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About the Hopewell Indians

One of the most culturally distinct groups of Native Americans to live in the Great Lakes area were the Hopewell. The Hopewell made great use of rare, raw materials for the manufacture of tools, weapons, ornaments and objects used in religious ceremonies. Noted for their extensive trading network, the Hopewell traded Great Lakes copper objects as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. One of the largest Hopewellian ceremonial centers in the upper Great Lakes was at present-day Grand Rapids, Michigan. One distinct element of the Hopewell culture were burial mounds. One of the best-known Hopewellian burial
centers in the nation is Norton Mounds in Grand Rapids. Mounds covered rectangular burial pits where the departed were buried with projectile points, pottery and copper items. By A.D. 400 most of the unique aspects of the Hopewell culture had faded away.

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