Volume 1993 Article 8
1993
Spiroan Entrepots at and Beyond the Western Border of the Tans- Mississippi South
Frank Schambach Arkansas Archaeological Survey
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Cite this Record Schambach, Frank (1993) "Spiroan Entrepots at and Beyond the Western Border of the Tans-Mississippi South," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 1993, Article 8. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.1993.1.8 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1993/iss1/8
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This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1993/iss1/8 Volume IV. Number 2 SPIROAN ENTREPOTS AT AND BEYOND THE WESTERN BORDER OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI SOUTH
Frank s·chambach Arkansas Archeological Survey
Although this paper1 is primarily a reinterpretation of pattern, shell-tempered pottery, red slipped pottery, the Sanders site in the Red River Valley in northeastern storage pits and hoe horticulture. However, there are Texas, that reinterpretation will make no sense unJess I also certain local variations on these common Mississip first outline, very quickly, the new paradigm for the pian patterns and certain basic traits derived from the archeology of the Arkansas Valley in eastern Oklahoma Southwest, the Lower Mi sissippi Valley gnd the Qi.arks and western Arkansas upon which it is based. that set it off as a distinct regi nal tradion . Only traded pots and perhaps a few other traded items, I think, derive For the last five years, as I am sure most of you know, from the Caddoan area. I have been challenging the standard interpretation of the archeology of the Arkansas Valley in eastern Oklahoma To begin with, I note the recent determination by and western Arkansas--tbe Northern Caddoan Area Barnes and Rose (1990: 12) that--contrary to expectations paradigm. I have done this on the grounds that there is generated by the Northern Caddoan area paradigm--the no documentary evidence and no archeological evidenc~ Mississippi period population of the Arkansas Valley was for a Caddoan connection of any sort other than trade genetically distinct from the Caddoan population of the (Schambach 1988, 1990a, 1990b). In my view the basic Ouachita Mowitains and the Red River Valley. biological and cultural ties of this tradition, which I call the Arkansas Valley tradition, were, as Bell (1984:239) Secondly, in recent reviews and compilations of all has speculated, to the east with peoples of the Central and bioarcheological data from the Trans-Mississippi South Lower Mississippi Valley, not to the south with the and adjacent parts of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Caddoan area or to the west with the Wichita. I suspect, Valley, Burnett, Rose and Harmon have assembled as I have said before, that this tradition was a part,at least, clear osteological and dental evidence for different of the long lost ancestral Tunican tradition. dietary patterns, different food preparation techniques, and different rates and types of infections in the Arkansas A year or so ago I decided that sniping at the old Valley as compared to the Caddoan ar~ (Burnett 1988; paradigm from the sidelines dido ' t seem to be having Hannon and Rose 1989; Burnett 1990). much effect. This was partly because I was operating mainJy on intuition and didn't always know as much as Surprisingly, and in marked contrast. to Caddoan I should have about what I was talking about. I decided populations in Lhe Ouachitas and farther south, and lo that the thing to do was read all the literature carefully Middle Mi si ippian populations to the east of them in and try to produce a complete reinterpretation of Arkan the Mississippi Valley, the Arkansas Valley p pulation sas Valley archeology, starting from the premise that it never became "maize dependent~, not even the popula was culturally distinct from the Caddoan area. The result tion at Spiro (Burnett 1988:220). The botanical and is a long paper which bas been circulating in manuscript cultural evidence indicates that the Arkansas Valley form since Jast October. It is now in press, and will be tradition had a significantly more diverse subsistence out in April . What I have learned while doing that paper system than the Middle Mississippian tradition or even is that the old paradigm, which was never really thought the Caddoan tradition. This system featured hoe hor through by anyone--it "just growed" --has been crumbling ticulture (unknown in the Caddoan area) of most of the for more than 20 years. And if you pull together the plants of the old Woodland period "Cultivated Starchy substantial amount of new thinking and new data that has Seed Complex• of the O:r.ark highlands plus some com. appeared in the last 20 years and reorganii.e it according There were three Southwestern cultigens: Amaranthus to the premise that the Arkansas Valley was a distinct hypochondriacus, Cucurbita mixta and a "non-eastern region , a more plausible culture history emerges--one complex com" (Fritz 1989:80-86; 1990:9-11). Unlike that lacks the inco~sistencies that have been needed to the Caddoans, the Spiroans processed these foods with prop up the old one . The ltighligbts of this new culture stone grinding equipment which caused heavy to severe history can be summarized as follows. tooth wear (Burnett 1988a; Schambach 1982:178). The use of bison for food--which would explain the low com The Mississippi period culture of the Arkansas Valley consumption--and for hides and bone tools such as tradition of eastern Oklaboma--whicb I call Spiroan scapula hoes was an important part of the economy by culture, following Phillips and Brown (1978:9-10) and no later than A.O. 1100. This is indicated by the bison Rohrbaugh (1984:272)--has some of the basic charac bones, bison bone tools, and bison hide processing tools teristics of a Middle Mississippian culture. These include such as diamond shaped beveled knives and uniface end platform mounds, burial mounds, rectangular wattle and scrapers that appear in significant quantities at Spiro daub houses, chamel houses, a small village settlement phase and Harlan phase sites such as School Land I and
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II, Norman, Wybark, Sheffield, Tyler-Rose, Cookson exceedingly rare examples in southeastern Oklahoma, in and Moore (Schambach 1993:196-199). the Caddoan area. This house type probably originated in the Southwest, as Webb (1959:63-64) argued more In contrast to the Caddoan area, where rates of serious than thirty years ago, and as Bell suggested in 1971 (in infections were remarkably low during the Mississippi Davis, Wyckoff and Holmes, eds. 1971:82). period the Arkansas VaUey in eastern Oklahoma was a hotbed of infections, one ofwhich was probably endemic Preserved specimens from Spiro and numerous Ozark syphilis or some other form of treponemal disease (Har bluff shelters attest to a coiled basketry tradition that mon and Rose 1989:347-349; Burnett 1988:215-216; probably came from the Southwest, as Griffin suggested Brown 1984:259). The osteitis and osteomyelitis whose in 1952(Brown 1976: 10-12; Scholtz 1975:30-44; Griffin .. incidences indicate serious infections of severe to 1952: 102). Coiled basketry impressions on countless epidemic proportions in the Spiro phase Horton and bases of flat bottomed, grog-tempered and sbell Morris site populations, and are more moderately repre temperedjars indicate that it was lengthy and widespread sented in the Spiro site population (Burnett 1988:211- within the Arkansas Valley tradition. Presumably it did 214). These are not reported south of the Arkansas not extend to the Caddoan area, where basketry im Valley, with one exception--which we will come to pressed bases are not found. presently. Perhaps because coiled baskets that could serve in lieu The fortified village sites common in the Central of potc; were available, the ceramic tradition was drasti Mississippi Valley have not been found. The flat topped cally weaker, in terms of the quantities of pottery in use, mounds of Spiroan culture were not used as foundations than that of either the Central Mississippi Valley or the for temples or other special purpose structures in the Caddoan area. Compared to these areas the Arkansas Middle Mississippian (and Middle and Late Caddoan) Valley tradition was practically aceramic. The only site manner. The sophisticated square to rectangular wattle that has produced a respectably large ceramic collection and daub houses with two or four center posts and by Caddo area standards is Spiro itself. However the extended, wall-trenched entrances that are characteristic WPA collection of 19 1 pots and I 7,552 sherds from Spiro of this tradition have not been found in comparably early is exceeded by Webb's collection of 195 pots and 19,300 contexts farther east, and do not occur, except for several sherds from the Belcher site, a minor Caddo ceremonial
Figure 1. Locations of some of the sites discussed in this paper.
