The previous post reminds me of a campsite on the west end of Sturgeon Lake, well remembered by me, but not to be further described for obvious reasons. Anyway, a few years ago I was sitting in the dirt near the fire pit, running dirt through my fingers when I discovered little bits of black obsidian debitage. For those of you who are not flintknappers, debitage is the little chips of stone that are flaked off a blank being worked into a useful implement such as an arrowhead. Debitage is very distinct and easily recognized by a flintknapper such as myself. Now, a good question is how black obsidian travelled to Strugeon Lake. As far as I know, the nearest source of black obsidian is eastern Oregon.

I dug up a few more handfuls and discovered a shell bead. Now debitage is one thing, but a shell bead is altogether another. Shell beads are made of a little bit of shell, pierced with a stone drill, and used to decorate clothing. Once the Europeans started up trade in an area, the indiginous people pretty much stopped making shell beads. They are very labour intensive and extremely fragile. To find one in a Quetico campsite is remarkable.

After examining the debitage and the shell bead very carefully, I dug a small hole in the roots of a bush a few feet from the fire pit and buried the artifacts, where they will remain until the next glaciation.