Archeological Inventory and Evaluation of
Lincoln's South and East Beltway
Lancaster County, Nebraska

December, 1998

FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION

Does not contain cultural site locations

Excerpted from UNL, Anthropology Department,

Technical Cultural Resources Report 98-05

by:

Stanley M. Parks, and

Stacy Stupka-Burda

Research Archeologists

Archeological Research Laboratory

Department of Anthropology

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

for:

Olsson Environmental Sciences

Lincoln, Nebraska

ABSTRACT

In November of 1997 and May of 1998, Olsson Environmental Sciences contracted with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Anthropology to conduct a systematic archeological cultural resource survey as part of the ongoing South and East Beltways Study in Lancaster County, Nebraska. Investigations were conducted along a single southern corridor (SM-4) and along three eastern corridors (EC-1, EM-1, EF-1). As part of this phase of the study, a pedestrian survey was conducted along a one-quarter mile (0.4 km) wide corridor of the proposed SM-4, EC-1, EM-1 and EF-1 routes and one-half mile (0.8 km) diameter areas surrounding ten intersection locations. In total, 47 archeological sites were located, and several were tested for National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility. Of these, three sites are recommended eligible to the NRHP. The following report is released for public distribution. Site locations, however, have been omitted per Nebraska State statute LAW 84-712.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...i

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………...ii

List of Figures………………………………………………………………….……..….iv

List of Tables……………………………………………………………..….……...……v

Protection of Cultural Resources Site Locations...........................................................vi

Introduction........................................................................................................................1

Site Records and Archives Search...........................................................................5

Physiographic and Environmental Background...........................................................11

Regional Geology .................................................................................................11

Present Landsurface Formations………................................................................13

Modern Surface Soils.............................................................................................14

Regional Climatic and Vegetational Background..................................................15

Natural Vegetation at Euroamerican Arrival.........................................................16

Natural Faunal Resources at Euroamerican Settlement.........................................18

Environmental Resources Available in This Region.............................................19

Environmental Summary.......................................................................................21

General Overview of Great Plains Culture History.....................................................24

Paleoindian Period.................................................................................................24

Archaic Period.......................................................................................................25

Woodland Period...................................................................................................27

Plains Village Period.............................................................................................28

Protohistoric Period...............................................................................................31

Native Americans During the Historic Period.......................................................33

Post-Contact Native American Tribes in Eastern Nebraska..................................37

Pawnee...................................................................................................................38

Omaha....................................................................................................................39

Ponca......................................................................................................................41

Oto..........................................................................................................................42

The Nomads...........................................................................................................44

Athapaskans............................................................................................…...........44

Siouan and Algonkian Nomads.............................................................................45

Wagons Westward.................................................................................................46

Euroamerican Settlement on the Plains.................................................................48

Ethnohistoric Accounts of Indians in Lancaster County.............................................50

Project Design and Survey Methods.............................................................................55

Native American Contacts....................................................................................56

Local Interest Group Contacts..............................................................................56

Field Inventory Methods………………………………………………………...56

Modern Agriculture and Effects on Cultural Resources..................................... .57

Observed Cultural Resources................................................................................58

Test Site Selection.................................................................................................59

NRHP Evaluation Criteria for Archeology...........................................................60

Evaluation of Archeological Resources Located..................................................61

Research Methods Conclusion..............................................................................62

Description of Observed Cultural Resources...............................................................63

25LC93............................................................................................................…..64 25LC94..................................................................................................................65

25LC95..................................................................................................................66

25LC96..................................................................................................................67

25LC97..................................................................................................................68

SOAP97-2.............................................................................................................68

25LC112................................................................................................................72

25LC113................................................................................................................73

25LC114................................................................................................................74

25LC115................................................................................................................76

25LC116................................................................................................................78

25LC117................................................................................................................80

25LC118................................................................................................................81

25LC119................................................................................................................84

25LC120................................................................................................................86

25LC121................................................................................................................88

25LC122................................................................................................................89

25LC123................................................................................................................91

25LC124................................................................................................................92

25LC125................................................................................................................94

25LC126…………………………………………………………………………96

25LC127................................................................................................................98

25LC128..............................................................................................................100

25LC129..............................................................................................................101

25LC130..............................................................................................................105

25LC131..............................................................................................................106

25LC132..............................................................................................................108

25LC133..............................................................................................................111

25LC134..............................................................................................................112

25LC135..............................................................................................................113

25LC136..............................................................................................................114

25LC137..............................................................................................................115

25LC138..............................................................................................................116

25LC139..............................................................................................................119

25LC140..............................................................................................................120

25LC141..............................................................................................................121

25LC142..............................................................................................................122

25LC143..............................................................................................................124

25LC144..............................................................................................................125

25LC145..............................................................................................................127

25LC146..............................................................................................................128

25LC147..............................................................................................................132

25LC148..............................................................................................................133

EBAP98-38.........................................................................................................134

EBAP98-39.........................................................................................................135

EBAP98-40.........................................................................................................136

EBAP98-41.........................................................................................................137

Conclusions …………………………………………………………………………...139

Recommendations for Geologic Investigations………………………………...139

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Location of Study Area South of Lincoln, Nebraska..........................................1

Figure 2: Project Area of the South and East Beltways Study...........................................2

Figure 3: Proposed South and East Beltway Alignments...................................................4

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Archeological Sites Previously Documented within the South and East

Beltway Study Area……………………………………………………...6

Table 2: Cultural Sequence of the Central Great Plains.............................................….36

Table 3: Description of the Archeological Sites Located Within the SM-4 Survey

Corridor................................................................................................….64

Table 4: Description of Archeological Sites Located Along the Proposed Eastern

Road Alignments……………………………………………………..….71

Archeological Inventory and Evaluation of
Lincoln's South and East Beltway
Lancaster County, Nebraska

1. Introduction

The South and East Beltways Study is a Major Investment Study/Environmental Impact Statement being conducted to determine if major transportation improvements are needed south and east of Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. These improvements would include construction of multiple lane roads within the study area boundaries (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1997:1). At this time, the principal objective of the study, is the preservation of a multi-use corridor within the southern and eastern fringes of Lincoln, Nebraska (Figure 1) (EA Engineering 1995). The corridor areas, and general limits of the project are as follows (Figure 2):

South corridor area: Yankee Hill Road south to one-half mile south of Saltillo Road, and U.S. Highway 77 on the west to Nebraska Highway 2 on the east.

East corridor area: 96^th Street eastward to one-half mile east of 148^th Street, and Interstate-80 on the north to Nebraska Highway 2 on the south.

The approximate length of the South and East Beltways Study Area is 17 miles (27.4 km), covering approximately 91 square miles (236 sq km).

This project will receive Federal funding, and all reports and documentation must meet the Nebraska Department of Roads and Federal Highway Administration requirements, therefore, cultural resource inventories are required for compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 106 review process (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1997:1).

Figure 2. Project area of the South and East Beltways Study (map courtesy HWS Consulting Group).

In November of 1997 and May of 1998, Olsson Environmental Sciences contracted with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Department of Anthropology to conduct a systematic archeological cultural resources survey along a single southern corridor (SM-4) and along three eastern corridors (EC-1, EM-1, EF-1) as part of this ongoing South and East Beltways (SEB) Study (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1997). Under separate contract, a survey and National Register of Historic Places evaluation of standing structures was implemented by "On Site Photography and Preservation."

The Standard Form of Agreement between Engineer (Olsson Environmental Sciences) and Consultant (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) dated 7, November, 1997, called for a survey of a single South Beltway route that "…corresponds to the SM-4 Route and the three possible diagonal connections in the vicinity of Nebraska Highway 2" (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1997:1). The dividing line between the South section and East section of the Beltway Study Area is Nebraska Highway 2. At present, only one southern route is being considered for development or cultural resource survey (Figure 3). A second Standard Form of Agreement between Engineer (Olsson Environmental Sciences) and Consultant (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) dated May, 1998, called for a survey of three Eastern Beltway routes that "…correspond to the EC-1, EM-1 and EF-1 Routes" (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1998:1). Three possible routes (EC-1; EM-1; EF-1) are still being considered along the eastern edge of Lincoln, from Highway 2, northward to Interstate 80.

Both the Nebraska State Historical Society (NSHS) and the UNL Department of Anthropology have conducted surveys on individual tracts of land in the Study Area. Additionally, during the summer of 1987, the UNL Department of Anthropology Summer Field School conducted systematic inventory of limited portions of the Stevens Creek drainage, which crosses the SEB Study Area east of Lincoln. Prior to this project, however, no systematic, or large scale cultural resource inventory had been conducted in the SEB Study Area.

Figure 3. Proposed South and East Beltway Alignments (Map courtesy HWS Consulting Group).

As part of this phase of the project, systematic, intensive pedestrian archeological survey was conducted along a one-quarter mile (0.4 km) wide corridor (1/8 mile (0.2 km) each side of the centerline on the proposed SM-4, EC-1, EM-1 and EF-1 routes, including diagonals (Figure 3) (Olsson Environmental Sciences 1997, 1998). In addition, survey was conducted on one-half mile diameter areas surrounding ten potential intersections (Figure 3). The goal of this cultural resource project was to identify surface archeological sites that exist within the proposed corridors and to evaluate the potential for encountering unknown, or as yet unrecognized, but significant cultural resources that could be negatively impacted by projects related to this SEB Study, and subsequent development and/or construction.

This report is a result of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Anthropology's pedestrian cultural resource survey, field evaluation and limited site testing of the four SEB corridors and connecting intersections. The report presents relevant background information, including a generalized regional environmental overview, and an outline of the culture-history of Native populations of eastern Nebraska, with archival information specific to Lancaster County. In addition, it presents site evaluations, potential project impacts, and recommendations.

Site Records and Archives Search:

In 1996, a records search was conducted and a report was written, covering the South and East Beltway Major Investment Study Area (Barton 1996). During that investigation, a search of archeological records was conducted at the Nebraska State Historical Society Archeological Site Records Office; the Nebraska State Historic Preservation Office, and the University of Nebraska Lincoln Department of Anthropology to determine the presence and locations of previously recorded cultural resources within the defined SEB Study Area (Table 1) (Barton 1996).

Existing historic accounts record that, at the time of European arrival onto the Plains, the region that became eastern Nebraska was dominated by Pawnee, Oto and Omaha Indians. As reported by Barton (1996), however, previously recorded prehistoric sites within the Study Area represent a much wider range of time and cultures. A total of thirteen previously known prehistoric (Native American) sites were shown to be located within the SEB Study Area.

Prior to this 1998 cultural inventory, only one of the prehistoric sites within the project area was on the National Register of Historic Places. That site, 25LC1, the Schrader Site, is a small late prehistoric village attributed to the Smoky Hill Phase (AD 950-1350) of the Plains Village Period. Several earthlodges and associated features have been archeologically investigated at 25LC1 (Hill and Cooper 1936). Two additional sites, 25LC18 and 25LC48, have been initially identified as Archaic Period sites, possibly dating as early as 8,000 BP. Based on the surface manifestation, site 25LC35 is documented as Woodland Period, dating to some time between 1,000 to 2,000 BP. Other identified prehistoric sites in the SEB Study Area represent more recent Plains Village Period or Historic Native American occupations.

