Of immediate note is the role of Central Plains villagers in developments in Middle Missouri subarea.
Around AD 1250/1300, some Central Plains villagers migrated into the Missouri River valley in South Dakota.
These migrants are known archaeologically as the Coalescent Tradition.
We will look closer at the Coalescent Tradition when discussing villagers in the Middle Missouri subarea for now, we will address origins, which currently boils down to two positions
Your text (238) favors Krause primarily because Roper did not consider the early Sumpter subphase sites Central Plains.
Village social structure - believed to be primarily matrilocal residence, matrilineal descent.
This has been deduced by applying ethnographic analogy to ceramic stylistic sequences assumes that married adult females made pottery.
Women in each household had their own styles.
Crudely put, if styles in a village or locality remain similar, residence is matrilocal.
If styles change, residence is patrilocal or neolocal (typically a positive correlation between descent and residence) as usual, comparative ceramic studies are important in investigating pedigrees.
So also are house types, especially from Upper Republican Variant
Upper Republican has been used as a "variant" to subsume Solomon River, Classic (Upper) Republican, and Loup River as sequent phases.
Itskari is often used in place of Loup River
This was done primarily on basis of many commonalities between the three phases most archaeologists do not favor the `variant' taxon.
They see enough differences between the 3 phases to classify them separately nonetheless, commonalities between the three phases can be grouped into one discussion then each phase can be treated separately by discussing major differences
Upper Republican/Solomon River Commonalities
Settlement - Loup River settlement is discussed later because of differences
Upper Republican and Solomon River settlement exhibits homesteads, hamlets of 2 to 6 lodges.
Houses are widely spaced. hamlets unfortified, and seemingly situated without concern for defense.
Some open sites lacking houses houses - squarish, rectangular and subrectangular with short to long entryways.
Usually 4 thick centerposts, each midway between a central hearth and a corner.
Walls framed by tightly spaced posts of lesser diameter.
Wall posts covered with grass, then earth or sod. some evidence for clay plaster
Subsistence - generally a hunting/horticultural subsistence.
Bison dominate a widely varied fauna. maize, beans and squash storage - one or more pits per house.
also exterior storage pits ceramics -
principally cordmarked globular pots, jars with decorated rims
Chipped stone - mostly local sources.
small, triangular arrowpoints.
otherwise the usual range of hide, stone, bone, wood working tools
Ground stone - manos/metates, abraders, smoking pipes, hammerstones.
use of hematite and other pigment ores
Bone/antler artifacts - dominated by agricultural tools, esp. scapula hoes, squash knives, antler rakes, (wooden) digging sticks.
also from bison and deer are fleshers, awls, eyed-needles, fishhooks, pierced phalanges, whistles, wrenches, spatulas, flakers, handles, etc.
Shell - spoons, beads, pendants.
some artifacts from Gulf Coast conch and marginella, Eastern Woodland freshwater snail, olivellas from Gulf or Atlantic
Metal - incised copper amulets (/).
copper overlaid on wooden disks
Worked human crania - rare.
perforated and incised calvaria (skull caps)
Burial practices - single pit ossuaries with multiple burials, mostly secondary.
also house floor burials
Upper Republican and Solomon River may have terminated by:
Very little to support #3.
Trends
Central Plain village expansion are predominantly northward
Solomon River Phase - along Solomon and Saline rivers of mainly northcentral KS, barely spilling into southcentral NE
Sumpter suphase (AD 850-1150) overlapped by Dubbert subphase (AD 1050-1350).
Phases distinguished by time, subtle ceramic differences, and increase in mean house size over time (PA 40:307ff)
Sumpter Phase is roughly the west half of Solomon River Phase area, Dubbert the east half
Sumpter site is a type site, one of earliest Plains Village sites on Central Plains.
It has mixture of PV and Woodland ceramics, suggesting transition.
C14 dates roughly average AD 900+50 (AD 850-950)
Mean house size is 870 sq ft.
After Solomon River phase, average square footage decreases
Nutting stones common
Upper Republican Phase - mainly along upper Republican River in southcentral NE, spilling into northcentral KS ca. AD 1000 to 1350
Mean house size is 640 sq ft
Unlike Solomon River, nutting stones rare.