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center on the southern fringe of the Great Bend region in Arkansas Valley tradition mound group in the Arkansas theRedRiverValley(Brown 1971:1; Webb 1959:118). Valley, or the westernmost Middle Mississippian group. According to Wyckoffs tabulations (1980: Tables 106,108,110 and 112) there were, as of 1980, only about 11 24,000 additional sherds on record for all excavated sites The Red River VaUey entrepot was the Sanders site , in eastern Oklahoma, a total easily matched or exceeded located about 150 miles southwest of Spiro in Lamar at many Caddo sites such as the Davis site where the County, Texas(Figure 1; Krieger 1946:171-182; Wyckoff WPA excavations produced 96,000 sherds. According 1971: 85-96; Phillips and Brown 1978: 166-167). This to my tabulations and estimates there are, apart from the puts it--not by accident, I am sure--right on the boundary 191 pots from Spiro, only 341 additional whole pots on between the Eastern Woodlands and the Plains (Krieger record for all excavated sites in the Arkansas Valley in 1946: 172). Sanders was also at the terminus oftbe most Oklahoma. Compare that, if you will, to the 246 pots logical route from Spiro to the Red River Valley: up the " that C.B. Moore (1912) found in one small mound at the Poteau Valley from Spir~~then down the Kiamichi Valley Foster site, or to the 223 that M. R. Harrington (1920:62- fo the Red River Valley . 63) found in a single small mound at the Washington site. Since some kind of Spiroan connection with Sanders bas long been evident because of the engraved and This was a plain pottery tradition. Decorated sherds unengraved shell cups and the Craig style engraved and pots are relatively and absolutely scarce. Most gorgets from the graves there, and since Brown assemblages have none. On the other band, assemblages (1984:262) has recognized the Sanders phase as a from the ceremonial centers indicate that there was an "regional variant" of the Spiro phase, there is no need unusually high level of interareal trade in decorated pots for me to argue for a strong Spiro connection. What is with the Red River Valley and Ouachita Mountain Caddo, at issue is the nature of that connection and the status of and with Middle Mississippians in the Central Mississippi Krieger's Sanders "focus". Valley, that paralleled the more obvious trade, for which Spiro is famous, in items of shell, copper and other exotic The key fact here is that the Sanders focus was one of materials. It was, more than anything else, the traffic in the many fictions born of Krieger's concept of the Caddo pots out of the Red River Valley that fooled us "Gibson-Fulton transition" and his supporting dictum into thinking that the Spiroans themselves were Cad that shell-tempered pottery in the Caddoan area bad to be doans. I doubt that anyone would have called Spifo a late prehistoric or historic. Now that concept has Caddoan site if it hadn't been for the Caddoan pots . crumbled in the face of radiometric evidence, it bas become apparent that Krieger was unjustified in making In any case, in my new paradigm for the Arkansas the mortuary assemblage from Sanders the basis of his Valley, I cast the Spiroans as traders and I view the Gibson aspect Sanders focus, thus creating a cultural unit unparalleled deposits ofprestige goods at Spiro as hoards with a trait list that, be was forced to admit, " ... may of wealth that represent the profits from an equally seem quite ethereal" (Krieger 1946:203). It is now clear unparalleled commerce in bison hides and other bison that the midden assemblage which he relegated to a much products that was well established by A.D. llOO. From later Fulton aspect occupation because of what be con this time on, the Spiro'."ls' main business {literally) was sidered late "Plains" traits such as plain shell-tempered obtaining bison products from the Southern Plains tribes pottery, bison scapula hoes, end scrapers, and diamond to the west of them, processing the hides at all those shaped beveled knives could easily have been, and village sites in the Arkansas Valley between the forks of probably was, mostly occupation debris laid down by the the Arkansas and Spiro itselfwhere hide processing tools same Spiro phase people respons;yie for the graves. In are so plentiful , and moving them down river to the fiber, fact, the complete assemblage from Sanders can fat an1 protein poor peoples of the Central Mississippi plausibly be viewed as a site unit intrusion of Spiroans Valley (Schambach 1993:198-199). They did this in from the Arkansas Valley. There is nothing in the exchange for the Mississippian prestige goods that ul general run of artifacts in the Sanders assemblage that timately found their way into the deposits at Spiro f8at cannot be found on Harlan and Spiro phases sites in are so commonly, and so aptly, described as hoards . eastern Oklahoma. Conversely, there is much that can not be found downriver from Sanders a hundred miles or At some point, evidently fairly early, the Spiroans so in the Caddo country: things like bison bone hoes, broadened the scope of their trade to all kinds of things stone hoes, stone seed grinding equipment, end scrapers, besides bison products, and they increased their range to diamond shaped beveled knives, bone beamers, bone fish the point where they were in contact, at least indirectly, hooks, shell-tempered Woodward Plain pottery and with the Southwest. By A.O. 1300 they had established Sanders Plain pottery. one entrepot for this long distance trade in the Red River Valley in eastern Texas, and another near present Ok Once we rid ourselves of the notion that Sanders Plain lahoma City in the North Canadian River Valley. These pottery, the marker type for the so-called Sanders focus, western posts, which were certainly not the only ones, is a Caddo type because it is so listed in The Handbook were probably complemented by a major Arkansas Val of Texas Archeology there is no reason to think of ley entrepot somewhere between Fort Smith and Little Sanders as anything but an intrusion. Sanders Plain is Rock. My guess is that it was at the Point Remove site, not a Caddoan type or an eastern Texas type. It is an near Morrilton, Arkansas, which is either the easternmost Arkansas Valley variety ofthe Middle Mississippian type
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Old Town Red, the basic mortuary and ceremonial type acquired their lesions as children (endemic syphilis being of the Parkin and Quapaw phases of eastern Arkansas a contagious disease of childhood; Hackett 1963: 10) in (Brown 1971:164-169; Phillips 1970:145). Krieger's their infection ridden Arkansas Valley homeland. Their (1946: 186- 190) perfunctory and overly loose definition children, however, were born at the Red River Valley of this type is based on no more than 2 1 Old Town Red trading post, far from the Spiroa.n population center that bowls found in the graves of peripatetic Spiroan traders harbored the pathogens responsible for osteitis and os who brought them down from Spiro along with other teomyelitis. more obvious imports such as negative painted pottery, Mississippi Valley "bean pots," and limestone-tempered What. were Spiroan traders doing at the Sanders site 15? Monks Mound Red pottery (Krieger 1946: 176-183). All There is good circumstantial and distributional evidence of this mortuary pottery got to Sanders just the way the that from this location they were in contact with Southern four conch shell cups, the twenty-one shell gorgets, Plains bison hunters, with the ancestral Kadohadacbo and including "Craig School" specimens that "must have other eastern Caddoan groups in the Red River Valley, come from the Arkansas Valley" (Brown 1983:1501,Fd with the ancestral Hasinai and other western Caddoans the S ,500 conch shell beads got there: on the backs of in eastern Texas, and (probably indirectly through a traders walking up the Poteau Valley and down the Pueblo-Southern Plains trade network; Creel: 1991) with Kiamichi Valley. Puebloans in eastern New Mexico.