In addition to the prehistoric sites shown in the report (Barton 1996), fourteen previously recorded historic sites, including some standing structures, were reported within the SEB Study Area (forms on file NSHS).

Barton (1996) identified a "Cultural Resources Area," along Saltillo road, near the western edge of the SEB Study Area. This Jamaica-Saltillo Historic District, 25LC85, contains many individual historic properties and/or locations that are known to exist, but that have not been individually or extensively documented. Maps (on file at NSHS) dated 1864 and later, indicate the presence of a soldier's camp, a settler's layover camp, a Mormon camp, and three freighter's camps, as well as the early settlement communities of Saltillo and Jamaica.

The Union Pacific Railroad established Jamaica as a railroad depot, watering and loading station, undoubtedly hoping a town would grow from these roots. Several houses, a Baptist church, a blacksmith's shop, a telegraph office, and possibly a feed and seed store (Hayes and Cox 1889) were built at that location, but the town grew no further.

The town of Saltillo was founded by John Cadman who came to the area in 1859, taking a claim along Salt Creek and establishing a stage station and the town of Saltillo on that site. The Cadman Stage Station/Ranch is recorded as 25LC00-13 with the Nebraska State Historic Society. Saltillo was ideally located for success, situated along Salt Creek at a location that became the official ford for the Oregon Trail Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cutoff (25LC71). In 1860, the Cutoff was established to shorten the route between Nebraska City and Fort Kearny. The new route made it unnecessary to go north before turning west across Saunders County to follow the Platte River westward, this route shortened the Oregon trail between Nebraska City and Fort Kearny by nearly 75 miles (120 km). The Cutoff immediately became the most heavily traveled segment along the Oregon Trail until around 1873. By that time, Lancaster County was so heavily settled that traffic was forced to follow surveyed section lines, and alternate routes were chosen (Olson 1966).

A Public School at Saltillo educated children from both Saltillo and Jamaica, as well as the surrounding countryside. Businesses included a grain elevator, a creamery, and stockyards. A Post Office was established in 1865, continuing operation until 1906 (Lancaster 1990:XIII-4). Saltillo enjoyed years of relative prosperity, and played an important part in the lives of early Salt Valley settlers.

Not reported by Barton's (1996) record search, is the Olatha-Roca Historic District, the northern portion of which extends into the southern study area, and the Shirley Road Ranch, 25LC56, located east of Lincoln. The Olatha-Roca Historic District includes 21 separate historic entities, some which are extant structures, others are archeological resources, including both prehistoric and historic sites (Lancaster County 1990:XIV-2). Historic sites include numerous houses and farmsteads, several pioneer grave locations, stream crossing fords, a blacksmith shop, two water-powered grist mills, and the Olatha townsite (25LC38) (Lancaster County 1990:XIV-2).

The majority of these individual Olatha-Roca Historic District properties are outside of the SEB Area, however, the exact location, and extent of each archeological site within the Historic District is not known. Archival information indicates the presence of such resources, but complete and systematic survey and field research has not yet been conducted. The Olatha-Roca Historic Historic District has been approved for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, although at this time, nomination has not yet occurred (Lancaster County 1990:XIV-3).

The "Shirley Road Ranch" was located along Stevens Creek east of present-day Lincoln. Established by William Shirley in 1858 at the junction of several trails and a stream ford, the trading post/rest-station served travelers passing through the region. In 1859, the election that established Lancaster County "for elective and judicial purposes" (Lancaster 1916:1037) was held at the Shirley Station. The U.S. Postal Service established a station there is 1863, appointing Shirley the first postmaster of Lancaster County. The postal station was closed only two years later, in October of 1865.

This region of eastern Nebraska that encompasses the SEB Study Area was settled by Euroamericans quite soon after passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that created the Nebraska Territory and opened the region to authorized settlement. The first official settler to take permanent residence in Lancaster County was John D. Prey who arrived in the Salt Creek valley in spring of 1856 (Although at the time, his property was in the now defunct Clay County, which was divided between Gage and Lancaster Counties in 1864). His homestead was located along Salt Creek, just outside the SEB Study Area. It is recorded with the NSHS as site 25LC39. Many settlers followed Mr. Prey, and the region along southern Salt Creek, and east along Steven's Creek were settled and well populated several years prior to the development of Lincoln (Hayes and Cox 1889).

Vague and incomplete reports also exist in the archives that suggest a few Euroamericans settled in the region preceding these official dates. These would include settlers who illegally occupied the region prior to the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, as well as individuals (squatters) who simply did not register a claim on the property that they occupied. Several early Lancaster County maps, as well as settler's accounts suggest pre-1856 residents in, or near the SEB Study Area. Although the locations are imprecise, reports suggest that a pre-1856 cabin existed north of present-day Lincoln, along and east of Salt Creek, (map on file UNL Anthropology Department). Early documents also report at least one pre-1856 dugout along Stevens Creek, although the number and locations are, as yet, unknown (notations on file UNL Anthropology Department).

Four major historic trails, and several cutoffs related to those trails, are also known to cross the SEB Study Area. The greatest portions of these linear sites have been destroyed by years of tillage, land leveling, and natural erosion/sedimentation processes. In a few cases though, short sections of these historic features have been preserved by far-sighted individual landowners, or at unplowed margins between individual properties. Recent documentation also records remnants of several rock fords that have survived the years, and are visible along the banks of Salt Creek and Stevens Creek (Lancaster County 1990:VIII-1-3).

2. Physiographic and Environmental Background

Humans are highly mobile creatures that move about within and between environmental zones, to procure the resources they need and/or desire. For human groups to occupy any location for an extended period of time, certain essential resources, such as food, water, fuel, and raw material must be available through either direct procurement or trade, within a cost effective distance. Most frequently, archeological sites are the result of human activity which concentrates resources at a central location where those resources are altered, consumed, discarded, lost, or abandoned when the group moves to another central location where the process is repeated (Binford 1983:262; Thomas 1989:224). Consequently, to adequately evaluate the cultural resources, especially the archeological potential of any project area, researchers must examine more than just precise, localized points on a map. To be responsible to the cultural resources, a researcher must gain a general understanding of the regional environmental setting, the climate, and the availability of natural resources. In addition, the natural geologic formation processes that create and preserve, or destroy, sites should be taken into account.

Regional Geology:

The primary upper bedrocks underlying this portion of Nebraska are Wabaunsee Formations of Pennsylvanian System limestone, deposited prior to 280 million years ago, and Admire and Council Grove Formations of Permian System limestones and interbedded shales laid down in a vast inland sea before 245 million years ago. Overlying the limestone formations are Dakota Formation sandstones deposited during the Lower Cretaceous Period, roughly 120 million years ago.

Throughout the Quaternary Period, between 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, multiple stages of deposition occurred across what is now eastern Nebraska. Approximately 1 million years ago, Kansan Age ice sheets spread layers of glacial drift, composed of granite and quartzite boulders, cobbles, and pebbles, across eastern Nebraska, covering the ancient stream-eroded Pleistocene topography. These Kansan Age glacial tills were then overlain by Illinoian Age sand, sandy-gravel, and coarse gravel deposits of glacial-meltwater outwash alluvium laid down around 150,000 years ago. In turn, these were mantled by a series of three major loess deposits (Soil Conservation Service 1980).

The Loveland Formation is the oldest of these loess deposits and is typically a yellowish-brown eolian silt that reddens toward the top of the unit due to pedogenesis. Thermoluminescence dating of the Loveland paratype section from sites in western Iowa indicate that Loveland Loess was deposited during the Kansan Age, about 140,000 years ago (Forman et al. 1992; Mandel and Bettis 1992). More recent Wisconsinian Age deposits (< biblio >) bury the reddish Sangamon soil developed in the upper portions of Loveland.

The Gilman Canyon Formation is the oldest Wisconsinian loess deposit and is composed of a dark brown, silt loam that has been modified by pedogenesis. Radiocarbon ages of organics contained in the Gilman Canyon Formation range from around 35,000 years at its base to 20,000 years of age at the top (Johnson and Zhaodong 1993; Mandel and Bettis 1995; May and Souders 1988).

The most recent major eolian deposit, a mantel of Peorian Loess overlies the Gilman Canyon Formation. The yellowish-tan to buff-brown colored silts of the Peorian Loess Formation covers substantial portions of the region. In many areas cross-sections exhibit primary eolian bedding indicating rapid deposition. Radiocarbon ages from Peoria Loess deposits at several sites in Nebraska range from about 23,000 years at its base to 13,000 years near the top (Johnson et al. 1993; Mandel and Bettis 1995).

Subsequent to the Pleistocene Loess depositions, the topography has been further shaped by erosion and deposition within a very active fluvial system. Deposits of fine-grained to sandy-or-gravely Holocene alluvium blanket the drainages of both Salt Creek and Stevens Creek. Localized deposits may also consist of coarser sediment in areas where till and glacial alluvium is exposed on valley slopes. Ages of this alluvium range from more than 10,500 years, to as recent as sediment washed downslope by last summer's rains. The thickness of the alluvium is extremely variable in eastern Nebraska, being absent on many slopes and all uplands, to many meters thick in major or secondary drainages.

Regionally, the alluvium deposits are grouped into a classification known as the "DeForest Formation" (Bettis 1990) which can, in turn, be divided into a series of "members" relating to timeperiods and types of aggradation. The various alluvial members are separated by either fluvial erosion surfaces or unconformities marked by buried soil horizons. Buried soils are most often not traceable from one valley to another, indicating some degree of discontinuity and localized variability in the environment during their development.

Present Landsurface Formations:

The topography of the greater South and East Beltways Study Area is best described as one of gently rolling hills interspersed with flat alluvial lowlands. The hilltops are usually rounded except for a few nearly level upland divides between drainages.

The sequence of loess mantels covering southeastern Nebraska becomes thinner as the distance from the Missouri River increases. As a result, preceding depositions outcrop more frequently and cover larger surface areas (Elder 1969:7). Dark brown deposits of the Gilman Formation have eroded to the surface on some uplands and terrace slopes in the south and west reaches of the Salt Valley drainage (Soil Conservation Service 1980). Illinoian Age Loveland Formation loess and outwash alluvium deposits of sand, sandy-gravel, and coarse-gravel outcrops in stream terrace walls and eroded surfaces at several locations in Lancaster County. The Kansan Age granite and quartzite till, contained in a matrix of grayish-brown clay, is visible at eroded surfaces and stream cuts at locations throughout central, western and northern Lancaster County (Boellstorff 1978; Dillon 1992; Forman et al. 1992).

