Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plainsed. by Andrew J. Clark and Douglas B. (review)

This book brings together several prominent Plains archaeologists to examine what is known regarding warfare of non- state Native American societies in the Great Plains. Their contributions are divided into four sections—an introduction to what is known about Great Plains warfare, emic views through Plains rock art and tribal pictographic calendars, fortifications as evidence of violence, and warfare in society and Plains history—followed by an afterword. This volume presents an excellent combination of qualitative and quantitative data from both excavation and documentary sources. Overall, combat victims appear in the archaeological record more often in the southern and northwestern portions of the Plains during the Woodland Period, while large scale violence is clearest in the northeastern portions of the Plains during the Plains Village Period.

This work discusses the many causes of Plains warfare and the different ways in which Plains peoples went to war geographically and temporally, as well as examples of instances in which war did not occur. In presenting a deep history of warfare on the Plains, this volume demonstrates that factors of in-migration of new populations, extra-regional economies and interactions, fluctuations in material conditions, and social factors of belief and social status were all likely factors in Plains warfare and often related to ethnogenesis. While the presence of osteological evidence in post- and perimortem mutilation is often noted in archaeology, what it can tell us is often lacking. This work follows this direction with the presentation of new hypotheses for postmortem mutilation. Kendall's discussion of subtle differences in scalping victims at the Crow Creek Site, based on age and gender, raises important questions regarding factors of status and belief, even when difficult to address. Bleed and Scott employ approaches from military theorists in battlefield archaeology to examine two cases of United States–Cheyenne conflict.

The inclusion of some ethnographic sources, old and recent, on the Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Plains Apache, and Plains Indian military societies would better clarify the nature of these sodalities (343–45, 353–54), which extended back at least into the late 1700s, regarding variation in social organization, seasonality, functions, shifts from uni-society to mixed war parties among some groups, and the unique trajectory of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers as a tribal division. The varied role and uses of scalps, as well as sites such as Cutthroat Gap (1833), the Battle of the Washita (1868), and Massacre Canyon (1873), could also be more fully addressed. However, the larger patterns and new avenues of inquiry offer contributions for future work.

This work is frank about the extent of our knowledge: "As we turn to these topics, we enter a domain where it is harder to say what we know and easier to say what we are not sure of" (25). Overall, this is a rich, broadly encompassing, and well-written volume that will be of great benefit for a wide range of Plains scholars; I believe it will become a seminal work in the field.