This interpret.ation of Sanders as a site unit intrusion A trading post at this location would have given the is supported by two recent bianthropologicaJ studies in Spiroans access to whatever bison products and Puebloan which the Sanders site skeletal population unexpectedly goods the Pueblo-Southern Plains trade network might emerged as "markedly different• in several ways from have been moving down the Washita River and the Red Caddoan skeletal populations in the Red River Valley River to the Caddo area. Their suppliers would have (Burnett 1990:393-399). These studies indicate that the been people of the Washita River phase, probably the people themselves were Spiroan immigrants from the ancestral Wichita, who occupied the Washita and the Arkansas Valley. In an M.A. thesis project that involved Canadian River drainages of west central Oklahoma from comparing the ostensibly Caddoan Sanders site skeletons at least A.D. 1150 through A.O. 1400 (Bell 1984b:323). with the Texarkana phase Caddoan skeletons from the The Washita River phase artifact inventory includes Hatchel-Mitchell site 120 miles down the Red River, numerous hide processing tools: bone beamers, bone Dow (1987) discovered that the two populations were "hidegra.iners•, diamond shaped beveled knives, and end genetically different. Having, of course, no inkling that scrapers (Bell 1980:65; 1984b: Figures 14.3-14.5). The this might be due to the Sanders people being Spiroans latter two are considered diagnostic ofparticipation in the from the Arkansas Valley, she attributed this to the Southern Plains hide trade (Creel 1991). It also includes possibilily that they were interbreeding with Plains various items indicative of contact with Southeasterners: people (Dow 1987: 111). a conch shell ornament, a fragment of a decorated stone ear spool, and occasional specimens of Southeastern Another study by Barbara Jackson (unpublished; raw pottery in the fonn of sherds and whole vessels. The data summarired in Burnett: 1990:393-398) uncovered most notable of the latter is a human effigy generally two additional peculiarities of the Sanders population considered an impo~/rom the Tennessee-Cumberland which Burnett (1990) finds impossible to explain within area (Bdl 1984:322) . Furthermore, this inventory is the conceptual framework we archeologists have such that evidence that Washita River people frequented provided. First, the infection rate of the adult population the Sanders site could easily reside in the still unstudied at Sanders (33.3 %) is "dramatically" high compared to collections from the middens (which Krieger did, after other populations in the Red River Valley. In the case all, attribute to an occupation by Plains people. He may of two of the six adults examined, the lesions in evidence have been partly right about the attribution but wrong are those of osteitis and osteomyelitis, neither of which about the time). The best evidence that something of this has been identified in early Caddoan populations in the nature did go on at Sanders is a single smudged black Red River Valley or elsewhere in the Caddoan area. Puebloan sherd that probably came from southeastern Therefore they seem to point straight to the Spiro phase New Mexico (Krieger 1946: 197,208). skelet.al populations from the Spiro, Morris and Horton sites in Arkansas Valley. There, as we have seen, the The evidence for trade downriver to the Caddo country ) incidence of osteitis and osteomyelitis is unusually high, is stronger, although J suspect that the trade upriver was and the osteitis is thought to indicate a high incidence of more important. A Haley Engraved bottle (Krieger ) endemic syphilis or some other treponemal infection 1946: Fig. 15) shows the Spiroans were in touch directly (Brown 1984:259; Burnett 1988: 212-214). or indirectly with Haley phase people about 150 miles away in the Great Bend region of southwestern Arkansas Secondly, the infections indicated by these lesions had (Schambach 1982b). Hones of white Catahoula an abnormal distribution within the population. While sandstone came from farther south in northwestern the adult infection rate was comparatively high, the nine Louisiana (Krieger 1946:203). Some 150 sherds of children studied were infection free. Burnett (1990:397), shell-tempered Nash Neck Banded jars suggest contacts notes that this is a "confusing picture"... "that deserves with Caddoan salt producers in the Little Rjver region of further testing.• The hypothesis to be tested here, I southwestern Arkansas and hint that one of the com suggest, is that the adults, who were immigrant traders, modities moving upriver was salt (Krieger 1946: 197).
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The rare Mississippi Valley prestige goods found at vessels of these types are scarcer than hen's teeth. On Caddoan sites in the Red River Valley such as the the basis of what l have learned in the past year about the Spiro-related conch shell cups and gorgets (Phillips and real nature or the Arkansas Valley ceramic tradition, J Brown 1978: 165-168) found at the Rhoden site in Mc would bet that the total number of vessels of these five Curtain County, Oklahoma, the Bowman site in Little types (including vessels represented by accurately iden River County, Arkansas, and the Belcher site in Caddo tified sherds) that could be confirmed from all Arkansas Parish, Louisiana, and the plain shell cups found at the Valley lrqdi tion collections would be in the neighborhood Foster and Friday sites (Moore 1912: Figs. 76,77,86) of 100 to 150. That is not too many for a few decades probably passed through the Sanders site entrepol on their of overland trade out of the Red River Valley. Not for way down from Spiro. So did the painted bottle from traders who could move 3,000 to 4,000 conch shell cups 1 the Haley site which Moore ( 19 12:550; Plate XXXVIII) (Brown 1975:151) up the Arkansas River to Spiro, considered •an import from Southeastern Missouri". presumably from an entrepot about 150 upriver miles 1 The previously inexpfjcable population or Central Mis away at Point Remove. sissippi Valley bird effigy bowls, many of them of the "tail rider· variety, that centers in Lafayette and Miller Finally there is some tantalizing circumstantial counties in extreme southwestern Arkansas and in evidence that when Spiroan traders began acting as Cherokee, Harrison, Titus and Red River counties in intermediaries between the large population centers of northeastern Texas (Suhm and Jelks 1962:47-49; Plate the Mississippi Valley and the Southwest they may have 24) certainly owes its existence to the Sanders entrepot. bought themselves and everyone else the kind of These vessels occur in a tight d uster, the northwestern epidemiological trouble that often arises when large edge of which is located precisely south of the confluence populations that have been well separated geographically of the Kiamichi River with the Red River. Distribulional and culturally are suddenly linked by traders or ex evidence doesn't come much better than that. plorers.
Fifteen sherds "definitely or Titus Focus types" point In this case infectious diseases, as well as goods, may to contacts with northeastern Texas Caddoans in the have moved, with serious if not di$8Strous results, from Sulphur Ri ver drainage (Krieger 1946: 197). To the Southwest to the Arkansas Valley, and then to the Krieger's surprise, there were also "at least 15 sherds of Mississippi Valley. As 1 understand the bioantbropologi Frankston Focus types"; these indicate contacti; with cal literature, which is not as clear as it might be on this ancestral Hasinai Caddo people living 100 to 150 miles point, the childhood osteitis and osteomyelitis that ac south of Sanders in the Neches, Angelina and upper count for the epidemic level infection rates (67 to 85%) Sabine valleys (Krieger 1946:197). in the Spiroan populations from the Morris and Horton sites in eastern Oklahoma (Burnett 1988:212-214) are What kinds of goods were being accumulated at rare to absent in populations of all periods east of Spiro Sanders for portage up the Kiamichi and Poteau Valleys prior to the late Mississippi period, at wruch lime they lo the Arkansas Valley? Judging from traded specimens appeared (as part of a "dramatic rise" in infection rates found at or near Spiro, (Brown 1976; 1983; 1984:245- to 90 %, from 35.3 % in the Middle Mississippi period) 262; Rohffaugh 1982:538) these probably included cot as adult level infections in northeastern Arkansas (Bur ton cloth , woven bison hair skirts and bags, baskets, nett 1988: 150-JSL; Rose et.al. 1984: 418). Tbjs Late artifacts of Alibates flint and Red River jasper, and long Mississippi period increase in infection rates is presently stemmed Caddoan tobacco pipes of the Red River type. attributed to population growth and the appearance of large towns and "widespread trade " (Burnett 1988: 150- 15 1; Rose et. al. 1984:41 8) This is probably quite true, Furthermore, Brown (1983: 144, Table 4) recognires except the trade in question may have been considerably that pots of the Red River Valley types Haley Engraved, more widespread than we have thought. Handy Engraved, and Avery Engraved are probably