Author: Amy E. Harvey
1979, 152 pp.
Oneota culture existed in the American Middle West from approximately A.D. 1000 until the late Eighteenth century. This period spanned the transition from the Neo-Atlantic climate episode, through the Pacific and then through the transition from the Pacific to the Neo-Boreal. For the western part of the Midwest and for the Northern Plains, these episodes created a shift from very favorable maize-growing conditions to very unfavorable ones. This study examines the response of the Oneota to the changing climate, focusing on the regional manifestation of western Oneota culture, that portion of the culture which occupied the western Tall Grass Prairie and the eastern margin of the Plains. The ultimate goal of the study was to develop an understanding of the relationship of northwest Iowa Oneota populations to the total Oneota culture and to other contemporaneous plains villagers. The environmental portion of the analysis reconstructs the physical environment as it was at the time of white contact and at the time of each site occupation and examines cultural remains to identify probable environmental adaptations. Data for this analysis were gleaned from identifications of faunal remains recovered in the archaeological excavations, and from early ethnohistoric records.
