TERRE HAUTE — Walking alone through a farmer’s field on a chilly winter day along rows of harvested corn or beans always gives Indian artifact hunter Herb Mason the feeling he is on the threshold of an exciting discovery. If he keeps his eyes keen, at any moment he might spot a wee dirt clod pedestal, a long-forgotten stone projectile point for a spear or a bow and arrow — maybe even a shard of clay pottery once used to store deer meat or squash.

“Sometimes my spine tingles when I come across an archeological find,” said Mason. “It’s almost spiritual. I might be the first human hand to touch an object in 10,000 years. The mystery of the object’s story is part of the allure of collecting. I cannot help wondering what happened on the day the projectile point was last used. Did it fall out of the Indian’s pouch accidentally? Did it break? Was foul play involved? Or was the stone piece simply thrown away because over many years it had become too small to be reshaped one more time into some other kind of Indian tool?”

Mason is one of Vigo County’s at least two dozen serious hobby hunters of Indian artifacts like projectile points (arrowheads and spearheads). Many senior hunters have been at it for more than 60 years and have very extensive collections.

The greater Terre Haute area, and much of the Wabash Valley, is rich with American Indian history, according to Mason and other scholars knowledgeable in the field such as Dr. Bill Mangold, assistant curator of the Dobbs Park Native American Museum.

At least 500 large and small Indian archeological sites are currently identified in Vigo County. Other existing sites might not have been recorded yet.

Indians appear to have begun arriving in southern Indiana as far back as 10,000 B.C., just at the end of the last ice age when habitation became possible. Indians may not have arrived in the greater Terre Haute area until somewhat later as the climate slowly warmed up. At the time, the countryside had many animal species no longer in existence; dire wolves (a huge beast much bigger than modern wolves), short-faced bears (as big as grizzlies but even faster afoot) and even mastodons (gigantic hairy cousins of modern elephants) are believed to have roamed the Wabash Valley landscape.

Over the millennia, Indian culture in western Indiana experienced many migrations and cultural stages; however, early-day Indian populations cannot be established.

The major American Indian tribe in Vigo County at the time they had their first contact with Europeans was the Wea, a Miami Indian subgroup, but there were also Kickapoo, Illinois and Eel, among others.

Mason grew up mostly in the West Terre Haute area, where for many years his father owned South Lake Beach. As a young man he was interested in American Indian history, but he never hunted for projectile points like arrowheads until he was in his 50s; instead, with his wife, Laura, he focused on raising a family while working as a process engineer for Alcan/Anaconda.

In the 1990s, at a time when Mason’s work gave him extra free time because he was self-employed doing consulting work for the aluminum industry, the archeology department at Indiana State began conducting a dig of Indian habitations near Mason’s Northwood subdivision.

Indian mounds in the Terre Haute area were first built in the Middle Woodland phase of American Indian history, from 250 B.C. to 400 A.D. This was a time when the Indians were developing very extensive trade routes. Locally found objects have included obsidian from as far away as Yellowstone National Park and a variety of exotic objects used in pigments and ornaments that have come from as far away as the Gulf Coast, the Smoky Mountains and the Ozarks. One of archaeologists’ best sources of information about Indian sites comes from finding and excavating ancient garbage pits at former Indian settlements.

“I had known about the dig going on near my home for a long time before the activity really impacted on me,” recalled Mason. “Then one day in 1998, I had a conversation with a neighbor of mine who lived by an agricultural field near the dig. He told me about what was going on, and after getting permission from the field’s owner, I decided to try my hand at finding Indian objects.

“One day after that year’s harvest, I gave it a whirl and learned that I have a very good eye at spotting handworked stone objects like Indian projectile points. My first time out, I managed to find two Indian pieces in three hours. It was really exciting. I was on my way to the adventure of a new hobby that is healthful, has no costs and gets me outdoors.”

The pieces Mason discovered were a Lowe projectile point, which turned out to be from a period of Indian history known as Late Middle Woodland that lasted from 400 to 600 A.D. He also found a stone perforator from the same era (a handcrafted object used to punch holes in animal hides).

“If you look closely at the artifacts I have found, you can see that the stone has been flaked into its shape by a human hand,” said Mason. “This could be laborious, so the Indians saved everything they used and reworked it as often as possible. Primary stone substances Indians used in their tool kits were chert and flint, because these kinds of stone can be worked into specific objects like projectile points without shattering like common stone would.” 

