Read an Excerpt
The People of the River's Mouth
In Search of the Missouria Indians
By Michael Dickey
University of Missouri Press
Copyright © 2011 The Curators of the University of Missouri
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8262-1914-5
Chapter One
The Origins of the Missouria Woodland, Mississippian, and Oneota Cultures
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Oral tradition among the Missouria included creation stories that accounted for the tribe's origin. Combined with oral history, archaeology provides a method for tracing the historical roots of an ethnic group. Archeologically the Missouria are considered direct descendants of the Oneota. It was originally thought that the Oneota were the final phase of, or an outgrowth of, the Mississippian culture, which flourished from about A.D. 900 to 1500. The general consensus today is that the Oneota, especially the Missouria and other Chiwere-speaking tribes, developed from Woodland cultures in the upper Midwest around A.D. 1000. While contemporaneous with the Mississippian culture and perhaps influenced by it, the Oneota had an independent history but eventually succeeded and perhaps absorbed some of the Mississippians in much of the region.
The Mississippian civilization thrived along the great river systems of the central United States. Mississippians were a sedentary people, meaning their settlements were permanent. Mississippian towns featured large plazas and extensive, complex ceremonial and burial mounds made of earth and encircled by residential areas. Some of the highest mounds show evidence of having been homes of prominent leaders and their families, who were treated as descendants of a deity. Mississippians relied mainly on farming rather than hunting and gathering food. Archaeological evidence shows that maize (corn) was the staple crop and a variety of beans, squash, and pumpkins were also grown. The notched flint hoe was the primary agricultural tool. Hunters living in smaller outlying villages harvested game such as deer and bear and shipped the processed meat and hides to the larger towns.
Trade materials from across the North American continent reached their towns, including seashells from the Pacific and Gulf coasts, copper from the Great Lakes, obsidian flint from Idaho, and turquoise and pottery from the desert Southwest. In addition, some art forms, spiritual concepts, and ideas appear to have been shared via these trade networks.
The women made a wide variety of shell-tempered pottery that included jars, pots, plates, and bowls, some of it elaborately decorated. Ground mussel shells were added to the clay, which was then baked, to give a vessel more durability. Some of these ceramics have the shape of animals such as frogs, bears, dogs, bats, birds, snakes, or human heads and supernatural creatures. Many of these were made for specific sacred purposes. Even ceramics and earthenware made for everyday use were probably purposeful and reflective of the oral traditions of the people. Specialization in agriculture allowed skilled craftsmen, artisans, and tradesmen to develop in Mississippian society. Large numbers of flint blades and points, too finely finished and delicate to be used for hunting or warfare, were made for ceremonial use. Sheets of copper were made into ceremonial ornaments or detailed bas-relief plaques illustrating figures of legend and ceremonial importance. Some of these Mississippian art and ceremonial forms carried over into Oneota culture.
The Mississippians were a culture, not a tribe. They were probably not a unified people and likely spoke diverse languages. Their towns may have been like city-states, sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing with one another. Mississippians had sophisticated and complex religious and social structures based on the movements of constellations and the changing seasons. Figures on their pottery and copper bas-relief provide a good idea of their appearance and personal ornamentation, but despite abundant archaeological material, many aspects of their civilization remain a matter of speculation.
One of the great economic, political, and religious centers of Mississippian culture was the mound city at what is now Cahokia, Illinois. At its peak Cahokia contained over 200 mounds and 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, making it the largest Indian settlement north of Mexico. Cahokia State Historic Site, managed by the Illinois Historical Agency, has been declared a World Heritage Site. St. Louis, Missouri, was once nicknamed the "Mound City" because of the large number of Mississippian mounds there; however, all but one of these mounds have been destroyed by development. In 2009 the Osage Nation of Oklahoma purchased the last of them, Sugar Loaf Mound, to preserve it. Another major Mississippian town near New Madrid, Missouri, is preserved as Towasaghy State Historic Site and managed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Towasaghy means "Old Town" in the Osage language, although there is no tribal memory of its being occupied. The northernmost Mississippian complex is preserved in the 172-acre Aztalan State Park in southeastern Wisconsin. This complex may have influenced the development of the Oneota people who eventually became the Missouria, Ho Chunk, Otoe, and Ioway nations.
Mississippian towns show evidence of wood stockades with guard towers. The settlements may have been threatened by Indians from other towns or by nomadic bands. The towns were declining before the arrival of Europeans, and Cahokia appears to have been abandoned well before A.D. 1500. Environmental conditions may have contributed to the problem of growing enough food to sustain the large population centers. However it seems evident that the arrival of Europeans on the continent and the new diseases they brought hastened the final breakup and demise of the Mississippian towns.