trade items at Spiro, so they can be added to this list. So The reason for the absence of osteitis in subadult should every vessel of the early Caddoan types Crockett populations in the Southeast may be that it is diagnostic Curvilinear Incised, Penrungton Punctated Incised, Holly of endemic syphilis, a treponemal disease of childhood Fine Engraved, Hickory Engraved, and (the misnamed) that is so strongly associated with arid regions that l Spiro Engraved whose presence-in extremely small Hackett (1963: 8) has remarked that it should be called numbers at an equally small number of Arkansas Valley "treponaridosis". My biomedically untutored evaluation sites-has done so much to cloud our thinking about the of the situation in eastern Oklahoma (where endemic nature of the Arkansas Valley tradition. There are, after syphilis has been diagnosed; see Brown 1984:259) is that ' all, only 18 vessels and 74 sherds of Crockett Curvilinear area was much too humid for endemic syphilis to have Incised in the Spiro collections that Brown studied, and developed locally, and that the high frequency and only 22 vessels and 108 sherds of Spiro Engraved (Brown severity of the ilisease as it is manifested in the skeletons 1971: 82, I 09). The next largest collection of these types from the Morris and Horton sites bespeak a recent is from the Harlan site where Bell (1972:243-247) found introduction from the Southwest. The vector would have seven Crockett Curvilinear Incised vessels, five Pen been children who were brought from there, probably for nington Punctated Incised, five Spiro Engraved, four adoption or for use as slaves, neither practice beiflr Hickory Fine Engraved, one Holly Fine Engraved and unheard ofin North America in the post Colombian era . almost no sherds. Outside of these two collections,
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It would appear that in the course of the resulting of a syphilis-like bone disease and on the basis of the epidemic among the children in the Spiro area this disease frontal-occipital cranial deformation exhibited by skulls and whatever disease was responsible for the os from all three sites. teomyelitis spread, in the classic manner, to the im munologically unprotected adult population, probably The latter is also in evidence at the Sanders site, as producing what Burnett ( 1988: 151) describes as "chronic Brues pointe One possibility is the Nagle site, on the North Canadian River near Oklahoma City (Shaeffer 1957). There, in an REFERENCES accidentally discovered cemetery, four graves that were professionally excavated after machinery destroyed 12 others. All contained-shades of Sanders--locally exotic artifacts, probably out of the Spiro phase of the Arkansas Albert, Lois E. Valley tradition (Shaeffer 1957:93-97). There were two 1992 The Norman Site (34W62), Wagoner County, Woo<.lward Plain jars, one • marine conch shell" bead Oklahoma. Paper presented at the 33rd An "identical in shape with necklace beads from Spiro nual Caddo Conference, Stephen F. Austin Mound", and five triangular, side notched arrowpoints State University, Nacogdoches. that Griffin (1961:30) calls "similar to the Cahokia side-notched forms". Two copper covered, sandstone Baerreis, David A. ear spools were found by a visitor in a trenched area 1957 The Southern Cult and the Spiro Ceremonial between the four graves that were salvage -16- Volume IV Number 2 Bell. Robert E. 1984b Prehistoric Southem Ozark Marginality: A 1972 The Har/a11 Site, Ck-6. A Prehistoric Mound Myth Exposed. Missouri Archaeological Center i11 Cherokee Cou11ty, Eastern Ok Society, Special Publication 6. Columbia. lahoma. Oklahoma Anthropological Society Memoir 2. Brown, James A., Robert E. Bell and Don G. Wyckoff 1980 Oklahoma Indian Artifacts. Contributions 1978 Caddoan Settlement Patterns in the Arkansas from the Stovall Museum 4, The University River Drainage. In Mississippian Settlement of Oklahoma, Norman. Patterns, edited by Bruce D. Smith, pp. 169- 200. Academic Press, New York. 1984a Arkansas Valley Caddoan: The Harlan Phase. Io Prehistory of Oklahoma, edited by Robert Brues, Alice E. Bell, pp. 221-240. Academic Press, New 1957 Skeletal Material from the Nagle Site. Bul York. letin ofthe Oklahoma Anthropological Society 5:101-106. 1984b The Plains Villagers: The Washita River. In 1958 Skeletal Material from the Horton Site. Bul Prehistory of Oklahoma, edited by Robert E. letin ofthe Oklahoma Anthropological Society Bell, pp. 307-324. Academic Press, New 6:27-32. York. 1965 Unpublished and untitled 1965 manuscript on Briscoe, James the skeletons from the Craig Mound at Spiro. 1977 The Plantation Site (Mi63), an Early Caddoan Read and cited with pennission of the author. Settlement in Eastern Oklahoma. Oklahoma Highway Arcbeological Survey, Papi:rs in Burnett, Barbara A. Highway Archaeology 3. Oklahoma City. 1988a The Biological Synthesis. In Human Adapta Brown, James A. tion in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, edited by George Sabo III, Ann M. Early, 1966a Spiro Studies, Volume 1. Descriptio11 of the Mound Group. Stovall Museum of Science Jerome C. Rose, Barbara A. Burnett, Louis and History and The University of Oklahoma Vogel, Jr. and James P. Harcourt, Arkan~as Archeological Survey Research Series Research Institute, Norman. 31:193-220. Fayetteville. 1966b Spiro Studies, Volume 2. The Graves and Their Contexts. Stovall Museum of Science 1988 Standridge Bioarcbeology and the Middle Ouachita Caddo. In Standridge: Caddoa11 and History and The University Of Oklahoma Settlemellt in a Mountai11 Environment, edited Research Institute, Nonnan. by Ann M. Early, with Barbara A. Burnett and 1971 Spiro Studies, Volume 3. Pottery Vessels-. Daniel Wolfman. Arkansas Archeological Stovall Museum of Science and History and Survey Research Series 29: 143-152. Fayetteville. The University of Oklahoma Research In 1990 The Bioarcheological Synthesis of the Gulf stitute, Norman. Coastal Plain Study Area. In The Archeology 1975 Spiro Art and Its Mortuary Contexts. In and Bio-archeology ofthe GulfCoastal Plai11, Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Colombian Vol. 2, by Dee Ann Story, Janice A. Guy, America, edited by Elizabeth P. B~nson, pp. Barbara A. Burnett, Martha Doty Freeman, 1-32. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Jerome C. Rose, D. Gentry Steele, Ben W. Collections, Washington, D.C. Olive, and Karl J. Reinhard. Arkansas Ar 1916 Spiro Studies, Volume 4. The Artifacts. cheological Survey Research Series 38:385-508. Second Part of the Third Annual Report of Fayetteville. Caddoan Archaeology-Spiro Focus Research. Stovall Museum of Science and History and Creel, Darrell The University of Oklahoma Research In 1991 Bison Hides in Late Prehistoric Exchange in stitute, Norman. the Southern Plains. American Amiquity 1983 Spiro Exchange Connection Revealed by 56(1):40-49. Sources of Imported Raw Materials. In Southeastern Natives and Their Pasts: A Col Davis, Hester A., Don G. Wyckoff and Mary A. Holmes lectio11 ofPapers Ho11ori11g Dr. Robert E. Bell, 1971 Proceedings of the Seventh Caddo Con edited by Don G. Wyckoff and Jack L. Hof ference. Oklahoma Archeologic~I Su~vey, man. Oklahoma Archeological Survey Occasional Publication 1, The Umverstty of Studies in Oklahoma's Past 11: 129-162. Oklahoma. Norman. 1984 Arkansas Valley Caddoan: The Spiro Phase. Prehi:,,1oryo/Oklaho111a, edited byRobertE. Bell, pp. 241-263. Academic Press, New York. -17- - CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY NEWSLETTER Dow, Laura Ann Brantly Hamm, Jim 1987 The Genetic Affi11ities a11d Adaptive Success of 1989 Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans. Three Groups ofLate Prehistoric Ameri11dia11s Lyons and Buford, Publishers, in cooperation from Texas. Unpublished Master's thesis, with Bois d' Arc Press. The University of Texas, Austin. Harmon, Ann M. and Jerome C. Rose Duffield, Lathe! F. 1989 Bioarcheology of the Louisiana and Arkansas 1969 The Vertebrate Fauna! Remains from the Study Area. In Archeology and Bioarcheowgy School Land I and School Land II Sites, of the Lower Mississippi South in Arkansas Delaware County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma and Louisiana, by Marvin D. Jeter, Jerome Anthropological Society Bulletin 18:47-65. C. Rose, Ishmael Williams, Jr., and Anna M. Harmon. Arkansas Archeological Survey Re Early, Ann M. search Series 37:323-354. Fayetteville. 1988 Standridge: Caddoa11 Settlemellt i11 a Mou11- tain Environment. Arkansas Archeological Harrar, Ellwood S. and J. George Harrar Survey Research Series 29. Fayetteville. 1962 Guide to Southern Trees, 2nd ed. Dover Publications, Inc., New York. Finkelstein, Joe J. 1940 The Norman Site Excavations Near Wagoner, Harrington, M. R. Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Prehistoria11 3(3): I 920 Certain Caddo Sites in Arkansas. Museum of 12-15. the American Indian, Miscellaneous Series 10. Heye Foundation, New York. Flannery, Kent V. 1968 The Olmec and the Valley of Oaxaca: A Model Hemmings, E. Thomas for Inter-regional Interaction in Formative 1982 Spirit Lake (3LA83): Test Excavations in a Times. In Dumbarto11 Oaks Co11fere11ce 011 the Late Caddo Site on the Red River. In Con Olmec, edited by Elizabeth Benson, pp.79- tributions to the Archeology ofthe Great Be,ul 117. