from mastodon hunters to……………. - mark aronson …markaronson1.com/nhiowa3.pdf · from...

From Mastodon Hunters to…………….

Mesquakie: Celebrating the Wild Tribes of Iowa

From Mastodon Hunters to Mesquakie:

Celebrating the Wild Tribes of Iowa

• Glacial Iowa

• Paleoindian Cultures in Iowa

• Archaic Culture

• Woodland Culture

• Historic Indians

Iowa 25,000 YBP

Glacial Iowa

• There have been four major ice ages in the

earth’s past

– 800-600 million years ago

– 460-430 million years ago (minor series)

– 350-250 million years ago

– 2.5 million-10,000 years ago (Pleistocene)

Glacial Iowa

• The warmer period between colder times is

called an “interglacial”.

• We are in an interglacial period now.

• Typical interglacial periods last ~12,000 years

but can be much longer.

• Some estimates suggest that our current

interglacial period might last 50,000 years or

longer.

Glacial Iowa

• What causes ice ages?

– Atmospheric composition (carbon dioxide, methane)

– Changes in the earth’s orbit (Milankovitch cycles)

– Milankovitch

– Location of the continents (continental drift)

• How often do ice ages come?

– During 3.0-0.8 mya the period was 41,000 years

– During the past 800,000 years it has been every 100,000 years

– Original Milankovitch theory predicts a 41,000 year cycle.

http://www.indiana.edu/~geol105/images/gaia_chapter_4/milankovitch.htm

Map of Glaciation in Central North America

Glacial Iowa

• What was the Iowa landscape like when the ice

receded?

– Tundra was found along the south edge of the ice

front.

– Taiga was found below the tundra.

– Savannah habitats would be found at the southern

extremes….parkland forests…open forests

interspersed with grasslands

Arctic Tundra

Boreal Forest/Taiga

Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa

(12,000-9500 ybp)

• Who are the first people to arrive in Iowa?

– Clovis culture is the earliest well defined

archeological culture known in North America.

– Clovis is named after the city in New Mexico

where the first projectile point was found.

– Clovis points have a central groove (flute) along

both faces and finely worked edges.

– The fluted nature of the point allows attachment

to the spear and detachment of the point.


(12,000-9500 ybp)

• Typical blades are 10-13 cm long by 4cm in

width and are made from chert or obsidian.

• Clovis sites typically contain lancelolate

points and butchering tools.

• Clovis is a big-game hunting culture that

survived on the large, ice age mammals…the

megafauna.

Anzick biface (12.5" long) and Rutz point


(12,000-9500 ybp)

• How did the Clovis people get here?

– Clovis First Theory

• A wave of Clovis people migrated from Asia across Beringia….the land bridge exposed between modern day Bering Strait/ between Siberia and Alaska.

• Once Clovis people entered North America they passed through the Ice Free Corridor….a break in the continental ice sheet in western Canada.

• The Clovis people reached the tip of South America only 1000 years after leaving the Ice Free Corridor in Canada.

Distribution of Clovis Culture 12,000 ybp


(12,000-9500 ybp)

• The “Blitzkrieg” Hypothesis (Overkill/Wavefront)

– C. Vance Haynes, Jr.

– Clovis hunters decimated the megafaunal mammals (some 33 genera; some 70% of the existing big game animals)

• The Coastal Hypothesis (Pre-Clovis)

– Knut Fladmark

– Immigrants used the coastline as refugia and hopped down the coast to North America. When they reach Panama some continued south and others crossed over to the Atlantic side and moved up the Atlantic coast.

– Some proponents believe people may have been on the continent 30-40,000 ybp!!!

– A few archeologists have proposed a SE US origin of Clovis peoples based on sites in Florida.


(12,000-9500

• The Solutrean/Clovis Hypothesis

– Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley/Smithsonian

• Solutrean flint knapping technology is identical to

Clovis

• The Solutreans lived 22,000-16,500 ybp in northern

Spain

• The Solutreans may have passed by sea around the

north Atlantic edge of the glacier to North America.


(12,000-9500

Clovis hunters used an atlatal (also spelled

atlatl) to throw spears. The atlatal is used as a

lever/spring that lengthens the arm of the

thrower. The atlatal allows 200 times as much

power and 6 times the range of a spear thrown

by the bare hand.

The atlatal may have been the primary

technological development that allowed

hunters to kill large megafaunal mammals.


(12,000-9500

The earliest archaeological evidence of an

atlatal is 25,000 ybp!

Different types of atlatls


(12,000-9500 ybp)

• What were the Clovis people hunting?

– The megafaunal mammals seem to be the primary food source of Clovis peoples.

– These animals include:

• Mastodons, Mammoths

• Giant Ground Sloths

• Giant Bison

• Camels

• Muskox

• Giant Beaver

• Western Horse

• Many other mammals

Mammoth Molar Mastodon Molar


(12,000-9500 ybp)

The largest Clovis site in Iowa is the

Rummells-Maske site west of Tipton in Cedar

County. A plow-disturbed cache of Clovis

points was found at this site.