Coinciding with the decline of the Mississippian towns was the rise of Oneota villages. Again the term Oneota describes a cultural group, not a tribe. Residents of small, scattered villages could more easily secure food from hunting and gathering, especially in the event of crop failure. The Oneota spread west from the Great Lakes area onto the prairies and plains to hunt bison. They continued farming, but hoes made of bison scapula replaced notched flint as the primary farming tool. Oneota women made shell-tempered pottery, but the forms were more utilitarian and somewhat less ornate than Mississippian ceramics. The Oneota were a semisedentary people. Their villages were occupied seasonally instead of year-round, primarily during the spring planting and the autumn harvest. The remainder of the year the Oneota spread out in clan groups, hunting or gathering edible plants. Deep cache pits were dug in the villages for storing dried corn for winter use. If the contents spoiled, the pits were then used for trash. These trash pits provide valuable information about the diet and lifestyle of the Oneota.
Villages were periodically relocated to access new resources. The Oneota cultural area was roughly bounded by the Missouri River valley in the west, the Minnesota River in the north, Lake Michigan in the east, and the St. Louis-Cahokia area in the south. The Oneota remained connected to a continental trade network, but it had also declined. Oneota sites contain some exotic materials but not in the abundance found at Mississippian sites. Such a decline would be normal in a transition from a centralized sedentary farming society to a decentralized semisedentary hunting and gathering society.
Many of the known Oneota sites in the state of Missouri are located on the south side of the Missouri River. Around A.D. 1450 a large Oneota village was established in present-day northern Saline County, Missouri, near Miami. This location comprises a series of high loess bluffs on the Missouri River, locally known as the "Pinnacles." Loess is an accumulation of windblown soil deposited as glaciers retreated during the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago.
This Oneota site is known as the Utz site, for the family that once owned and farmed the area. The Utz site is considered the premier Oneota site within Missouri. There are other and earlier Oneota sites in Saline County but none as large or as continuously occupied. The known boundary of the site encompasses over 300 acres, and it has been declared a National Historic Landmark. About half of it is protected within Van Meter State Park and administered by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The site coincides well with the location of the "Oumessourit" village identified on the maps of Father Marquette in 1673, Jean Baptiste Franquelin in 1684, and Guillaume DeLisle in 1718. The presence of European artifacts confirms some intermittent occupation of the site continued during the early trade period, possibly as late as 1723.
The location of Utz and other Oneota sites in the Midwest also coincides well with the migration traditions of the Otoe, Missouria, and Ioway. This tradition indicates an origin of the Chiwere-speaking people on the south shore of Green Bay in present-day Wisconsin. This area was called Máyan shúje (Red Earth). The clans came together and dwelt there before eventually becoming the tribes we know today. Major Jonathan Bean recorded a story told to him by an old, unnamed Otoe chief in 1826, here edited for ease of reading:
Long before the white man came to the country a large band of Indians, who inhabited the northern Great Lakes, being discontented, concluded that they would migrate to the southwest in pursuit of the buffalo. Near Lake Winnebago [Wisconsin] they divided, and the Ho Chunk [Winnebago] remained at Green Bay. The rest proceeded to the Mississippi River then followed it south. One band concluded to remain near the mouth of the Rock River. These were the Baxoje [Ioway] the Grey Snow People. The rest of the group continued southwest and reached the Missouri River at the mouth of the Grand River where they formed a large village. The peace of the village was disrupted by a quarrel. A young man of prominent family sought the marriage of a woman of similar family, but her family rejected the bridal payments. In defiance the young couple ran off together in the nearby forest. This was a serious breech of the formal marriage relationship. Learning of the relationship, the girl's father became angry. And threatened to attack the young man's family. However, the families and their followers, who separated into two distinct groups, settled the matter. One part of the village followed the young man and his kinsmen up the Missouri River. The young woman left her family and joined her lover. Because of this those who journeyed upstream were known as Wahtohtana "Those Who Make Love" (Otoes). They eventually settled near the Nemaha River and later, the Platte River. Those who stayed behind received the name Ñútá chi or Nyut^achi "People Dwelling [Where] Rivers Fork."
An Ioway tradition said the separation of the Missouria and Otoe happened at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Each clan had its own version of events. The variances in these traditions were of no consequence to the Missouria, Otoe, and Ioway. It was how they remembered events, they would simply say. Hundreds of years had passed between the time the migrations began and the time the stories were collected. Extended memories had faded and become clouded. In comparison, even modern archaeologists have differing theories of Oneota origins and migrations.
There are twenty-eight known Oneota sites in Saline County alone, although they may not all be connected to the Missouria. As the Chiwere speakers moved down from the north, the Dhegiha speakers probably moved up the Missouri River. No one is certain how rapidly these migrations occurred. The Chiwere- and Dhegiha-speaking groups undoubtedly interacted and moved multiple times prior to being "discovered" by Europeans as the tribes we know today. Besides the Utz site, Gumbo Point, eight miles to the west, was occupied starting around 1714. The smaller Utlaut archaeological site nearby may represent a clan or transitional village site. Gumbo Point and Utlaut are in the high bottomland prairie that is known today as the Pettisaw or Petit Osage Plains. The Petit (Little) Osage tribe also had a large village here that today is known as the Plattner archaeological site.
