Steele Robbins IV was born and raised in Leflore County and has a strong thirst for historical knowledge about where he grew up and still lives today.
Robbins has a museum-quality collection of Native American artifacts that he has put together over the last 30 years from several undisclosed locations in Leflore County. Much of the collection is on display in his Greenwood home.
“I have several hundred pieces, some that date back as far as 6,000 years ago. There is a lot of history in these pieces,” said Robbins, 46, who is a precision agriculture instructor at Mississippi Delta Community College and owner of High Cotton Precision Agriculture Consulting. “I have a deep respect for the culture and the history of these Native Americans who once roamed this area.
“I don’t care about going to other places and looking because I am into our local history.”
Robbins is quick to point out he is not an expert in this field although he knows several who are. But he is addicted to adding to his collection and even finding more places to hunt for artifacts.
“All of my finds are plowed field surface finds on private lands. I do no digging or disturbing burial sites or mounds,” Robbins said.
When he is out working in the fields as a crop consultant, Robbins is always checking out the soil beneath him for artifacts. He has an infectious enthusiasm as he describes the process.
“I can tell you when I look down and see a piece sticking up that my heart still skips a beat in hopes that it’s in one piece,” he said.
Indian sites, Robbins said, are almost invariably found on ridges or slight rises in the land near water. The best time to go looking is after a field has been prepped for planting and a strong rain has washed down dirt.
Robbins’ collection includes some stunning pieces such as celts, boatstones, hammer stones, a vast array of points and arrowheads, knives, pottery samples, pots, bone implements, drills, jewelry, banner stones, gorgets, and much more.
It’s the tiniest window of exposure. Buried for a thousand years or much more, an arrowhead comes to the surface as it’s turned over by a tractor or pushed up through the crust by time. The dirt soon shifts and the window begins to close as the arrowhead is swallowed once again by the ground and disappears.
That brief blink of time in between is precisely what Robbins is seeking.
“When you really take a long look at some of these pieces, you get a great appreciation for their culture. It took an incredible amount of time to complete some of these,” he said, gazing over part of his collection. “The pace of life was quite different back then.”
Robbins was first turned on to collecting these pieces of history while working summers as a cotton scout for a local entomologist and avid collector, Dennis Bouchard.
Robbins is appreciative that Bouchard, who now is deceased, passed his passion on to him.
“I mean how neat is that I look down and can’t believe it. A piece has been laying there for 1,000 years or maybe a lot more. I’m the first one to come along and find it,” he said.
• Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