The oldest Clovis skeleton found carbon-dated

at 10,680 ybp (Anzick site; Wilsall, north of

Livingston, Montana; Park County, Montana)

Please see The Voices of Bones by Doug

Peacock/Outside Magazine and the papers by

Dr. Larry Lahren for details.


(12,000-9500 ybp)

Folsom Culture followed Clovis culture

(11,000-10,000ybp).

Folsom projectile points are smaller than

Clovis points and indicate a shift in the

animals harvested.

Folsom culture arose as the glaciers receded

about 10,000 ybp.

Clovis/Folsom Sites in Iowa

Archaic Period (9500-2500 ybp)

• The Archaic Period is viewed as a transitional

stage between cultures relying on big game

and cultures with a more rounded forager

adaptation.

• Populations depended on bison in western

Iowan and on deer and elk in eastern Iowa.

• Climate was warming during this period

(Atlantic episode or Hypsithermal) and

populations gravitated to the wetter river

valleys.


• During the hypsithermal (8,000-4,000 ybp) great masses of silt filled river valleys and many Archaic sites are buried in these alluvial sediments.

• Toward the end of the Archaic period population densities were increasing as evidenced by the use of communal cemeteries.

• The end of the dry hypsithermal made many previously unsuitable areas attractive for settlement.


• Increased exploitation of aquatic resources

and nuts is indicated by the presence of bone

fishhooks, net weights, nutting stones and

other specialized tools for obtaining and

processing these foods.

Woodland Period (2500-1000 ybp)

• Developments during this period include: • bow and arrow hunting • pottery production • plant domestication and cultivation • burial mound construction

• Woodland peoples developed their hunter-gatherer lifestyles using fish and clams in the major rivers and continuing to harvest deer, elk and bison.


• Woodland farmers domesticated varieties of

native plants long before corn or beans

became important.

Early cultivated plants included gourds,

sumpweed, goosefoot, sunflower, knotweed,

little barley and maygrass.

Woodland communities throughout the

Midwest were linked by an extensive trade

network referred to by archaeologists as the

Hopewell Interaction Sphere.


• Hopewell culture in Illinois and Ohio spread

into Iowa from settlements along the

Mississippi River and may have also come into

Iowa from a Hopewellian center near Kansas

City.

• Raw materials were traded from wide

distances.....Knife river flint from North

Dakota, obsidian from the Yellowstone area,

gulf coast marine shells, Great Lakes copper,

pipestones from Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio.


• Corn was introduced around 800 ybp but

did not become a staple item until later.

• Mound building was common in the

Woodland Period. The most significant

sites in Iowa are the groups of linear,

effigy and conical mounds found near

Harpers Ferry/Marquette....what is now

Effigy Mounds National Monument.


• The monument is 2,526 acres with 195

mounds of which 31 are effigies.

• The mounds are sacred burial sites that

have been dated from 2500-400 ybp.

Effigy Mounds National Monument

Sny Magill Mounds (southern portion)

Sny Magill Mounds (northern portion)

Little Bear Effigy Mound

Great Bear Mound Group

Marching Bear Group

• Plains Village Cultures - characterized by a

distinct adaptation to the tall grass

prairie/short grass prairie ecotone of South

Dakota, Nebraska, western Iowa and southern

Minnesota.

• Improved corn varieties, garden surpluses,

earthlodge houses, complex social

organization were common to these

communities.

Late Prehistoric Period (1000-350 ybp)

e Late Prehistoric Period (1000-350 ybp)

• Bison meat was common in the diet. Bison

hides were used for clothing, robes and

coverings for the lodges.

• Bison bones were modified into a variety of

tools such as scapula hoes using in gardening

and digging.

Late Prehistoric Period (1000-350 ybp)

• Oneota Culture - Oneota culture dominated much of eastern Iowa as well as parts of central and northwestern Iowa.

• Oneota villages were large. They could be permanent or semipermanent sites.

• Houses varied from small dwellings to longhouses that could hold many families.

• The subsistence economy was based on agriculture, fishing, hunting and foraging.

• Oneota groups are believed to be ancestral to several midwestern tribes (Siouxan language group): Iowa, Oto, Missouri and Winnebago.

Historic Tribes

• What tribes have lived in Iowa?

– Siouan Speaking (Ioway, Oto,

Winnebago/Ho-Chunk, Sioux, Omaha,

Ponca)

– Algonquian Speaking (Mesquakie/Fox,

Sauk, Potawatomi,Ojibway/Chippewa,

Huron/Wyandot, Ottawa, Miami,

Kickapoo, Menominee, Peoria, Moingwena

Rankin, 1997

Location of Chiwere/Siouan Tribes

Historic Tribes

• Almost all the tribes listed above lived in the

lands to the east of Iowa and were displaced

by intertribal conflicts and “settlement”.

• During the early 17th century, the Huron

were a major supplier of furs to the French.

• Many tribes were pushed west and sought

temporary refuge in Iowa or were displaced

permanently.

The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas, 1844/45

Mahaska

Historic Tribes

• Who are the Ioway Indians?

– “Ayuhwa” is a Dakota name meaning, “sleepy ones”

– The Ioway called themselves, “Paxoche” which translates as , “dusty noses” or “dusty heads”.

– Marquette and Joliet learned of the Ioway from the Peoria in 1673.

– The Ioway were located on the Upper Iowa River at the time of first contact by the French traders (Perrot, 1685)

Historic Tribes

• The Ioway’s story is one of almost constant relocation from

the time of first contact with white people to the 20th century.

– After 1685 the Ioway moved to western Iowa and

eventually settled on the Missouri River in NW Iowa.

– In the 1760s the Ioway moved east and were located in

two settlements on the Mississippi River.

– They settled where the Iowa River and Des Moines River

enter the Mississippi.

– The Ioway were displaced after attack by the Sauk and

Fox in 1777 to the Iowaville area on the Des Moines River.

Historic Tribes

• The Sauk, led by Chief Blackhawk, attacked

the Ioway again in 1821.

• The Ioway ceded all their original land claims

in Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri between

1824 and 1838.

• The Iowa were moved to the Great Nemaha

River Reservation in NE Kansas/SE

Nebraska

Historic Tribes

• Between 1841-1845 a group of 14 Ioway Indians toured Great Britain with the painter, George Catlin.

• Catlin painted some 300 portraits of 50 different tribes between 1832-1840.

• During the later half of the 19th century a portion of the Ioway tribe moved to Oklahoma.

• Today there are two groups of Ioway recognized by the federal government: the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

Shauhaunapotinia (Man Who Killed Three Sioux)

/Charles Bird King

Iowa Indians Who Visited London and Paris, 1861/1869

See-non-ty-a, an Iowa Medicine Man, 1844/1845

Iowa Lodges

Historic Tribes

• The Mesquakie (Fox) and Sauk

– The French had first contact with the Mesquakie

in 1656. The tribe estimated to have 12,000

members at that time.

– The French called them Renard (Fox) because

they met members of the Fox clan of the tribe.

– The Mesquakie are related

linguistically/culturally to other Central

Algonquian peoples, the Sauk and the Kickapoo.

Historic Tribes

• Mesquakie Origins

– Mesquakie oral tradition says the tribe was created by Wisaka, the Elder Brother. Wisaka created the first humans from red earth or clay. The Mesquakie are the “Red Earth People”.

– The largest clans are the Bear, Fox, Thunder and Wolf. War chiefs came from the Fox clan and peace chiefs from the Bear clan.

– Mesquakie tradition suggest they arose along the eastern coast of the continent. The archeological record seems to show they were most recently located around the central Great Lakes in eastern Michigan.

– The Mesquakie, like the Sauk, Kickapoo, Mascouten and Potawatomi, moved westward during the middle of the 17th century.

Historic Tribes

– The Mesquakie resided in the Fox River basin in Central Wisconsin by the late 1670s.

– Between 1712-1737 the French attempted to exterminate the Mesquakie because of their loyalty to the British.

– In 1730 the Mesquakie lost about 1000 men, women, and children as they fled the French and their allies.

– The Mesquakie and Sauk were forced to flee across the Mississippi into Ioway territory and successfully defended themselves against French attack.

– In 1737 the French government pardoned the Mesquakie and ended their pursuit.

– The village of Saukenuk was established in the late 1700s on the Rock River.

Historic Tribes

– Zebulon Pike described three Mesquakie villages in 1805

• West Bank of the Mississippi North of the Rock River Rapids

• Mines of Spain area

• Confluence of the Turkey River and Mississippi

– Julien Dubuque was granted a treaty from the Mesquakie for mining lead in 1788 (Mines of Spain). The French ceded the western portion of the upper Mississippi valley to the Spanish in 1782. The land was returned back to the French in 1800.

– The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 allowed territorial settlement to proceed. Movement of people into Iowa proceeded quickly.

Historic Tribes

• Pressures from settlement after 1825 forced the Sauk along the Mississippi to leave western Illinois and relocate to southeast Iowa.

• The exception was Black Hawk’s band of Sauk at Rock Island. The Black Hawk War of 1832 resulted in defeat for the Sauk.

• The government appointed Keokuk as the “head chief” of the so-called Sauk and Mesquakie nation after Black Hawk’s defeat.

• The tribe was forced to give up 2.5 million hectares of the eastern part of Iowa (the Black Hawk Purchase)

• Keokuk was granted a small territory along the Iowa River (called the Keokuk Reserve)

Historic Tribes

• The Fox and Sauk remained in Iowa until 1842 when the ceded their lands for a reserve in Kansas just south of present-day Topeka.

• Some of the Fox left Kansas after selling their herd of horses for Iowa.

• In 1856 the Iowa Legislature authorized the Mesquakie to purchase 80 acres of land in Iowa near Tama ($12.50/acre; 10X what the Mesquakie were originally given; 2X the actual cost of farmland in Iowa at the time).

• Today Mesquakie tribal holdings are about 5,000 acres.

Native American Land Cessions in Iowa

Autman, 1957

Black Hawk /Charles Bird King

Keokuk

Appanoose

Ha Na Wo Wa Ta 1896

from mastodon hunters to……………. - mark aronson …markaronson1.com/nhiowa3.pdf · from...

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