Florence-A chert end scrapers from the Lasley Vore (34TU65), Deer Creek (34KA3) and Longest (34JF1) sites and the eighteenth-century southern Plains hide trade

Abstract

The importance of stone end scrapers in southern Plains artifact assemblages increased from AD 1200 to the mid-1700s. With Native involvement in the French hide trade, beginning in the early eighteenth century, end scrapers of Florence-A chert underwent a series of changes designed to lessen the costs of hide production (Vehik et al. [2010]. The Plains Hide Trade: French Impact on Wichita Technology and Society. In Across a Great Divide, edited by Laura L. Scheiber and Mark D. Mitchell, pp. 149–173. University of Arizona Press, Tucson). Using data from the earlier study plus more recent analyses of other sites, we reinvestigate earlier ideas and introduce additional thoughts about how end scraper technology changed with Native involvement in the European world economy. Results reaffirm many of the earlier conclusions regarding technological changes in Florence-A chert end scrapers. We also explore unanticipated impacts of site formation processes, complexities of end scraper maintenance, and the ramifications of changing roles in the bison hide trade.

KEYWORDS:

• End scrapers
• Bison hide trade
• Wichita Indians
• world economy
• French
• southern Plains

Acknowledgements

The Oklahoma Archeological Survey and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University have supported the excavations at Bryson-Paddock, Deer Creek, and Longest. Several joint University of Oklahoma/Oklahoma State archaeological field schools and student researchers were involved with excavation and analysis. The Oklahoma Anthropological Society participated in the excavations at all three sites as well. The landowners of Bryson-Paddock, Terry and Carla Cheek and Rose and Don Paddock have supported our years of excavation all over their fields and pastures. The Longest family was enthusiastic in allowing our excavations in the middle of one of their fields. The Tulsa District US Army Corps of Engineers funded work at Uncas and Deer Creek. They also are custodians of the Lasley Vore site collections. The Kansas Historical Society loaned collections from their excavations at 14RC9 and 14RC420 (Little River focus sites). Those excavations were assisted by members of the Kansas Anthropological Association. The Kansas Historical Society also provided the end scraper data from their years of work at Lower Walnut focus sites. Data from Waldo Wedel’s excavations at Little River focus sites were collected through a Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellowship to the senior author. We also thank the Wichita and Affiliated tribes for their encouragement and support of our research efforts at these ancestral Wichita sites.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Raw scraper data for Little River focus sites with the exception of 14RC9, all Lower Walnut focus sites, Bryson-Paddock, surface collections from Deer Creek, and all but the 2013 excavations at the Longest site are available in Cleeland (2008). The rest are available from the senior author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan C. Vehik

Susan C. Vehik received her PhD from the University of Missouri in 1975. She is professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Her research focus is on political and economic organization during the period AD 1400–1825 on the southern Great Plains. Correspondence to: Susan Vehik, 2622 S. Pickard, Norman, Oklahoma 73072, USA. Email: [email protected]

Richard R. Drass

Richard R. Drass received his PhD in 1995 from the University of Oklahoma. He is a research archaeologist emeritus at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, University of Oklahoma, Norman. He has over 40 years of experience in southern Plains archaeology. His research interests include paleoethnobotany, development of Plains Village and Protohistoric cultures, and geophysics in settlement studies. Current research includes study of Protohistoric Wichita villages and the construction of fortifications.

Stephen M. Perkins

Stephen M. Perkins received his PhD from Arizona State in 2000. He is currently an associate professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. His research interests are in the ethnohistory of Mexico and the southern Plains.

Sarah Trabert

Sarah Trabert received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Iowa. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman. Her work centers on understanding the indirect and direct consequences that European colonialism had on Native peoples living on the Great Plains.