This valuable book is an excellent overview of long-term archaeological investigations in the valley that remains at the forefront of studies on the First Americans.


 

In southwest Nebraska, a stretch of Medicine Creek approximately 20 kilometers long holds a remarkable concentration of both late Paleoindian and late prehistoric sites. Unlike several nearby similar and parallel streams that drain the divide between the Platte and Republican Rivers, Medicine Creek has undergone 70 years of archaeological excavations that reveal a long occupation by North America's earliest inhabitants.


 

Donna Roper has collected the written research in this volume that originated in a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1947 River Basin Survey. In addition to 12 chapters reviewing the long history of archaeological investigations at Medicine Creek, the volume contains recent analyses of and new perspectives on old sites and old data. Two of the sites discussed are considered for pre-Clovis status because they show evidence of human modification of mammoth faunal remains in the late Pleistocene Age. Studies of later occupation of Upper Republican phase sites yield information on the lifeways of Plains village people.

 

Presented by major investigators at Medicine Creek, the contributions are a balanced blend of the historical research and the current state-of-the-art work and analysis. Roper's comprehensive look at the archaeology, paleontology, and geomorphology at Medicine Creek gives scientists and amateurs a full assessment of a site that has taught us much about the North American continent and its early people.


 

A survey of Native American earthlodge research from across the Great Plains.

Early explorers initially believed the earthlodge homes of Plains village peoples were made entirely of earth. Actually, however, earthlodges are timber-frame structures, with the frame covered by successive layers of willows, grass, and earth, and with a tunnel-like entryway and a smoke hole in the center of the roof. The products of nearly a millennium of engineering development, historic period lodges were massively built. With diameters up to 60 feet across, they comprise the largest and most complex artifacts built on the Plains until the 20th century. Sheltering nuclear or extended families and their possessions—beds, stored food and clothing, weapons, sweatlodges, and even livestock—they shaped Plains villagers' lives both physically and symbolically.

This collection of papers explores current research in the ethnography and archaeology of Plains earthlodges, considering a variety of Plains tribes, including the Mandan, Hidatsa, Cheyenne, and their late prehistoric period predecessors. Acknowledged experts in the field discuss topics including lodge construction, architecture, maintenance, deterioration, and lifespan; the ritual practices performed in them; their associations with craft traditions, medicine lodges, and the Sun Dance; their gender symbolism; and their geophysical signatures.

With technological advances allowing an ever greater recognition of archaeological evidence in situ, future earthlodge research will yield even more information on their owners and residents. This volume provides a much-needed baseline for such research as well as comparative data for the occurrence of earthlodges in other sections of North America.