I'm perusing the pages of Coshocton's centennial history, authored by Samuel Nicholas, and an entry about the ancient burying ground jumps off the page. Why? Nicholas also refers to the ground as the pygmy burying ground, near the Indian village of Lichteneau.
Nicholas asks the question, "Was there a race of pygmies who lived in the Coshocton valley?" Based on bones found (dug up for progress?) , the remains indicate a short statured race. But then the next question posed by Nicholas indicates that this may have been a case of disarticulating the leg below the knee. He cites similar finds near St. Louis. If indeed a tribe of Indians existed, were they a sub tribe of the Delaware Indians?
I'm left wondering what's been discovered since Nicholas first wrote the centennial history.
Friday, March 31, 2006
A Pygmy Tribe In The Coshocton Valley?
Posted by Randy M. Combs at 6:20 AM
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4 comments:
Lichtenau was actually the name of a christian mission. It was set up to convert native Americans to christianity, so it probably came to have the feel of a native American (Lenape) town. The word Lichtenau is German and means something like "clearing meadow".
The Delaware people were only around here for a generation or two, and only after white contact. The short people would have to have been from an earlier time, like from the people who built the mounds. You have to be careful with those 19th century county histories, at any rate. A lot of their prehistory sounds speculative. Just my impression.
I try to be careful; I really do. It's a character defect to which I attribute to my childhood and lack of simian playmates.
Probably all of us WANT TO BELIEVE that pygmies inhabited our landscape, shopped at our convenience stores, idled at our traffic lights. It's just such a romantic idea.
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