40 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



When the archeologists can demonstrate the prehistoric horizons from 

 which each culture developed, the question may be answered. 



Our brief study of natural areas and tribal territories in Nebraska 

 also indicates a striking cultural adaptation on the part of all local 

 tribes to their particular geographic areas. Thus, the nomadic, buf- 

 falo-hunting Dakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne occupied the elevated 

 and rather sterile High Plains where game was formerly abundant ; 

 the more advanced and horticultural Pawnee held the rich Loess 

 Plain area which was also the heart of the buffalo range ; and the 

 sedentary Ponca, Omaha, and Oto were mainly along the Missouri 

 River in an area well adapted to cultivation and immediately adjacent 

 to the rich hunting grounds of the western plains. One of the major 

 problems of our area is here outlined — was the pre-Caucasian mode of 

 life in the area horticultural and sedentary, or nomadic and based 

 primarily on hunting ? In other words, Do the Dakota or the Pawnee 

 most closely represent the norm of aboriginal culture in the central 

 Plains prior to Caucasian interference? It is the purpose of the 

 present paper to demonstrate, in so far as the available data permit, 

 the prehistoric background from which these divergent culture types 

 emerge. When these data have been considered, it may be possible 

 to throw more light on this and similar problems of the region. 



PREVIOUS ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK IN NEBRASKA 



Ever since 1906 American anthropologists might well have reworded 

 the ancient saying concerning Africa to read semper aliquid novi ex 

 Nebraska. Unfortunately, however, the archeological surprises from 

 this great central State have often turned out to be more startling 

 than revolutionary. As a result, Nebraska has existed in the fore- 

 ground of archeological consciousness despite the fact that her pre- 

 history has been almost unknown. It is, for example, impossible to 

 even find the name Nebraska in the index of Cyrus Thomas' (1894) 

 voluminous report on the mounds of eastern North America, and 

 the latest general book on the same subject has but two sentences 

 touching on the State, and of these the last is of very doubtful authen- 

 ticity."' Perhaps the fact that the scant archeological literature of the 

 State has often been controversial rather than definitive fostered this 

 state of affairs, for there is certainly no lack of historic and prehistoric 

 aboriginal remains in the State. Yet, with the exception of a small 

 area bordering the Missouri River reported on by Gilder and Sterns, 



^ Shetrone, 19,30, p. 340, "A few scattering mounds have been noted in 

 eastern Kansas, mainly along the Kansas River, and still fewer are reported 

 from eastern Nebraska. The latter appear to be mostly low house mounds." 



