Probably a mich-mash (heh) of different information, all of it basically true — the Vikings were in the Americas, only the extent of this is now debated. Hrdlicka (sp?) screwed all of us with his jackbooted biased reign. I’ve got one of those old local history vanity books that were sold door-to-door in the late 19th century, actually more than one (packrat behavior is inherited I think), but the one with the red cover opens with a brief chapter on Leif Erickson and Vikings in America.
The copper mining described in this new research peaked 7000 to 9000 years ago, but I’m sure it tottered on for centuries thereafter, so there’s no need for 6000 year old folklore to explain what the Iroquois knew about.
An Upper Peninsula tribe member of my acquaintance told me about his ancestors’ “Rice Wars”, I’m not going to recount that right now, *maybe* there’s something about it online by now, but I doubt it. The word “saguenay” sounds like a French transliteration of some word in one of the local languages, which btw I don’t speak a word of. :^)
Whomever the Old Copper Culture miners were, their descendants probably were wiped out, if indeed the OCC miners weren’t wiped out themselves, thus ending their occupation and commerce. Attacks by the none-too-neighborly neighbors has never been constrained either geographically or temporally.
“Attacks by the none-too-neighborly neighbors has never been constrained either geographically or temporally.”
Especially when it comes to a valuable and rare commodity like copper.
I worked briefly on a mine in Indonesia (The Grasberg Mine). The deposit was discovered in the 1930’s in a remote area. There was a dome of practically pure copper sticking up out of the ground. (Interesting book about the discovery. First mentioned by one of the early explorers of the area (Cook?) and a mining guy was going through his diaries and then a couple of expeditions to re-find it. The mine (2nd richest in the world?) now extends deep into the ground and includes lots of gold along with the copper.
90 years later the local rebels still keep attacking the facility, and Indonesia still hasn’t given them their Independence like they had promised decades ago.