Oneota Outpost
Farm Connections to Blood Run
This is the first in a series of four posts that describe how Lone Tree Farm is related to Blood Run National Historic Landmark (NHL). The associated Good Earth State Park has displays that describe the archaeology and interpretations of Oneota lifeways at Blood Run. Good Earth is east of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, just across the Big Sioux River from the main part of the NHL and the Farm is located on the Minnesota/Iowa state line about 30 miles east of Good Earth and Blood Run. This first post will be a general overview, the next two will look at specific artifacts, and the last post will document similarities in the landscape settings.
Both Blood Run and the Farm are multi-component sites that were occupied by people of the Oneota cultural tradition in the 1600s. Both locations have evidence for processing bison and growing corn. There are some unique artifacts found at both places and the landscape setting is very similar. Although these are all simple declarative statements, the reality of the data and the interpretations is much less clear-cut and much more nuanced. Still, there is a sense, a “vibe”, that the two places are closely related.
Figure 1----Artifacts that indicate Lone Tree Farm is a multi-component archaeological site. A) A projectile point that’s almost 10,000 years old. B) A piece of pottery that’s about 1,000 years old.
Multi-component archaeological sites have “stacked” records that go far back into deep time. The sites at Blood Run do extend along the Big Sioux River, but the sites at the Farm are much more confined to a smaller area. The report on artifacts from the Farm identifies some really old projectile points (aka arrow heads) that go back thousands of years. For example, one is Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic which corresponds to ca. 8500-7500 BC (Figure 1-A). There are half a dozen other arrow heads that range through the Archaic to the Late Archaic/Early Woodland which brings the record up to ca. 1300-200 BC. But, the evidence for old stuff isn’t just found in arrow heads.
Ceramics are used to tell more detailed time in the archaeological record. We found two pieces of pottery (Figure 1-B) that archaeologists have identified as associated with the Great Oasis culture. Other Great Oasis sites have been excavated near Sioux City, IA, along the Big Sioux River and they date to about 1200 AD. So, the pottery is much younger than the arrow heads, but still older than the Oneota occupation at Blood Run which only goes back to about 1600 AD. Clearly, people have lived along Kanaranzi Creek at the Farm for a very long time. However, there is also evidence on the Farm for activity around 1600 AD.
Figure 2----The record of ancient animals and plants on the Farm. A) Bison skull. B) Possible prehistoric corn cobs.
Eroding Creek banks in the Farm pasture have released a lot of bison bones including three skulls. One of those skulls (Figure 2-A) was collected directly from where it was exposed on the steep alluvial bank. That skull has been dated using radiocarbon at 1600 AD so it provides a fairly tight tie to Blood Run. Dates from other bones range from about 1750 back to 1300 AD. Those older dates approximately match the time of the Great Oasis culture, which means that both Oneota and Great Oasis are reflected in the dated bones. In addition, some of the bison bones show cut marks consistent with butchering and at least one of the bones has been shaped into a tool. However, both cultures hunted bison and consequently the bison bones don’t provide an unambiguous tie to Blood Run.
People in both cultures also raised corn, so radiocarbon dates from corn cobs might help to document an Oneota cultural presence. And, we do have corn cobs collected from along the Creek at the Farm (Figure 2-B). We think that they might be old because they have about 8-10 rows on each cob rather than the 14-16 rows that modern corn has. Unfortunately, two dates from the cobs came back as “modern” so that adds to the confusion. It’s been suggested that the cobs from the Creek are from a variety of historic sweetcorn that has a row count similar to ancient corn. But, it’s inconclusive. We’re currently in the process of looking into some possible genetic testing that might at least establish if it’s a prehistoric variety of corn and then try resampling the cobs for another round of radiometric dating.
Figure 3----Distinctive artifacts from the Farm. A) Modified piece of catlinite/pipestone. B) Round rock similar to those from Blood Run.
Objects crafted from red pipestone are a distinctive characteristic of Blood Run and other Oneota sites. In particular, the unique material called catlinite was quarried about 60 miles north of Blood Run and still is quarried today at Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. Several pieces of catlinite have been collected at the Farm, including one that shows signs of “sawing and snapping” (Figure 3-A). That suggests that pieces of catlinite were worked there as a part of the fabrication of special objects of art. Although we’ve not found (yet!) any fragments of pipes or tablets on the Farm like those found at Blood Run, the potential exists and it adds another layer of possible connections between the two areas.
