Raymond Wood Research Articles

Obituary, W. Raymond Wood, 1931–2020

Obituary, W. Raymond Wood, 1931–2020

Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People by Elizabeth A. Fenn (review)

Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People. By Elizabeth A. Fenn. (New York: Hill Wang, 2014. Pp. xv, 480. Cloth, $35.00.)Reviewed by Tracy PotterIt was way past due. A readable history of the fascinating Mandan nation has long been needed, now it exists. Fifty pages in I emailed the author told her she had made me superfluous. You know everything I know, I exaggerated slightly, and you express it better.Let me admit a bias. The Mandan fascinate me. I once started to write their history, an effort diverted by the civil chief of the village of Mitutanka. I meant to use Chief Sheheke-shote, the White Coyote, only as a literary device, but he took over the story demanded his biography be completed before the bicentennial of his intersection with Lewis Clark the young United States in 1804.A further bias is that as a native North Dakotan, born of long residence just a pleasant bike ride from the confluence of the Heart Missouri rivers, I needed little convincing from Professor Fenn that this region is the heart of the world. Encounters at the Heart of the World demonstrates that it was that not only for the Mandan but also for the numerous Indian nations who relied on the certainty that the Mandan always had com they were willing to trade. For centuries, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine, Cree, even Dakota, Lakota, more could be assured of hospitality a dynamic marketplace in the fortified cities of the Mandan.Good historians need to be good researchers or good writers. Great historians are both. Elizabeth Fenn showed both qualities in Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (New York, 2002), part of which dealt with the 1781 smallpox epidemic that depopulated North America from Mexico City to Hudson Bay the Pacific Northwest. Her detective work traced the spread of the disease through the death records of Spanish missions into Texas, where informed speculation allows Fenn to see the vims invade Comanche bands. An infected horseman can cover a lot of ground in the two weeks before symptoms appear. The conclusion is easy to follow-disease ran to the Shoshone Rendezvous on the Front Range into the Rockies beyond; while a more easterly dispersal followed the Mississippi to the Missouri tribes into Canada with the Assiniboine Cree. Among the Mandan mortality rates may have reached 80 percent.Meticulous research is also evident in Encounters. Fenn collates her research well delivers interesting stories. She chose a bold unusual storytelling style, presenting Mandan history culture in digestible, delicious snippets without slavish regard to chronology or historical taxonomy. It turns out to be constantly engaging.The Mandan have not been entirely overlooked. From Pierre Gaultier, Sieur de la Verendrye in 1738, through David Thompson, William Clark, Alexander Henry, to George Catlin Prince Maximilian of Wied, explorers wrote about the Mandan in the first century after contact. Anthropologist Alfred Bowers spent years among the Mandan Hidatsa, produced a dissertation two books on their social ceremonial organization. The dean of Middle Missouri archeology, W. Raymond Wood, has written widely well on the Mandan. Without those contributions, Fenn would not have had enough to say to justify the length of this book. Without her, though, their contributions would not be woven into such a delightfully readable quilt. …

Fort Clark and Its Indian Neighbors: A Trading Post on the Upper Missouri by W. Raymond Wood, William J. Hunt Jr., and Randy H. Williams (review)

Fort Clark and Its Indian Neighbors: A Trading Post on the Upper Missouri by W. Raymond Wood, William J. Hunt Jr., and Randy H. Williams (review)

Lieutenant G. K. Warren's 1855 and 1856 Manuscript Maps of the Missouri River

Review of: Lieutenant G. K. Warren’s 1855 and 1856 Manuscript Maps of the Missouri River, compiled and with an introduction by Graham A. Callaway and W. Raymond Wood.

ReviewFort Clark and Its Indian Neighbors: A Trading Post on the Upper Missouri. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. xvii + 317 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.) W. Raymond Wood William J. Hunt, Jr. Randy H. Williams

Review<b><i>Fort Clark and Its Indian Neighbors: A Trading Post on the Upper Missouri</i></b>. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. xvii + 317 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.) W. Raymond Wood William J. Hunt, Jr. Randy H. Williams

A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood

A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood

A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood

Review of: A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood, by W. Raymond Wood.

William Clark: Indian Diplomat

Journal Article William Clark: Indian Diplomat Get access William Clark: Indian Diplomat. By Buckley Jay H.. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. xx + 306 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95.) W. Raymond Wood W. Raymond Wood University of Missouri-Columbia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, Issue 4, Winter 2009, Pages 529–530, https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/40.4.529 Published: 01 November 2009

Lessons for Historical Archaeology from the Career of W. Raymond Wood

When I first expressed interest in presenting a paper at the 2004 Society for American Archae ology symposium honoring W. Raymond Wood, I struggled with selecting a paper topic. I certainly did not have anything new to contribute to Plains archaeology or ethnohistory or in any of the other geographic or topical areas in which he has worked (to illustrate how I have followed successfully in his footsteps). After much introspection into how my own career as an anthropologically trained his torical archaeologist has developed, I decided to share some of my ideas about Ray Wood's impact on historical archaeology. It is partly a personal story, but I think it is much more. I imagine that most of those who have been influenced by Ray Wood have similar stories. Many of his students went on to specialize in the anthropology and ar chaeology of the Plains, but his impact has gone beyond one geographic region.

