ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN MISSOURI 223 



ern Plains border have been made available, it is impossible to judge 

 the degree to which the medium-statured early long heads or the later 

 prehistoric broad heads discussed herein may have contributed to the 

 physical and cultural make-up of the historic Plains farming peoples. 

 By comparison with Hopewellian manifestations farther east, the 

 Kenner site does not impress me as the expression of a vigorous ex- 

 panding civilization but rather as the outpost of a declining one. As 

 previously indicated, it seems quite improbable that its influences on 

 contemiDorary or later horizons to the west were very striking or 

 sweeping in nature. In considerable measure the same might be said 

 of the Steed-Kisker site and the horizon it represents, though here 

 there was still sufficient vitality to act as a leavening influence on other 

 local populations. I am inclined to view these Platte County ma- 

 terials in much the same way that Strong (1940, p. 386) regards the 

 "mound-building culture" of the Dakota prairies, viz., as the fading 

 traces of foraierly advanced groups or cultures pushing successively 

 westward to become simpler horticulturists in the valley of the Mis- 

 souri. Wliy these Hopewellian and Middle Mississippi offshoots gave 

 up their spectacular ceremonial and artistic practices as they spread 

 Avestward I cannot say, though I doubt that the natural environment 

 alone was a serious inhibiting factor. Possibly remoteness from the 

 culture hearths, plus a reduced leisure clas sand smaller population ag- 

 gregates, were responsible. Or perhaps, by the time this dispersion 

 into the Missouri Valley took place, the parental culture centers to 

 the east were already past their peak and had begun to disintegrate. 

 Whatever the explanations, we may hope that continued scientific 

 research in and about the Missouri Valley will inevitably shed fur- 

 ther light on the interrelationships between the higher prehistoric 

 civilizations of the Mississippi Valley and the more modest sedentary 

 cultures of the eastern Great Plains. 



LITERATURE CITED 

 Anonymous. 



1878. The Blackwater, Missouri, mounds. Western Rev. Sci. and Industry, 

 vol. 1, p. 23, April. (Taken from the Journal of Commerce.) 

 Baereeis, D. a. 



193J. A Hopewell site in northeastern Oklahoma. Soc. Amer. Archeol., 

 Notebook, Dec. 15, 1939, pp 77-78. (Brief of paper read at 4th an- 

 nual meeting of Society, May 1939.) 

 Baker, Frank C, et al. 



1941. Contributions to the archeology of the Illinois River Valley. Trans. 

 Amer. Philos. Soc, new ser., vol. 32, pt. 1, 208 pp., illus. 

 Banta, W. v., and Gaeretson, John. 



1883. Description of mounds at Snake Den, near Salem, Henry County, 

 Iowa. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst, for 1881, pp. 532-533. 

 BAitEErrr, Samuel Axetied. 



1933. Ancient Aztalan. Bull. Milwaukee Publ. Mus., vol. 13, 602 pp., illus. 

 Berry, James Brewton, btt al. 



1938. Archeological investigations in Boone County, Missouri. Missouri 

 Archeol., vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 21-33. 