Round rocks or stone spheres have been found at both Blood Run and the Farm (Figure 3-B). There are scattered references throughout the archaeological literature about round rocks from a variety of cultures, times, and locations in the Midwest. Speculation about their use has included gaming pieces, hammer stones, tools used in tanning hides, and ceremonial objects. I’ve looked at four or five sperate collections from Blood Run and all of them have included round rocks. I was digging through these collections because I was studying a particular type of artifact made from a specific type of material….knife blades or “bifaces” made of Bijou Hills Orthoquartzite which is also called Ogallala Orthoquartzite.
Figure 4----Gray and Nora Shurr found blades made of Bijou Hills Orthoquartzite on the Farm.
We’ve talked briefly about the Bijou bifaces earlier this fall and will go into a lot more detail in the next two posts. The following two paragraphs are basically a “teaser” for the later posts. When our grandkids (Figure 4) found two relatively pristine blades, it was a surprise because we thought that cattle would have stepped on them. In fact, one of the blades does have the tip broken off, but we’re thinking now that it may have been broken intentionally as a part of a ceremony. Bifaces made of Bijou Hills are an important part of the artifacts collected at Blood Run. The size and shape seem to be related to how they were used, for example in ceremonies or as every-day knives. Those ideas apply to the Blood Run collections, but Bijou bifaces are also found in archaeological sites to the west of the Farm and Blood Run in central South Dakota. However, the South Dakota sites are not related to the Oneota culture and have dates that approximate Great Oasis. So, the Bijou bifaces do provide another tie between the Farm and Blood Run.
Beyond the physical descriptions of the blades, there’s some intriguing speculation about their possible ceremonial uses. It’s been suggested that the mound complex at Blood Run was part of a revival of older traditions in a manner similar to the later Ghost Dance movement of the late 1800s. Maybe the Bijou blades were a part of a “missionary bundle” that characterized that religious revival? A similar suggestion has recently been made for the spreading of culture and ceremonies outward from the Indigenous population center at Cahokia located near St. Louis, MO, where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi. That “missionary” activity happened about 1200 years ago, long before the revival related to Blood Run. However, the “bundle” of attributes associated with that ancient revival does resemble things at Blood Run including distinctive artifacts, exotic lithic material, and earth works that show astronomical alignments. We know that Blood Run was a trade center in the 1600s. Maybe it was part of a “ritual economy” network and maybe the Farm was an Oneota outpost that was a node in that network?
Figure 5----One of the winning entries in the 2024 Good Earth State Park photography contest. Photo taken by Steve Johnson.
The landscape setting is another thing that the Farm shares with Blood Run. Both are located along streams, although the Big Sioux has a larger valley and Kanaranzi Creek is just a tributary to a tributary (viz. the Rock River). Both locations have evidence for occupation on the floodplains and natural springs along the hillslopes that lead to the uplands where tall grass prairie has been replaced by settlers’ agriculture and building. Maybe the landscape setting is another component of a “missionary bundle” that prescribed where occupation sites should be located?
The Farm and Blood Run also share a similar esthetic aspect. They are both great places to experience the calming effects of Nature (Figure 6) and build respect for the people who have lived here in the past. It’s also important to remember that the descendants of those people are still here living in urban areas like Sioux Falls as well as in rural areas where most reservation are located.
In conclusion, it is possible to make a case that people who followed the Oneota tradition lived at Lone Tree Farm….it’s just not an “air tight” case and includes some ideas that need a lot more work.
A word about sources: a number of professional archaeologists have been involved with the work on the Farm. However, none have been formally cited here because I didn’t want to embarrass them with an implication that they agree with my speculations. I’m unencumbered by the requirements of totally objective investigations because I don’t have a particular need to add to a bibliography, qualify for tenure or promotion, or score the next grant for an institution. Retirement has liberated me from those responsibilities and provided a freedom to explore alternative explanations and interpretations.
I hope that you folks all had a good holiday weekend!