Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

178 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
ever, appears to be low in light of the extensive
amateur and professional work conducted in
western Iowa to date.
Currently, no earth lodge sites are known north
of the Kullbom Village (13 MLIO) (Figure 29).
In an intensive survey of the Waubonsie watershed,
located approximately 9 miles (14.5 km)
south of Glenwood and in a similar environmental
setting, only one cluster of three earth lodges
was found (Hotopp, Rhodes, and Semken, 1975).
The failure to locate more lodges in an ecologically
similar environment strongly supports Anderson's
(1961) restricted spatial definition of the
Glenwood locality.
One explanation for the restricted distribution
of lodges on the Iowa side of the Missouri River
may lie in the limited timber resources available
further upstream. Pierre Tabeau's narrative of
Loisel's 1803-1805 expedition describes a change
in the vegetation north of the Platte River (Abel,
1939:66): "The two banks of the Missouri are
well wooded as far as the approaches to the River
Platte .... Then vast and high prairies, separated
from the river by low and humid plains, present
to the eye a monotonous expanse." In a later
passage, Tabeau reiterates the point (Abel,
1939:69) that "the Missouri, at least from the
River Platte almost up to the Ricaras [probably
near the Grand River in South Dakota], cannot
be suitable for a large settlement and that the
lack of wood alone would be more and more an
insuperable obstacle." Tabeau's comments about
the Indian's dependence on wood is particularly
applicable to sedentary and semi-sedentary societies.
In a paper by Griffin (1976:35), timber was
identified as the most critical resource and the
one most exploited by a population:
Timber was necessary for building and maintaining earthlodges,
for other structures external to these dwellings, and
was necessary for cooking, heating, and such manufacturing
techniques as firing pottery.
The large quantity of timber required in lodge
construction was demonstrated by Scullin, who
reconstructed a Hidatsa lodge as a bicentennial
project following plans drawn by Wilson (1934).
Scullin's project involved the construction of a
full-scale replica of one lodge, the entryway of a
second, and roughly 100 feet (30.5 m) of palisade.
When completed, approximately 1000 logs were
used, ranging from 8 to 14 feet (2.4 to 4.3 m) in
length and 4 to 14 inches (10 to 36 cm) in
diameter (Scullin, in litt., 1977).
Timber availability and distribution should
closely correlate with the observed settlement pattern
in a locality. The majority of the lodges in
the Glenwood area are located adjacent to Pony
Creek. A second concentration of lodges is located
in the vicinity of Horse Creek, a tributary to Keg
Creek. Both the Pony and Horse Creek watersheds
consist of small, highly dissected valleys.
The locations of numerous lodges in these watersheds
indicates that they were well timbered
at the time of occupation. Orr's (1963, 10:4)
comments are pertinent.
According to the evidence of the oldest settlers now living,
all the rough areas of the Missouri, with the exception of the
sharp crests of the divides near, and steep bluff sides facing,
the river, was well, sometimes heavily, timbered. East of the
river the rough country merged rapidly into rolling upland,
mostly prairie ....
One WPA project in the 1930s was the compilation
of the original land survey notes, dating
from the establishment of township and section
lines throughout the Iowa territory, and reconstruction
of the forest cover in Iowa as described
in these notes. The resulting forest cover map for
Mills County (Figure 30) clearly illustrates a belt
of timber transecting Pony and Keg Creek watersheds.
This timbered area closely agrees with
the known distribution of lodges (Figure 29). At
the time of the Central Plains occupation, approximately
A.D. 1050-1250, the forest cover probably
was slightly denser, especially along the ridge
tops on both sides of Pony Creek northward to
the forks of the creek. This interpretation is based
upon the number of lodges bordering the stream,
both on the footslope-terrace contact and on the
adjacent ridge spurs. The only lodge-remains
north of the fork of Pony Creek are situated along
the tributary nearest the Missouri River valley.
The bluffline adjacent to the Missouri floodplain