Also, a few SE Ceremonial complex motifs and artifacts
Ceramics - more globular jars than Solomon. more collared, decorated rims
Loup River Phase - in central KS, north of the North Platte River ca. AD 1100-1350
Recall Solomon River, Upper Republican hamlets.
They consisted of dispersed houses in Loup River Phase,
Settlements are larger, hence they are villages.
The villages were `nucleated', i.e., clustered houses.
But houses were smaller (mean 400 sq ft).
Houses tended toward subrectangular
Two ideas about fate of Loup River Phase.
Text (259) rules out #1 for two reasons related to time and material culture
A gap exists between latest CPT components and earliest Lower Loup.
This makes difficult a direct connection between Loup River and Lower Loup phases
Contrasts exists between CPT and Lower Loup material culture.
e.g., Lower Loup houses are circular, not rectangular by inference, then, Lower Loup emerged out of Coalescent Tradition.
This explains the gap.
And in fact, circular houses evolved in MM subarea.
Near-circular lodges are characteristic of early Coalescent, and true circular houses are found in later Coalescent.
Whichever the case, W. Wedel used the Direct Historical Approach - similar material culture, same geographical distribution - to show that Lower Loup Phase is proto-historic Pawnee.
Most archaeologists agree so a Pawnee "archaeological" pedigree might look like this: Loup River Phase >> Coalescent >> Lower Loup Phase >> Pawnee - ca. AD 1100 ----------------------------------- AD 1850.
Like the Wichita, the Pawnee are Caddoan speakers.
Their tongue is closely related to the Arikara, to whom they are related.
Smoky Hill Phase - extends middle portion of Republican River basin in KS north into SE Nebraska ca. AD 1000-1350
Settlement - homesteads, hamlets, villages up to 24 lodges known (were they all occupied at same time?)
houses - round lodges at one site. otherwise square or rectangular.
150 to 2700 sq ft
Subsistence - deer, antelope, bison, elk dominate.
maize and beans reported, but most sites dug before flotation recovery
Chipped and ground stone similar to Upper Republican phases
Bone tools underrepresented due to poor preservation
Ceramics characterized by shell temper.
Perhaps this trait was borrowed from Steed-Kisker Phase ceramic
Similarities between Smoky Hill and Sumpter subphase of Solomon River Phase suggest origins
Patricia O'Brien has linked Smoky Hill with Pawnee.
She excavated a storage pit in an earthlodge at C.C. Witt site (KS).
The pit had wing bones of several non-economical bird species.
Included were 4 pair of northern bobwhite quail
Using ethnohistorical data and rock art, she concluded Pawnee used quail wings (and turtle carapaces, eagle talons, etc.) in cosmological ceremonies, and that they symbolized the people themselves.
She therefore interpreted the wings as part of a Pawnee shamans kit, perhaps one used in sacrifices to the Morning Star (a known Pawnee ceremony).
Some traits she presumes from archaeology are not known for historic Pawnee.
Donna Roper has disputed O'Brien's interpretation on these grounds.
Otherwise, Smoky Hill fate is speculative. It:
- evolved into Nebraska Phase and/or Loup River.
- Or it is involved in southern Caddoan developments if Loup River, Pawnee ancestry is possible.
Same for southern Caddoan, since this was historical area of Pawnee South Bands.
The southern Caddoan link is based on similarities between Smoky Hill and Uncas site (mentioned earlier) house form and ceramic types.
Steed-Kisker Phase - Kansas City locality
ca. AD 1000-1250
W. Wedel identified S-K as a Middle Mississippian intrusion (based on incised, shell-temper pottery with certain designs)
A trenched-wall house at Coon site, and possible solstice shrine at Smithville Lake site are also Mississippian-like but an intrusion is not certain.
S-K could also be Mississippian-derived, i.e. locals heavily influenced by Mississippian,
e.g., Cahokia otherwise S-K is very much Central Plains village in lodge forms, ag tools, chipped stone, etc.
Disappearance of S-K is attributed to either a return to Mississippi River, or northward migration
Nebraska Phase - along Missouri and tributaries from Kansas nearly to South Dakota ca. AD 950-1425.
Origins are murky. Three ideas about it are:
Settlement - homesteads, dispersed hamlets, several dispersed villages
houses - semisubterranean, typically 4 ft deep.
This is different than the Solomon, Upper Republican and Loup River types.
