Longhouses and Peace Medals: Elaine Bluhm Herold and the Beginning of Contact Period Archaeology in Illinois

The study of the types of cultural entanglement that occurred between late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century Native and Euro-American societies in eastern North American has become an increasing area of study over the past two decades. Elaine Bluhm Herold began investigating such sites in Illinois, however, as early as the 1950s, at a time when others in the state regarded them as unimportant. This paper reviews her contributions to the development of contact period archaeology within Illinois including her excavations at the Crawford Farm site, which was a major Native village associated with the famous Sac leader Black Hawk.