Mason has found one paleo spearhead of a type known as a Clovis Point. It has been dated to about 8,000 to 9,000 B.C. and was flaked before the time when Indians started living in permanent settlements and instead lived a nomadic lifestyle in temporary camps, wandering the countryside hunting animals and gathering foodstuffs like nuts and berries.

Clovis points are identified by parallel sides. The points are often made from a type of flint known as Indiana Green (also known as Attica Green), which is the characteristic hue of a flint source in a quarry that Indiana’s ancient Indians often accessed near modern-day Attica. Seven other popular Indian stone quarries have also been discovered in southwestern Indiana. Another main site was near the Ohio River in what is now Harrison County.

One of Mason’s favorite groups of findings has come from a single agricultural field. It is a collection of Merom-Riverton projectile points called dart points dating from 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.

“These are very interesting,” said Mason. “Since 2007, I have made over 25 Merom-Riverton finds in a 100-yard-by-50-yard section of one field. These Late Archaic pieces are very small yet beautifully formed. They were used before the Indians began firing projectiles from bows and arrows, which did not begin happening until around 500 A.D. During the time of the Merom-Riverton culture, Native Americans were hurling projectiles from a weapon now called an atlatl, a spear thrower that enabled hunters to fire spears at greater distances and speeds than a human arm could generate.”

According to Dobbs Park’s Mangold, there have only been a few Merom-Riverton sites found, and it is unusual that Mason found items from this culture as far north as the Terre Haute area.

The Merom-Riverton culture began developing at a point of transition in American Indian history. By this time, the people were probably managing the forest by clearing out undergrowth to encourage growth of fruitful trees. Trading also seems to have become more extensive, yet there is little evidence of wars between Indians, and probably neighboring groups tried to keep good relationships with one another because they were relatives and might be able help in hard times.

Mason says that nearly all of his findings of Indian objects have come from agricultural fields in the months after they have been harvested and before they weed up. Some hunters find objects year-round in eroded areas near stream beds.

The finds Mason makes tend to come from high ground at sites near water sources Indians could have accessed. He says that he comes across about 10 broken or partial pieces for every good or nearly full one and that his best outing was when he found eight full pieces in one day.

“A hunter needs to get permission from a farmer to go onto his property and should have an agreement that he get to keep what he finds,” said Mason. “The modern trend of no-till farming has negatively impacted on hunting Indian objects. To find pieces, a person needs to go out looking after a plow has turned over the earth pulling up items that have lain for many years beneath it. No-till has made about half of farm acreage inaccessible for effective hunting.”

Mason has found that keeping records of finds is important in becoming a successful hobbyist. He maps, catalogs and indexes places where he had made his finds and keeps his stones in well-identified, separate compartments. Through the years, he has learned to use reference books to help him identify the probable age of projectile points or other stone tools he finds. He recommends that potential hobbyists acquire a copy of Noel Justice’s book “Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points,” which is used in ISU’s anthropology department.

“Hobbyists like Herb Mason are helpful to archaeologists,” said Mangold, “because they add to our database. Herb has an excellent, well-indexed collection and shares his discoveries with me two or three times a year. Some of his ceramics discoveries have been particularly fascinating. It is rare for hunters to keep ceramics like Herb does. Pottery shards are only found during the Woodland Period or later.”

Mangold says that the Indiana Green artifact findings of hobby hunters like Mason have confirmed archaeologists’ understanding that Indiana’s earliest Indians quarried flint in the Attica area. He also credits Mason’s pottery findings with shoring up archaeologists’ understanding that American Indians built their settlements along rivers such as the Wabash.

The first Europeans to come across American Indians like the Wea in what is now the Terre Haute area were French explorers led by Robert LaSalle and Father Marquette, who passed down the Wabash River in the early 1600s. The two main historic Wea villages along the Wabash in this vicinity are now remembered as Old Orchard Town and Jacco’s Village, which were near what later became the Pillsbury plant and Fairbanks Park. Wea are known to have maintained extensive orchards and meadows on the land that would become Terre Haute. 

By the 1830s, nearly all American Indian residents in Vigo County had been pressured by the local white population to move away.