Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 30 177
N
SELECTED
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
GLENWOOD LOCALITY
HULLS COUNTY, IOWA
FIGURE 29.—Distribution of lodges in the Glenwood locality. Mills County, Iowa.
m) (Larimer, 1957:289). Pony Creek flows into
Keg Creek on the Missouri floodplain. The Keg
Creek watershed is more substantial, draining a
190-square-mile (492-km^) area of Mills County
with a floodplain averaging six-tenths of a mile
(966 m) (Larimer, 1957:289). The well-developed
terraces of Keg Creek appear to offer a more
desirable location for lodges, but the majority of
lodge sites are concentrated adjacent to Pony
Creek. Lodges are also reported at the mouths of
small east-west hollows, exiting directly onto the
floodplain of the Missouri (Anderson, 1961:54;
Proudfit, 1881b:273).
The Glenwood locality therefore conforms to
the "small space" requirements of the locality as
defined by Willey and Phillips, and is substantially
more limited in area than the distribution
of Central Plains sites in Iowa postulated by
Keyes (1951). Keyes estimated that Central
Plains materials extended 100 miles (161 km)
along the western border of Iowa, from the Missouri
state line north to mid-Monona County.
"Apparently a walk of thirty minutes, or less,
from any one of these houses would have brought
an occupant to a full view of the six-mile-wide
flood plain of the Missouri River" (Keyes,
1951:340).
Keyes' predicted distribution of lodges has not
been demonstrated, however. The lack of supporting
evidence for an extensive distribution of
localities on the Iowa side of the Missouri River
is perplexing when compared to the distribution
demonstrated by Paul Cooper's 1938 fieldwork
(1939:151) in eastern Nebraska:
The cultural traits manifested by the villages in this region
north of Omaha are very similar to those of sites farther to
the south, and are unquestionably referable also to the
Nebraska Culture. This manifestation is thus demonstrated
as having a wide distribution in eastern Nebraska, extending
along the entire eastern border of the state and for an
uncertain distance to the west.
Keyes' estimated extent of Nebraska sites in Iowa
was based on surface collections from several
counties along the bluffs. As intensive surveys are
conducted north of Mills County, it is possible
that additional Nebraska phase lodges will be
located. The potential for finding another locality
on the Iowa side comparable to Glenwood, how-