Brass fragments meaning5/29/2023 Damaging the kettles discouraged looters from taking them because a kettle with a hole in the bottom was of no use in the earthly world, but it was still serviceable in the spiritual world and would serve the deceased well.īoth Europeans and Natives hid kettles along routes they traveled frequently so that they could be retrieved and used without the burden of carrying them along on the journey. In some areas, Canada for instance, dug brass kettles often had holes knocked in the bottom. Plowing often turned up buried items, the bodies and belongings buried as shallowly as seven inches. With the penny were found a brass spoon made from a kettle, a comb cut from a fragment of a kettle, and some pewter pieces. One dig produced a penny dated 1728 which left no doubt as to the time the items were put aside. The ears, however, served no purpose for the Indian and were usually discarded, thus early digs often yielded large numbers of them in relation to the number of kettles that were found. Early histories are filled with accounts of such articles that were turned up by the plow. When the brass kettles were no longer serviceable they were used to make arrowheads, knives, saws, and ornaments of many kinds. Nesting kettles were found in the early digs varying in size from the largest which held about two pails to the smallest which held about two pints. The ears were cut out and riveted in place. Some were tapered, about 5 ½ inches at the top and about 4 1/8 inches at the bottom, still about 3 inches deep. Kettles dug up at the turn of the 20 th century included many approximately 5 ¾ inches in diameter and about 3 inches deep. Another 30 small and 14 large were called for in 1696. In 1694, presents recommended for the Five Nations were, “50 brass kettles of two, three, and four pounds apiece, thin beaten, and light to carry when they go a hunting or to war…”. The great kettle is now of iron, but is still a feature of the New York reservation life”. When Schuyler and Livingston went to Onondoga in 1700, the Indians, “according to their custom, hung over a great kettle of hasty pudding made of parched Indian meal, and sent it to us. They prized small brass kettles, but large ones were needed for public occasions. Fletcher gave the Mohawks 24 brass kettles for cooking to replace those the French had destroyed earlier, some two or three pounds weight, are among the presents of the following year. The English and Dutch sold them and included them among presents. They would sell for four francs a pound, yielding a great profit. Frontenac, costing 1 livre, 5 sous, a pound. In 1684, La Salle wanted 2000 pounds of small brass kettles at Ft. Brass was so much more durable than their native pottery vessels that once a line of trade was established few tribes continued making pottery pots. Having looked at the use of brass kettles over an extended period of time (for they remained in use well into the 19 th century), we’ll look at the brass kettle as used by Native Americans who acquired it by trading with the whites.
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