Numerous localized outcrops of bedrock are present in Lancaster County. Rusty-brown Dakota sandstone has been exposed by downcutting in several local drainages. Other bedrock exposures occur along homoclinal ridges at stream valley margins. Uplift and subsequent stream erosion has exposed the older Permian and Pennsylvanian limestone bedrocks at numerous locations along the margins of the Salt Creek Valley south of Lincoln.

Modern Surface Soils:

Loess and glacial till are the principle inorganic parent materials for soil production in this region of the Plains. The majority of soils in the uplands of Lancaster County are mild-to-medium acidic mollisols described as "deep, gently-sloping to steep, moderately well-drained to well-drained silty-soils that formed in loess and loamy-soils that formed in glacial till (Soil Conservation Service 1980:4). In general, Mollisols are well-developed soils with dark-brown to black, organic-rich humus A-horizons which are clearly defined from the sterile subsoils. They maintain a rich and fertile humus complex due to the extremely dense root zones of native Plains and Prairie vegetation. Soil moisture is adequate to encourage a flourishing soil biota, but not overly abundant to cause nutrient leaching (Elder 1969).

The floodplains of Salt Creek, Stevens Creek, and their major tributaries are blanketed with up to 10,500 years of Holocene alluvium. Established floodplain soils in the basins are slightly acidic-to-mildly alkaline mollisols described as "deep, nearly level to very gently sloping, moderately well to very poorly drained, clayey to silty soils that formed in alluvium; on floodplains" (Soil Conservation Service 1980:7). More recent bottomland deposits, where mature soil zones have not yet developed due to periodic flooding and continuing erosion, migration and redeposition of surface materials are neutral-to-mildly alkaline fluvent entisols. These are immature soils developing in relatively unstable, unconsolidated materials. Such soils have poor horizonation, gradually merging with the sterile subsoils with no clear lines of distinction between soil zones. These locations, however, are often very fertile and organic rich since the alluvium that formed them is, most frequently, topsoil eroded from uplands (Elder 1969).

Regional Climatic and Vegetational Background:

At present, there are few detailed paleoenvironmental studies of this region of the central Great Plains. Palynological and macrobotanical profiles are scarce because there are few suitable Holocene deposits with sufficient time depth (Zalucha 1990). Therefore, we are left with a somewhat ambiguous picture of Holocene climatic and vegetation changes prior to around 9,000 years before present (Cummings 1990).

There is general agreement among most paleobotanists and paleoclimatologists that Sage (Artemisia sp.) steppes, similar to the "barren-grounds" of modern north-central Canada, dominated the Plains at 28,000 to 22,000 years ago, during the late stages of Wisconsinian Glaciation (Wells 1970; Wells and Stewart 1987). From 22,000 to 12,000 years before present, dense taiga-like forests of Pine (Pinus spp.) and Spruce (Picea spp.) prevailed throughout much of the still cold southern and eastern Great Plains (Olfield and Schoenwetter 1975:167). At the end of the Pleistocene and into the beginning of the Holocene, from around 15,000 to 12,500 years ago, the climate warmed and became more arid. The boreal forests were gradually replaced by a mosaic of intermixed coniferous and deciduous woodlands (Webb, Cushing and Wright 1983). Between 12,500 and 9,000 years ago, these forests became patchy and interspersed with constantly increasing areas of dense grassland vegetation. By 9,000 years ago, the Great Plains was predominately grassland, although, like today, tracts of forest grew on steep slopes along the valley margins and in narrow belts along the meandering waterways (Baker and VanZant 1980; Semken 1980; VanZant 1979).

From approximately 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, the North American Great Plains became severely dry and hot. Known as the Altithermal Climatic Episode (Antevs 1937, 1955), this period is now known, not as one long drought, but rather, multiple periods of extended, many centuries-long droughts that were separated by episodes of increased effective moisture that most probably fell as late-winter and early-spring precipitation (Benedict 1979).

In the past 5,000 years, frequent climatic oscillations have occurred across the Plains, altering floral and faunal niches, as well as impacting the lives of the humans who depended on those resources. Between approximately AD 1100 and 1200, the "Neo-Atlantic" event led to a northward influx of tropical air, increasing the summer rainfall amounts and bringing about a westward spread of woodlands.

By AD 1200, continuing oscillations brought about a catastrophic degeneration of Plains climatic conditions. This "Pacific" climatic event brought strengthened westerly winds and drier, cooler air onto the central and northern Plains. Steppe conditions again spread eastward, as the climate deteriorated and the prairie ecosystem retreated, leading to drastic declines in vegetation and faunal resources on the Plains.

Around AD 1500, the Plains again recovered to what we would recognize as a "normal" climate, although, smaller regional or localized fluctuations in the climate cycles continue. Today, the central Great Plains has a temperate, mid-continental climate typical of that found in the interior of a large continent. Temperatures can be extreme with hot summers, and cold winters. Both temperature and precipitation may vary greatly from year to year and even day to day. The weather is often subject to extreme, violent, and seemingly unpredictable fluctuations. These rapid changes in temperature and precipitation are caused by warm, moist air masses from the south and southwest interacting with dry, cold air moving out of the north and northwest. The majority of moisture that falls in the region in both summer and winter, is brought by southerly winds from the warm air-masses that pick-up humidity over the Gulf of Mexico (Muller and Oberlander 1984).

Natural Vegetation at Euroamerican Arrival:

For most of the time between approximately 9,000 years ago and the late AD 1800's, when the natural landcover of the Plains was broken for agriculture, nearly all of this region supported medium-to-tall grassland vegetation (Baker and VanZant 1980; Semken 1980; VanZant 1979). At the time of European arrival into the Plains, the predominant native grasses on the terraces and uplands would have included little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), needle grasses (Stipa spp.), gramma grass (Bouteloua gracilis), june grass (Koeleria pyramidata), prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis), sideoats gramma (Bouteloua curtipendula), and buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides). Major bottomland grasses included big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), reed-grasses (Calamagrostis spp.), common wild rye (Secale cereale), tall panic-grass (Panicum virgatum), and prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata). Interspersed among the sea of grasses was a rich variety of wildflowers, woody plants, and occasionally, shrubs and woody-thickets (Nebraska Statewide Arboretum 1982; Stubbendieck et al. 1986; U.S. Department of Agriculture 1971).

Throughout prehistory and into the early historic period, the grasslands have been subject to frequent prairie-fires. Plants and animals evolving in this environment have developed adaptations that enabled them to survive and even thrive under these conditions. Today, modern agriculture, introduced lawn grasses, concrete, and modern development covers much of Lancaster County. Only small, scattered remnants of undisturbed native grasslands are still present in the region, a few small tracts of which are within the SEB Study Area.

Although the "Great American Desert" was known for its wide expanses of treeless grasslands, areas of forest did exist throughout recent prehistoric times along waterways of the region. Due to the increased soil moisture content along streams, seedlings were able to weather most periodic droughts that occur in the region. In these more moist locations, trees were able to become established and grow large enough to withstand all but the most severe grassfires which frequented the Plains (Brown 1989; Fenneman 1931).

In 1856, when John W. Prey first arrived in the Salt Valley, he described groves of magnificent elms (Ulmus americana), huge cottonwoods (Populus sp.), and honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos). "Timber hugged the banks of the stream as far as they could see" (in Copple 1959:5). Others told about green ash (Fraxinus lanceolata), black walnut (Juglans nigra), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), red mulberry (Morus rubra), white oak (Quercus alba), boxelder (Acer negundo), and American basswood (Tilia americana) groves in these streamside woodlands (Hayes and Cox 1889; Sawyer 1916; Pound and Clements 1900). A few ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), common dwarf juniper (Juniperus communis), red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), basswood (Tilia americana), American hazelnut (Corylus americana), and hickories (Carya sp.) could be found on some upland slopes at valley margins (Nebraska Statewide Arboretum 1982; Pound and Clements 1900; Sawyer 1916). The floors of these forests were thicketed with various woody and vining plants, including fruit bearing wild plum (Prunus americana), wild gooseberry (Ribes americanum), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), wild raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), and frost grape (Vitis riparia) (Nebraska Statewide Arboretum 1982).

Salt Creek and its larger tributaries have tended to meander, thereby creating a broad floodplain dotted with oxbow lakes and alluvial point-bars. Both black willow (Salix nigra) and sandbar willow (Salix exigua) quickly colonized the edges of the creeks. These trees retain the soils with fibrous, matted root systems. Oxbow-cutoff lakes eventually filled with sediments to become marshy wetlands, representing a transition between flowing water and, eventually, dry floodplain (Soil Conservation Service 1980).

Natural Faunal Resources at Euroamerican Settlement:

The deep, fertile soils of greater Salt Creek Valley, with its woodlands, wetlands, and grasslands, have created a diverse ecological system which provided abundant food, nesting, and habitat resources for a wide variety of native animal species (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

The most important animal resource on the Plains was, of course, the immense free-ranging herds of bison (Bison sp.). Other large game faunal resources, including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), elk ("Wapati")(Cervus elaphus), and pronghorn (Antilcapra americanus) were also present (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

An infinite number of bird species were common in this region of the Plains, including a large inventory of resident and migratory waterfowl, songbirds, and predatory or scavenging bird species. In addition to providing nesting grounds for waterfowl, area wetlands served as stopover places for many species of migratory fowl. Upland game bird species common to the region included bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), and wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

Numerous reptiles and amphibians were found in the waters, wetlands, moist floodplains, including the major reptile species such as the snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx spiniferus). In the drier uplands of the region, were western box turtle (Terrapene ornata) of the grasslands appear to have been preyed upon by early residents of the region (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

At the time of Euroamerican settlement, fish species found in the waterways of Lancaster County included largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), flathead catfish (Pylodietis olivaris), crappie (Pomoxis sp.), walleye (Stizostedion vitreum), bullhead (Ictalurus sp.), and sunfish (Lepomis sp.) (Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

Environmental Resources Available in This Region:

The environment of eastern Nebraska, including the entirety of the SEB Study Area, is a product of a multitude of factors that combined to create a fertile, and usually rich and bountiful system for the plants and animals, and ultimately, for the human groups who preyed upon them. Exposures of the Pennsylvanian and Permian limestone bedrock frequently contain chert nodules, giving early Plains residents access to valuable lithic resources. Likewise, outcrops of glacial tills provided access to various other workable lithics, including quartzites, alibates, agates, and jaspers. Outcrops of Dakota Sandstone provided prehistoric peoples with a source for abrader and grinding materials. The geology of the region also provided a foundation for parental materials of the fertile soils. The weathering and degrading of the limestone formations, combined with loess deposits and organic materials, to create the fertile, mineral-rich soils of the region that, eventually, led to the luxuriant grasslands.

