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The Myth of Moccasin Bluff: Rethinking the Potawatomi Pattern

Michigan State University

In a 1969 Ethnohistory article James Fitting and Charles Cleland developed an ethnographic model derived from the Potawatomi Pattern of large, semipermanent villages with an emphasis on corn agriculture to interpret earlier cultural adaptations within the Carolinian biotic province. This and other works created and perpetuated the Myth of Moccasin Bluff, which identifies the Moccasin Bluff site in southwestern Michigan as an example of an agricultural village of the Potawatomi Pattern. In this essay the fit between the archaeological record and the Potawatomi Pattern analogue is reexamined, and the validity of transposing the historically observed focus on agriculture into more ancient history is critiqued. An alternative research framework for modeling ancient Potawatomi history is outlined.