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Region, edited by Frank F. Schambach and Collection, Washington, D.C. Frank Rackerby. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series 22:55-89. Fayetteville. Freeman, Joan E. and A. Dewey Buck, Jr. 1959 Woodward Plain and Neosho Punctate, Two Shell Tempered Pottery Types of North Kidder, Tristram R. eastern Oklahoma. Bulletin of the Oklahoma 1993 The Glendora Phase: Protohistoric-Early His Anlhropological Society 8:3-16. toric Dynamics on the Lower Ouachita River. In Archaeowgy of Eastern North America; Fritz, Gayle J. Papers i11 Honor of Stephen Williams, edited 1989 Evidence of Plant Use from Copple Mound at by James 8. Stoltman. Missouri Department the Spiro Site. In Co11tributiom to Spiro Ar of Archives and History, Archaeological cheology: Mound Excavations and Regional Report 25:320-260. Perspectives, edited by J. Daniel Rogers, Don G. Wyckoff and Dennis A. Peterson, Ok Krieger, Alex D. lahoma Archeological Survey, Studies in 1946 Culture Complexes and Chronology i11 North Oklahoma's Past 16:65-87, Norman. em Texas, with Extensions of Puebloa11 1990 Agricultural Patterning in the Northern Cad Darings to the Mississippi Valley. Publication doan Archaeological Region. Paper presented 4640. The University of Texas, Austin. to the 55th Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Las Vegas. Kuttruff, Jenna Tedrick 1993 Mississippian Period Status Differentiation ., Griffin, James B. Through Textile Analysis: A Caddoan Ex 1952 An Interpretation of the Place of Spiro in ample. American Antiquity 56: 125-145 . Southeastern Archaeology. In The Spiro Mound, by Henry W. Hamilton. Missouri Lintz, Christopher Archaeologist 14:89-106. Columbia. 1991 Texas Panhandle-Pueblo Interactions from the 1961 Relationships Between the Caddoan Area and Thirteenth Through the Sixteenth Century. In Farmers, Hunlers, a,ul Colonists: /111eractio11 the Mississippi ValJey. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 31 :27-43. Betwee11 the Southwest a11d the Southem Plains, edited by Katherine B. Spielmann, pp. Hackett, C. J. 89-106. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 1963 On the Origin of the Human Treponematoses. Bulletin WHO 29:7-41. -18- Volume IV. Number 2 Lopez, David R. Peattie, Donald Culross 1973 The Wybark Site: A Late Prehistoric Village 1953 A Natural History of Western Trees. Complex in the Three Forks Local, Mus Houghton-Mifflin Company, Boston. kogee, Oklahoma. Oklahoma A111hropologi cal Society Bulletin 22: 11-126. Perttula, Timothy K. 1992 The Caddo Nation: Archaeological a11d Eth- Mason, Otis Tufton 11ohistoric Perspectives. University of Texas 1972 North American Indian Bows, Arrows, and Press, Austin. Quivers. Carl J. Pugliese, Yonkers. Peterson, Dennis A. McClellan, Catherine 1989 Interpreting the Copple Mound Findings. In 1953 The Inland Tlingit. Asia and North America: Contributions to Spiro Archeology: Mound Trans-Pacific Contacts. Society for Excavations and Regional Perspectives. American Archeology Memoirs 9:47-52. Edited by J. Daniel Rogers, Don G. Wyckoff and Dennis A. Peterson. Oklahoma Ar Mooney, James cheological Survey, Studies in Oklahoma's 1896 The Caddo and Associated Tribes. Four Past 16:27-41. Norman. teenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for 1892-1893, Part Petrides, George A. 2:1092-1103. 1972 A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs, 2nd ed. The Peterson Field Guide Series, Houghton Moore, C. B. Mifflin Company, Boston. 1912 Some Aboriginal Sites on Red River. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phillips, Philip Philadelphia 14:482-655. 1970 Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basi11, Mississippi, 1949-1955. Papers of the Newell, H. Perry and Alex D. Krieger Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnol 1949 The George C. Davis Site, Cherokee County, ogy 60. Harvard University, Cambridge. Texas. Memoir No. 5, Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C. Phillips, Philip and James A. Brown 1978 Pre-Colombian Shell Engravings from the O'Brien, Patricia J. Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. Part I, 1993 Steed-Kisker: The Western Periphery of the Paperback Edition. Peabody Museum of Ar Mississippian Tradition. Midcontirumtal chaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univer Journal ofArchaeology 18(1):61-96. sity, Cambridge. Orr, Kenneth Gordon Phillips, Philip, James A. Ford and James B. Griffin 1946 The Archaeological Situation at Spiro, Ok 195 l Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississip lahoma: A Preliminary Report. American pi Alluvial Valley, 1940-1947. Papers of the Allliquity 4:228-256. Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, No. 25. Harvard University, Owsley, Douglas W. Cambridge. 1989 The History of Bioarcheological Research in the Southern Great Plains. In From Clovis to Pillaert, E. Elizabeth Comanchero: Archeological Overview of the 1963 The Mclemore Site of the Washita River Southern Great Plains, by Jack L. Hoffman, Focus. Bulletin of the Oklahoma Robert L. Brooks, Joe S. Hays, Douglas W. Anthropological Society 11: 1-114. Owsley, Richard L. Jantz, Murray K. Marks, and Mary H. Manhein. Arkansas Archeologi Pope, Saxton T. cal Survey Research Series 35: 123-136. 1962 Bows and Arrows. University of California Fayetteville. Press, Berkeley. Owsley, Douglas and Richard L. Jantz Preston, Richard, Jr. 1989 A Systematic Approach to the Skeletal Biol 1989 North American Trees, Exclusive of Mexico ogy of Southern Plains. In From Clovis to and Tropical Florida, 4th ed. Iowa State Comanchero: Archeo/ogical Overview of the University Press, Ames. Southern Great Plains, by Joe S. Hays, Douglas W. Owsley, Richan.IL. Jantz, Mur Prewitt, Terry ray K. Marks, and Mary H. Manhein. Arkan 1974 Regional Interaction Networks and the Cad sas Archeological Survey Research Series doan Area. Papers in Anthropology, Depart 35:137-156. Fayetteville. ment of Anthropology, The University of Oklahoma. 15:73-101. Norman. - -19- - CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY NEWSLETTER Robbins, Wilfred William, John Peabody Harrington and 1991 Coles Creek Culture and the Trans-Mississip Barbara Freire-Marreco pi South. Caddoa11 Archeology 2(3):2-8. 1916 Ethnobotanyofthe Tewa. Smithsonian Institu 1993 Some New Interpretations of Spiroan Culture tion Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin History. Archaeology of Eastern North No. 55. America: Papers i11 Honor of Stephen Wil liams. Mississippi Department of Arc h.ives Rogers, J. Daniel and History, Archaeological Report 25:187- 1989 Settlement Contexts for Shifting Authority in 230. the Arkansas Basin. In Contributions to Spiro Archeology: Mou,uJExcavations arui Regional Scholtz, Sandra Perspectives, edited by J. Daniel Rogers, Don 1915 Prehistoric Plies: A Structural and Compara G. Wyckoff and Dennis A. Peterson. Ok tive Analysis of Cordage, Netting, Basketry lahoma Archeological Survey, Studies in and Fabricfrom Ozark BluffShelters. Arkan Oklahoma's Past 16: 159-176. sas Archeological Survey Research Series 9. Fayetteville. 1991 Regional Prehistory and the Spiro Phase. Southeastern Archeology 10:63-68. Shaeffer, James B. Rohrbaugh, Charles L. 1957 The Nagle Site, Ok-4. Bulletin of the Ok lahoma Anthropological Society 5:93-99. 1982 Spiro and Fort Coffee Phases: Changing Cul Oklahoma City. tural Complexes ofthe Caddoa11 Area. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Spielmann, Katherine Ann University of Wisconsin, Madison. 1986 Inte rdependence Among Egalitarian 1984 Arkansas Valley Caddoan: Fort Coffee and Societies. Journal of A11thropological Re Neosho Foci. In Prehistory of Oklahoma, search 5:279-313. edited by Robert E. Bell, pp. 265-285. 1991a Coercion or Cooperation? Plains-Pueblo In Academic Press, New York. teraction in the Protohistoric Period. In Rose, Jerome C., Barbara A. Burnett, Mark W. Blaeuer Fam1ers, Humers, arui Colo11ists: lmeraction between the Southwest and the Southem and Michael S. Nassaney Plains, edited by Katherine B. Spielmann, pp. 1984 Paleopathology and the Origins of Maize 36-50. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Agriculture in the Lower Mississippi Valley 1991b Interaction Among Nonhierarchical Societies. and Caddoan Culture Areas. In Paleopathol In Fam1ers, Humers, and Colonists: /111erac ogy a,ul the Origins ofAgriculture, edited by tio11 Between the Southwest a,ui the Southern Mark N. Cohen and George J. Armel a gos, pp. Plains, edited by Katherine B. Spielmann, pp. 393-424. Academic Press, New York. 1-17. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Scbambach, Frank F. Story, Dee Ann 1982 An Outline of Fourche Maline Culture in 1991 Some Comments on the Status of Caddoan Southwest Arkansas. In Arkansas Archeol Archaeology. News arui Views, Newsletter of ogy in Review, edited by Neal J. Trubowitz the Department of Archeological Planning and and Marvin D. Jeter. Arkansas Archeological Review, Texas Historical Commission 3:17- Survey Research Series 15: 132-197. Fayet 18. teville. 