300 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



the white invasion, the introduction of the horse, and the use of fire- 

 arms. These two major forces combined, produced the equestrian and 

 warHke tribes which for a time dominated the region. Then with the 

 disappearance of the buffalo and the spread of Caucasian settlement 

 all types of aborij^inal culture vanished from the Plains. Archeological 

 research has already indicated that this familiar historic phase was 

 only the last of a surprisingly ancient and complex sequence of cultures. 

 Viewed as a whole, the foregoing facts bearing on the development 

 of human society in the central region of North America demonstrate 

 the basic importance of the prehistoric record in checking or cor- 

 roborating the work of the ethnologist. Even in its early stages 

 archeological research in Nebraska clearly indicates several far-reach- 

 ing changes in native economic adaptation within the Plains area. 

 When the ethnological data of historic times are analyzed in the light 

 of this greater perspective they assume more clarity, and underlying 

 reasons for the dififerential survival of certain groups are indicated. 

 Without depth, the ethnological concept of native culture in this 

 important area appears to have been lop-sided, shifting emphasis 

 from the older, and culturally more significant, horticultural tribes 

 to the nomadic militarists of the later historic period. In final analysis, 

 it seems evident that any anthropological or sociological approach 

 which ignores or underestimates the importance of time perspective is 

 open to the same criticism. 



LITERATURE CITED 

 Allen, J. A. 



1876. The American bisons, living and extinct. Mem. Geol. Surv. Kentucky, 

 vol. I, pt. 2. 

 Bandelier, Adolph F. 



1890. Final report of investigations among the Indians of the southwestern 

 United States, carried on mainly in the years from 1880 to 1885. 

 Pap. .Archaeol. Inst. Amer., Amer. ser., vol. 3, Cambridge. 

 1893. The gilded man. New York. 

 Barbour, E. H. 



1907 a. Evidence of loess man in Nebraska. Nebraska Geol. Surv., vol. 2, 



no. 6, pp. 331-348. 

 1907 b. Evidence of man in the loess of Nebraska. Science, n.s., vol. 25, 



no. 629, pp. 110-112. 

 1907 c. .A.ncient inhabitants of Nebraska. Records of the Past, vol. 6, pt. 2, 

 pp. 40-46. 

 See also Meserve, F. G., and Barbour, Erwin Hinckley. 

 Barbour, E. H., and Schultz, C. Bertr.'Vnd 



1932 a. The mounted skeleton of Bison occidentalis, and associated dart- 

 points. Nebraska State Mus., vol. i. Bull. 32, pp. 263-270, Oct. 

 1932 b. The Scottsbluff bison quarry and its artifacts. Nebraska State 

 Mus., vol. I, Bull. 34, pp. 283-286, Dec. 



