book in the library. Instead, researchers searched for clues by sorting through layers of dirt.

In the lab afterwards, archaeologist Marcie Venter sorted, identified and labeled stuff that was found during the dig.

Venter and a team of students did the field work in November near the confluence of the James River and Wilson Creek. Now it's down to the classroom part of the Indiana Jones adventure, figuring out what was left behind by other cultures and what belongs to the tribe.

It's a tough project because the Delaware tribe only lived in Christian County from 1821 to roughly 1830. The team expects to report to the Delaware in May or June, and the Delaware plan to put the information to use on a digital map, tracking their tribe's movement across the country.
----

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-msu-researchers-work-to-search-for-history-of-delaware-tribe-20120209,0,3825990.story?track=rss