Native Americans - Hopewell Mound Builders
Native Americans
Marker Text: Jeffers Mound
Archaeologists believe that this prehistoric mound, part of a complex of earthworks, was used for rituals by the Hopewell people and was probably built between 100 BC and 400 AD. Note the painted post tops marking the Hopewell pole house footprint. The mound is recorded on the National Register of Historic Places and was given to the Worthington Historical Society in 1974 in memory of Herman Plesenton Jeffers
Native Americans - Adena Mound Builders
Native Americans
Marker Text: Adena Culture
Native Americans of the Adena culture were some of Ohio's first known settlers. They lived in the upper and middle Ohio Valley during the late Archaic and Early Woodland periods, roughly 1000 B.C.-100 A.D. The Adena people were hunters, gatherers, traders, and farmers. They carved effigy figures, made ceramic pots, built extensive houses, and developed significant burial mounds. These mounds were made of earth, stone, remains of deceased members, and token objects, and were built on uplands near major waterways such as the mound here near the Scioto River.
Erected 2009 by Ohio Society Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century and The Ohio Historical Society.
Native Americans - North Bank Park Marker
Native Americans
Marker Text: Central Ohio was home to Native Americans as early as 10,000 years ago. While we don't know what they called themselves, archaeologists call a group of the earliest peoples, “Mound Builders”. Their society left nearly 200 burial and ceremonial mounds around Franklin County, and thousands more throughout the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
Several mounds originally rose above the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, just west of North Bank Park. Most of the Franklin County sites were destroyed. A remaining mound can be found on McKinley Avenue in northwest Columbus.
The commonly known English names of the last Native American nations that lived in the area are Delaware, Mingo, Shawnee, and Wyandot. There were several villages scattered throughout Franklin County. One of the largest was a Mingo village located on the banks of the Scioto River, near this spot, in the 1770s.
Culture clashes occurred between white settlers and the local native population in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Very near this park, a fierce battle ensued between Colonel William Crawford's militia and the Mingo tribes. His attack, timed when the men were out hunting, killed women, children, and the elderly of the tribes.
One mother and child escaped to an island in the middle of the river. She was killed, but hid her child until men returned home. The island later became known as, “Bloody Island”. The island is now underwater due to river widening, dredging, and damming. Crawford was later captured, tortured, and burned at the stake for his raids on Indian encampments.
Tarhe the Crane, a Wyandot chief, signed a treaty with William Henry Harrison here in Columbus. This treaty resulted in a coalition of Native Americans and US troops that helped to defeat the British in the Ohio Country, and ultimately to winning the War of 1812.
With their homelands lost by treaty, most local Native Americans were forced to move to northeastern Ohio, and eventually to Kansas, though some remained here and became part of the new society. (editor's note: northeast Ohio should actually read northwestern Ohio)
Location: Long Street and Neil Ave. - North Bank Park