Keywords: Leary Site, 25RH1, burial, Nebraska, ceramics, field schoo, Developmental Horizon, Classic Horizon

"An archaeological field school in 1968 at the Leary site (25RH1), an Oneota village site in southeastern Nebraska, revealed several burials and other features. While this field school did not employ today's more rigorous excavation standards, ceramic material found here can still be used to assess and date the Oneota occupation. Some researchers have argued that the Leary site represents a long, intermittent Oneota occupation. The ceramics from features and a surface collection were examined for temporally sensitive horizon attributes. It is concluded that the 1968 Leary excavation represents a long Oneota occupation spanning at least portions of the Developmental and Classic Horizons." {Garst}

Keywords: ridged fields, effigy mounds, Wisconsin, Late Woodland, landscape.

Hulbaert Creek Site (47 SK 292: Sauk County, Wis.) was LW with ridged-field agriculture, ca. AD 1000, intensifying food production and reducing ?risk, subsistence calendar conflicts and land degradation. Ridged fileds served as a means of maintaining local identity and regional control.? Ridged fields were just some fo the LW modifications of the landscape ca. AD 700-1150. (Effigy mounds are interpreted in mythic context. Oneota is occasionally mentioned.)

Synopsis from Publisher's home-page:
"Glenn's holistic treatment of Oneota represents an ambitious attempt to synthesize all available linguistic, archaeological, ethnohistorical, and physical anthropological data in order 'to reconstruct the development of Oneota peoples'. . . . Glenn's study represents a landmark attempt to examine the biological parameters of Oneota. . . . Glenn is to be complimented for her holistic attempt to combine archaeological, linguistic, and ethnohistoric data with biological parameters." Jane Buikstra, Plains Anthropologist.

In the Saginaw Valley and inner (Ionia and Clare Counties) Michigan, Upper Mississippian (i.e., Oneota) materials are present in too small numbers to meaningfully interpret. What there is: + grit-tempered: UM-realted smoothed over cord-marked, punctates at neckshoulder juncture, in horizontal rows or in chevrons; + shell-tempered: strap-handles, notched applique strip, notched rim, punctates - often in chevrons; + burials with shell masks, shell-maks gorgets, including weeping eye (forked eye surrounds) design. No illustrations.

This article gives about one short paragraph each to 15 sites with Upper Mississippian materials It then goes on to summarize the views of Mason, Fitting, Salzer, Gibbon, Hurley, Overstreet, and Buckmaster on UP UM (i.e., intrusive?, relation to Green Bay). It concludes by noting that ther has been no significant find since the seventies and that the possible model is one of water-body exploitation and peaceful co-existence (e.g., marriage exchange) with LW groups. Illustrations: 6 sherd categories, 4 of which are mislabeled.

Apparently marginal to Oneota studies: "The purpose of this study is to determine the presence of tuberculosis (TB) and treponematosis in the Orendorf population, a Middle Mississippian group who inhabited the central Illinois River valley from A.D. 1150-1250. ... Prevalence rates are 2.6% for TB and 6.0% for treponematosis, respectively. ... When comparing the results to other Mississippian and non-Mississippian sites, it is found that there are no significant differences in the numbers of individuals affected, except when comparing TB in Orendorf to Norris Farms #36, a later Oneota population. ..." [OCLC]. 118 pages.

This article was checked for currency by the author in 1999. It is an overview, with the specifically Oneota section being 229-33.

The Kelley Oneota site is C-14 dated to AD 1250-1683. Plant remains even during contact period include knotweed and little barley along with CBS. {ATAM summary for Hollingers Seminar Fall 1998, mini-grant}

The abstract does not explicitly mention either Oneota or (Middle) Mississippian, but the paper was listed for the Oneota/Mississippian session. The site is a multi-component one inland from the Great Lakes.

"Francis La Flesche's Osage and Omaha texts can be applied to Cahokia data, providing interpretations ranging from likely to provocative. This presentation hypothesizes that because these Dhegiha were the closest major indigenous nations to the American Bottom at the late seventeenth century contact, they may have been descended from Cahokia and their priests may have transmitted Cahokian knowledge down to La Flesche's collaborators. Cahokian data discussed include the Keller figurine, Mound 72, 'Woodhenge,' the mounds around the principal plazas, and Ramey knives." {MwAC Web site, abstracts}

This illustrated 27-page Web site describes a significant Developmental Horizon Oneota site on the western shore of Lake Koshkonong in SE Wisconsin, placing it in Oneota culture history (which is lucidly summarized) and the history of Oneota research. The site has been studied over the years, most recently in the period 1998-2002.