Archaeologists, beginning in 1906 with Gerard Fowke, have conducted extensive studies of the Utz site. The Utlaut and Gumbo Point sites have been less studied. About 90 percent of the Gumbo Point site was destroyed by river channelization and levee projects in the 1930s. J. M. "Buster" Crick, a founding member of the Missouri Archaeological Society, salvaged Gumbo Point artifacts during the channelization project, which are now on display at Arrow Rock State Historic Site. Other Oneota sites in Saline and Howard counties contain European trade materials but the sites have not been investigated enough to make any interpretation about their possible connection to any other historic tribe. However, it seems likely that some of these, as well as perhaps still undiscovered sites, are connected to the Missouria. A site in Chariton County examined by the National Park Service in 2009 may have connection to an "ancient village" of the Missouria mentioned by William Clark in 1804.
Some archaeologists think that the Missouria arrived at an already occupied Utz site. If this is the case, the Utz or the nearby earlier Guthrey site may be connected to the Dhegiha Siouan people, perhaps the early Osage. In 1699, Father Jean St. Cosmé wrote that the Osage had moved from the Missouri to the river that bore their name. Whether this was a seasonal or a permanent migration is not clear. The Little Osage especially show connection to the Orr Phase of Oneota culture and resided on the Missouri River until the late eighteenth century. Regardless of its origin, the Utz site clearly is connected to the early Missouria and demonstrates how they lived. Cultural patterns at Oneota sites throughout the Midwest are remarkably consistent, and the Missouria were definitely the last people to occupy the Utz site.
A prominent feature at the Utz site is an earthwork commonly known as the "Old Fort." Located on a ridge next to the village site, it is 1,000 feet long by 420 feet wide. W. Raymond Wood cut a trench through the north end of the feature in 1970 and determined the Oneota Missouria constructed it on top of a Woodland period site. The area is heavily timbered now, but soil profiles show the area was originally prairie. Originally, the perimeter ditches were six feet deep and the embankments were four feet high, suggesting that the earthwork could have been a defensive position to retreat to in the event of an attack. Indian fortifications usually had log palisades, but no evidence of postholes was found in the trench. It could have been a ceremonial area or possibly a lacrosse field. Táwe, lacrosse games, were played across North America and were far more than mere recreation. Ceremony and ritual preparation by the players preceded the games.
The Utz site demonstrates the transition from a Neolithic (Stone Age) culture to one that had acquired metal tools and implements through trade. Flint and bone weapons and tools decline when those made of iron, copper, and brass increase. This transition is not always distinct where the site has been excavated, but the relatively thin layer of trade materials indicates the Utz site was abandoned fairly soon after trade with Europeans began.
There are no creation stories that survive directly from early Missouria tradition. However, those of the related Otoe, Ioway, and Ho Chunk are similar enough to give a plausible idea of Missouria concepts. Mythology is a body of folklore, legends, and beliefs, often with ties to documented history, that a culture uses to explain its origins, natural events, and human behavior. In contemporary American society, myth is sometimes interpreted to mean a story with no basis in fact. However, use of the term here merely refers to the original definition. The "mythical time" in Siouan cultures simply refers to the time before humans, when they believed only supernatural beings and monstrous creatures inhabited the earth.
It is important to note that there are usually variations by clan of the same stories. Again the variations and disparities were of no consequence to the Missouria, Otoe, and Ioway. Truman Dailey once told an Otoe-Missouria creation story. It probably contains more Otoe than Missouria influence but still provides insight as to how the Missouria viewed their origins. Here it is edited for clarity:
Nothing existed in the beginning, except an abundance of water. It flowed everywhere pushing all life out of it. In time land appeared. Vegetation sprouted and forests grew to towering heights. Animals and birds dwelt in these forests and all life spoke the same language. From the life-giving waters the Bear Clan rose and came ashore, thinking they were the first people. But they were dismayed when they saw other tracks on the shore leading away from the water. The Bear Clan chased the Beaver Clan, whom they caught and intended to kill. The Beaver Clan was a diplomatic people and suggested to the Bear that they become brothers because life alone was so hard. The Bears agreed and the two clans lived in harmony, thinking they were the only people on the earth. Then they discovered the Elk. The Elks proposed that they become brothers, and the Bear and Beaver accepted them. The Sky People came through the sky opening and swooped down to earth where they found signs of the other three clans. The Eagles approached them as friends and again the number of clans grew. Each clan had knowledge that could be shared to help all of the clans. They called upon Wakanda the Creator to teach them how to live. He gave them a sacred pipe and gave each clan special knowledge and rights for using the pipe. The Buffalo, Snake, Owl and Pigeon Clans had their own sacred pipe. They offered their pipe in friendship to the others but the Bear rejected it. Eventually the Bear's heart softened and the two groups accepted each other's pipes, a sign of friendship and peaceful co-existence. This was how everything began.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The People of the River's Mouth by Michael Dickey Copyright © 2011 by The Curators of the University of Missouri. Excerpted by permission of University of Missouri Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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