These grasslands, in turn, provided food and habitat for a myriad of animal resources, upon which resident cultures, both prehistoric and historic, have preyed. Throughout the last 10,000 years, the most important animal resource for the Native residents of the Plains was the herds of bison (Bison sp.). Zooarcheological research has also shown that other large game faunal resources, including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), elk ("Wapati")(Cervus elaphus), and pronghorn (Antilcapra americanus) played an important part in the diets of eastern Plains people. During certain periods of prehistory, other smaller mammals abundant in the region were also preyed upon (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

During some prehistoric periods, Plains residents also preyed on aquatic resources. Following settlement of the basin many early Euroamericans depended heavily on fish as a food source (Hayes and Cox 1889; Sawyer 1916; Wedel 1986), as well as wetland reptiles such as the snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), and soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx spiniferus). The wetlands of the Salt Creek, Stevens Creek, and surrounding drainage basins were also an important source of waterfowl production, which in turn, was an important food source for prehistoric and early historic residents of this vicinity.

The wooded acres along waterways provided prehistoric people with building materials for the earthlodge frames, and fuel for their fires. The floors of these forests were often thicketed with various fruit bearing trees and shrubs. These fruiting plants provided valuable resources throughout prehistoric times and into the historic settlement period (Hayes and Cox 1889; Sawyer 1916; Wernert 1986). Following the settlement of Lancaster County, these streamside woodlands were quickly cut for log cabins, or sawed into lumber for building construction materials. It was also burned as fuel for steam-mills, brick-kilns, and in the fires of the short-lived salt production companies west of Lincoln. By the late 1860's, the vast majority of streamside forest was gone and many early settlers arrived to find a treeless plain (Hayes and Cox 1889; McKee 1984; Sawyer 1916). In the 1870's, with encouragement of men like J. Sterling Morton, people began planting both native and non-native species (Copple 1959). These trees provided protection as windbreaks and shade trees, supplied wood fuel, and were aesthetically pleasing. Within a few years, portions of Lancaster County were again forested, with the amount of woodland acreage actually exceeding that present in prehistoric times (Nebraska Statewide Arboretum 1982; Sawyer 1916; U.S. Department of Agriculture 1977).

Environmental Summary:

The "Great Plains" generally brings to mind the vast, relatively flat, semiarid grasslands that sprawl from the Mississippi valley on the east to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the west. The northern Plains are bounded by the coniferous forests of the Saskatchewan River basin in Canada, and the southern edge by the Rio-Grandé River in Texas (Wedel 1961). Although often thought of as a relatively homogeneous environment, this expanse of the central North American continent, with its many unique physiographic and climatological features, forms many ecological zones, which have, through time, supported a variety of plant and animal resources.

Many of the early European and Euroamerican explorers who traveled into or across the Great Plains were unfavorably impressed with the environment. In 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, who established the route from St. Louis to Santa Fe, predicted that America's western lands would "...become in time equally celebrated as the sandy desarts (sic) of Africa" (Pike in Olson 1966:8), and they should be "...left to the wandering and uncivilized aborigines" (Pike in Wedel 1961:278). Lewis Henry Morgan, an early anthropologist, even stated that the Plains were "...a barren wasteland not congenial to the Indian, and ...only made tolerable to him by possession of the horse and the rifle" (Morgan in Wedel 1961:279). Alfred Kroeber, who revolutionized American thinking about Native Americans, believed that the prehistoric Plains were "...only sparsely or intermittently inhabited" (Kroeber in Wedel 1961:299).

The idea that the central Plains, including eastern Nebraska, were relatively unoccupied prior to the arrival of the horse and rifle continued long into the twentieth century. In 1935, William Duncan Strong recognized the error of this belief and published An Introduction to Nebraska Archeology in which he states that:

"Despite the fact that geological, geographical, and faunistic considerations all suggest the Great Plains as a highly probable home for early man in North America, ...an idea seems to have been prevalent that the region had no archeology worthy of the name" (Strong 1935:5, emphasis ours).

In the years since Pike, Long, and Kroeber, we have come to recognize that, not only are the Great Plains habitable, but they have been inhabited continuously for the past 12,000 years and possibly longer (Table 3).

Since the 19^th century settlements of the region by Euroamericans, the virgin prairies have been plowed or paved, prairie fires controlled, waterways channelized, wetlands filled, and dams built. In addition, exotic, sometimes ecologically aggressive plant and animal species have been introduced, intentionally and accidentally, into the environment. Such habitat alterations have caused populations of some indigenous plant and animal species to decrease. By the 1850's when this region was being settled by Euroamericans, the majestic elk, and the vast bison herds were gone from eastern Nebraska, having succumbed to over-hunting by both Indian and White fur-traders, to a dozen years of meat and sport hunting by pioneers crossing the Plains. (Norton et al. 1984). Waterfowl production was greatly reduced following stream channelization and oxbow filling that destroyed wetlands. Upland bird populations decreased as natural habitat grasslands fell under the plow. Most native species, though, have adapted and, in spite of the many environmental changes that have taken place throughout the Salt Creek watershed, it remains, even today, quite well suited for all but a few native wildlife species (Brown 1989; Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 1972; Wernert 1986).

3. General Overview of great Plains Culture-History

The date of human arrival into the central Great Plains is open to debate. Conservatively, empirical evidence has shown that human groups existed throughout the New World, including the Plains, by at least 12,000 years ago. Although some archeological evidence exists to suggest that the first "Americans" arrived long before the 12,000 years ago date, and many archeologist now agree that humans have been in the New World at least 20,000 years (Frison 1991; Haag 1962; Humphrey and Stanford 1979; Willey and Sabloff 1980). In the central Plains, several sites deeply buried in the Peorian Loess of the Republican River drainage of southern Nebraska suggest pre-17,000 BP occupations in this region of the Great Plains (Holen 1995).

Paleoindian Period (12,000+ to 8,000 years ago):

The earliest universally accepted New World cultural tradition is that of the "Clovis" people who lived approximately 12,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene "Ice Age," during what is known as the "New World Paleolithic" (Braidwood 1964; Harris 1993), or "Paleoindian" period. Cultural remains of Clovis people have been found across the eastern two-thirds of North America. Armed only with stone tipped spears, Clovis people were hunters of gigantic mammoths (Mammuthus spp.) and other Pleistocene megafauna. They are thought to have lived in small groups of highly nomadic hunters, moving their families and camps to the vicinity of large kills; following the herds. We have no evidence of structural remains, no food storage patterns, and no hearths to indicate sustained, continuous site use; although there is evidence that Clovis peoples returned at irregular intervals for short-term reoccupation of certain campsites near rich resource bases (Gunnerson 1984, 1987; Stanford 1979).

Following the age of the Clovis complex mammoth hunters were numerous other Big Game hunting groups armed with a variety of finely worked points. The different point styles of Folsom, Hell Gap, Scottsbluff and other Late Paleoindian complexes, undoubtedly represent related, but separate regional traditions. Like earlier Clovis people, they are thought to have been highly nomadic groups; following and relying heavily on herds of extinct forms of Bison (Bison antiquus and B. occidentalis), although other Pleistocene animals were also preyed upon. Faunal remains from archeological sites in the Plains include the extinct American Horse (Equus sp.), Western Camel (Camelops hesternus), Woodland Musk Ox (Symos cavifrons), giant beaver (Castoroides ohioensis), and giant sloth (Northrotheriops shastensis) (Agenbroad 1973, 1974; Roberts 1935, 1939).

Archaic Period (8,000 to 2,000 years ago):

By around 8,000 years ago, the age of the "Big-game hunter" traditions had passed. Major climatic shifts taking place across the entire central North American continent during the period between 8,000 and 5,000 years ago resulted in a severe warming and drying of the Great Plains to their Holocene maximum. Known as the "Altithermal Climatic Episode," these climate changes greatly altered the range and quantity of both plant and animal species (Antevs 1955). In turn, humans present on the Plains and dependent on those resources were affected during the Early Archaic Period (Gunnerson 1987).

At one time, researchers thought the Plains became completely devoid of human occupation during that portion of the Archaic Period (Mulloy 1958). It has now been recognized, however, that while Plains populations were reduced and lifestyles altered, occupation of the Plains continued throughout the Altithermal Episode (Fagan 1991; Frison 1978; Frison and Wilson 1975). Evidence suggests that populations in the western Great Plains were reduced as people sought refuge in the more moist foothills and High Plains plateaus of the Rocky Mountains. Excursions were made onto the Plains in search of animal resources (Benedict 1991: Benedict and Olson 1978 Frison 1991; Frison and Walker 1984; Greiser et al. 1983; Swanson et al. 1964). Populations in the eastern Plains were also reduced as the carrying capacity of the environment declined. Remaining populations may have become seasonally sedentary as they concentrated around permanent, reliable water sources during the worst of the Altithermal Episodes (Anderson and Semken 1980; Baker and VanZant 1980; Frison 1978; Frison and Wilson 1975). Investigations at the Logan Creek site, 25BT3, in Burt County, Nebraska, have revealed that the southern portion of the Logan Creek valley in eastern Nebraska was one location capable of supplying the necessary resources for long-term, or at least repeated occupations of that site (Carlson 1992; Kivett 1962; Mandel 1992b).

The changes in resource availability forced a shift in subsistence technologies by the people living in this region and a new form of "broad spectrum" (Flannery 1965) subsistence appeared as group's broadened their diet-breadth. As primary resources are restricted, hunters are eventually forced to include smaller prey and exploit a wider variety of animal species. Groups "...make use of increasing numbers of small food packages to compensate for the more specialized (but no longer viable) strategies" (Binford 1983:212). For the first time on the Great Plains, gathered plant foods became a significant supplement to hunted food resources. Many Plains sites that date to the early Archaic Period reflect this broad spectrum subsistence adaptation and include remains from a much wider range of hunted food resources (Frison 1991; Greiser et al. 1983; Swanson et al. 1964; Thompson and Bettis 1980; Wedel 1940, 1961). Eastern Plains sites often reflect some broadening of subsistence strategies, although at certain sites bison continued to dominate as the primary hunted resource (Anderson and Semken 1980; Baker and VanZant 1980; Carlson 1992; Hoyer 1980).

As the effect of the Altithermal Episode lessened and the environment returned to a cooler and moister climate around 5,000 BP, larger populations again returned to the Plains. As Great Plains culture complexes grew and developed, they began to reflect distinct, regional, and localized subsistence strategies. Western Plains cultures returned to a form of nomadic big-game hunter-gather subsistence; largely dependent upon the modern bison species (Bison bison) (Gunnerson 1987). Although eastern and central Plains diets were heavily dependent on the bison, these cultures remained broad spectrum foraging economies subsisting on a highly diversified diet, with a partial dependence on smaller hunted game such as deer and rabbits. Collected plant foods, some of which were dried and ground into flour with milling stones, remained an important part of the economy, and fishing also became an integral part of many subsistence strategies (Wedel 1986).

