Crafting History in the Northern Plains: A Political Economy of the Heart River Region, 1400–1750

4. The People on the Bank: Community and Economy in the Heart Region, 1200–1750

56 4 The People on the Bank Community and Economy in the Heart Region, 1200–1750 The First Villages aggregated farming villages—compact settlements housing at least 100 people—first appeared in the southern part of the Middle Missouri subarea in the eleventh century (Johnson 2007a; Tiffany 2007a; Toom 1992a). Archaeologists assign these settlements to a culture-historical unit called the Initial variant of the Middle Missouri tradition. Like other Plains farmers, Middle Missouri–tradition groups practiced a mixed hunting and harvesting economy, built substantial timber-frame houses close to arable land, made extensive use of subterranean food storage features, and produced distinctive bone and stone implements and ceramic containers (Wood 2001). Initial Middle Missouri villages occur on both sides of the Plains-Prairie ecotone, from central and southeast South Dakota eastward into northwest Iowa (figure 4.1). In the Heart region, farming villages first came together shortly after 1200. Questions about the relationships between these northern communities , known as the Extended variant of the Middle Missouri tradition, and earlier Initial variant communities in the south have figured prominently in regional culture-historical research. Donald J. Lehmer (1954) initially thought that Extended variant groups descend directly from Initial variant groups. Later, with more chronological data in hand, he came to believe they were culture-historical cousins, progeny of a common Late Woodland ancestor (Lehmer 1971). However, doubts about the nature of the relationship between the two variants linger, with some archaeologists maintaining that lineal descent remains the more plausible explanation (Winham and Calabrese 1998). the people on the bank 57 Recent research in the Heart and Cannonball regions has shed new light on this problem. Analyses of architecture, pottery, and other artifacts from sites dating to the 1100s show that Extended variant communities grew out of interactions between Late Woodland bison hunters and Initial Middle Missouri farmers, interactions prompted by the latter’s concerted efforts to obtain Knife River flint (KRF), a high-quality toolstone found mainly in the Knife River basin (Ahler 2007; Johnson 2007b). The scale of their procurement activities can be seen in the makeup of Initial variant chipped stone assemblages. At Jones Village in the Cannonball region, the northernmost Initial variant site, 89 percent of the chipped stone tools and waste flakes are made from KRF, even though the primary quarries are more than 200 km Figure 4.1. Map showing the distributions of Initial Middle Missouri (IMM) and Extended Middle Missouri (EMM) settlements. The locations of Menoken Village, a Late Woodland settlement, and the primary Knife River flint (KRF) source area are also shown. Chapter 4 58 away and serviceable toolstone can be obtained from sources nearer at hand (Ahler 2007; Johnson 2007b). Even farther south, at the Sommers site in the heart of western Initial Middle Missouri settlement and some 375 km from the quarries, more than 50 percent of the flaked stone consists of KRF (Johnson 1984). The intensive use of KRF by Initial Middle Missouri groups contrasts markedly with the use by later groups in the same areas of a much wider range of local and distant sources (Ahler 1977a; Johnson 1984). One can appreciate the character and consequences of the KRF trade by comparing and contrasting data from Initial Middle Missouri settlements, especially Jones Village, with data from Menoken Village, a fortified Late Woodland site located in the Heart region on Apple Creek, about 15 km east of the Missouri. Flint knappers at both Menoken and Jones preferred KRF and employed similar production practices (Ahler 2007; Johnson 2007b). Late Woodland and Initial Middle Missouri groups produced similar distinctive bone and antler ornaments (Ahler 2007). Marine shell beads occur both at Menoken and at many Initial variant sites. There also are telling differences. Pottery from Menoken exhibits the formal, decorative, and technological attributes of both Late Woodland and Plains Village potting traditions (Krause 2007). House forms at Menoken and other Late Woodland sites echo, but do not duplicate, Initial Middle Missouri house forms. The Menoken stone tool assemblage includes Prairie side-notched arrowpoints and Avonlea-like arrowpoints that are absent from Initial Middle Missouri assemblages but occur in other Late Woodland assemblages. Taken together, these data paint a picture of Late Woodland acculturation consequent on regular, face-to-face contacts with Initial Middle Missouri communities. Later, in the 1200s, the processes of acculturation underway at Menoken and other Late Woodland settlements culminated in the establishment of Extended variant farming villages...