Native Americans of Oklahoma

1. Native Americans of Oklahoma Ancient Peoples

2. Big Game Hunters • 25,000 (?) B.C. to 5000 B.C. – Paleo-Indians – the old ones – cultures were spread across the Americas and lasted several thousand years. • Burnham Site, Woods County, northwestern Oklahoma – possible evidence (flakes near a bison skull) of people from twenty-eight to thirty-four thousand years ago.

3. Big Game Hunters • Cooperton mammoth kill site in Kiowa County indicate dates from seventeen thousand to twenty-one thousand years ago. • Broken bones consistent with human activity, as well as rocks that could have been hammer stones, and an anvil stone were found.

4. Clovis People • Clovis site in New Mexico. • Hunted wild game, collected edible wild plants. • Made many types of tools – scrapers, drills, and knives, but best known for their spear points.

5. Clovis Spear Points • Many clovis points have been found in Oklahoma. • The Domebo site in Caddo County yielded many mammoth bones and spear points. • Mammoths have been extinct 10,000 years.

6. Cooper Bonebed Site • Cooper Bonebed in Harlan County, OK. • Dates between 10,200 and 10,800 years ago. • Residents noted bones sticking out of an eroding bank on the North Canadian River. • In 1992, archaeologists began looking at the site, and in 1993 found a Folsom spear point.

7. Folsom Spear Points • Different shape than the Clovis points. • Were made from stone normally found near Austin and Amarillo, Texas, as well as NW Kansas. http://www.nps.gov/alfl/ • Suggests mobile groups.

8. Cooper Bonebed • Residents noticed bones sticking out of North Canadian Riverbed. • Dates to 10,200 to 10,800 years ago. • Archaeologists arrive in 1992, by 1993 find Folsom point fragment. • Most startling find was the discovery of a bison skull with a red zigzag painted on it, suggesting clear evidence of ritual (dance and/or song?)

9. Cooper Bonebed • http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/vol21_for_12_2008/vol21_num2.pdf

10. The Foragers • 5000 B.C. to A.D. 1 • More in wooded, eastern Oklahoma • Used wooden digging sticks with fire-hardened tips. • Made baskets, nets, and string from plant fibers • Domesticated dogs

11. The Foragers • Used axes, hammerstones to shape tools, completed final forms by using sandstone, or sand. • The first evidence of the Atlatl, or dart throwers appear in this period. • http://www.thunderbirdatlatl.com/articles/tour/tour3.html

12. Calf Creek Culture • Between seven and four thousand years ago, the state experienced warm conditions and drought. • The Calf Creek people adapted to this culture. • Hunted bison, small game, gathered edible starchy plants plentiful in drought conditions.

13. Calf Creek Culture • Spearpoints • Knives • Scrapers • Deep hafting notches • Due to drought conditions, limited knowledge exists about these people.

14. Early Farmers • A.D. 1 to A.D. 1000 • Sunflowers, native squash and gourds, various weeds with seeds that could be harvested. • Grand River in NE OK, Ouachitas in SE OK, Canadian and Washita Rivers in Central, OK, and the Cimarron River in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

15. Early Farmers • Ground corn and other foods in sandstone grinding basins. • Pottery starts to come into play. • Tools of stone and wood. • By A.D. 500, small farming villages exist along the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand Rivers. • Prairies were unsuitable for farming.

16. Early Farmers • Selected places where mixed forest and prairie existed. • Prairies were mainly for hunting bison, deer, and other game. • Early houses included poles driven into the ground for a framework, cane walls, thatched roofs. Circular hearths, and trash pits were common.

17. Plains Village Farmers • A.D. 800 to A.D. 1400 • Bows and arrows used widely for game • Population expanded due introduction of three sisters from the south: • Beans • Corn • Squash

18. Plains Village Farmers • Food stored in underground cache pits. • Farming implements made from buffalo shoulder blades (hoes), and deer jaws (sickles). • Cook pots were used that could two or three gallons. • Clay figurines.

19. Plains Village Farmers • Buried their dead in cemeteries near villages. Allowed for study pre-NAGPRA. • Men averaged about 5’6” and women averaged about 5’1”. • Healthy. • Half of all deaths occurred between birth and age four.

20. Plains Village Farmers • One third of the population lived beyond age 30 • 17 percent reached the age of 50 or 60 • Major maladies included tooth decay and arthritis • Body was usually placed in a curled up position facing east. • Prominent people may have been buried with a few items such as pots, or items they used in life.

21. Roy Smith Site • From 1250 to 1450, people inhabited this site in Beaver County along the Beaver River in the semi-arid high plains region. • Walls were built of stone. • Cook rooms • Articles found that indicated trade with other plains and southwestern people.

22. Caddoan Mound Builders • A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1500 • Spiro is one of the most important Mississippian sites in North America. Located in eastern Oklahoma, the site is characterized by three types of mounds; one burial mound, two temple mounds, and nine house mounds; ceremonial plazas and supporting city environs.

23. Spiro Mounds • http://archaeology.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=archaeology&cdn=education&tm=22&gps=51_26_1020_572&f=00&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/counties/leflore.htm

24. Spiro Mounds • http://archaeology.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=archaeology&cdn=education&tm=50&gps=57_40_1020_572&f=00&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/spirocraigmoundpage1.htm

25. Early Historic Buffalo Hunters • A.D. 1500 to A.D. 1700 • After 1500, the climate in western Oklahoma became too dry for farming, and people turned to buffalo as their primary subsistence. • People lived in tipis to follow the buffalo. • Horses did not reach Oklahoma until around 1700.

26. Early Buffalo Hunters • Hunted the buffalo on foot • Eastern Oklahoma had a wetter climate, which farming easier, but • Eastern OK farmers would make periodic hunting trips to the west for buffalo, then returned to their villages. • Archaeologists have found many buffalo bone tools from this period.

27. Formation of Modern Tribes • Plains tribes had diversified enough to have different customs, beliefs, and languages. • Different tribes communicated with Plains sign language. • Plains Apache – Na-I-Sha • Ancestors of modern Wichita (Ouasitas, Taovayas, Tawakonis, Iscanis) • Caddo

28. Sources • Brooks, Robert L. and Claudette Marie Gilbert. From Mounds to Mammoths: A Field Guide to Oklahoma Pre-History. 2nd ed. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2000.