1982b The Archeology of the Great Bend Region in Suhm, Dee Ann and Edward 8. Jelks Arkansas. In Comributions to the Archeology 1962 Ha11dbook of Texas Archeology: Type oft he Great Be,ui Regio11, edited by Frank F. Descriptio11s. Texas Archeological Society, Schambach and Frank Rackerby. Arkansas Special Publication l and the Texas Memorial Archeological Survey Research Series 22: 1- Museum, Bulletin 4, Austin. 11. Fayetteville. 1990a The Place of Spiro in Southeastern Prehistory: Swanton, John R. Is It Caddoan or Mississippian? Southeastern 1942 Source Material on the History a,ui Ethnology Archaeology 9(1):67-69. of the Caddo buiia11s. Smithsonian Institu 1990b The Place of the Spiro Site in Southeastern tion, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin Prehistory: A Reinterpretation. Paper 132. Washington. presented at the 48th Annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Mobile, Waldorf, D.C. Alabama. 1985 The Art ofMaki11g Primitive Bows aruiArrows. 1990 The "Northern Caddo Area" Was Not Cad Mound Builder Books, Branson. doan. Caddoan Archeology 1(4): 1-6. -20- Volume IV. Number 2 Webb, Clarence H. lahoma Archeological Survey, Studies in l 959 1he Belcher Mound: A Stratified Caddoan Site Oklahoma's Past 1. Norman. in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Society for 1971 1he Caddoan Cultural Area: A11 Archaeologi American Archaeology Memoir No. 16. cal Perspective. Oklahoma Arcbeological Washington, D.C. Survey, The University of Oklahoma, Norman. 1984 Early Caddo Cultures (Caddo 1 and 2). Slide 1980 Caddoa11 Adoptive Strategies in the Arkansas Set published by Pictures of Record Incor Basin, Eastern Oklahoma. Ph.D. disserta porated, Weston, Connecticut. tion, Washington State University, Pullman. 1989 A Synopsis of the 1982 Field Work and Find Wilson, Diane ings. Co11tributio1,s to Spiro Archeology: 1993 Incidence of Degenerative Joint Disease Mound Excavations and Regional Perspec Among the Sanders Site (41LR2) Population. tives, edited by J. Daniel Rogers, Don G. Paper read at the 35th Caddo Conference, Wyckoff and Dennis A. Peterson, Oklahoma Norman. Arcbeological Survey, Studies in Oklahoma's Past 16:101-104. Wyckoff, Don G. 1970 1he Horton Site Revisited, 1967 Excavations at Sq-11, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. Ok- END NOTES (1) Except for a few minor editorial changes, the text em Texas and southeastern Oklahoma. But that is not of this paper is exactly as I read it at the 35th Caddo the approach I am using because I know as well as Brown Conference in Norman, Oklahoma. In the notes that does that it leads in a circle. All I have done is unravel follow I add some new information and I respond to some the historically and ethnographically undocumented of the comments, particularly those of James Brown and Arkansas Valley tradition from the tradition that exists in Robert Brooks, that I received on the paper during and the documented Caddoan area to the south, and then I after the conference. have compared the two, taking into consideration popula tion biology, epidemiology, diet, food preparation tech (2) Furthermore, as Helen Tanner reminded me in a niques, subsistence techniques, ceramic assemblages, conversation we had at the conference, there are no tool assemblages, house types, mortuary patterns, mound Caddoan traditions pertaining to an occupation of the construction techniques and culture history. The dif Arkansas Valley or to Spiro. Considering that both ferences that have become apparent are, in my judgment, Crenshaw and the Battle Mound are alluded to in versions so numerous and so profound that, contrary to the of the Caddo origin myth (Swanton 1943:26-29) as the conventional wisdom, and no matter what one calls them, place where the Caddo people emerged from the under two distinct populations and cultures must have been ground world (one version puts "Chacanenah" at Hervey, involved. Arkansas--the location of Crenshaw--but Chickaninny Prairie, the location of the Battle Mound, and Anyone who thinks the Arkansas Valley should be Chacanenah are probably one and the same; see Hem called Caddoan despite these differences should explain mings 1982:61), it is reasonable to ask why a place as why the whole Southeast shouldn't be called Caddoan. important as Spiro would have faded entirely from tribal memory. In a more generalized version of the myth (5) For example, Brown, Bell and Wyckoff(1978: 194- presented by Mooney (1896:1093-1094) the Caddo ap 195) conclude their influential paper on "Caddoan" set peared near the mouth of the Red River and moved up it tlement patterns in the Arkansas Valley with two to the west. There is no mention anywhere of another paragraphs wherein they recognize so many similarities river to the north, or of a move to the south. between the Arkansas Valley tradition and the Middle Mississippian tradition that only, a bit of obfuscation (3) It is now in print. See the bibliography for Scham keeps these paragr-ciphs from looking like the repudiation bach 1993. of the Northern Caddoan area·paradigm that they actually are. They write: "As common and conventional as it is (4) At the conference Brown seemed to be arguing that to consider the Caddoan cultural traditions separately my claim that the Arkansas Valley tradition was not from the Mississippian to the east, the one aspect Caddoan is based upon an arbitrarily derived list of remphasi mine] in which it is more advantageous not to diagnostic Caddoan traits that I have concocted and that do so is in terms of subsistence-settlement patterns. The I use to remove from the Caddo area any region in which similar organization of communities around civic they do not appear. I do have a pretty good idea of what ceremonial centers with platform mounds, combined is and is not Caddoan, after 28 years in the field in the with a basic agricultural technology based on hoe cultiva historically and ethnohistorically documented Caddo area tion of maize, attests to the fundamental unity of the two in southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, east- areas.... Their essential continuity can be traced to a -21- CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY NEWSLETJ'ER common economic base on the one hand and to the thin-walled bowl [sic] (all foci); large stone T-shaped dominating influence of Mississippian ideology on the pipes (Spiro, Gahagan); stone elbow pipes (Sanders, forms of Caddoan social integration on the other." In the Spiro); stone ear spools (all foci); shell and wooden ear next paragraph they go on to say "But at a more detailed spools (Spiro, Haley, Sanders); ring shaped ear spools level it is obvious that differences exist, which under of pottery (Alto. Haley); use of copper 011 ear spools (all closer scrutiny, can be shown to be the result of an but Alto); copper covering on wooden beads (Spiro, advanced Mississippian subsistence-settlement system Haley, Gahagan); plain conch-shell dippers (Spiro, responding to a marginal environment for that system. Haley, Sanders); engraved conch-shell gorgets and "dip pers"(Spiro, Sanders); repousse copper plaques (Spiro); The significance of these paragraphs is obscured by copper masks with long noses, and hand effigies the strikingly vague phrase: "the one aspect.• An alert (Gahagan); pearl beads (Gahagan, Haley, Sanders) (The editor would have called for clarification by asking the pearl beads found in the Red River Valley are imports. authors the question they should have asked themselves: There are virtually no mussels in the Red River-certainly "the one aspect of what?" The answer is: "the one aspect not enough to sustain a pearl fishery--due to its high salt of culture." Once they realized that, U1ey would have and silt content]; Olivella beads (Sanders, Spiro); Mar been forced to revise their paragraphs, if not their entire ginella beads (Sanders); spatulate celts (all but Alto); flint paper, because the common elements they mention (sub blades with recurved edges and straight to concave base, sistence base, horticultural techniques, economic base, of form known as • Copena Point" in Southeast ( common settlement pattern, use of platform mounds, and ideol in Spiro, Alto, and Gahagan; possibly occur in Raley); ogy) add up to considerably more than one aspect of chipped and ground ad:zes or cells with nat sides and culture. They encompass, in 011e way or another, nearly sharp poLished bits (aJI foci): abrading stones of white the whole range of cuHure--which is why I keep insisting Catahoula sandstone (all foci); small arrow points with that the Arkansas Valley was not Caddoan. serrated edges, slim, needlelike tip, fla ring barbs, and bulb-shaped stem widest in the middle (all foci); side (6) As Prewitt (1974:83-85) notes, the Arkansas Val notched triangular arrow points (Gahagan). (At the 8th ley differs significantly from the Caddo area in climate, Caddo Conference Webb and Griffin agreed that these particularly rai.nfall and native vegetation. There is less specimens from Gahagan-there were three, of a "white rain in the Arkansas Valley in eastern Oklahoma and it material"--are imports from Cahokia. Brown con is less predictable so com horticulture would have been tributed the