This article argues for a re-interpretation of the role of women in said societies. Koehler notes that "...American Indians often traced descent through the mother, as illustrated by the Mississippian-Oneota Illiniwek... [citing J.-B. Bossu 1962 Tavels in the Interior..., p. 132] (211). She liberally interprets images as women to further her arguments, concluding that at least a third of Illinois-Missouri Mississippian "anthropomorphs appear to be female, a number far higher than in Fort ancient and Oneota locales" (p. 219). Further references to Oneota seem restricted to ethnographic Illiniwek and Missouri, which she sees as Oneotan. Roles of women as chiefs, warriors and goddesses are emphasized.

Recent excavation at the Dambroski site recovered a sizeable Grand River phase ceramic assemblage, consisting of nearly 250 vessels. The Dambroski site is a single component, late 13th century village, located in an area for which little specific information on Oneota culture has been available, until recently. Examination of the assemblage, focusing on vessel morphology, decorative elements, and other attributes, contributes important data on Oneota ceramics and ceramic changes in the region. As part of this study, comparisons are made with other Oneota ceramic assemblages in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Upper Midwest." {MwAC Web site, abstract}

"Various forms of rolled copper beads are found within Havana and Oneota assemblages in the Midwest. In this study, seven different types of rolled copper bead types have been recognized including Tube, Spiral Rolled Tube, Flattened Tube, Barrel, Round, Cone, and Ring Beads. These copper beads are found in burial and habitation site contexts. By comparing the form of rolled copper beads from context representing these two cultures, it is possible discern culture-specific attributes. In considering the dimensions, quality of production, context, and quantity of beads the beads differ not only between assemblages but within each assemblage." {MwAC Web site, abstracts}

"Some individuals were probably Oneota, based on dental health and expression of sexually dimorphic characteristics" (JIAS summary).

Langford Tradition {E&B ?2 cite but do not list this reference to the Robinson Reserve Site}

"The large and important Missouri site of Utz has produced six iconographic rings. Reviewing the means of decoration and the decorations themselves may provide a clarification of dates proposed both from radiocarbon assays and from what historic documentation is available. The rings speak of several different points of contact of the Missouris with outside, presumably French, sources; if verifiable, they may serve as another, possibly independent, means of dating." (Author's abstract at Baywood publishing / http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,5;journal,4,106;linkingpublicationresults,1:300328,1).

This is a survey article. Eight plates of Mocassin Bluff and Berrien Ware ceramics are included. The plates are clear enoubh for identifcation purposes. McAllister says Upper Mississippian is present in the Mid-West by A.D. 700 and extends into the proto-historic. "In Michigan, it appears in the southwestern part of the state about A.D. 1050...[ca.] 1600" (p. 254). On the same page, he characterizes Michigan Oneota as being indigenous Late Woodland over-laid with "certain cultural ideas and practices." The most notable of these is shell-tempering, which came from out-side of Michigan. The mix of Onoeta style attributes with local-tradition grit-tempered base argue for stimulus diffusion.
     Moccasin Bluff Phase. A.D. 1050-1300. < >< > Pottery is mostly MB Impressed Exterior Lip; some shell-tempered cord-marked related to the Fisher-Fifield series in NW Indian and NE Illinois. Increase in ceramics and pits might indicate increase in population (p. 255). Two subphases and ceramic wares and typical forms (LW: "wide-mouthed jar with gently curving shoulders"; UM: "angular neck and globular-bodied jar" (p. 260)) are presented briefly. Grit-tempering actually increases in the second subphase. [KD: End of phase has also been put at around AD 1400.]
    The Berrien Phase. AD 1400-1600. This was first identified at the Mocassin Bluff site. The pots are Berrien-Huber shell-tempered, plain-surfaced; MB Scalloped grit-tempered. Ceramic discussion based on Spero's 1979 M.A. (not listed in department or university library opac)discusses form and decoration. "Scalloping is a prevalent decorating technique throughout the Upper Mississippian groups around Lake Michigan" (p. 261). A special decoration consists of diagonal impressions around the rims or on rim applique, possibly 17th century. [Cremin 1999 indicates an extension well into the 17th century.]
    Indigenous Development and Technological Innovation. + Grit-temperirng with LW elongated bodies continues.    +Shell-temper technology and general style reflect IL/IN influence.    + But these are re-worked into local globular shell-tempered pots.    + Lithics: characteristic Late Woodland, such as Madison points, scraper; local and exotic chert [KD: McAllister says, unconvincingly, that these characteristics "demonstrate" local continuity; they probably do.)    + Shell-temper and scallop as well as rare exoitcs, e.g., catlinite pipe, argue for contact. Thus, local groups interacted (trade, raid, alliance, kinship, tradition?) with other Oneota.

