Crazy Bull Site (39LM220), Big Bend Reservoir,South Dakota

Abstract

The Crazy Bull site (39LM220), is an, earth lodge village situated in the neck of the Big Bend of the Missouri River, Lyman County, South Dakota, One-half of a circular earth lodge and a midden area were excavated in July, 1959, by Warren Caldwell of the Smithsonjan Institution, River Basin Surveys. Iona Ware, Talking Crow Straight Rim, and Cadotte Collared pottery made up most of the rim sherd sample, Brass fragments in the house fill indicate a late occupation for the site, Due to a close ceramic relationship with the Spain site, the Crazy Bull site was assigned to the Chouteau Aspect.     

A Site in the Fort Randall Reservoir1

Abstract

Site 39BR201 is an earth-lodge village located in the upper Fort Randall reservoir, Brdle County, South Dakota. Excavation of 1/2 of each of 2 circular earth-lodges, a midden area, and 8 test pits was done in the late summer of 1954 by Paul L. Cooper of the Smithsonian Institution, River Basin Surveys. Talking Crow Straight Rim, Talking Crow Indented, and Cadotte Collared pottery types make up most of the rim sherd sample. The presence of a few fragments of brass and iron in the features indicates a date in the late 17th or early 18th centuries for the occupation of the site. The ceramic material is related to that from the Two Teeth site and the Talking Crow site.     

Inferring History From Crania: Biological Distance Comparisons Of Mill Creek And Early Middle Missouri Tradition Crania With Mandan And Arikara Population Samples

Abstract

Craniometric data are used to compare available human crania from Mill Creek and early Middle Missouri Tradition sites with a pooled Mandan sample and Coalescent Tradition samples from Crow Creek, Mobridge and Rygh(inferred proto-Arikara). Discriminant functions are computed for the reference samples, and test cases are classified according to their proximity to each population centroid. With one exception, early Middle Missouri Tradition site crania compare most favorably with Mandan. Mill Creek site specimens are unlike the Mandan, most closely resembling early Coalescent samples.     

Notes on the White Earth Creek Site (32MN2)

Abstract

The White Earth Creek Site, partially excavated by Thad. C. Hecker in 1938, is important because of its location well north of most other fortified sites in the northern Great Plains. The site is also unusual in that it consists of a fortification without any indication of permanent structures within the ditch and palisade. Data collected by Hecker are discussed in terms of the contribution which they can make to our picture of North Dakota aboriginal life outside the main valley of the Missouri River.     

Blue Blanket Island (39WW9) an Historic Contact Site in the Oahe Reservoir Near Mobridge,South Dakota

Abstract

The Blue Blanket Island site (39WW9), a small, fortified, proto-historic Indian village on an island in the Missouri River, in Walworth County, South Dakota, was partially excavated by a River Basin Surveys crew in August 1961. One centrally located earthlodge, sections of the fortification, storage pits, and middens were excavated. Artifacts were scanty but architectural details were informative. The lodge was 18 sided with a short entry wayto the south (river side) and leaner posts of split cedar. The palisade was of split posts and the ditch was wide and shallow. The site appears to have been an Arikara village of short duration, probably occupied during the 1780’s and 1790’s. The abandoned remains of this village were noted by Lewis and Clark in 1804.     

Ceramics From the Highwalker Site: a Study of Late Prehistoric Period Cultural Systematics on the Northwestern Plains

Abstract

The Highwalker site is a two component prehistoric encampment located in the Pine Parklands region of southeastern Montana. The Late Prehistoric period occupation represents a briefly used, special purpose site occupied by a Native American group primarily engaged in the final butchering of bison and the processing of its by-products. Two radiocarbon samples date the Late Prehistoric period occupation between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1100. Ceramics recovered from this component shed some light on the debate concerning “Crow Pottery” and Late Prehistoric period cultural systematics. The ceramics represent the earliest known representatives of a localized Powder River Basin pottery tradition which appears to be related to Extended Middle Missouri Tradition ceramics. These nomadic Powder River Basin ceramic-using groups maintained contact with the Middle Missouri village farmers and were influenced by their pottery technology. Later when the ethnographically known Crow moved into the area, the Powder River Basin hunting groups either were amalgamated into Crow society or were driven from the area.     

Salvage Archaeology at a Site Near Fort Thompson. South Dakota

Abstract

Construction of dams and reservoirs along the Missouri River has resulted in an accelerated program of archaeological field-work. Many sites have been surveyed, numerous others tested, and a lesser number extensively excavated. Surveys and test excavations will add to previously gathered data in terms of the geographical distribution of diagnostic artifacts, speculative routes of migration and cultural diffusion. The minutiae from the tested sites may offer reasons for the re-evaluation of established concepts or they may strengthen current archaeological interpretations.

