Pipe forms and regional interaction spheres in the Great Plains and U.S. Southwest: A view from Scott County Pueblo (14SC1)

Abstract

We use pipe forms at Scott County Pueblo (14SC1), a seventeenth-century multiethnic community in western Kansas with Ndee (Dismal River) and Puebloan residents, to consider the community’s position within multiple regional interaction spheres. We first present a broad regional overview of Central/Northern Great Plains and Midwest, Northern Rio Grande, and Ndee pipe forms in the AD 1500–1700 period, tabulating the presence and absence of specific forms at 14 archaeological sites, before classifying two complete pipes and 49 identifiable pipe fragments recovered from 14SC1. Our pipe form comparisons better distinguish Ndee pipes from other forms than previous literature and confirm that 14SC1 pipes are fully consistent with the documented Ndee and Puebloan occupations at the site. Ceremonial beliefs and practices around smoking at 14SC1 were shared with other Ndee communities and the Northern Rio Grande region, presumably cementing regional relationships that facilitated the movement of other material culture and people. Although Dismal River territory extended into the Central Plains, we find almost no material evidence of diplomatic, social, or ceremonial engagement with Caddoan-speaking groups such as the Sahnish (Arikara), Čariks i Čariks (Pawnee), and kirikir?i:s (Wichita) peoples and Siouan-speaking groups to the northeast. We suggest that these differences in external relationships along the eastern and western Dismal River frontiers are linked to the history of Ndee migration.

KEYWORDS:

•  pipes
• smoking
• Ndee
• Apache
• Dismal River
• Northern Rio Grande
• Puebloan

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the staff at the Kansas Historical Society, University of Kansas, History Nebraska, and Smithsonian Institution for their support and encouragement during this project. Details from Pipe and Pipe Tools and Pipe Making by John Saul (1878–1971, Yanktonai Sioux) in Figure 4 appear courtesy of Center for Western Studies, Augustana College. We also appreciate feedback from editor Bill Billeck and two anonymous reviewers, which greatly improved the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this project was provided by National Science Foundation Grant (# 1316758) (to MEB and ST), Smithsonian Institution Graduate student fellowship (to ST), AIA-NEH Grant for Archaeological Research (to MEH and MEB), and University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (to MEH and MEB).

Notes on contributors

Margaret E. Beck

Margaret E. Beck is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Her research interests include households, cooking technologies, and raw materials for craft production. She has conducted ethnoarchaeological research in the Philippines, United States, and India. Her archaeological work includes studies of ceramic manufacture and use in the U.S. Great Plains and Southwest. Correspondence to: Margaret E. Beck; Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.

Sarah J. Trabert

Sarah Trabert is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Her research centers on understanding how Indigenous communities on the Great Plains responded to the many direct and indirect effects of settler colonialism.

Matthew E. Hill

Matthew E. Hill is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. His research focuses on issues of human-environmental interactions on a landscape scale across various environmental settings and time periods.