Search

The Scott County Pueblo (14SC1) is a seven-room masonry pueblo situated on the High Plains in western Kansas. Recent analyses identify at least two occupations prior to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680: an earlier Dismal River Complex (ancestral Apache, Ndee) occupation dating between AD 1470 and 1640, and a later multiethnic occupation of ancestral Apache (Ndee) and Rio Grande Puebloan peoples dating around AD 1630–1690. This paper reports the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of a faunal collection excavated by James H. Gunnerson in 1965. Our results indicate Scott County hunters preyed upon an array of species, although bison, canids, and turtles were the most common taxa procured. Based on bison skeletal part representation, we hypothesize small groups of hunters traveled to procure bison, and the differential transport of high utility body parts reflects a subsistence strategy to accommodate for the limited labor available for carcass transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cluster of two nonlocal flakes and two crystals is believed to be the remaining contents of a small personal medicine bundle carried by an individual and lost. Characteristics and arrangement of the four artifacts indicate they are an uncommon assemblage for the region and are distinct from surrounding prehistoric sites. Therefore, the site is considered an outlier to the general regional pattern of observed site types. The kinds of artifacts and intact nature of their placement on the surface suggests recent activity, probably Late Protohistoric or early Historic, about AD 1700–1850. The locality exemplifies the potential for small sites to contribute information to regional archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reintroduction of Equus caballus (horse) into North America during European-American contact altered Native American life on the Plains. The horse influenced a variety of cultural practices, including transportation and warfare. Despite the impact of the horse on Native Plains cultures, there is a paucity of horse remains in the archaeological record in Wyoming and the Great Plains in general. In this article, the results of a reanalysis of a set of horse remains from the Protohistoric Period are described. The horse remains from the Blacks Fork River site in Wyoming provides a unique opportunity to examine a preserved interaction between humans and a horse from the early contact period. Reanalysis includes a re-examining of the faunal elements to re-establish the horse's age and evidence of butchering and radiocarbon dating to confirm the temporal span of the remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the utility of using bone modification analysis as a means of differentiating between pre- and post-contact sites, or strata within a site, and how these data can be used to track and understand the implications of the introduction of new technologies on indigenous systems. The authors examined a sample of bison elements from the Vore site, 48CK302, in Wyoming for the purpose of identifying different modifications on each bone, specifically stone and metal tool marks. The results of this analysis could be used to differentiate between pre- and post-contact strata at the Vore site which allowed the authors to enter into a discussion on the relative frequency of metal tool use on the site and how this may relate to regional trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers debating whether Dismal River people of the Central Plains were culturally affiliated with Ndee (Apache) groups have used evidence from site chronology, house form, baking pit use, and dietary preference. This paper assesses the quality of evidence traditionally used by prior researchers. We conclude that the archaeological features traditionally used to argue for a Dismal River-Apache association are highly variable in expression and should not be treated as emblematic of Ndee ethnicity. Despite the variability observed in the Dismal River record, evidence still supports the contention that the Dismal River complex is situated correctly in time and space for an association with Athapaskan-speaking groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of artifacts, apparently associated with human remains (one tooth), from Pine Island, Alabama, was donated to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in 1915. In preparation for repatriation, this collection was investigated extensively by a volunteer team. This paper reports the results of this analysis, focusing especially on a new type of trade gun and the glass beads. The goal of the research is to provide an accurate date for the collection to assist in identifying the Native American group represented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many mobile hunter-gatherer-raiders were identified in what is now southern Arizona, New Mexico, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua by Spanish chroniclers at and long after first contact. Despite their ubiquity, most have yet to be identified. The Jocome—a group that featured prominently in fifteenth- through eighteenth-century regional politics—were among these and until recently little has been known about them except for a few documentary references between 1540 and the mid-1700s. Sustained archaeological investigations have isolated a material culture signature within the Jocome heartland in southern Arizona, revealing a range of site types with distinctive evidence that represents a variant of the Canutillo complex. Until groups like the Jocome that were influential in their time are incorporated into our discussions we will not fully understand the reorganizational processes of the late prehistoric