Woodland Period (2,000 to 1,000 years ago):

While artifact assemblages dated to the very early Woodland Period resemble assemblages from the Late Archaic, it was a time when rapid cultural and technological change was beginning to take place, and Plains lifestyles were soon to be much different from those of past Plains dwellers (Gunnerson 1984). Through cultural diffusion and long distance trade, evidence of which first appears on the Plains at this time, Woodland cultures were heavily influenced by cultural developments occurring east of the Great Plains in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys among the Adena and Hopewell cultures (Wedel 1986:81). The cultures of the Plains Woodland Period are largely a result of the well-documented inter-regional exchange of ideas, technologies, artifacts, raw materials, and exotic items with cultures outside of the Plains area (Benn 1980, 1990; Frison 1991; Hoffman and Brooks 1989).

A major development to appear on the Plains at this time is permanent-structure housing. These houses were often loosely grouped in small, diffuse settlements near easily tillable land and permanent water sources. The homes of Woodland people were circular, shallow pits with roofs supported by central wooden posts. A framework of wood poles covered the central support posts, and smaller branches were laid across this framework (Haas 1983; Hill and Kivett 1941; Wedel 1986).

Pottery also first appears on the Plains at this time. Woodland pottery is relatively simple and thick-walled, but sturdy and comparatively well made. Pottery styles resemble those found in sites east of the Plains (Gunnerson 1984). Woodland pottery is conical or globular with no flattened bottom for standing the vessel up, requiring the vessel to be either hung from a cord holder, or placed in a depression dug into the ground. These early Plains

vessels were often cord impressed using a cord wrapped paddle. This "decoration" may be a result of compressing the surface of the vessel for strengthening, rather than for aesthetic reasons.

The presence of these new adaptations indicates at least semi-sedentary lifestyles which, in turn, suggests some type of horticulture (Gunnerson 1984, 1987; Wedel 1986). The early Woodland Period was characterized by incipient horticulture subsidizing a largely hunting and gathering subsistence. As time passed, horticulture products became a larger part of the diet in the eastern Plains complexes. Evidence of "corn" (a chaplet derivative of Zea mays) has been found in late Woodland sites, although at that time it was still being experimented with and did not become a major staple until much later (Wedel 1986).

Certain groups appear to have been located in more optimal areas for floodplain horticulture, resulting locally identifiable, specialized technological complexes, and leading to more complex social organizations evident in the Plains Village Period (Alex 1981; Anfinson 1982).

Plains Village Period (1000 years ago to ca. AD 1600):

The Plains Village Period was a result of a flourishing of technological, and cultural developments that began in the Woodland Period, creating a relatively affluent and bountiful time on the central and eastern Plains. The introduction, acceptance, and success of horticulture resulted relative resource abundance, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle, which in turn led to populations increasing dramatically during the early Plains Village Period. Population densities between approximately 900 and 700 years ago were the greatest of anytime during prehistory (Gunnerson 1984, 1987; Strong 1935).

Evidence has been interpreted to suggest that the advanced technologies, ceramic forms, and cultural complexities that define the Plains Village Period developed out of the preceding Woodland Traditions (Wedel 1961, 1981). More recent interpretations (Eighmy 1994; Emerson 1991; Gibbon 1994; O'Brien 1994; Winham and Lueck 1994; Vehik, S. 1994), however, have suggested that many aspects of this later period was introduced through migrations and diffusion out of the Mississippian cultural complexes far to the east.

Within the central Great Plains, a large number of roughly contemporaneous, but distinct, localized, or regional variants developed and have been identified. Collectively, however, all are recognized as sharing an abundance of cultural material traits. In common, they share a settlement pattern and subsistence technology that is based on simple horticulture (Krause 1969; Gunnerson 1984; Lehmer 1954; Wedel 1959). Similarities between Plains Village cultures located within the very central Plains region and their distinction from groups outside of this region has led to a "Central Plains Tradition" grouping of cultures (Blakeslee 1978; Blakeslee and Caldwell 1979; Gunnerson 1984). People of the Central Plains Tradition built large rectangular, multi-family earthlodges from 6 to 14 meters (20 to 45 ft) across. Like earlier housing, they were built over shallow depressions with roofs supported on central posts. The lodges were covered with earth and sodded over, making them cool in summer, and warm in winter. Houses were located either singularly, or in small clusters, on ridges and terraces near reliable waterways and easily tilled bottomlands (Wedel 1959).

An ecologically determined, seasonal pattern of subsistence strategies has been identified and well documented throughout the Tallgrass Prairie portions of the eastern Great Plains such as present-day eastern Nebraska. Semi-sedentary, horticulturalists occupied earthlodge villages near small bottomland gardens part of the year while producing the triumvirate, corn (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita spp.) domesticated crop that they supplemented with a wide variety of wild plants resources. Food was plentiful, and was dried and stored in subterranean pits dug into the floors of the earthlodges. The remainder of the year was spent following more mobile subsistence strategies. Extended hunting and gathering trips westward, away from the villages, were likely coordinated with seasonal movement of large bison herds and supplied much of their annual meat resources (Wedel 1986).

An abundance of other new ideas and technologies appear in the archeological record of the Plains of this period. The bow and arrow, introduced during late Woodland, quickly replaced the spear and/or atlatl dart as the hunter's weapon of choice. A broader range of artifacts made from stone, bone, horn and shell are found at sites dating to this period. The appearances of bone fishhooks indicate that fishing became a major contributor to Plains Village Period diets. Perhaps the most distinguishing artifact, to make an appearance, and indeed the hallmark of this period, is the bison scapula hoe used in the horticulture of bottomlands, and in digging storage pits and earthlodge floors.

The more arid western Shortgrass Plains were, for the most part, not suitable for horticultural based subsistence strategies, but did provide ample grazing for immense herds of bison. As a result, pedestrian nomadic hunting and gathering culture complexes, contemporaneous with the horticulturalist eastern Plains cultures, developed and occupied the drier western Great Plains. This dual pattern of Plains subsistence technologies became more intense toward the end of the Plains Village Period, continuing in altered forms through the Protohistoric and into the Historic Periods.

The climatic deterioration of the Pacific climatic event (ca. AD 1200) brought about catastrophic environmental degeneration and drastic declines in vegetation and faunal resources on the Plains. These resulted in humans virtually abandoning the Plains core, and crowding within stable resource areas. As the climate and environment recovered, new ethnic arrivals, nomadic Athapaskans from the north filled this void, adding to the crowding conditions.

The diffuse village patterns common during the early Village Period were abandoned in favor of larger, more consolidated settlements that were easier to defend. Villages were often fortified with ditches, earthenworks, or stockades, reflecting overcrowding, encroachment by hostile groups, and intense, violent competition between these Late Plains Village Period groups. The concentration of populations into fewer, but larger and more densely occupied villages may have created greater economic and social stability for the people; which resulted in the fluorescence of their cultures as seen in the archeological record. The elaborate cultures of the Plains Village farmers were at their heights when the first European explorers, missionaries, and fur traders made their way up the river channels and into the Plains.

The newly arrived Athapaskan speakers introduced circular, temporary, skin covered housing, now known as the "tipi," (Gunnerson 1984) was adopted by other nomadic groups, providing transportable, but weather-tight housing.

Protohistoric Period (roughly AD 1600 to early 1800's on the central Great Plains):

The Protohistoric period of the Plains is typically characterized by that brief period when there was an infusion of White tradegoods into Native American cultures without intensive White presence.

Recognizing that possession of horses would strengthen the military abilities of Native Americans, official Spanish policy outlawed trade of horses to Indians. To further prevent Indians from coming into possession of horse herds, the Spanish military directed expeditions to use geldings which, if stolen, or lost, could not be bred. This policy was clearly violated though. During Coronado's exploration through the Southwest in 1540, enslaved Pueblo Indians cared for horses owned by the Spaniards (Haines 1938). Some Pueblo escaped, apparently taking with them fertile Spanish horses that they bred and, within a few years, began trading to other Indian groups. While there is considerable controversy over the exact means by which Indians came to own herds of horses, one thing is eminently clear; horses became a large part of Native American Plains cultures shortly after Coronado's explorations (Ewers 1968).

During the next century, Algonkian and Siouan tribes, who were formerly residing east of the Plains in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, or northeast, in the Red River Valley

east to the Great Lakes area, were being pushed south and west by better armed tribes to the north and east who had acquired guns from French and New England traders and settlers (Ewers 1968). Eventually the gun came into the possession of tribes moving onto the Plains. This unique set of circumstances caused the convergence on the Plains of the horse, from the Southwest, and the gun, from the Northeast. The combination forever changed the pattern of existence among the Native Plains people.

The combination of the horse and gun had a tremendous impact on Native Plains cultures. These increased geographic ranges encroached upon, and threatened the traditional hunting and territorial boundaries of other, often distant tribes, intensifying the level of hostility between Native groups that, previously, had only rare contact (Ewers 1968). In addition, with the horse, a hunter could travel much farther and kill far more animals than he could on foot. Coinciding with the fur trade, the equestrian bison hunters initiated the wholesale slaughter of the seemingly endless bison herds in exchange for tradegoods supplied by the growing Euroamerican populations to the east.

Although the horse and gun were the most important and culturally influential of the White tradegoods, other items also came to be in high demand. Utilitarian goods such as axes, steel knives, firesteels, pots, pans, and other household utensils were highly desired by Plains people, as were cloth, buttons, beads and other items of adornment. Trade routes that had been established early in prehistory, served to rapidly transport Euroamerican goods throughout the Plains. During the early 1700's, French fur traders began to penetrate the northeastern Plains to visit upper Missouri Plains tribes in an attempt to set up trade centers. In 1738, Pierre LaVerendrye, a French trader who was one of the first Europeans to enter the region, visited a large, fortified earthlodge village belonging to the Mandan on the northern Missouri River. Along with the aboriginal trade of cultivated and hunted resources, he noted that the northern Plains tribes already owned and traded a wealth of both guns and horses (Ewers 1968). In exchange for these tradegoods, Native Plains people entered into the fur

trade wholeheartedly. With this new "wealth" brought about by fur trade, began the demise of the great bison herds upon which the Plains Indians were dependent and, subsequently, the demise of Native cultures.

Native Americans During the Historic Period (ca. 1800 to present on Plains):

Throughout many years of Spanish and French trading and exploration on the Plains, they made little direct impression upon the land and their influence on the Native Plains peoples was mostly limited to that of the itinerant trader who provided the goods by which Plains society was altered. (Olson 1966). Toward the middle of the 18^th century, however, large scale fur traders began to operate along the Missouri and its tributaries, and the impact became more profound. Juan Munier was given exclusive trading license with the Ponca at the mouth of the Niobrara River. Jacques Mackay established a trading post with the Oto and Pawnee at the mouth of the Platte (Wesley 1949), and Fort Charles, a trade fort, near the big Omaha village of Ton wa Tonga in present day Dakota County, Nebraska (O'Shea and Ludwickson 1992).

