Maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society Tamara Thomsen, recounts a day of scuba diving in Lake Mendota in 2021 with her colleague Mallory Dragt when she discovered a dugout canoe.
Shortly after the discovery, she returned with at the time, terrestrial archeologist Amy Rosebrough. Rosebrough and the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Ho-Chunk, William Quackenbush, played a major role in identifying that the discovered canoe may be of indigenous importance, according to Thomsen.
After using a sample of the canoe for wood identification and radiocarbon dating, the canoe was identified to be 1,200 years old, Thomsen said.
Since the discovery of the first canoe, Thomsen, along with Department of Anthropology professor Sissel Schroeder, has helped find, identify and retrieve 15 additional canoes, six of which were found in this past spring, according to Thomsen.
The canoes range in age, from about 700 to 5,200 years old, and were all found roughly in the same location on the south shore of Lake Mendota near the village of Shorewood Hills, Thomsen said. These discoveries have led to current research regarding indigenous landscapes.
“We have thousands of years of human presence in this one area, all of them leaving canoes there,” Thomsen said. “Your research questions change as to why are there so many canoes in this one spot? So you start a landscape approach to it.”
Caching, or leaving, canoes is a common practice for the Ho-Chunk, which is known through ethnography, according to Thomsen. The landscape approach that Thomsen refers to includes considering ancient environmental conditions, such as past droughts or then isolated bodies of water, to make inferences about prior Lake Mendota shorelines and where native trails may have lied, Thomsen said.
Research efforts are currently exploring another potential cache site on the west end of Lake Wingra, which was hinted at in Charles E. Brown’s,the founder of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, early notes, according to Thomsen. Thomsen’s team is using SONAR equipment to explore this possibility.
“It’s really cool that we are finding something that is material culture, that’s on the landscape, that’s here underwater in Lake Mendota, and it fits the stories and what we hear from our tribal partners,” Thomsen said.
When speaking about the cache site in Mendota, every encounter Thomsen has had comes with expressed gratitude from tribal nations for what she and her team have discovered. A personal understanding of the importance of indigenous cultural landscape and identity has developed thanks to partnership with tribal nations, according to Thomsen.
In addition to highlighting the importance of collaboration with indigenous communities, Thomsen highlights the opportunity for students to turn an excitement for something or hobby, like diving was for her, into a valuable contribution for surrounding communities. To learn more about the Lake Mendota canoes, visit the Wisconsin Historical Society canoe landing page or access the latest press release.
