Baffles and Stockades: Entryway Construction at Southern Plains Fortifications, A.D. 1500–1850

ABSTRACT

Southern Plains archaeologists have for years reported piecemeal data suggesting that ancestors of the Wichita Indians periodically built fortifications. Since 2003, we have conducted archaeological and geophysical investigations at multiple Late Prehistoric and European contact era fortified Wichita sites occupied between about a.d. 1500 and a.d. 1811. We seek to better understand the areal extent, timing, and structural changes associated with facilities that appear to have functioned as redoubts (Drass, Perkins, and Vehik 2018). In this article, we focus on how the Wichita constructed and secured fortification entryways. Given the inherent vulnerability of entryways, architects across the globe have designed a variety of defensive configurations to confound attackers. For the Wichita, the introduction of horses and guns beginning in the 1600s magnified these challenges. Our findings indicate that baffled gates, often paired with fenced extended entryways, facilitated quick entry by defenders and dependents while serving as impediments to hostile intruders.

KEYWORDS:

• Fortification entryway construction
• ancestral Wichita sites
• southern Plains
• geophysics
• baffled gates

Acknowledgments

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 much of the research reported in this article. Both universities have funded multiple month-long summer field school projects at the Bryson-Paddock and Deer Creek sites. The landowners of Bryson-Paddock, Terry and Carla Cheek, Rose Paddock (who died during one of our field seasons and is much missed) and Don Paddock, have provided continued support and encouragement for our years of excavations and geophysical research. In addition, the Oklahoma Anthropological Society has sponsored several digs at these same sites and the Longest fort. We appreciate the efforts of the many students and volunteers who have excavated with us over the years. We also appreciate the support of the entire Longest family during our excavations. Michelle Horn and the Tulsa Corps of Engineers provided permits for geophysical surveys and excavations at the Deer Creek site. Sarah Trabert, a valued colleague, is continuing research at Deer Creek, sharing information and expanding our understanding of this important fortified village. Scott Hammerstedt at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey conducted many of the valuable geophysical surveys of Wichita fortifications, and Jim Bruseth and Bill Pierson with the Texas Historical Commission ran extensive magnetometer surveys at the Bryson-Paddock site. Comments by two reviewers, the journal editor, and Sheila Bobalik Savage helped us clarify parts of this article. Finally, we thank the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes for their encouragement and support of our research efforts at these ancestral Wichita villages.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes on Contributors

Richard R. Drass (Ph.D. 1995, University of Oklahoma) is a Research Faculty emeritus at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, the University of Oklahoma, Norman. His research interests include paleoethnobotany, development of Plains Village and Protohistoric cultures in North America, and geophysics in settlement studies.

Susan C. Vehik (Ph.D. 1975, University of Missouri-Columbia) is Professor emerita at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Her research interests include warfare, economics, and politics of late pre- and early post-European North American Great Plains societies.

Stephen M. Perkins (Ph.D., 2000, Arizona State University) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. His interests include investigations of Indigenous societies in the U.S. southern Plains borderland.

ORCID

Richard R. Drass http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8990-3115

Susan C. Vehik http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0096-3491

Stephen M. Perkins http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2139-0143