period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergroup conflict in Fiji is documented as early as AD 1250 through construction of fortification sites in different areas of the archipelago. By the early decades of the nineteenth century, traditional warfare had escalated and become transformed. It now created a landscape of fear, where every village was fortified and where cannibalism was rampant. Koivuanabuli, a hilltop refuge fortification was built in response by Mali Island peoples off the central coast of northern Vanua Levu. Positioned on top of a steeply sided conical prominence, it was tactically positioned to fend off assaults by large numbers of warriors as vividly described in an 1841 account. The fort, however, was located a considerable distance from the village populations it was meant to protect. A cross-island road, including sections through mangrove swamp, provided an assumed solution. We document this fortification complex, including road construction, and give insight into the nature of Fijian conflict and its increasing violence through the early historic era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper defines the Windom pipe, an L-shaped smoking pipe with a tall bowl set at a slightly acute angle to a short stem. This form of pipe is found in sites of the Great Bend aspect and related phases that are the products of ancestral Wichita populations of the fifteenth through late seventeenth centuries. The method of manufacture is traced here in detail, and two new tool types used in pipe manufacture are described for the first time. At some point after the pipes had been made and used, some were dissected and portions of the bowl used to make pendants that probably marked the status of the former pipe owner. The Windom pipe was apparently used in rituals of alliance within and between Great Bend communities but not for purposes of creating alliances with outsiders. Eventually, this form of pipe and its associated ritual was superceded by the calumet pipe and ritual derived from the Skin Pawnee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithics from the Longhorn site (41KT53) represented the majority of artifacts recovered from a seventeenth century Native American encampment in western Texas. Both tools and debitage were reanalyzed utilizing macroanalysis to identify stages of their life histories. ArcGIS maps then allowed for the examination of these lithics' spatial relations across the site. This patterning was evident in clusters of artifact types representing various stages of flintknapping processes. Both cultural and noncultural processes also were examined to determine their role in the creation, distribution, and disturbance of the site's lithics and related features. Results focused on the roles of these processes concerning activities performed during the site's occupation. Aspects of trade and mobility were inferred based on the site's lithic content and position on the landscape, providing a broader representation of late Holocene hunter-gatherer life along the eastern edge of the southern High Plains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with late prehistoric archaeological sites attributed to the Wichita, protohistoric sites in Oklahoma contain artifact assemblages indicating that hide processing for trade with French voyageurs became a primary economic activity. Yet aside from assemblage changes, little is understood about how market demand for hides and other animal byproducts altered Wichita social organization, if at all. In this article we investigate polygyny. We examine the hypothesis that in household economies where production depends on women's contributions, market integration intensifies demand on female labor: Where polygyny is practiced, market integration increases the number of wives sought by males, leading to larger families. We compare ethnological data and Blackfoot accounts of polygyny with ethnohistorical and ethnographic information concerning the Wichita. We then review protohistoric Wichita documentary and archaeological data to discuss their strengths and weaknesses for identifying these social and economic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early contact period on the southern Plains (ca. A.D. 1541-1700) is marked by the arrival of Europeans as well as an increased interaction between existing Native American tribes. Native contact with French traders during this time resulted in a greater presence of European trade goods scattered throughout Native American sites. The purpose of this analysis is to develop a snore in- depth understanding of how the Wichita were using European trade goods and technology during the early- to mid-eighteenth century through the analysis of trade goods recovered from two protohistoric Wichita villages in north central Oklahoma (34KA3 and 34KA5). It is evident that the Wichita traded for many different types of European goods, although several native technologies did not change at this time. In fact, many European trade goods were often intentionally modified to mimic tools and ornaments of native manufacture, representing a selective incorporation of European material culture into native technology during this time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents information on artifacts indicating contact between Europeans and the Wichita inhabitants of the large protohistoric settlement in the lower Walnut River valley, Kansas. Specifically, revisions of previously reported data are offered along with new information. The chronological significance of the data is considered, as is the possible connection suggested by the data between the Lower Walnut Settlement and the Bryson­Paddock and Deer Creek sites of Oklahoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]