With the United States' 1804 purchase of the Louisiana territory from France, the history and face of the land and peoples of the Plains was nearing abrupt change. The scale of trade on the Plains grew even larger under United States Government control. Manual Lisa and his St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, moved up the Missouri and into the Yellowstone area, flooding the region with White tradegoods in exchange for furs collected by the Plains Indians. Trade briefly subsided during the War of 1812. At the end of the war, the United States War Department established numerous forts along the Missouri to protect fur traders, counteract remaining British influence among the native peoples, and to enforce treaties recently signed with various Plains Indian tribes (Ewer 1968).

Reports from early European explorers who traveled onto the Great Plains had always spoken of vast and uninhabitable expanses of land between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. In 1820, when Major Stephen Long of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers returned from his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, he wrote:

"I do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course, uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for their subsistence. This extensive section of country (is) an unfit residence for any but a nomad population" (Long from Olson 1966:3).

Such reports had originally steeled in the minds of the growing Euroamerican population in the east that the American Great Plains were, in fact, "The Great American Desert." As such, the Plains seemed to be the answer to the problem of the Indian population. It soon became popular opinion, and briefly official government policy, that, since civilized people could not live there, the Plains would become a permanent Indian frontier; the homeland of the American "savage" (Norton et al. 1984).

The establishment of forts and a military occupation of the Plains, however, provided opportunity to experiment with agriculture. Rather than failing miserably as predicted, crops at Fort Atkinson, north of present day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, flourished. Crop production increased annually and milk cows and beef cattle herds grew. This angered some who, like Military Inspector George Croghan, argued that the army was "...destroying military spirit and making officers the base overseers of a troop of awkward ploughmen" (quoted in Wesley 1949:30). From a military standpoint, the agricultural experiments may not have been productive, but they did prove that the Plains, previously thought of as the "Great American Desert," could indeed be fruitful. The forts and trading posts were expanding and becoming small oases for Euroamericans, providing centers of "civilization" with gardens, tailors, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, and all the needs for a steadily growing population of Euroamericans. This attracted the attention of the Euroamerican populations in the east, whose changing perceptions of the Plains began to threaten the idea of an Indian "homeland."

The 1834 Indian Intercourse Act had intended to prohibit additional non-Native people from trespassing on Indian lands without a government license, and was aimed at saving the Plains for the Natives. Consequently, settlers could not legally take up residence on the Plains. Continued interest in lands to settle began to focus on Oregon. An "Oregon Emigration Society" was organized in Massachusetts, in 1838, and others soon developed elsewhere. Newspapers and pamphlets urged the United States to assert its "manifest destiny" rights to Oregon. By the 1840's, the Plains Indian territory was no longer west of the United States, but right in the middle, presenting a barrier to "progress" (Olson 1966). Table 2 presents an overview of the cultural sequence of Plains cultural periods, showing the main features that typify each period.

Post-Contact Native American Tribes in Eastern Nebraska:

At the time of European arrival onto the Plains, the predominant Indian cultures occupying the region that became eastern Nebraska were the Pawnee, Oto, Omaha, and Ponca. Other groups frequented this area on hunting forays, inter-tribal raids, or passing through in search of raw material resources. The salt basin west of present-day Lincoln, which lured the first Europeans to the region, had, likewise, attracted Indian groups. Throughout early historic times, most likely for centuries, Native groups traveled long distances to gather the valuable salt at the basin. In addition, since at least Archaic times (ca. 8,000 BP), prehistoric groups have frequented the "Nehawka quarries" in Cass County. At that location, Pennsylvanian limestone outcrops along several miles of ridge. Contained in the limestone is a very high quality chert that was much sought after by Plains residents as an item of significant value, for either manufacture of tools, or as a trade item. The following is a brief summary of the Native American tribes that dominated the history of the region that became eastern Nebraska.

Early accounts by Spanish and French explorers and missionaries in the 1600-1700's documented the lifeways of the Plains Village people at the height of their cultural apex. Their earthlodge villages were generally located along waterways where the women cultivated the easily tillable slopes of the stream terraces with digging sticks, bison scapula hoes, and antler rakes. They planted corn (Zea mays), beans (Amphicarpa sp.), squash and pumpkins (Cucurbita spp.), and sunflowers (Helianthus annuus). They also gathered wild plant resources, including prairie turnips (Psoralea esculenta), groundnuts (Apios americana), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), morning glory (Ipomoea spp.), wild plums (Prunus americana) choke cherries (Prunus virginiana), as well as cattail (Typha spp.), bulrush (Scirpus spp.), and Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) tubers. The men hunted wild game, and prepared for biannual long-range bison hunts, during which they lived the nomadic phase of their annual life. The summer hunt occurred in June through August, after the second hoeing of their gardens, but prior to harvest. The winter hunt followed the harvest, and the drying and storing of crops.

Pawnee:

The Native American concept of land "ownership" differed greatly from that of Euroamericans, however, prior to the onslaught of European diseases and encroachment of other Native cultures, the powerful Pawnee "owned" or certainly claimed and defended the majority of the region that became eastern Nebraska. The territory claimed by the Pawnee centered around the "core" area, in central and eastern Nebraska and northern Kansas where their permanent earthlodge villages, croplands, and their most-sacred sites were located. Their territory then extended outwards, encompassing the range of hunting grounds, the peripheries of which overlapped territories of surrounding tribes (Wishart 1984:11).

Prior to the 1830's, the Pawnee nation was the most powerful Native group on the central Plains. The population of the four bands of the Pawnee nation may have numbered as high as 25,000 (Wishart 1984:10), though other estimates are lower (Mooney in Parks et.al 1980:289). Pawnee warriors from southeastern Nebraska raided as far south as the Santa Fe Trail and Mexican settlements on the upper Rio Grande River. However, the decline of the Pawnee tribe was rapid and 1831 was a turning point for the Pawnee people, when one-half of the tribe died from smallpox. John Dougherty, the Pawnee agent who lived among them that summer, stated that "…not one under 33 years of age escaped this monstrous disease…" (quoted in Wishart 1984:13). Epidemics of smallpox returned in 1837 and 1838. By 1839, their population had been reduced to fewer than 6,500.

Weakened by disease, the Pawnee were further harassed by raiding from traditional enemies. The powerful nomadic Sioux prevented the Pawnee from traveling west or north to hunt much needed bison. Euroamerican emigrants traveling westward along and south of the Platte River were rapidly depleting the reserves of timber, grass, and game. In 1843, the westward migration of Whites to Oregon increased, and to survive, the impoverished Pawnee were left to beg and pilfer along the trails. In 1849, cholera spread among the remaining Pawnee leaving less than 1,600 people. Sick, destitute and starving, the Pawnee began a sequence of ceding pieces of their traditional territory to the U.S. Government in exchange for assistance and protection from their enemies.

Originally placed on a reservation at the abandoned Mormon village of Genoa, Nebraska, the Pawnee were still under constant pressure from Sioux raids. In August of 1873, a Pawnee hunting party of 250 men, 100 women, and 50 children attempted to make a summer bison hunt in western Nebraska. While near present-day Trenton, they were attacked by roughly 100 Sioux warriors, the Pawnee men rushed their women, children, and horses loaded with hides and meat into a canyon, then set-up a defensive line, hoping to repel the attackers. The Pawnee put up a good fight for an hour or more, until their defense was overrun by a second attack of more than 800 mounted Sioux warriors. In a desperate attempt to escape, the men cut the packs of meat, hides, and supplies from the horses, loaded up the women and children, and began a frantic, bloody retreat south towards the Republican River. The heavily armed Sioux continued to rain bullets and arrows down from the canyon rim, breaking off the attack only after the arrival of a cavalry troop. After the fighting, the ravine (from that time on known as "Massacre Canyon") and the plain leading to the Republican River, was littered with the dead and mutilated bodies of more than 100 Pawnee, at least half of them women or children.

In 1874, the once mighty Pawnee Nation, crowded by encroaching tribes, their numbers depleted by disease, famine, and warfare, finally resigned themselves to abandoning their centuries old homelands, and ceded their final claims to all land in Nebraska. Shortly after, they were removed to the Indian Territories in Oklahoma.

Omaha:

Between AD 1500 and 1600, there began an encroachment of Siouan speaking people into the area that became Nebraska, including the ancestors of the Dhegiha dialect of Siouan speaking Omaha and Ponca. Prior to the Omaha migration to Nebraska, their prehistory is somewhat vague. Tribal legend places the Omaha homeland in the Ohio River valley, although there is a paucity of archeological evidence to support this. It has been suggested, again with little direct empirical support, that from approximately AD 800 to 1400, the Dhegiha groups had been woodland farmers of the "Middle Mississippian" cultural sphere that developed in the vicinity of present-day eastern Missouri (O'Shea and Ludwickson 1992). Prior to their migration to what became Nebraska, and probably until the later 1600's, the Omaha and Ponca appear to have been one people. At some point, intratribal rivalry divided the tribe and the Ponca separated from the Omaha.

The earliest well-documented location of the Omaha is from 1670 when the French expedition headed by Marquette and Joliet placed the "Maha" in horticultural villages along the Missouri River. In 1700, Pierre Charles le Sueur reported them to be living on the Big Sioux River at the "Blood Run Site" below present-day Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Sometime after 1714, the Omaha moved again, settling in a village on Bow Creek in Cedar County, Nebraska. Regardless of their original homeland, the Omaha were already knowledgeable horticulturalists, and once on the Plains, they readily adapted to the more arid environment, quickly developing a lifestyle as horticulturalist bison hunters, very similar to the well established Caddoan Plains dwellers (Welsch 1984).

From Bow Creek, the Omaha moved to a location near present-day Dakota City, Nebraska, but relocated several more times between 1750 and 1854, occupying a series of sites in eastern Nebraska, including the well documented "Big Village" Ton wa Tonga, near present-day Homer, Nebraska (O'Shea and Ludwickson 1992). The Omaha were constantly harassed by warfare with, first, the Algonkian speaking Sauk and Fox tribes from the south, and later by the nomadic Siouan Lakota from the north. In addition, the Omaha people suffered great losses to smallpox epidemics, one of which struck in 1800, killing more than 400 Omaha, including the great chief Black Bird. In 1700, Pierre Charles le Sueur reported the Omaha to have a population of roughly 4,000 people (Olson 1966). By 1854, through warfare, famine, and disease, their population had plummeted to just over 1,000 people (Parks et. al 1980).

Seeking military protection from their traditional enemies, and government subsidy assistance, the Omaha people ceded the majority of their traditional lands to the U.S. Government on March 16, 1854. A small tract of land was kept in what is now eastern Thurston County, Nebraska measuring 18 by 30 miles (47 by 78 Km) (Olson 1966). The Omaha Reservation along the Missouri River is hilly and was unsuited to traditional Omaha farming methods, but they did manage to raise crops along the stream bottoms and, with government assistance, were able to feed themselves.

