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The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Stature in 19Th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians

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The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Stature in 19Th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-1998 The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Stature in 19th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians Joseph M. Prince University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Prince, Joseph M., "The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Stature in 19th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1998. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4023 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Joseph M. Prince entitled "The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Stature in 19th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Richard L. Jantz, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: William M. Bass, Lyle W. Konigsberg, John R. Finger Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Joseph M. Prince, entitled "The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends in Staturein 19th Century Nomadic Plains EquestrianIndians". I have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. fessor We have read this dissertation And recommend its acceptance: I+- 'hv·, �+a ·: f2_ Accepted forthe Council: Associate Vice Chancellorand Dean of The Graduate School THE PLAINS PARADOX: SECULAR TRENDSIN STATUREIN 19TH CENTURY NOMADIC PLAINS EQUESTRIAN INDIANS The Arapaho, Assiniboin, Biackfeet,Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa, and Sioux from 1800 to 1870 A Dissertation Presented forthe Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Joseph M. Prince August 1998 DEDICATION For Becky Sero sed serio In Memoria For Bonny and Ted Prince Who taught me the value of perseverance in the faceof great odds And for the lifelongcontributions of recently departed eminent anthropologists John C. Ewers Joseph Jablow Wilcomb E. Washburn 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of my research for this dissertation I have been assisted by numerous faculty members, colleagues, and friends. To all of them I am deeply indebted. In particular I would like to thank my committee chairman, Dr. Richard L. Jantz, for his abiding patience, good humor and goodwill, as well as encouragement over these many years. His friendship and scholarship have been an invaluable inspiration to myself and many others. It is through the kind auspices of Dr. Jantz that the data used here were supplied. This project owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Lee Meadows Jantz as well, for it began as a paper she presented in 1995 (L. Meadows Jantz et al, 1995). Knowing of my interest in the subject area, she kindly made her analyses available to me to investigate the Plains area for common secular trends andtheir possible meaning. I also wish to thank my other committee members. I wish to thank Dr. William M. Bass for his lifelong abiding interest in physical anthropology on the Great Plains, which has been a continuing inspiration and great service to myself as well as hundreds of other anthropologists, students, and researchers over the years. Much of the Plains scholarship coming from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), Department of Anthropologyis based upon Dr. Bass' research and collections made over 30 years ago. I also would like to thank Dr. Lyle Konigsberg for his patience and wise counsel, despite this project's decidedly low horsepower statistics, invented in fact around the turn of the last century. Dr. John Finger has kindly attempted to steer me towards some of the more 111 salient documents and current arguments about Plains Indian history, however their interpretation remains uniquely my own. I also gratefully received help in producing the SAS graphs presented here by a friend, Joe Whitehurst of Atlanta. Dr. Mike Logan of the Department of Anthropology, UTK, was also helpful in making his research on the Plains and the Boas data set available, as well as offeringuseful comments on my progress. Dr. Steve Ousley, now of the Smithsonian Institution, provided me with some valuable suggestions and critiques as well as making his research on mortality trends in the Boas data set available. He also graciously answered some last minute questions. Dr. Jan Simek, head of the Department of Anthropology at UTK, has also been helpful in the cause of this dissertation by running interference on my behalf before the Graduate School due to its long delay. I want to take this opportunity- to thank other researchers using secular trends in heights in various research projects to examine anthropometric as well as economic history. Dr. Richard Steckel of Ohio State University has been a valuable sounding board throughout various stages of this project and a previous one, answering unusual questions with general good humor. Dr. Steckel's work has been and continues to be tremendously enlightening to myself �d to many other students of economic history. Dr. Robert Malina of Michigan State University graciously also lent an ear to my anthropometric 'Plains Paradox', and provided me with valuable feedback about some possible explanations for the trends seen. I want to thank again Marilyn Coopersmith of the lV Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago forfirst making the works of Dr. Robert Fogel available to me. She originally aided me in locating various members of the ongoing National Bureau of Economic Research's "Nutrition Project". Dr. Russell Thorntonof the University of California, Los Angeles, was helpful in answering questions about aboriginal population decline and its causes and consequences. I wish to also express my gratitude for the yeoman good works of the Bartow County, Georgia library staff for their able and successful attempts to obtain various materials through their interlibrary loan department for this study. I especially want to thank Ms. Carmen Sims in this regard. I owe a continuing profound debt of gratitude to the thousands of Indians who participated in the original anthropometric Boas survey, as well as to the many researchers who collected these measurements. I want to thank my friends, colleagues, and family for their continued support over the years. Finally, I want to express my fondest thanks and regards to my wife, Becky Carr, for the loving concern,care and support she has always shown for me in this long-term endeavor. I dedicate this effort to her steadfastness and wisdom in staying the course despite trying circumstances. V ABSTRACT This study documents the occurrence of secular trends in height in an historic th population of 19 century nomadic Plains equestrian Indians. The eight tribal' . samples utilized are a subset of the Boas North American Indian anthropometric data set. A cross­ sectional design was used to examine the span of years from 1800 to 1870 for adult individuals.. over 20 years of age, sexes analyzed separately, male n= 1,123 and female n=362. Adult heights were adjusted for aging effects on three variables: standing height; sitting height; and sitting height/subischial length ratio. Combined with an unadjusted subischial length, these variables were used to examine each of the Plains tribes for secularI trends. Each variable was then regressed onto year of birth using a quadratic model. Tribal samples showing significant differences (p�0.05) among the means of the birth cohorts, and hence secular change through time, included five of eight male tribal samples, but only two of the female tribal samples. Significant regressions for adjusted standing height were seen for Sioux males and females, Crow females, and Comanche and Kiowa males. The variable adjusted sitting height suggested secular trends for the Sioux males and females, Crow females, and Assiniboin, Comanche and Kiowa males. Sioux males and females as well as Crow males showed significant trends for the variable ratio. Only Crow males showed any significant change for the subischial dimension. There do seem to be common trends in heights seen for the majority of the tribes represented'• , .. in the male Plains sample, with an early decline in heights through the 1830s vi to the 1850s, and then a recovery in heights in the 1860s and 1870s. This pattern is also seen for the Sioux and Crow fe males and is reflected in an analysis of the entire sample by sex, where each of the three age adjusted variables yielded significant results for both sexes. Comparison with contemporary populations of White Americans also shows that most of these Plains Indians remained tall at the start of the traumatic reservation period. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
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