information that similar specimens were more difficult there than in the Red River Valley. found in the Craig Mound at Spiro. See Davis, Wyckoff and Holmes 1971 :56}. (7) When we come right down lo it, the evidence--such as it is---upon which the Northern Caddoan Area When it came to basic domestic and ceremonial traits, paradigm rests consists of Caddoan pots in the Arkansas as opposed to small, transportable artifacts, Krieger Valley and Middle Mississippian prestige goods in the could not point to any specific similarities between the Caddo area, both actually the work of Spiroan traders. Arkansas Valley and the Caddo area. What he actuaJly As Story (1978:56-57) has observed, the boundaries of notes, mostly, are differences between Spiro and the Caddo area, as it was defined in the early years of Sanders, on the one hand, and the Red River Valley Caddoan archeology, were based "in actual practice, Caddoan sites on the other: "Sanders and Spiro burials primarily• on the distribution of Caddoan pots. In 1949 were crowded into small graves, whereas those of Haley Krieger made it quite clear that this was the case, stating and Gahagan were placed parallel in rows in very large that the five geographical "foci" of his newly created pits, usually with one or more skeletons laid at right early Caddoan "Gibson Aspect" (Spiro, Sanders, Alto, angles to the main row and, and the grave offerings placed Haley and Gahagan) were "Primarily ... bound together in piles against the pit walls" ( 1946:214}. "Alto and by a closely interrelated ceramic tradition ... "(Newell and Haley houses were circular and very large... . In no case Krieger 1949: 194; Fig 19, Fig. 62 and Map l). He went has an entrance way other than one or more spaces on to say, citing his Cultural Complexes and Chronology between wall posts been discovered [that is no longer in Northern Texas (1946:214~215}: • ... but important true, of course; see, for example, Webb 1959} nor bas non-ceramic and burial traits a]so tie them together in any definite arrangement of interior posts.... Spiro diverse ways. " Those who follow up his reference to see houses were square to rectangular, large and sturdily built ., what traits he had in mind will discover that, except for with walls oriented along cardinal directions; they had a few traits like cells and small arrow points that are too two or four large central support posts, plastert:d floors, widespread in the Southeast to carry much weight in covered entranceway(sic) extending from one of the long comparisons of this Jc.ind, h.is list of artifacts or artifact sides, ... E ntranceway posts were set either individually types that co-occur in the Arkansas Valley and the or in trenches.• (1946:214-215). Krieger listed burial Caddoan area amounts to what I would call a bill oflading mounds and temple mounds as common elements, which for trade goods that were passing through the Sanders they are, broadly speaking, but we now know for a fact entrepot on their way to or from Spiro. "Some of the tllat the burial mounds and platform mounds of the most important traits of this aspect," Krieger wrote Arkansas Valley are significantly different from those of (1946:215), "with the foci in which they occur most the Caddo area (See above, this paper. See also, Bell regularly are: effigy pipes of human and animal forms, 1972:259-260; 1984:239 and Bell in Davis, Wyckoff and made of beautifully polished stone and pottery (Spiro, Holmes 1971 :58-62). Gahagan, Haley); long-stemmed pottery pipes with tiny, Volume IV. Number 2 In a paper published since the conference, Kidder peoples. (For the latter see Creel 1991; Spielmann (I 993; see also Perttula 1992: 164) has finally removed 199la,b; Speth 1991; Baugh 1991.) from the Caddo area that other major spuriously Caddoan regional-temporal construct, the Glendora "focus." Furthermore, as Maynard Cliff pointed out to me after There too, James A. Ford's mistaken identification of the reading my latest paper on Spiro (Schambach 1993), Keno and Glendora sites, and the whole Lower Ouachita Flannery (1968) has'constructed a model, based in part Valley, as Caddoan was based on traded Caddoan pottery on the Chilkat Tlingit\ Athabascan trading relationship (Kidder 1993;233-234). Evidently the "thriving trade" noted above (see McClellan 1953), that in many ways in traditional ceramics for which the Natchitoches and matches and, I think, supports the one I proposed for the other Red River Caddo groups were well known in the Spiroan phenomenon. As he puts it: eighteenth century (Perttula 1992: 168) had roots deep in the past. " ...data from several parts of the world suggest The old Glendora material of the Ouachita Valley is that a special relationship exists between con now considered Tunican and/or Koroan (Perttula sumers of exotic raw materials and their sup 1992:164). This is interesting considering that in 1952 pliers, especially when the suppliers belong to a Orr (1952:252)wrote: "Fort Coffee [which we now know society which is only slightly less stratified than to be the domestic side of the Spiro and, I would say, that of the consumers. First, it seems that the Harlan phases] has ceramic similarities with Glendora, upper echelon of each society often provides the including swollen neck bottles and negative elements entrepreneurs who facilitate the exchange. surrounded by hatchuring." Second, the exchange is not "trade" in the sense that we use the tenn, but rather is set up through (8) Perhaps this commerce wasn't unparalleled. In a mechanisms of ritual visits, exchange of wives, paper that appeared shortly after the Caddo conference, "adoption" of members of one group by the other, O'Brien (1993) has proposed that the Steed-Kisker phase and so on. Third, there may be an attempt on the people of the Kansas City area were acting as middlemen part of the elite of the less sophisticated society to in a similar commerce between people of the Central adopt the behavior, status trappings, religion, Plains and Cahokia. In that paper she discusses the symbolism, or even language of the more "universal" problem of documenting "invisible trade in sophisticated group--in short to absorb some of foodstuffs and other perishable commodities" which is, their charisma. Fourth, although the exchange I presume, the problem Brown was referring to when he system does not alter the basic subsistence pattern criticized my interpretation of the Spiro phenomenon for of either group, it may not be totally unrelated to relying too much on what he called "negative evidence." subsistence. It may, for example, be a way of As O'Brien (1993:73) puts it: "Although we may lack establishing reciprocal obligations between a concrete [archeological) evidence of trade in food and group with an insecure food supply and one with clothing ethnohistoric evidence documents their exist a perennial surplus"(l968: 105). ence in the Southeast. " (9) Brown attacked my argument that · the Spiroan (IO) Robert Brooks commented that by posing trade in phenomenon was based on the trading of fiber, fat and bison products as the basis for the Spiro phenomenon, I protein by stating that-- according to my notes and am overemphasizing the importance of bison in the memory--: "If one reads the ethnographic literature, one Arkansas Valley tradition. That does not surprise me finds that most people in North America were able to because the idea that bison were unimportant until after provision themselves." But were they? As Spielmann the collapse ofSpiro and the beginning of the Fort Coffee ( 1991 b: 1-2) points out, that has been the conventional "focus" is one of the mainstays of the Northern Caddoan wisdom. But during the last ten years it has been area paradigm (Schambach 1993: 196-198). Arkansas demonstrated that even the nonhierarchical societies of Valley specialists must defend it or abandon the North America and elsewhere were "rarely self-sufficient paradigm. All l need to say in response is that the with regard to subsistence and other basic material evidence I present for bison usage during the Harlan and resources. In fact, such societies often engage in a wide Spiro phases is the same evidence that they have tradi variety of exchange relations in order to gain access to tionally accepted in support of idea that the people of the various material items." Among the North American Fort Coffee "focus" were bison hunters par excellence. peoples who were periodically or regularly exchanging The only change is that it has now become apparent, due "dietary supplements" or "dietary staples" (Spielmann mainly to a radiocarbon dating proj ect carried out by 1986:Table 3) are the Netsilik/[nglulik, the Haida/Tlin Rohrbaugh (1982,1984), that the Fort Coffee "focus· git, the Chilkat Tlingit/Athabascans, th~ was a spurious construct consisting mostly, if not entire Nunamiut/Thremiut, the Southern Plateau tribes and the ly, of all the habitation sites of the Harlan and Spiro tribes of the Northern Plateau, Great Basin and Northwest phases. For decades Arkansas Valley specialists have Coast, the Yavapai/Yumans, the Huron/Algonk.ians, the been systematically misclassifying these sites on the basis various Plains horticulturalists