They had shallow subsurface floors created by removing sod before construction Nebraska houses were rectangular to subrectangular.
Reports of circular lodges may or may not be premature.
Mean area is 730 sq ft but one lodge is a whopping 2700 sq ft.
large interior storage pits
Subsistence - bison and elk primary, but otherwise a wide variety in fauna.
Most Nebraska Phase sites investigated before flotation recovery, but cultigens are known (including maize)
Although emphases placed on procurement vs. production is not known, the usual range of bone agricultural tools suggests horticulture was important.
Comparing ceramics, text authors (255) think that late in the Nebraska Phase, perhaps some folks moved into Loup River basin , while others moved upriver to become St. Helena Phase.
Text authors suggest that competition from Oneota was perhaps a factor in late Nebraska Phase developments
St. Helena Phase - along Missouri from Sioux City to Niobrara, NE ca. AD 1350-1450
Generally considered to be a transition from Nebraska Phase.
In fact, St. Helena is sometimes considered little more than variation on Nebraska Phase
A connection between the two is made on ceramic similarites and house type.
St. Helena had semisubterranean houses.
Also rather deep idea is that over time, Nebraska phase folk drifted north along Missouri Valley, finally ending up west of Big Sioux River.
One difference is larger villages.
Most researchers think that St. Helena played a role in formation of the Coalescent Tradition
Central Plains Villagers on the Central High Plains
Nomadic sites that date from ca. AD 1000 to AD 1400 are present on the High Plains.
The material culture at campsites reflect Central Plains villagers, but these are not villages, hamlets.
They are rock shelter, butte-top, and stream terrace sites
Ceramics are the strongest indicators of Central Plains villagers.
The strongest links are to Loup River and Upper Republican
The implication is that Plains Villagers made frequent forays onto Central High Plains
Why?
Plains Village sites lack associated burials, structures and agricultural tools.
So, they did not come to colonize.
Artifact assemblages (points, scrapers, knives, etc.) instead suggest Plains Villagers hunted seasonally on the Central High Plains.
We know ethnographically this occurred on Northern Plains, and far more than hunting was involved.
Among other tasks, Middle Missouri villagers trapped eagles, procured stone, and visited sacred places on the Northern High Plains.
Your text includes this explanation as one of 3:
If so, I think #2 and #3 were the rarer occurrences
Dismal River Aspect - west of 100th meridian in western NE and KS, NE Colorado, SW South Dakota ca. AD 1675 to 1750.
The principal sites are White Cat Village and Lovitt, both in KS.
All aspects of archaeological remains indicate a nomadic lifestyle hunting clearly indicated, with a secondary horticultural component.
Bison predominate, with deer, antelope and many small game species
Cobs and kernels found at a few sites.
Others have scapula hoes, but grinding stones are rare
Insubstantial circular houses with pentagonal main posts that supported leaners covered with brush, grass.
Interior storage pits absent and storage pits generally rare
Pits 2 to 3 ft deep are chiefly for roasting, baking, and filled with rock, ash.
Food remains not yet recovered, so what was cooked is not known
European (most likely Spanish) trade goods found in some Dismal River sites - iron axheads, glass bead, copper, iron scraps
It was once thought Dismal River represented Great Basin Fremont.
The idea is that ca. AD 400, Plains bison hunters entered Great Basin and fringes, adopted horticulture, became Fremeont.
Then ca. AD 1400 Numic speakers (e.g., Shoshone) forced Fremont back onto Great Plains
It is now known that Dismal River is too late for Fremont link.
Most archaeologists link Dismal River with Apache.
Your text (474) suggests Llanero subdivision of Jicarilla Apaches.
Using Spanish accounts (of Apache distribution, lifestyle) and pottery links (Dismal River sites have Jicarilla and Pueblo pottery)
A key site linked with Dismal River is Scott County (KS) Pueblo, or rancheria.
Also called El Quartelejo ("the barracks").
W. Wedel thinks it a haven for Pueblo refugees fleeing Spanish oppression.
The site dates ca. 1696-1719.
Scott County site is a 7 room puebloan roomblock structure with irrigation ditches, milling bins.
Spring waters channeled thru ditches over 100s of yards to several-acre terraces.
I have seen it attributed to refugees from Taos, NM , or Picuris, NM.
Also, it is said to have been used by Spanish, French, after abandonment.
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