Ponca:

The earliest documented location for the Ponca as a separate people, is from Pierre Charles le Sueur who places them along the Missouri River in 1701, where they, like their Omaha kin, lived semi-sedentary lifestyles of the hunter-horticulturalist. In 1789, approximately 800 Ponca (Parks et. al 1980:293) were residing at the "Ponca Fort Site," 25KX1 (Wood 1994), at the confluence of the Niobrara River with the Missouri when Juan Baptiste Munier established a government licensed trading post at that location. Shortly after Munier and other traders arrived, the Ponca suffered an outbreak of smallpox, loosing a great number of their tribe. When the Lewis and Clark expedition contacted the Ponca in 1804, they estimated a population of only 200. Their numbers recovered quickly, though, and by 1842, they again numbered nearly 800 (Olson 1966).

After 1850, the Ponca, like the Pawnee and Omaha, were under constant pressure from the nomadic Sioux tribes. In 1858, in an attempt to gain the protection of the U.S. Government, the Ponca relinquished all their traditional land except for a small reservation along the Niobrara River. Harassment from the Sioux continued, however, and then, to compound their problems, an error in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie gave the Ponca reservation land to the more powerful and numerous Sioux. To resolve the problem, the government ordered the Ponca to relinquish their Nebraska holdings, and move to the Indian Territories in Oklahoma.

The majority of Ponca did not want to leave their homes, but were forced to move by the U.S. Army. Upon arriving in Oklahoma, they began dying of malaria. The Ponca chief, Standing Bear, lost his son to the disease, and requested permission to return home to the Niobrara River to bury him. Originally denied permission, Standing Bear defied authority and traveled north with a small group of Ponca and the body of his son. They stopped at the Omaha Reservation to rest, but federal troops arrived with orders to return the "renegades" to Oklahoma. Newspapers spread the Ponca story and, surprisingly, public sentiment sided with the Standing Bear's group.

With the help of Senators Algernon Paddock of Nebraska and H.M. Teller of Colorado, as well as a group of Omaha, Nebraska attorneys, Standing Bear brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Government. It became a test case to determine if an Indian was a person within the eyes of the law, and entitled to Constitutionally guaranteed rights, or if the government can confine a free man to a reservation against his will.

During this trial, Standing Bear made a simple but persuasive argument for his case. Holding his hand up before the court, he proclaimed: "That hand is not the color of your hand, but if I pierce it I shall feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man!" (Standing Bear quoted in Blaine 1984:97).

In May 1879, Judge Elmer Dundy ruled in favor of Standing Bear, ordering that the Ponca should be released, and declaring that no authority existed to remove Indians from their lands without their consent. On March 3, 1881, Congress appropriated money to pay for Ponca losses, and returned the reservation lands near the Missouri River (Wooley 1984).

Oto:

The Oto are of the Chiwere dialect of the Siouan family of languages, closely related to the Missouria, and more distantly, the Iowa, and Winnebago. Until the early 1600's, the Chiwere appear to have made up a single nation occupying a region near the Great Lakes (Wooley 1984:36). At that time, the Oto, Missouria, and Iowa separated from the Winnebago and migrated westward. The Iowa settled in what became south central Iowa. The Oto and Missouria are thought to have followed the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri River. The Oto continued up the Missouri, forming a separate group, and eventually migrating as far as eastern Nebraska. In 1673, Marquette documented them west of the Missouri River between the 40^th and 41^st latitude (Whitman 1937). In 1714, Bourgmond placed the Oto at the "Ashland Site," 25CC1, at the mouth of Salt Creek near Ashland, Nebraska. By 1721, the Oto were living on the southern bank near the mouth of the Platte River where they were visited by the 1804 Louis and Clark expedition (Wooley 1984:36). Documents from Jacques Mackay, who established a trading post with the Oto and Pawnee at the mouth of the Platte (Wesley 1949), indicate that the majority of Oto lived in four villages, each consisting of 40 to 70 lodges, along the southern bank of the Platte, or western bank of the Missouri Rivers. Their lifestyles were similar to other semi-sedentary horticulturalists in the central Plains, relying heavily on domestic crop resources that were supplemented by two bison hunts each year.

Around 1730, Algonkian speaking Sauk and Fox people began repeated attacks on the Missouria, forcing a series of migrations farther westward, into what became central Missouri. In 1780, the populations of both the Oto and Missouria still exceeded 1,000 people (Parks et. al 1980:285). The attacks by the Sauk and Fox, and epidemics of smallpox, however, decimate the tribes. In 1798, a Sauk and Fox attack nearly wiped out the few remaining Missouria. The survivors divided and fled, joining other tribes for protection. Most Missouria sought refuge with their Oto kin and by 1819, the Missouria merged so completely, they were considered to again be one nation.

Their traditional enemies, the Sauk and Fox, continued harassment of the Oto and repeated outbreaks of disease continued to reduce their population. In addition, resources were being rapidly depleted as fur traders, both white and Indian, pushing the bison to the edge of extinction, and leaving few herds to be found on the biannual hunts. Like the Omaha and Pawnee, Oto hunting parties were also subjected to attack by the nomadic Lakota and Arapaho. In 1874, the Oto held their final summer hunt, but were no longer able to defend themselves against the nomads. In 1881, resigned to seeking assistance from the U.S. Government, they ceded their remaining claims to all land in Nebraska, and the roughly 350 surviving Oto were placed on a reservation in Oklahoma (Wolley 1984).

The Nomads:

Between AD 1450 and 1800, there were multiple influxes onto the Plains, of nomadic cultural groups. These nomad hunters resided on the short grass Prairies and western High Plains where horticulture was not feasible, their lives tied inextricably to the herds of bison. Although not residing in eastern Nebraska, their presence on the Plains greatly impacted the Native groups living here, and they helped shape the late prehistory and early history of eastern Nebraska.

Athapaskans:

The first influx occurred sometime around 1450 when groups of Athapaskan speakers began a series of migrations southward, to occupy the Plains areas that had been abandoned during the Pacific Climatic Episode. By 1525, they had spread as far south as the Rio Grande River. Ancestors of the Apache, Lipan, and Navaho, they had previously been pedestrian-nomad caribou hunters to the far north in Canada, and their technologies were efficient and well suited to the nomadic lifestyle. Bringing with them a large breed of dog used to carry packs, or to pull a travois, and living in sewn-skin tents, the "tipi," which provided weather-tight, yet easily movable shelter, they were pre-adapted to the life of full-time nomadic hunting, and simply shifted from caribou to bison hunting.

The Athapaskans were one of the first Plains Natives to come into possession of horses, giving them a clear military advantage over other, unmounted Plains groups. By 1650, the Apache were acting as slave traders, supplying Plains Indians to the Spanish for labor in the Southwest, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The Pawnee from eastern Nebraska were among those most frequently preyed upon by the slavers and for nearly 100 years, there was a nearly constant and bloody conflict between the two cultures.

By the time of U.S. arrival into the region that became Nebraska, the Apache were far to the southwest, and no longer thought of as a Plains tribe. However, the technologies and methods introduced by the Athapaskans enabled the lives of those nomadic bison-hunters who followed.

Siouan and Algonkian Nomads:

Many of the Algonkian and Siouan groups that history recognizes as "Plains" Indians were residing in various regions northeast of the Plains before the 17^th century. Some of these people lived as sedentary woodland horticulturalists, and other groups were pedestrian nomadic-hunters living along the margins between the tall-grass prairie and woodlands in the region that became western Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas.

The migration of these groups onto the Plains was not simultaneous, but instead, occurred over a period beginning roughly 1650 and extending to nearly 1800. Movements originated due to crowding of cultures from their traditional homelands by a "domino-effect" following the arrival of Europeans along the Atlantic coast and colonial expansion westward. The routes and means of the Native transformations varied. When pushed westward, some groups, like the ancestors of the Arapaho and Crow immediately migrated to the Plains, quickly adopting the successful pedestrian-nomad lifestyles and technologies of the bison hunting Athapaskans. Other groups, such as the Cherokee and Yankton Sioux, encountered the villages of the Mandan along the Missouri River and, for a brief time, settled nearby, adopting the Plains earthlodges and the stream side horticultural practices of established Plains horticulturalists (Berthrong 1984; DeMallie 1984; Gunnerson and Bouc 1984).

Sometime shortly after 1750, the horse trade reached the northern Plains and horses quickly became part of the lives of those pedestrian-nomads. Some tribes, such as the Cherokee, did not migrate to the Plains until after their acquisition of the horse. By 1775, Sioux groups began moving across the Missouri River and onto the shortgrass Prairie and High Plains, coming in contact with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, forming alliances with those groups, and waging wars with others. It was these groups of late Plains arrivals that flourished into the stereotypic feathered Plains horse mounted nomad.

Numerous Algonkian and Siouan groups were displaced westward during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The late prehistory and early history of eastern Nebraska was heavily impacted by the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Lakota Sioux tribes. These groups did not reside in eastern Nebraska, but they dramatically influenced the lives of the Natives who did reside here (Berthrong 1984; DeMallie 1984; Gunnerson and Bouc 1984). The newfound wealth in horses, tradegoods and guns, allowed these Equestrian nomads to rapidly grow in number. Like all American Natives, they suffered losses to European diseases, but unlike the village people, they did not loose large numbers of their population. Combined, the Arapaho and Cheyenne numbered more than 7,500 in 1805, and by the mid-1800's the Lakota probably numbered nearly 20,000 (Parks et. al 1980:291-4), forming the largest and most powerful force on the Plains.

These three nomadic tribes actively engaged in the fur trade, and with the horse and gun, they killed enough bison to begin creating shortages in some regions. As an allied force, they were able to displace other tribes and rigorously defend their newly gained bison hunting grounds from outsiders, including the Pawnee, Ponca, Omaha, and Oto from eastern Nebraska who depended heavily on the bison herds for subsistence. In addition to their competition for bison hunting territory, the nomadic tribes frequently raided eastward, plundering the villages for horses, corn, and women, or for the glory and honor.

Wagons Westward:

With the settlement of Oregon, and later California, the Great Plains became simply a place to be crossed on the way west. Abandoning the northern Missouri River route of Lewis and Clark, other trails were charted across the central Plains, most of them winding across southeastern Nebraska from the trailheads along the Missouri River and converging at Fort Kearny. The first wagons to leave their tracks on what was to become the Oregon Trail, were those taken west by Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, and William Sublette in 1830 (Hulbert 1930:20-22). In 1843, the migrations to Oregon began in earnest with more than 1000 people traveling westward. Brigham Young and his followers set out to establish a "New Zion," by way of the Mormon Trail in 1847. Driven by hunger for land, adventure, or religious freedom, thousands had used the trails to emigrate through what is now Nebraska, then in 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California. Reliable statistics are not available, although most estimates place the number of westward-bound emigrants at 40,000 in 1849, increasing to 55,000 in 1850, the numbers held steady until 1853 when the Nation's gold fever diminished. The migrations along these trails continued until the establishment of the transcontinental railroad, although not at the fevered-pace of the early 1850's (Norton et al. 1984).