and Plains of the rule of thumb that all assemblages with bison hunter/gatherers and --most pertinent to the Spiro case bones, bison bone tools, bison processing tools and the Southern Plains hunter/gatherers and the Pueblo shell-tempered pottery were Fort Coffee "focus." In so doing they failed to notice, or wonder why, they were -23- CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY NEWSLETTER not finding Harlan and Spiro phase habitation sites (ex some of the way-stations the Spiroan porteurs must have cept Robert Bell; se.e below, the end ofthls note). Indeed used. they excluded from discuiision-on the scientifically un acceptable grounds that they were anomalous- the (13) As James Brown pointe -24- - Volume TY. Number 2 Trees grown in such soils are straight grained compared (18) In a recent paper in which she interprets the to trees grown in the uplands which tend to have twisted Steed-Kisker phase in much the same way I am interpret grain patterns. Modem bowyers claim that only straight ing Spiro, i.e., as middlemen in a vast trade network that grained trees grown in river bottom soils are suitable for involved Mississippian villagers to the east of them and bows (Waldorf 1985: 5). Plains buffalo hunters to the west ofthem, O'Brien ( 1993: 74, 78) notes the trade of a "slave girl" on the Plains in The trade in Osage orange bows that Swanton postu the historic period and makes the interesting suggestion lated for the Hasinai in the sixteenth century, and for that "Given the levels of human sacrifice practiced at which the Kadohadacho were famous in the seventeenth Cahokia, slaves may also have moved through this net century probably had roots deep in the prehistoric past work... ". See also her map (Fig. 11) showing a trail (Swanton 1942:192-193). We know from prehistoric system that linked Spiro with Cahokia. specimens from burials at the Mounds Plantation site in northwestern Louisiana and the Bowman site in south (19) I did not read this part of the paper at the western Arkansas the Caddo were using Osage orange conference, due to lack of time. I include it here, as it bows by A.D. 1050 (Webb 1984:18). There are frag was written, because the Nagle site figured prominently ments of Osage orange bows in the Chance and Spencer in the discussion that followed my paper. collections from this site . (20) Brooks stated that physical anthropologist (16) This effigy is from the Mclemore site in central Douglas Owlsley 's reexamination of the Nagle site skele Oklahoma (Pillaert 1963: Plate XVI). As Dan Morse tal population indicated the people buried at Nagle were informed me, it is typical of the specimens that Phillips, "starving to death" (his exact words, according to my Ford and Griffin (1951: 167; Table 4: 196) referred to as notes), a condition that be (Brooks) did not believe to be "man-bowls" or "Chacmool" effigies. These are most consistent with my hypothesis that they were traders common in the Cumberland area but they also occur in from Spiro occupying what would presumably have been northeastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri and a well established Plains entrepot. I doubt that the there are specimens from Moundville and from south forthcoming report by Owlsley that Brooks referred to western Indiana. will contain that diagnosis because death by starvation is not something that can be determined from skeletons. It The bowl was not the only import at the site. Pillaert happens too quickly to register in the bones. Owlsley (1963 :42) lists as additional evidence that "the people of may have found that under X ray examination the bones the McLemore site were in contact with alien populations show "Harris lines," which are indicators of periods of with whom they traded and borrowed ideas"... "flint dietary stress during childhood. These are quite common from native quarries in Texas and north central Ok in American Indian skeletons. They reflect seasonal lahoma, marine conch-shells from the Gulf of Mexico shortages, generally during the Spring, when stored and steatite whose most likely source would have been foods were running out and new supplies were not yet Cherokee County, South Carolina.• There was also an available. People generally survived these lean times but Olivella shell that could have come from the Gulf Coast they were registered in the bones of growing children or the Pacific Coast. (who need more protein than adults) as periods of inter rupted growth. (17) Jenna Kuttrufrs article (1993) on "Caddoan"--the Northern Caddoan area paradigm continues to obfuscate In the paper from which this one was drawn (Scham -textiles from Spiro and the Oz.arks appeared after I read bach 1993:207), I cite some of Owlsley's recently pub this paper. Kathy Cande noticed and pointed out to me lished observations on the Nagle site skeletons. They Kuttrufrs observations about red cloth at Spiro, which represent (he writes, in Owlsley and Jantz 1989: 140 and are as follows: "Unlike the colors of yellow and brown, OwI sley 1989: I 3 1) a population with "a totally different the number of possible sources of red dye is limited in set of health problems" than those exhibited by popula North America ... and its use may have been restricted to tions from other Central Plains sites, namely "a severe individuals of higher status. Madder (most likely a mortality profile, associated with pronounced evidence species of Galium or bedstraw) and cochineal (Dac of bone disease." These conditions, he notes, are indica tylopius coccus) are the principal sources of red dye in tive of dietary deficiencies, possibly scurvy, and a this area. Madder, which has been identified in at least syphilis-like bone disease. As Alice Brues (1 957) ., one example of Spiro textiles. .. , would have been avail pointed out in her original report on these skeletons, the able in the southeastern United States, but cochineal scurvy was probably due, not to starvation, but to certain would probably have required importation from the small deviations from the nonnal Plains Villager diet American Southwest or from Mexico" (Kuttruff such as eating liver cooked rather than raw, or failing to 1993: 140). This certainly doesn' t mean that Spiroan include enough squash in a diet based on vitamin C traders were importing cochineal or cochineal dyed cloth deficient foods such as com, bison meat and tallow. from the Southwest, but it is an interesting possibility. These small but, for some, serious and perhaps some And what about the madder dyed cloth? Given the times fatal, errors strike me as exactly the kinds of apparent scarcity of red cloth in archeological contexts mistakes a group of Spiroan traders from eastern Ok from eastern North America, would it be more reasonable lahoma might have made while trying to maintain a to assume that it was made locally, or that it was trading post in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar imported? foods. -25- CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY NEWSLETTER (21) Brooks said he thinks the Nagle site people were There are lots of things in archeology that can't be not traders but "refugees" from eastern Oklahoma, al explained but the Nagle site isn' t one of ahem. All that though he didn ' t say what event or situation they were is needed is the right parndigm. While the Nagle site fleeing in eastern Oklahoma al the time (A.D. 1300 - makes no sense as a place where Spiroan refugees, fleeing 1390) he mentioned. J think it would be difficult to blindly into the wilderness for no discernible reason, construct an archeologically and ethnographically finally went to ground , it would have been a good base plausible scenario based on that idea, particularly if one for Spiroan traders interested in uealing with the Washita works within the parameters of the Northern Caddoan River phase people of central Oklahoma. This would Area paradigm. The difficulty would lie in getting account for the "true trade ware" (Brooks 1987:97-98) around one of its maj or premises: that there was no pots of Spiro Engraved or Hickory Eng raved, and per contact between Spiroan people and Plains people until haps Sanders Plain, that reached central Oklahoma the middle of the fifteenth century. Assuming that some Washita River phase sites like the Arthur site about the acceptable reason could be adduced for the exodus that lime the Nagle site burials were emplaced. It would also Brooks proposes (was it a mass movement or was it just explain lhe cut shell beads (J doubt that these were made the group represented by the sixteen skeletons at Nagle?), locally; 1 thin.le they came from a Central Mississippi why would Fourteenth Century Spiroans (there seems to Valley bead factory) and the Mississippian human effigy be no doubt that they were Spiroans) have decided to fl~ bowl, the latter from the Tennessee-Cumberland area west into unknown territory? Since they were supposed (Pillaert 1963: Plate XVI; Bell 1984:322) from the ly Caddoans, why didn't they move south to take refuge McLemore site. How would the "refugee hypothesis" with other Caddoans? account for the occurrence of these Caddoan and Missis sippian specimens so far from home in west central Oklahoma? -26-