The Farm School site, reported here, received limited tests. The artifact inventory suggests the presence of 2 ceramic components and contributes to information regarding the Fort Thompson and Campbell Creek foci in South Dakota.     

Ante-Mortem Osteopathology At Crow Creek

Abstract

In the mid-fourteenth century, over 486 individuals apparently were massacred at the Crow Creek Site (39 B F 11), located on the east bank of the Missouri River in South Dakota. During the analysis of the skeletons, a search was made for evidence of diseases, anomalies, and abnormalities which had affected these people during life and had left an imprint upon their bones. The salient pathology is tabulated here, discussed briefly, and illustrated. Because these people had apparently lived and died together in a pre-White contact Initial Coalescent variant village and were probably ancestral to the Arikara, data obtained from this study could provide valuable baseline information for comparison with other studies in paleopathology from the Dakotas.     

Archaeology of the Mcclure Site (39Hu7) and the Protohistoric Period in the Big Bend Region of South Dakota

Abstract

The McClure site is an Arikara village in central South Dakota dating from the Protohistoric period at the end of the 17th Century. The settlement consisted of at least 35 earth lodges, was unfortified, and was located below the bluffs on the Missouri River bottoms a few feet above the floodplain. Excavations in two houses, one of them a specialized small lodge, produced artifacts typical of the Felicia phase of the Big Bend region, including ceramics largely assignable to the lona and Talking Crow ware categories, but with a small element of Stanley ware. Because of the location of McClure in the Bad River district around the decade A.D. 1690-1700 and other factors, it is thought to have played some role in the emerging Bad River Phase     

The Fire Cloud Site (39BF237), Buffalo County,South Dakota

Abstract

A bottle-necked cache pit was excavated near Old Fort Thompson, Buffalo County, South Dakota in June of 1955 by a University of Kansas field party as part of a non-reservoir salvage project.

The site is interesting due to the presence of three variants of Talking Crow Straight Rim pottery apparently unreported up to this time. These consist of a square orifice vessel, a vessel incorporating what most closely resembles Stanley Tool Impressed incised lip decoration, and a vessel bearing three bands of differing design motifs on the lip and upper rim exterior.

This site is tentatively assigned to the Fort Thompson focus of the Pahuk aspect. It probably dates to the first half of the 18th century.     

The Function Of The Old Fort In Central Missouri Oneota Subsistence And Settlement Systems

Abstract

The Old Fort is a large Oneota earthwork enclosure situated on a ridge tope overlooking the Missouri River flood-plain. The objective of this inquiry is to determine how the Old Fort functioned in central Missouri Oneota subsistence and settlement systems. Five tenable functions were formulated as hypotheses, then confronted with data from test excavations at the site. Three hypotheses are rejected; the Old Fort was not a fortified village, a redoubt, or a cemetery. Two hypotheses could not be rejected; however, circumstantial evidence supports the tobacco garden hypothesis more than the firebreak refuge hypothesis since the former can account for all of what is currently known about the Oneota enclosure whereas the latter can not. The Old Fort had no direct or obvious role in the subsistence system.     

The Peterson Site (39Lm215) An Earth Lodge Village In The Big Bend Reservoir,South Dakota

Abstract

One circular earth lodge and an interhouse test trench were excavated at the Peterson Site by the Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Basin Projec;t in 1958 prior to the flooding of the area by the Big Bend Reservoir. Surface features indicated that the site was an unfortified village of about 40 lodges. The artifact inventory suggests that the village, which has been tentatively assigned to the Fort Thompson Focus, was probably occupied during the mid-18th century.     

The Archaeology Of The Breeden Site

Abstract

The Breeden Site cultural sequence reenforcesthe general culture history already established for the Bad-Cheyenne Region and the more inclusive Middle Missouri Tradition. House remains and the bulk of the ceramic materials from the site indicate habitation of the area by peoples of the Initial Middle Missouri Variant and the PostContact Coalescent Variant.Component A at the Breeden Site and the Monroe and Anderson components at the Dodd Site exhibit a complex of diagnosticcultural traits significant enough to define a new phase - the Anderson Phase. A temporal span of approximately A.D. 950to 1250 is suggested for the phase. Component B of the Breeden Site, an early manifestation of the Post-Contract Coalescent Variant, is closely associated with components of the Felicia Phase and the putative Talking Crow Phase. Breeden Component B probably represents an upriver movement of Coalescent peoples from the Big Bend area, eventually being assimilated into the Arikara populations of the Bad River Phase within the Bad-Cheyenne Region.     

A Fortified Earthlodge Village Near Fort Thompson,South Dakota as it Appeared in 1866

Abstract

The accounts of an observant army surgeon of a hundred years ago.

