OSA Report Series

Edited by Shirley J. Schermer, William Green, Larry J. Zimmerman, Linda Forman, and Robin M. Lillie
2015, 166 pp.

This volume is the outcome of a conference held in 1997 at the University of Iowa focusing on Oneota historical connections and the archaeological history of the Chiwere-speaking Iowa and Otoe peoples. The conference attracted over 70 participants from seven states and the District of Columbia including members of the Chiwere-speaking tribes, ethnohistorians, linguists, osteologists, and archaeologists. Tribal participants include representatives from the Ioway and Otoe-Missouria, Sac and Fox Nation of the Missouri, the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, and Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. The volume takes a retrospective view of conversations and collaborations in Iowa between archaeologists and tribes from the 1997 consultation and conference to the present. It consists of 16 chapters by 25 distinguished conference participants including newly authored chapters by Colin Betts and Lance Foster. Topics covered include NAGPRA consultation, Indian-archaeologists relations, Chiwere ethnohistory, Oneota archaeology with an overview and regional summaries, archaeology and ethnohistory, ideology, historical linguistics, and the archaeological consultation process.

Edited by Richard L. Fishel
1999, 216 pp.

This volume presents a comprehensive report on a 14th-century Oneota village site in northwest Iowa. The Dixon site (13WD8) is located along the Little Sioux River in Woodbury County. In 1994, emergency flood-damage mitigation was undertaken at the site that included excavation of exposed pit features and eventual stabilization of the western bank and determination that the site was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. This volume is the resultof this research project. Highlights include documentation of several domestic dwellings plus detailed floral and faunal analyses, ceramic attribute studies, lithic analyses, site geomorphology, analysis of human remains recovered from the site, and an overview of Oneota in northwest Iowa. The investigations indicate that the site inhabitants engaged in bison hunting and maintained close ties with groups west of the Missouri River on the central Great Plains. 

A variety of experts contributed to this volume including: David L. Asch, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois, George T. Crawford, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico, Fred A. Finney, Upper Midwest Archaeology, St. Charles, Illinois, Richard L. Fishel, K.Kris Hirst, Robin Lillie and Jeannie Link, Office of the State Archaeologist, Carmen Jans-Langel, National Czech and Slovak Museum, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Toby Morrow, IMA Consulting (Arkansas Office), Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, Marjorie Schroeder, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois, Julieann Van Nest, New York State Museum, Albany, New York, and John Weymouth, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Edited by William Green
1994, 188 pp.

This book contains eight chapters which address ancient agriculture in the Midwest and Midsouth. The chapters discuss both the archaeological recovery of seeds and other physical remains of crops and the history of native agricultural systems.

The book's chapters cover ancient plant use in the upper and central Mississippi valley, Illinois, and the Ozark and Kentucky highlands. Chapters also discuss the history of research on ancient agriculture as well as the utility of this knowledge for modern agroecological research.

New discoveries show that plant cultivation began as early as 3000-4000 years ago in many regions of eastern North America. Early domestication focused on native plants which produce highly nutritious starchy or oily seeds: goosefoot, maygrass, little barley, knotweed, marshelder, and sunflower. Gourds and tobacco also were important ancient crops. Corn and beans were latecomers from Mexico or the Southwest and were not important in the Midwest until about 1000 years ago.

Heightened awareness of ancient Midwestern crops fosters a greater appreciation for the long-term development of Indian agricultural systems. Many of the native crops are now ignored - or even extinct - but they illustrate the success of native agriculture over an extremely long time span. At a time when farmers are seeking new ideas on agricultural diversity and sustainability, the advances in knowledge of native plant use reported in this book expand options for research and experimentation.

The book's editor, William Green, was director of the University of Iowa's Office of the State Archaeologist and is now the director of the Logan Museum at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin. The ten other chapter authors include researchers at universities in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

"Includes chapters by many of the scholars who have been at the forefront of paleoethnobotanicalresearch. . . . All are well written and form a cohesive group. . . . This book provides a good overview of the evidence from the main areas, written by some of the key contributors."
C. Wesley Cowan, American Anthropologist

"An excellent collection of papers that are well written, easy to read, and informative. . . . The papers in this volume. . . represent fine research by some of the best and most creative researchers currently working in the midcontinent."
Frances B. King, Southeastern Archaeology

"A good synthesis of our current knowledge of the changing relationships between native peoples and plants in the midcontinent. . . . I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the origins of North American agricultures, or in the prehistory of the midcontinent. "
Russell Boulding, Journal of Ethnobiology

Author: James L. Theler
1987, 128 pp.

The focus of this study is to outline animal resource utilization during the Woodland tradition (ca. 300 B.C. to A.D. 1000) in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa. Theler presents a comprehensive study of the Woodland Tradition by examining the full annual cycle of subsistence activities in the upper Mississippi Valley. He identifies a fall-winter segment of the annual round when small human groups concentrated on the harvest of large mammals, principally the white-tailed deer and a summer adaptation involving the procurement of aquatic resources found in the riverine setting of the Mississippi River. The book represents a landmark in the study of aboriginal diet, seasonal resource scheduling, and the dimensions of change and stability.
 
". . . adds a new dimension to upper Mississippi Valley archaeology. . . . Woodland Tradition Economic Strategies is a welcome and informative addition to Midwestern archaeology. It should be in the library of every archaeologist interested in Midwestern archaeology and in the emergence of cultural complexity among hunter-gatherers."
Guy Gibbon, Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society
 
"Theler has produced an excellent account of economic variation and change in the upper Midwest. The book is very well written and deserves a wide readership. It will be of particular value to anyone with an interest in faunal analysis, fresh-water mussels, or Midwestern archaeology."
Robert E. Warren, American Antiquity