Upload
buikhuong
View
224
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
From Mastodon Hunters to Mesquakie:
Celebrating the Wild Tribes of Iowa
• Glacial Iowa
• Paleoindian Cultures in Iowa
• Archaic Culture
• Woodland Culture
• Historic Indians
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.
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
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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(12,000-9500
The earliest archaeological evidence of an
atlatal is 25,000 ybp!
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
Paleoindian Cultures In Iowa
(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.
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.
Archaic Period (9500-2500 ybp)
• 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.
Archaic Period (9500-2500 ybp)
• 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 Period (2500-1000 ybp)
• 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.
Woodland Period (2500-1000 ybp)
• 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.
Woodland Period (2500-1000 ybp)
• 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.
Woodland Period (2500-1000 ybp)
• 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.
• 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
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.
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.
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.