NATIVE SUBSISTENCE ON THE AMERICAN CENTRAL PLAINS

Abstract

IN a recent paper, W. R. Wedel dealt with man's battle against Nature in the great plains of Kansas and Nebraska (Smithson. Misc. Coll., 101, No. 3: “Environment and Native Subsistence Economics in the Central Great Plains”. Publ. 3639. Pp. ii + 29 + 5 plates. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1941.) This region of widespread droughts, dust-storms, and consequent crop failures has been for some centuries the scene of attempted cultivation-sometimes successful, sometimes not. In view of recent failures the author has been collecting archaeological evidence which tends to show that the aboriginal groups that exploited this region at various times and in various ways were themselves faced with similar adverse climatic conditions. In the western portion of this territory lies part of the High Plains province and immediately eastward of this is a stretch of sandy country now used for cattle rearing as the loose sandy soil renders it impracticable for agriculture on a large scale. Before the advent of the white man all this portion was roamed over by herds of bison, followed by nomadic tribes of Indians who preyed on them and on other abundant game. But farther east there is the great loess plain, fertile and well suited to agriculture and which was formerly inhabited by groups of Indians who cultivated the soil and made semi-permanent settlements. That these never became permanent was probably owing to the recurrent bad seasons- mainly droughts-that then, as now, might last for some years.