MISCELLEANOUS 



LIII. A KAY COUNTY VILLAGE SITE 



Joseph B. Thoburn 

 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 



Situated on the low bluff v/hich forms the western bank of the 

 Arkansas River and immediately south of a small affluent called 

 Deer Creek, five miles east and a mile and a half north from New- 

 kirk, Kay County, Oklahoma, is an Indian village site which covers 

 about twenty acres of land. Scattered over this village site are the 

 ruins of sixty-five timber-framed, dome-shaped, earth-covered domi- 

 ciles, forty of which are in tbe formi of low circular mounds^ while 

 the rem.ainder show depressions in the center, indicating that there 

 had been an excavation of the interior or floor circle. The mound 

 ruins are identical Avith those which are so numerous in eastern 

 Oklahoma. A few of the larger mounds are in a field that is in 

 cultivation and the rest are in a pasture and have not been disturbed 

 as yet. A very fine spring of water falls into Deer Creek from 

 the south bank, a few rods above the village site. 



Scattered over this village site may be found implements, 

 and vt'eapons, pieces of glass, copper, brass and other items which 

 are suggestive of the presence of white traders. The design of 

 the small clay tobacco pipes, the shape of the grain grinder (mor- 

 tar Or metate) and of the double-bitted stone hoe all bear evidence 

 of the kinship or descent of this culture from that of the earth-house 

 people who lived in eastern Oklahoma and adjacent states some 

 four or five centuries earlier. The potsherds and ceramic frag- 

 ments are so much cruder, however, that one is forced to the con- 

 clusion that the culture had undergone a very marked deterioration 

 m the intervening period. 



One surprising feature is the unusually large number of "turtle- 

 back" or "snulj-nose" skin-dressing picks or scrapers which may be 

 found 0:1 this village site. And yet the reason is apparent; a horse- 

 shoe-shaped trench, approximately 250 feet in diam.eter, near one 

 extremity of the village site, is believed to mark the site of a 

 French trading outpost, dating from the first half of the 18 

 century. These traders seem to have induced a band of Pawnee 

 or one of Wichita, or, what seems more likely, a small band of 

 the people of both tribes, to settle there for a time, the men to 

 kill buffalo and the women to -dress the skins and finish them as 