Although thousands had traveled the trails ahead of them, many of the "Forty-Niners" were unprepared for the trip. Many started west with their wagon preposterously overloaded; other tried to walk, carrying their worldly possessions on their backs. Only a few miles west of the Missouri River, they became aware of their mistakes, and the trail became strewn with abandoned equipment and baggage. Some sold, traded, or burned their excess, a few unhooked the teams of horses, and rode away, leaving fully loaded wagons (DeWolf 1925).

Illness was a constant threat to the wagon trains and numerous pioneer graves can be found along the trails. One traveler wrote: "It is supposed that one-fifth are dying here now with cholera and diarrhoeas (sic)…" (Wood 1871:31). Another wrote: "In respect I had intended to notice in my journal every grave… but have abandoned this part… Graves are so numerous that to notice them all would make my narrative tedious" (Langworthy in Phillips 1932:37-38).

Euroamerican Settlement on the Plains:

With the eastern United States already settled, and ever increasing streams of emigrants heading west, the concept of a permanent Indian frontier west of the Mississippi was abandoned. In 1841 the passage of the Pre-emption Act enabled settlers to buy up to 160 acres of land in organized territories from the Federal Government for one-dollar-and-a-quarter an acre after they had cultivated it for one year. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which created the Nebraska Territory and opened the region to settlement, Euroamerican settlers began pouring into the new Territory. This hunger for land to feed a rapidly growing nation forced the United States Congress to devise an official policy for handling the "Indian problem." Reservations were created to board the Indian population and the military began coercing tribes to sign treaties relinquishing their traditional lands. The eastern Plains tribes, weakened by disease and conflict, presented little resistance. Once on reservations, Indian agents, teachers and missionaries flocked to the reservations to "save," educate, and assimilate the Natives into the White culture.

Passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 made land ownership more easily available, resulting in a flood of immigration by Euroamericans and some free-Blacks into the territory, further increasing the urgency for the government to deal with the Native populations. At the end of the Civil War, in 1865, the efforts of the military were concentrated against the Plains Indians. The large, powerful western Plains Equestrian Nomad tribes continued to resist being place on reservations, and once confined to reservations, even the eastern Plains groups continued annual bison hunts. In an effort to destroy the primary resource base of the Nomads, and the reason for other tribes to leave their reservations, the United States Government expanded the policy of bison herd extermination (Norton et al. 1984; Oswalt and Neely 1996). These Indian Wars campaigns lasted into the 1890's when the last of the Indian tribes succumbed to the U.S. military pressure and the government's reservation policy.

Because of its geographic, environmental, and social situation, the Great Plains, more than any other culture area, underwent radical transformations throughout prehistory. Prehistoric trade routes and migration brought Plains people, either directly or indirectly, into contact with people, technologies, customs, and ideas from outside the Plains physiographic region. For 12,000 years, and possibly longer, the Plains were the home to an evolving series of vibrant aboriginal cultures. In the end, decimated by European diseases, starving because of the lack of bison, defeated by the U.S. Army, and displaced by Euroamerican settlers, the Native populations were eventually confined to reservations. At that time, care of the wide-open and fertile Great Plains was taken over by Euroamerican immigrants.

4. ETHNOHISTORIC ACCOUNTS OF INDIANS in lancaster county

"As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out." Shakopee, Chief of the Santee Sioux

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the region to settlement and Euroamericans began pouring into the new Nebraska Territory. Merely two years after the territory was opened, the first Euroamericans took up permanent residence in the Salt Creek Valley and its tributaries, including the Stevens Creek Valley.

Many accounts are written regarding the interactions between these early settlers and the Indians who remained in eastern Nebraska at that time. The accuracy of some stories is open to dispute and many early authors clearly embellished the actual events. Regardless of the memories and imaginings of these early settlers, the Hollywood scenario of the "Wild West" with a band of "savage" painted Indians circling a ring of covered wagons and a timely rescue by heroic blue-clad Cavalry troops was never played out in the eastern Plains.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, explorers, traders, and trappers were regulars on the Plains, but their numbers were relatively small. Because Indian groups welcomed the tradegoods brought by these newcomers (Dorsey 1882; Holder 1967; Parks 1992), their presence, at that time, was not significant enough to provoke serious Indian resistance. Along with the tradegoods, though, came European diseases to which the Indians had no natural tolerance, resulting in tragic, profound depopulation. Hardest impacted were eastern Plains village cultures like the Omaha, Oto and Pawnee (Parks, et al. 1980). At the same time, these village tribes were under constant pressure from their old enemies, the Arapaho and Cheyenne, and the powerful, relatively new arrivals, the Lakota Sioux. These once formidable village tribes residing in the eastern Plains, now allied with the Whites to insure their own survival (Dunlay 1984). Fort Atkinson, established north of present-day Omaha in 1819, was abandoned in 1827 because the frontier of Indian conflict had moved farther west. By June of 1856, when John D. Prey and his son John W. took residence along Salt Creek, one-half mile south of what would become 25^th and Roca Road, all large-scale conflicts and military campaigns against the Indians were waged, primarily, with the nomadic equestrian tribes west of Fort Kearny in central Nebraska. Although Indians still lived in Lancaster County at that time, few Indian related incidents involving bloodshed occurred and when they did, the Indians were usually the ones to die.

In 1857, a man named John Davis, residing near the village of Saltillo, "...had a great desire to add to his experiences that of killing an Indian" (Hayes and Cox 1889:69). "He made his brags that he would..., and one day, very uncalled for, he fulfilled this desire by killing a Pawnee that wandered onto his property." (Sawyer 1916:339). The consequences were not what he anticipated. At that time, there were a number of Pawnee, Oto, and Omaha in the vicinity. Upon hearing of the death of one of theirs, they "...went on the war path (Hayes and Cox 1889:69). The settlers, fearing for their lives, escaped eastward, gathering together at the larger settlement of Weeping Water. A company of about 100 volunteers was formed in Nebraska City to quell the "uprising." They captured one Indian, but the men assigned to stand guard let him step out for fresh air, and he escaped. After two weeks, residents returned home, many finding their homes raided, or burned, although no settler's lives were lost (Hayes and Cox 1889; Sawyer 1916).

In early 1859, several Pawnee stole the carcass of a freshly killed deer from the home of Jeremiah Garrett a few miles south of present-day Lincoln. Garrett, and neighbors, Solomon Kirk, and William Arnold set out to punish the Indians. After about three miles, they caught with the thieves in the act of skinning the deer, and fired on them. Arnold wounded one of them, and Garrett killed one, but was wounded by an arrow before the Indians fled. A few hours later, the cabin of James Bogus was found looted of clothing and food. A group of volunteers gathered at the home of a settler, Mr. Sophir, along Salt Creek west of the present site of the penitentiary. The next morning, one of the settlers, Joel Mason, attempted to talk with the Indians who were camped within site of the Sophir cabin. The Indians were uncooperative and threatening, though, and forced him back to Sophir's cabin, where the settlers opened fire, killing three Pawnee and wounding five others (Hayes and Cox 1889).

Later that year, during the summer of 1859, several bands of Cheyenne and Arapaho came east to the Salt Creek basin to gather salt. During their visit, some band members, apparently young braves intent on making a name for themselves, roamed the area causing mischief. They appeared at the home of John W. Prey and abducted his daughter, 13 year old Rebbeca. Mrs. Prey followed the Indians while her 16 year old son, David, summoned help. David, his father, and several of the Preys' neighbors caught up with the Indians within a few miles, and convinced them to release the girl unharmed. Several days later, the Indian bands moved northward toward the Platte River, leaving nervous, but unharmed settlers behind (Hayes and Cox 1889).

Some insight into the makeup of the Indian population, and the size of the Native groups still living in the County can be made based on the account of John S. Gregory. In September of 1862, Gregory arrived at the salt basin, near present-day Lincoln, where he observed "...about a mile west on Middle Creek, the smoke was rising from a camp of Oto Indians." He spent his first night in the area "...down in the bend of Oak Creek, where West Lincoln now stands, [at] a camp of about 100 Pawnee wigwams" (quoted in Hayes and Cox 1889:78-79).

News of the 1862 Santee Rebellion in Minnesota caused some concern to the Euroamerican residents of eastern Nebraska, although it appears that word did not reach Lancaster County until the rebellion had been thoroughly crushed by the U.S. Army (Sawyer 1916). Little else occurred until 1864 when the Sioux appeared to the west, in the valley of the Big Blue River. Most terrified residents of Lancaster County fled eastward to Weeping Water or Nebraska City. A group of eight brave men, though, proceeded west to gather information. They saw no Indians until they reached the Big Blue River, when they noticed a single warrior watching them from some distance. The settlers decided to retreat, but the Indian made a signal and "...suddenly there rose up from the low grounds, several hundred mounted Indians, right across their pathway. The [warriors] began to bear down on the little company of whites to hem them in" (Hayes and Cox 1889:71). The settlers drew their weapons, intent on putting up a good fight, in spite of the overwhelming odds. To the relief of the "army" of settlers, it was not the Sioux, but a party of Pawnee, allied with the U.S. Government, out hunting their traditional Sioux enemies. Thinking all the settlers had left the region, the Pawnee attacked, hoping they had caught a small band of Sioux, separated from their kin. When the Pawnee got close enough to realize their mistake, they halted the attack and raised a white flag in time to prevent bloodshed on either side. The Pawnee explained their actions and moved on, in search of the Sioux. The Salt Valley volunteers, apparently having seen enough Indians for a while, quickly headed back east, toward their homes (Sawyer 1916:19).

Indians frequently stayed overnight at the Retzlaff Stock Farm, east of present-day Lincoln. Mrs. Retzlaff "…made coffee and cornbread for them, and after they had eaten, they would sit on the ground and smoke their peace pipe" (quoted in The State Journal, Sunday June 10, 1917). Writing in 1907, Charles Retzlaff states: "Indians were plenty in those days, but all were friendly. The only thing I ever knew of their doing was to kill a neighbor's cow or two, which they cut to pieces and carried away. We had one Indian scare... in 1864 it was reported that the Indians were going to drive all the whites from Nebraska. Many of the settlers left their homes and went to Nebraska City. I loaded my rifle, a single shot affair, after which I felt secure from the thousands of Redskins, remained on my claim and never saw a single Indian" (quoted in Sawyer 1916:341).

Most occurrences of settler and Indian conflict, was the result of theft of property, or incidents that some settlers felt was extortion. Clearly many of the disputes resulted from cultural differences concerning differing customs of sharing resources and contrasts in perceptions of private property ownership. These differences were, most assuredly, heightened by each group's preconceived ideas about the other. Tragically, some incidents resulted from small bands of destitute Indians resorting to any means to survive. While the Indians were a source of constant suspicion and uneasiness to the early settlers, most settlers simply resigned themselves to live with the occasional loss of a cow or other property. With the end of the Civil War in 1865, the effort of the U.S. militar