"The Strawtown vicinity, located about 25 miles north of Indianapolis, represents the overlapping peripheries of three distinct cultural traditions: later Woodland associated with the western Lake Erie Basin, Anderson Phase Fort Ancient, and Oneota. One of the sites at Strawtown is an extant enclosure with an exterior ditch. The development of the exterior ditch and enclosure reflects these changing peripheral alignments. The structure of the village within the enclosure also reflects its placement on a cultural borderland. The 2002 excavations indicated a changing morphology of the village and enclosure during at least three occupations between 1200 and 1425 A.D." {MwAC Web site, abstract}

Synopsis from publisher's home-page: McKusick describes the excavation of the Grant Oneota Village site and its position in the sequence of prehistoric habitations on the Hartley Terrace in northeast Iowa. The work represents a major contribution to the understanding of the Oneota tradition.

Not known if this presentation included Oneota materials.

"The focus of this paper is change in subsistence practices and lithic technology seen at the Zimmerman site (11Ls13) Upper Mississippian Langford and historic Danner (Illini) groups pre and post AD 1450. Changes in lithic use and function of tools used by the were directly related with increasing population and warfare. The data come from the Northwestern University excavations conducted between 1991-1995, including one Fisher phase feature (AD 1100), four Upper Mississippian Heally phase (AD 1257-1297) features of the Langford tradition, and two Middle Historic period (AD 1680-1690) Danner phase features as well as material from midden deposits." {MwAC Web site, abstract).

Three La Crosse locality Oneota sites ( Tremaine: 47-Lc-95, OT: 47-Lc-262, and Filler: 47-Lc-149) were examined for testing relationship between corn agriculture and community health. Skeletal pathologies were used as dependent variables. The authors' abstract says, "We suggest that the etiology of the skeletal pathologies is best understood within a framework that incorporates lifeway choices linked to settlement and subsistence impacts on the community, such as increasing population density within longhouses, rather than explanations that focus on issues of nutrient availability due to food shortages or narrowing of food choices."

"The south-southwest mound at the Fisher site was excavated by George Langford in 1928 but never published. Recent re-examination of the notes has revealed the presence of a large pit containing disarticulated and partially articulated human remains. Scalpings and/or celt wounds on nearly all of the skulls available for study indicate a probable massacre of at least 40 individuals. Radiocarbon and fluorine assays date the massacre to between AD 1250 and 1275, in association with the Fisher/Langford occupation of the site. This event occurred during a period of cultural upheaval in the greater Illinois region." {MwAC Web site, abstracts}

Pp. 5, 10, 21, 24, 138, and 254 (and charts) mention, in passing, Bold Counselor and other Oneota phases in the American Bottom, as northern immigrants. It is noted that Bold Counselor is in part coeval and in part after the Late Middle Mississippian phase Sand Prairie at Cahokia itself. It is unlikely that Oneota came out of Cahokia.

