Page 16 - ImmenseJourney

Ten Miles from the Platte: Why Here?

Between A.D. 1200 and 1400, Indian people of the Nebraska
phase of the Central Plains tradition occupied southwestern Iowa.
Central Plains tradition sites extend from Kansas across Nebraska
to Iowa. These sites are common throughout eastern Nebraska
and up and down the Missouri River bluffs. In Iowa archaeolo-
gists refer to them as the Glenwood culture. The Nebraska phase
people in southwest Iowa built some 300 earth lodges in a geo-
graphical cluster centered on the lower parts of Pony Creek and
Keg Creek in Mills County. The density of lodges in this compara-
tively small area at the very edge of the Central Plains tradition
has interested archaeologists for more than a century.

By mapping Central Plains earth lodge sites in southwest Iowa,
an interesting pattern emerges. Glenwood sites are widely dis-
persed across the landscape but the vast majority occur within
10 miles of the Platte River, as measured via a straight line across
the Missouri River floodplain and following the stream valleys
into the Loess Hills. Tracing an outline of the limits of the 10-mile
radius shows that this is effectively the limits of Glenwood earth
lodge sites in Iowa, with a few additional lodges spaced up and
down the east side of the Missouri bluffs.

If Glenwood represents the spread of the Central Plains tradition
eastward, why does it cluster around the mouth of the Platte?
Earlier studies typically looked only at the location of sites not
their geographical limits. The recent study showed that although
Glenwood lodges occupy all landforms within this area, their
builders did have preferences. Living in close proximity to the
mouth of the Platte appears to have been an important one. And,
earth lodges are not distributed evenly across the region. The
highest density of lodges per square kilometer occurs along Pony
Creek.

14 University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist