It is hard to imagine, but long ago, Native Americans lived in settlements along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. It is possible, and there is some evidence provided by rock mounds, that a settlement was located at the confluence of Richland Creek and the Chattachoochee River in what is now Sugar Hill. The name of the river, itself, means “rocks marked” or painted rocks in the Muskogee Creek language. Written history, and archaeological evidence discovered along the river, provides proof that the Cherokee and Muskogee Creek were active in this part of Gwinnett County. Even though the land along the Chattahoochee River was prone to flooding, the area provided easy access to a consistent supply of food grown in the flat lowlands, hunted near the creeks and streams flowing through the hilly geography, and caught in the water. Crops grew well because of rich soil deposited by seasonal flooding. Wildlife, like deer and turkey, were prevalent in the surrounding old-growth woodlands. Fish were plentiful in the river that was, in not-so-ancient days, unimpacted and unimpeded by Lake Sidney Lanier and Buford Dam.
It is hard knowing the population of past Native American settlements in this area along the Chattahoochee River. Despite the population size of a village, food gathering would have been the primary activity of any settlement. In each village, the inhabitants collectively worked together as a team and found ways to catch enough food to feed the entire group. The historic fish weir just below Buford Dam and near Bowman’s Island is perhaps the most obvious example of a simple but revolutionary construction that was used generations ago to keep villages fed and healthy with protein-rich foods.
Fish weirs are man-made structures used by ancient and modern cultures to catch fish by guiding and trapping them in rivers, tidal zones or creeks and streams. Either made from wood, stone or woven reeds, these constructions take advantage of the natural flow of water. Fish weirs had multiple technological advantages. Once built, the structures were easy to repair and could operate without too much human attention over generations of time. Environmentally and ecologically, fish weirs allowed Native Americans the opportunity to choose specific species while letting others pass through the end of the structure, which helped maintain healthy and biodiverse fish populations…