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ONEOTA – ANCESTORS OF THE BÁXOJE (IOWAY)
The Late Prehistoric culture that dominated The cultivation of corn, beans, and squash was Oneota sites are commonly associated with
southeastern Iowa 800 years ago is called the a mainstay for the Oneota. Their diet was distinctive shell tempered pottery, small triangu-
Oneota culture. Oneota people tended to live supplemented with domesticated native plants, lar arrowheads, and carved pipestone artifacts.
in large permanent or semipermanent villages wild plants, hunting and fishing (Peterson and Careful analysis of linguistic patterns, oral tradi-
along major watercourses like the Des Moines Wendt 1999:18). There appears to have been an tions, and other historical and archaeological
River (Tiffany 1982). Their settlements were usu- emphasis on the use of wetland plant and animal evidence has demonstrated that the historic Io-
ally situated near ecotones where floodplain for- resources (Alex 2000:186). way, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), and several other
est, upland forest, and prairie meet. This placed modern tribes are descendants of the Oneota
them in a position to take culture (Mott 1938; Henning 1970).
advantage of a wide range of
resources (Alex 2000:186). With the exception of one site (13VB311) and a
Smaller settlements have also few shell tempered pottery fragments from the
been found, though these Lambert site, there has been little archaeological
are also commonly clustered evidence of Oneota occupation found along the
within the same general re- lower Des Moines River in Van Buren County.
gions as the larger villages. This absence is something of a mystery for ar-
chaeologists. It has been suggested that the Late
By 1,000 years ago corn Woodland cultures in this area were stable and
agriculture had been intro- well adapted and, therefore, less likely to adopt
duced into eastern Iowa. new cultural practices from “outside.” It is also
possible that Oneota sites
lie deeply buried in the
late Holocene terraces
and floodplains and so
have not yet been found
in archaeological surveys
(Collins 1997:14).
Oneota artifacts, clockwise from top: grooved Above: drawing of an Oneota pot
mauls, pipestone platform pipe, carved bone from the Dixon Site, 13WD8.
whistle, grinding stones. University of Iowa
Museum of Natural History exhibit. The University of Iowa Off ice of the State Archaeologist
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