Sunwatch Indian Village

Traveling south along the western Great Miami River, we anticipate the Sunwatch Indian Village cache, placed by goltzene almost 20 years ago.

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During the Fort Ancient period, groups settled in this valley to hunt and farm, after their slow migration southward from Canada. Massive earthworks served as city walls, bows and arrows appeared, trading thrived with pottery, flint, copper and shells.

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As French fur traders followed the migration routes into forests teaming with animals, the Fort Ancient peoples disappeared, replaced by Shawnee tribes. By 1795, after Wayne’s army defeated the tribal coalition at Fallen Timbers, the Greenville Treaty ceded the entire southern half of Ohio to the American government.

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As citizens of sovereign tribal nations, Shawnees were not protected by American law, and this led to increasing hostility with new immigrants hungry for land. The three-stranded cord of French, British and tribal warfare against struggling pioneers cast a long shadow of memory over efforts to integrate tribes into new settlements. The Greenville Treaty line collected the tribes into the northwest corner of the state in an attempt to maintain peace in the area.

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On a lingering day of autumnal warmth, great clusters of goldenrod sway in the breeze. As the Earth completes its great circle around the sun, the seasons circle around us. Steaming kettles, blazing fires, and the singular call of hearth and home have gathered peoples here through eons of time. Now this place holds all memories in a quiet and cherished reverence.

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Cache logs report that the hiding spot has been destroyed, as of late August.

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Quite thrilled to restart the engine of history, we report that a user clicked update in a brand new lamp post.