During the summer of 1863, several thousand Santee Sioux and Winnebago Indians were exiled from their traditional homes in Minnesota to the vicinity of Crow Creek on the Missouri River in the present state of South Dakota. An agency for these Indians was established, buildings erected and enclosed by a stockade, and troops stationed there to protect the agency employees and maintain order. The agency and military establishment was named Fort Thompson after Clark W. Thompson, Minnesota Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who had general supervision of the Santee removal.     

Archeological Investigations At The McKensey Village (39Ar201) Oahe Reservoir,Central South Dakota

Abstract

The McKensey Site, on the north or right bank of the Missouri River just upstream from the mouth of No Heart Creek, was composed of seventeen house depressions that appeared to be arranged in regular rows or “blocks”. Most of one house was excavated by a Smithsonian Institution field party during the summer of 1960. The structure was of the longrectangular type but it was atypical in that it was quite long in relation to its width and in the presence of a wide, transverse bench at the rear, The associated artifacts were related to the general Thomas Riggs pattern but the site cannot be placed in either the Thomas Riggs focus or the Huff focus,     

Settlement Pattern Variability in Brush Creek Valley,Platte County,Missouri

Abstract

During the summer of 1971, a field party from the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted an intensive archaeological- ·survey along Brush Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River four miles west of Parkville, Missouri. Data collected during this survey provides a preliminary characterization of the local environmental setting and a comparativecontrastive statement on prehistoric settlement pattern variability from the Early Archaic to the Steed-Kisker phase.

Topographic, geological, and botanical features of importance in establishing the parameters of effective biophysical environments for prehistoric occupants are summarized, and four resource zones tentatively identified: an upland prairie zone, an oak-history forest zone, a river-bottom forest zone and the Missouri River itself. Although the time depth for these resource zones is unknown, their presence throughout the history of man’s presence is a possibility.

Aspects of the human occupation and utilization of Brush Creek valley, which began as early as 8000 B.C., are viewed as adaptations to the local environmental setting. During the Archaic period (8000 B.C.-A.D. 1), £rush Creek valley was apparently exploited by hunters and gatherers who established short-duration camps. A large and probably permanent village was established during the period of Kansas City Hopewell occupation (A.D. 1-500), although small, temporary, camps were also in evidence. The Late Woodland occupation (A.D. 500-1 000) is marked by small sites with little evidence of any long term occupation. The final occupation of the valley, by Steed-Kisker peoples (A.D. 1 000-1250), is characterized by a pattern of many small homesteads occupied by populations who made their living through a combination of hunting, gathering, and horticulture.     

A Report on the Investigations of the No Heart Creek Site, 39AR2, Dewey County,South Dakota, 1960

Abstract

The report describes in detail the final results of a field project at the No Heart Creek site, 39AR2, Dewey County, South Dakota, co-sponsored in 1960 by the University of South Dakota and the National Park Service. The site consists of a double settlement pattern, a fortified village surrounded by scattered earth lodges, probably occupied during the period A.D. 1550-1575. On the basis of content the cultural complex is assigned to the Le Compte focus (or Le Compte phase, depending upon taxononomic system utilized).     

Architecture and Radiocarbon Dating of the Antelope Creek Focus: A Test of Campbell’S Model

Abstract

Recently, R. G. Campbell has proposed a model accounting for the architectural variability in the Antelope Creek focus of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. Although the model was drawn by extension from the adjacent Apishapa focus, it postulates a developmental sequence within Antelope Creek from isolated circular to isolated rectangular to contiguous multiunit structures. Only partial chronological support for the sequence was presented. This paper summarizes Antelope Creek chronological information and tests Campbell’s model. Thirtyeight radiocarbon dates provenienced by the three architectural types are used in the test. The results indicate that the mean date for each of the architectural types yields a sequence opposite of that proposed by Campbell. Although no significant difference was found in the mean age of the isolated circular and isolated rectangular structures, the age of the multiunit structures was significantly earlier at the .05 level. The rejection of Campbell’s model indicates both the dangers of extrapolating data from adjacent cultural manifestations and indicates the complexity of Antelope Creek architectural variation. Alternative factors are proposed but are not explored.     

DhLB-1: Early Period Occupation Near Glacial Lake Agassiz,Southeast Manitoba

Abstract

Dhlb-1 is a Paleo-Indian site situated just north of the International Boundary in southeastern Manitoba. It was excavated in 1972, and found to be an area of tool manufacturing. It was dated by association with a gravel lens, deposited shortly after the formation of the Campbell strandline, 9,500 to 10,000 years B.P. The site is of significance because it demonstrates early period migration into southeastern Manitoba immediately after Lake Agassiz withdrawal.     

An Analysis of the Survey Collection from the Pascal Creek Site (39ARl:07), Armstrong County,South Dakota1

Abstract

Descr·iptive analysis of a limited survey collection, including primarily ceramics, reveals the Pascal Creek Site to be an 18th century settlement resembling contemporary villages along the Missouri River in central South Dakota affiliated with the Snake Butte Focus.