Book Review: \u3ci\u3ePlains Village Archaeology: Bison-hunting Farmers in the Central and Northern Plains\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Stanley A. Ahler and Marvin Kay

This volume, edited by Stanley A. Ahler and Marvin Kay, consists of19 contributions by 21 authors. It is not a synthetic overview of the Plains Villages, but an eclectic sampling of the breadth and depth of recent archaeological research and interpretations-case studies focus on topics including origins, warfare, trade and interaction, symbolism, settlement and social organization, subsistence and risk, and others. Such studies are daunting undertakings as the ruins of a single house, indeed the contents of a single refuse pit, may produce thousands of specimens to interpret. Plains village archaeological sites, fragile and vulnerable, have been destroyed by dam building, agriculture, strip mining, roads, and suburban sprawl to an extent unanticipated fifty years ago. Funding for investigation in the same interval has dwindled, to the extent that one contributor self-funded the research he reports

Postulated Late Prehistoric Human Population Movements in the Central Plains: A Critical Review

Hypotheses which concern human migration within and without the Central Subarea of the Great Plains during the Late Prehistoric period are examined. The popular notion that peoples from central Nebraska migrated to the Panhandle region of Texas-Oklahoma is shown to be suspect if not false. The idea that peoples inhabiting the Missouri River trench in Nebraska were slowly migrating northwesterly finds support. Finally, evidence concerning postulated migrations of ancestral Pawnee and Arikara into the Missouri trench in South Dakota is reviewed, with two hypotheses emerging

Missouri National Recreational River: Native American Cultural Resources

An inventory of known and identifiable cultural resources referrable to Native American populations was undertaken for a corridor along the new Missouri National Recreational River, roughly from Gavin\u27s Foint Dam to Ponca, Nebraska. These resources included archaeological sites and collections, ethnographic and ethnohistorical data and relevant environmental background information. Using these data the Native American occupation of the Missouri National Recreational River area was synthesized into a regional overview which stresses culture-historical developments and changing adaptations to the natural environment. Problems for continuing research utilizing existing archaeological collections were developed, and recommendations for continued field work to fill in gaps in existing knowledge were made. Finally, a number of management suggestions were formulated with regard to the ongoing operation of the Missouri National Recreational River area, most important of which is the recommendation that a site of some significance be acquired and developed as a focal point for interpretive and educational efforts anticipated in the future. Note (April 2013): This document is now complete, including pages 179-292, previously unrepresented