272 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



development depends any worth while relative dating of the earliest 

 chapters of human history in the Xew World. 



Applying the first three of these methods to the available archeo- 

 logical evidence in Nebraska, the following culture sequences are sug- 

 gested (table 7). The more or less debatable geologic age of certain 

 of these horizons or associations will be discussed later. 



On the historic level the outlines of Pawnee archeology are alreadv 

 known, whereas that of the sedentary Siouan peoples, Oto, Omaha, 

 and Ponca, arc still obscure. From historic sources we know that the 



Table 7. — Sequence of Cultures in Nebraska (and Northern Colorado) 



[East- 



Glacial area 



Loess plains 



Sand hills 



High plains [ — >-\Vestl 



Historic 



Sedentary 

 Siouan 



Pawnee 



Dakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne 



Protohistoric 



Pawnee 



Comanche 



Dismal River (poorly defined) 



Prehistoric 



(Walker 

 Gil more 

 site) 



Nebraska 



Sterns 

 Creek 



Upper 

 Republican 



Butte 



111)1 U: 



Ipper Republican 



Signal Butte II — 

 (poorly defined) 



Signal Butte I 



Artifacts associated with extinct bison 

 (geologic age?) 



Folsoni (Northern Colo.) 

 (geologic age?) 



PLEISTOCENE 

 (at present an indefinite transition) 



latter tribes ])robably entered Nebraska during the eighteenth century, 

 occupying the richest portion of the State just west of the Missouri 

 River, apparently without any determined opposition on the part of 

 the Pawnee. Since the Pawnee immediately to the west had long 

 preceded tlnem in Nebraska, were superior to them in numbers and 

 organization, and later dominated them jxjlitically, such a late and ap- 

 parently ]X'aceful occupation is remarkable. The fact that this rich 

 eastern strip seems at no time to have been occui)ie(l 1)\- tlie Pawnee 

 suggests that the Omaha, Ponca, and Oto were merely the last of a 

 series of related peoples to hold this region. Otherwise it is incon- 

 ceivable that the Pawnee would not have extended their territories 

 to the Missouri at some point in its long course along the eastern 



