On Native Soil

By Jon Shoulders

In the winter of 1929, philanthropist Eli Lilly, grandson of the founder of the pharmaceutical giant that still bears his name, wrote a letter to his young daughter promising there would be something special about their annual summer trip to Lake Wawasee in northern Indiana. Lilly had been browsing the collection at the Indiana State Library, casually reading about the history of the land around the lake, which included “lots of stories of old Indian chiefs,” and suggested that the two set out to look for undiscovered Native American burial mounds during their trip.

Lilly followed through on his promise, and although the duo’s search ultimately proved unsuccessful that particular summer, he found a new love before the adventure was through — archaeology. Undeterred by initial lack of discovery and quickly evolving from archaeological dilettante to serious student, Lilly set out on a tour of the state with one of the nation’s leading archaeologists, Warren King Moorhead, and a then-little-known, self-taught archaeologist named Glenn Black. The trio would end up walking through farm fields in the bottomlands of the Ohio River east of Evansville, stumbling upon the arrowheads and artifacts that littered the freshly plowed fields.

It was Moorhead, then the director of the prestigious Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology in Andover, Mass., who understood what may lie underground, describing what was known as the Angel Farm (for the family who’d owned it for generations) as “the most important place archaeologically” in Indiana. Less than a decade later, in 1938 — after Lilly failed to convince the state to buy the property — he bought it himself and donated it to the Indiana Historical Society with the caveat that it be preserved for posterity. Today that property, known as the Angel Mounds State Historic Site, is recognized as one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the nation.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of that acquisition, Angel Mounds will host a series of events honoring the pre-Columbian culture that developed and thrived at the site for centuries before it mysteriously disappeared around 1450 A.D. Among the coming events are two art shows – the first of which features the work of some of the nation’s most respected Native American artists – and a reunion of former Indiana University archaeology students who helped excavate and interpret some two million artifacts that reveal both daily life and the ceremonial rituals of what experts say was an ancient regional chiefdom.

The events also include the continuing Eli Lilly Lectures in Archaeology in May and June that honor the man who would become one of the major philanthropists of 20th-century Amer-ica. Mike Linderman, who now manages the Angel Mounds site as part of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources, says the events offer an opportunity for Evansvillians to “reconnect with our not-too-distant past.”

It is a past that is filled with interesting lore, from the ceremonial mounds constructed centuries ago at the site, to the years of mass excavation undertaken by Black, who would go on to become head of IU’s field schools. Black started his work on the property in 1939 with a few hundred unemployed men put back to work by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. Few were trained in archaeological digs, but Black was meticulous in his documentation and moved into the farmhouse on the property to oversee the work. Through decades of work there, Black kept in close contact with Lilly, a frequent visitor to the site, and an avid chronicler of its development. In Lilly’s later writings, he wrote, for example, of the incredible ancient artwork discovered on the site, including a fluorite figurine carved in the likeness of an adult male, which Lilly dubbed “Apollo á la Newburgh.”

The decision to celebrate the anniversary is driven in large part by the significant restoration work that has been done on the property and the farmhouse where Black once lived and later used as a study and library. The house and more than 100 acres of the site suffered significant damage during the November 2005 tornado. In the aftermath of the tornado, Linderman and Angel Mounds supporters realized that it was also an opportunity to expand the mission of Angel Mounds, and in doing so, a decision was made to transform a portion of the Angel Mounds’ Interpretative Center into a gallery for Native American art that would honor the site’s rich cultural past. An exhibition, “Memories; Art of the Site” from April 26-May 20 features art and photography rendered of the site from its discovery until the present.

A month earlier, on the weekend of March 28-30, Angel Mounds will host “The Four Winds” Native American Fine Arts Bazaar, featuring four of the foremost artists in the field. To find them, Linderman made contact with Steve Falls, former owner of the Indian Image Native American art gallery, which operated until 1997 in Evansville. Falls facilitated meetings with some of his former gallery artists at the annual Indian Market at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, and the result is a cultural cornucopia of painting, sculpture, pottery, furniture, jewelry, and other crafts that will be on display and offered for sale.

Among the artists participating in the Angel Mounds show is Virginia Stroud, a 56-year-old painter and author of Cherokee descent, who has several of her pieces included in the Smithsonian Institution’s archive of living artists. Among the work Stroud will exhibit at Angel Mounds are custom-made furniture pieces called “participation” benches. Spirit figures are painted directly onto the back and seat areas, which are initially cut and assembled out of birch wood, allowing the person seated to be in direct contact with the images depicted. “That way, your spirit helpers are right there with you at all times, as close as possible,” she says. “It’s a good reminder that we’re never alone, no matter what.” Other artists include sculptor Jim Jackson, whose towering pieces reflect his ancestral connection to the Klamath and Modoc tribes, whose languages are nearly extinct. Also invited to the show are Navajo silversmith Abraham Begay and potter Barbara McKinney-Elston, whose work appears under Kicka-poo tribal name, Pahponee.

Organizers of the March art show hope that it, and the series of public events celebrating the 70th anniversary, will help expand Angel Mounds in its role as a cultural destination. “The goal,’’ Steve Falls says, “is to try to build a presence there where they can really help represent Native American people. I think the artists that Angel Mounds is bringing in for the March show will be the seed for a new art gallery.”