The Fry Site: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives on the Maumee River Ottawa of Northwest Ohio

The Fry site (33Lu165) was an Ottawa (Odawa) farmstead on the lower Maumee River of Ohio that existed A.D. 1814-1832. Excavations revealed an Ottawa bark burial with trade goods, a cabin or shack, and an animal pen or compound. The material culture consisted of a wide variety of Native and Euro-American manufactured artifacts, including trade silver. The bark burial with trade goods is dated A.D. 1780-1809, slightly earlier than the farmstead occupation. The farmstead is connected with the Roche de Boeuf and Wolf Rapids bands of Ottawa that were removed to Kansas Territory in 1832. The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma are the descendants of these Maumee River Ottawa.