1 Salt Production in the Southeastern Caddo
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SALT PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTHEASTERN CADDO HOMELAND by PAUL NORMAN EUBANKS IAN W. BROWN, COMMITTEE CHAIR ASHLEY A. DUMAS MARYSIA GALBRAITH KEITH JACOBI VERNON J. KNIGHT JR. A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2016 1 Copyright Paul N. Eubanks 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2 ABSTRACT During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Drake’s Salt Works Site Complex, located in the southeastern Caddo Indian Homeland, was a major hub of the salt trade. Elsewhere, in eastern Texas and southern Arkansas, the Caddo had already been making salt for at least several centuries before utilizing Drake’s Salt Works. While some salt was produced in northwestern Louisiana prior to sustained European contact, it is argued here that much of the salt in this region was made with the aim of exploiting and profiting from the European demand for salt and salt-treated commodities, such as animal hides and meat. Despite this demand, there is little evidence that salt making was more than a seasonal or short-term activity at Drake’s Salt Works. Although Drake’s Salt Works contains half a dozen extant salt licks, only two, the Upper Lick and the Little Lick, appear to have been utilized to any noticeable extent before the salt works were taken over by Euro-Americans around the beginning of the nineteenth century. Prior to this time, historical and ethnohistoric data suggest that the Upper and Little licks likely were used by small groups of predominantly female salt makers. These individuals filtered salt- impregnated soil through woven baskets and evaporated the resulting brine in a standardized ceramic bowl. Using containers of a similar size not only helped the producers manufacture a known and portable quantity of salt, such bowls also may have made the production process more efficient, which in turn, allowed the producers to make more salt while maximizing the return on their efforts. In addition, standardized bowls were easy to stack on top of each other, ii which would have been beneficial if the salt makers were making the vessels elsewhere and then transporting them to the saline. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS cm centimeter Dec. Decorated Eng. Engraved Frag. Fragment GCS Gulf Coast Survey Imp. Impressed Inc. Incised km kilometer m meter PIT Passport in Time Punct. Punctated RRSP Red River Saline Project Stnd. Dev. Standard Deviation STP Shovel Test Pit Sq. Square TU Test Unit UID Unidentified Undec. Undecorated Unspec. Unspecified var. variety = equal to > greater than < less than iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research presented here has benefitted greatly from the contributions of numerous individuals, institutions, and organizations. My Ph.D. advisor, Ian W. Brown, reviewed multiple drafts of this dissertation and provided sage advice whenever it was needed. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Ashley A. Dumas, Marysia Galbraith, Keith Jacobi, and Vernon J. Knight Jr. for their feedback throughout the various phases of this project. Funding to support this research was provided by Avery Island Inc. and McIlhenny Co., the National Science Foundation (Grant No. BCS- 1416780), the David and Elizabeth DeJarnette Scholarship in Anthropology, Jim Williams, the Alabama Museum of Natural History’s Gulf Coast Survey, the United States Forest Service, the Alabama Archaeological Society, and The University of Alabama’s College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School, Graduate Student Association, and Anthropology Department. A large portion of the field and lab work associated with this dissertation was completed on a series of Passport in Time (PIT) projects sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service. Velicia Bergstrom and Daniel Cain were instrumental in organizing the successful completion of these projects. Forest Service Archaeologist John Mayer provided helpful insight in his M.A. Thesis and helped to organize the 2014 PIT project at the Upper Lick. The dozens of individuals who volunteered on the 2011, 2012, and 2014 PIT projects also have my sincere thanks. I would especially like to recognize Gil Kane, Rhonda Fore, and Roy Fore, for braving the snakes, alligators, and government shutdowns. Elizabeth Eubanks’ efforts and encouragement must also v be highlighted. In addition, it should be known that on the 2012 PIT project, she claims to have found “the largest potsherd ever recovered from Drake’s Salt Works.” The Forest Service’s Kisatchie National Forest Winn Ranger District graciously allowed the 2011-2014 Drake’s Salt Works field crews to use their facilities and equipment. I would especially like to thank Gregory Cohrs, Barbara Poole, and Craig Rice for making sure that we had transportation as well as places to sleep, cook, and wash clothes. The latter of which I suspect may have been a mutually beneficial arrangement. I would like to thank Jim Williams, Reed Franklin, and Larry Weeks for allowing us to survey and excavate on their land. The Weyerhaeuser Timber Company kindly allowed me to survey large portions of their property with Alan Boyd, a wildlife biologist and local historian, as a guide. George Jacob and Terry Jones were also essential in the completion of the survey portion of this project conducted in the fall of 2012. This dissertation could not have been completed without the aid of field crews and laboratory assistants from The University of Alabama’s Department of Anthropology. This includes members of the 2014 field crew: Karl Bennett, Rachel Briggs, Lynn Funkhouser, LisaMarie Malischke, and Taylor Lawhon, the latter of whom also served as a laboratory assistant for the Gulf Coast Survey Archaeological Laboratory. Halley Cook and Erin Smith also played critical roles in processing and analyzing the artifacts recovered from our 2011-2014 excavations. Cameron Lacquement volunteered his time to help with the fieldwork and bayou navigation at Drake’s Salt Works. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Lauren Downs for letting me borrow her field and survey equipment and to Daniel LaDu for his intellectual support and his help with analyzing artifact collections in the summer of 2011. Lauren Kirby, as will be seen in Chapter 6, kindly provided several high-quality illustrations of the salt making process at vi Drake’s Salt Works. Finally, I would to express my sincerest thanks to the Caddo Nation and to the various archaeologists who have contributed in some form or another to this project. These include, among others, John Blitz, Elsbeth Dowd, Ann Early, Jeff Girard, Pete Gregory, Nancy Kenmotsu, Chip McGimsey, Steven Meredith, Maureen Meyers, Jon Muller, and Timothy Perttula. vii CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ....................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..........................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... xi 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................1 2. HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHIC, AND CULTURAL SETTING OF SALT IN NORTHWESTERN LOUISIANA AND THE EASTERN WOODLANDS........................12 3. SOME GENERAL TRENDS IN EASTERN WOODLANDS SALT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY ....................................................................................................................33 4. A HISTORY OF THE FIELDWORK AND INVESTIGATIONS AT DRAKE’S SALT WORKS ......................................................................................................................68 5. THE TIMING AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALT MAKING IN NORTHWESTERN LOUISIANA ........................................................................................165 6. METHODS OF SALT PRODUCTION ...............................................................................184 7. ECONOMIC SPECIALIZATION AND POTTERY BOWL STANDARDIZATION ........204 8. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................235 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................241 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................274 viii LIST OF TABLES 3.1 A Summary of Salt Production Localities in the Eastern Woodlands ...................................38 4.1 AMS Dates from Drake’s Salt Works ...................................................................................70 4.2 Artifacts from the 2008 Shovel Test Pits...............................................................................83 4.3 Artifact Counts from the 2011 Shovel Test Pits ....................................................................92 4.4 Artifact Counts from Test Square A ......................................................................................94 4.5 Artifact Counts from Test Square B ......................................................................................94