In his 'Field Notes arranged by subject, 1873-1891', Winchell compiled some condensed archaeology notes that were unpublished as of Oct. 1882. The following is the text version of those two pages with two annotations in brackets.
Condensed Notes on Archaeology. Unpublished Oct. 1882.
1873. At Yellow Medicine village which is situated on the bottom-land of the Yellow Medicine river, about a mile above its mouth, among other relics of the barbarity of the Indian outbreak, 11 years ago this day, may be seen a pile of unburnt brick which were being manufactured by the government employees for the use of the Agency and the Indians on the Reservation. They are superficially washed and rounded, but they maintain their angles within, and all the interfaces to this day. They were made of clay taken from the bank of the river near the yard mostly alluvial, arenaceous & sometimes blackish. I got a sample of these brick for a memento. I see however in passing down the road an exposure of rather fine, apparently stratified, drift-clay, that would also make fine brick.
[U.S. Dakota War began August 18, 1862 so Winchell apparently wrote this Aug. 18, 1973]
1873. The bricks made here are of a light-red color, or some of them showing no red, and are not entirely far from pebbles. Yet they seem to have been of the first quality. Many of the old government houses, although burnt by the Indians, since the walls are made of this brick, have the walls still standing entire. Some have been taken down and brought into – town, or carried away for use in other buildings, and other have been reframed.
1873. The charred fence-posts caused by the fires se by the Indians at that time, still stand along the sides of the streets.
1873. Brown’s Valley. An Englishman, horse-thief, gambler, photographer, lecturer, and correspondent of one of the New York papers, opened one of the Indian mounds near the station at Big Stone Lake. He took out a number of skulls, and other bones. I gather a few more by slight examination, and, packing the whole in a box, take them with me to Minneapolis. The man who took them out was detected with Lieut. Allanson’s horse, and by giving his captor all his available property was released. I met him on the Coteau at Headquarters, near the State line on the Winona + St. Peter. RR. He abandoned his bones + skulls, and the depositer gives them to me.
There are 4 mounds on the Dacotah side of the lake, or rather on the west bluff that bounds that side of the valley connecting Big Stone lake with lake Traverse, one larger than the others, and lies furthest east. This one was opened. It is about 10 feet high, + the bodies seem to have been covered without any excavation in the original surface. They are promiscuously arranged so far as I can judge by what I could see. There are adults and children. I found one bone bead in the mound, and one blue glass bead on
[ text is interrupted here by a drawing of the mound seen below]
the surface near the opening. The former must have been buried in the mound. The latter I cannot say anything about, although I picked it up on the surface of the earth that had been thrown out. It may have been left by Sioux Indians since the mound was opened. I saw one sitting on the mound an hour or two this forenoon – I thought as a signal to other Indians or watching for another. One soon afterward passed here on a mule. Other mounds occur on the Minnesota side near the head of L. Traverse.
1877. At Red Rock the rock itself is a boulder of granite, originally nearly white, stained with the Indian mineral red paint, but nearly girdled by successive belts of bright Vermilion oil & lead, with an image of an Indian head surmounted by Turkey feathers, on the end lying away from the river, and on a ledge of outcrop of the Shakopee about 10 or 15 feet above the water.
1880. Rev. J. H. Carpenter, Hokah, is interested in mounds and their contents, and has opened mounds at La Crescent.
Not less than 40 mounds are at the place, near Lanesboro, when some were opened a few years ago & Indian pipes were found, one of which was presented to the Museum by B. A. Man.
Winchell's drawing of the opened burial mound at Big Stone Lake, 1873. Text on diagram indicates the mound was 10 feet high and the position of the bodies lay at the ground surface with the mound's half circumference being 20 feet. Warren Upham's last name was later written across the page at a later time.