"Archaeological research in the Upper Mississippi River valley between 43°N and the St. Croix River confluence (44.7°N) has produced a series of large oneota villages from which corn (Z e a m a y s) has been recovered. Radiocarbon determinations indicate that the sites in the northern reach of this study area date from AD 1010 to 1440. These sites are characterized by large village areas and associated mound groups. Unlike villages int he northern region, sites in the >LaCrosse area are more extenisve, and burial mound complexes are absent. The southern villages have 14C dates ranging from AD 1030 to 1520. Based on the differences in community plans and artifact assemblages, it is suggested that the northern Oneota groups are not ancestors of the neighboringLaCrosse variant. Historical documents for Europe indicate that at similar latitudes, the climate gegan to deteriorated after AD 1300. With the onset of cooler summers characteristic of the Neo-Boreal climatic episode, corn agriculture became unreliable in the northern portion of the Mississippi basin after AD 1400. In response to the unfavorable climatic conditions, large semi-permanent villages were abandoned and an outward migration began. The peak cold at ca. AD 1550 (the 'Little Ice Age') caused the collapse of agriculture in the LaCrosse region as well. Historical documents, archaeological evidence, and palynological data indicate that the climatic 'recovery' did not ensue in this region for more than two centuries. After AD 1750 climatic conditions were again favorable for the cultivation of aboriginal corn." {Journal abstract} Includes continuous frost-free days map.

A site near Onalaska /LaCrosse, Wisconsin that appears to still be being excavated is looked at in terms of the origins of Oneota culture. Overstreet, advocating Oneota invasion from the East around A.D. 900, is pitted against James Stoltman, and Bob Birmingham, who see the site filling a purported gap between Late Woodland and the emergence of Oneota (after A.D. 1000). According to the article, "[w]hat they [Bozshardt and co-workers] found was evidence of the intermingling of Late Woodland and Middle Mississippian cultures,at about A.D. 1050, in the La Crosse region." The site, unnamed in the article, is to be preserved under a housing complex.

White Rock Phase located in North-Central Kansas and southern Nebraska.

Bold Counselor {E&B ?2}

Bold Counselor {E&B ?2}

Langford Tradition {E&B ?2}

Langford Tradition {E&B ?2}

Abstract: "Analysis and revaluation of Paul Radin?s turn of the century corpus of Ho-Chunk oral traditions open substantive new avenues for interpreting the late prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological records of the North American Upper Midwest.... Contextualisation of these traditions within the archaeological record yields insights into previously inaccessible actor-specific experiences and world views. In turn, the concomitant contextualisation of archaeological data within the oral traditions allows the development of new interpretive models for sociopolitical organisations and development during the late prehistoric and early historic eras." {abstract in text}

"mtDNA was successfully extracted from 108 individuals from the Norris Farms Oneota, a prehistoric Native American population[(Norris Farms 36 Cemetary located "on a bluff above the Illinois River" which dates to about 1300 AD), they described finding a mtDNA sequence which "was identical to one found in two Finnish individuals".] , to compare the mtDNA diversity from a pre-Columbian population with contemporary Native American and Asian mtDNA lineages and to examine hypotheses about the peopling of the New World. Haplogroup and hypervariable region I sequence data indicate that the lineages from haplogroups A, B, C, and D are the most common among Native Americans but that they were not the only lineages brought into the New World from Asia. The mtDNA evidence does not support the three-wave hypothesis of migration into the New World but rather suggests a single "wave" of people with considerable mtDNA diversity that exhibits, a signature of expansion 23,000-37,000 years ago." {BA} KD: There has been some question of contamination of the mtDNA. For a thread that has something to do with this, see Hu McCulloch 06/28/1999 in the Newsgroup: sci.archaeology.

The south-southwest mound at the Fisher site was excavated by George Langford in 1928 but never published. Recent re-examination of the notes has revealed the presence of a large pit containing disarticulated and partially articulated human remains. Scalpings and/or celt wounds on nearly all of the skulls available for study indicate a probable massacre of at least 40 individuals. Radiocarbon and fluorine assays date the massacre to between AD 1250 and 1275, in association with the Fisher/Langford occupation of the site. This event occurred during a period of cultural upheaval in the greater Illinois region." {MwAC Web site, abstract}

The Delfosse/Allard site (47KE9/31) is a 37.5 acre, multicomponent campsite/village bisected by STH 57. A conical mound and garden beds were present in 1906. However, a 1978-79 survey found that these features had been subsequently destroyed. Although the site has produced evidence of Paleoindian through Oneota occupation, HRMS data recovery operations were restricted to an area containing Late Woodland deposits. Excavated contexts including both Hein's Creek and Point Sauble Collared vessels suggest contemporaneity between producers of these wares. A calibrated AMS date of AD 1030-1230 was obtained from charred residue from the interior of a Point Sauble Collared rimsherd." {MwAC Web site, abstract}.

Navigating the Oneota Site: Bibliography Pages

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