W. Raymond Wood, A Celebration

In 2004 the late Stanley A. Ahler and I organized and co-chaired a Symposium in Honor of W. Raymond Wood at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, Canada. We subsequently edited a volume published by University of Utah Press in 2007 that stems from this conference, is dedicated to Ray Wood, and is entitled, Plains Village Archaeology: Bison-hunting Farmers in the Central and Northern Plains. The Montreal symposium covered other facets too of Ray's storied career without addressing all of them. Stimulated by this symposium, three contributions that reflect on Ray's life and his impact on the profession of anthropology, and on the authors themselves, follow this, the merest of introductions to Ray and a backdrop for these three papers. As both a former editor of this journal and one who has been privileged to have had Ray as a mentor throughout my professional career, I regard the papers by R. Bruce McMillan, C. Vance Haynes, and Teresita Majewski as exemplary writings. These three are long-time friends and colleagues of Ray who also have had laudatory careers. Each provides a unique yet complementary perspective: Bruce McMillan on Ray as the consummate interdisciplinary scholar and innovative organizer of Quaternary research whose programs in various guises continue to this day; Vance Haynes' personal tribute to Rayon making research productive and too much fun not to do; and Terry Majewski on Ray's vision and impact on historical studies in archaeology, the methodological foundations of historical archaeology as a discipline unto itself, but most essential the timeless qualities Ray brings to teaching. Plains scholars should peruse and return to these three papers periodically whenever they want a sense of how one person can make a difference to our profession and more importantly to people generally. Ray Wood embodies Plains archaeology and anthropology at their best. Certainly what has attracted me and countless others extends well beyond his scholarship, enviable though it is. Rather it is the unvarnished joy Ray has in living, respect for others, and his self-deprecating and entirely genuine sense of humor that draws people in. Once there, there is no escape. With Ray, you don't become a passing acquaintance but a friend for life.

Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition

To follow journeys made by Mackay and Evans up Missouri and across plains in 1795-97 is to begin to appreciate kind of world Lewis and Clark found when they voyaged up river in 1804. . . . Of all those waterways, none has captured American imagination more than Missouri. . . . It is a river of promise, of dreams, and of dreams denied. -James P. Ronda, from ForewordWhen Mackay and Evans returned to Spanish St. Louis in 1797, they were hailed as the two most illustrious travelers in northern parts of this continent. Ironically, though findings of Mackay and Evans were responsible for much of early success of Lewis and Clark in their expedition, adulation that followed Lewis and Clark's successful return completely eclipsed Mackay and Evans's reputations. In Prologue to Lewis and Clark, W. Raymond Wood narrates history of this long-forgotten but important expedition up Missouri River. The Mackay and Evans expedition was more than an exploratory mission. It was last effort by Spain to gain control over Missouri River basin in decade before United States purchased Louisiana territory. In that respect, it failed. But expedition was successful as a journey of exploration. The maps and documents they created later provided Lewis and Clark expedition with invaluable information for its first full year. Consolidating a collection of eighteen contemporary documents relating to Mackay and Evans expedition as well as his own research and analysis, Wood provides an in-depth examination of expedition's background, execution, and final results. Volume 79 in American Exploration and Travel Series

Finding Lewis and Clark: Old Trails, New Directions by James P. Ronda, Nancy Tystad Koupal

people exchanged, but also the expeditionary gear, from riflestoPierre Cruzatte's violin. The book's contents confirm Rondas main conten tion that the expedition "is no ordinary story" and that itcontinues to attractsus because we can "journeywith a distinctively American com munity" thattravels"through the lands and lives of other communities in aWest already called home by thousands ofNative people" (pp. 47, 48). Gilman relieson decades ofLewis and Clark scholarship,appropriating freelythe insightsshe gleans fromRonda on Indian diplomacy, from geographer JohnL. Allen on cartography,from Paul Cutright on natural science, from William Goetzmann on exploration, and from a dozen other specialistswho have investigatedtheCorps ofDiscovery. Some readers may quarrel with Gilman's characterizations ofmore famous events in the expedition storyor be unsatisfiedwithmany of her conclusions and quick analyses. The note worthy incident in theNez Perce camp in May 1806,forexample,when Lewis angrilyreacted to a criticismofhis choice of cooked dog forfood, Gilman interprets as an ungracious reaction to the explorers' "demands for food,"while other interpreters have stressedLewis's arrogance (p. 261). Gilman seems to accept recent interpreta tionsof the more famous incidenton TwoMedi cine River innorthernMontana in 1806,where Lewis's party killed two Blackfeet, by assigning blame to Lewis forhis unwillingness to let the Indians escapewith his horse. "Had he just lethis horses go,"Gilman writes, "hemight havewalked back to theMissouri and two livesmight have been spared" (p. 287).Most historians consider Lewis and his fellowstohave been ina vulnerable position, andwalking to the Missouri ? a hard two-day ride ? was not a reasonable option. The famous rant against Indian character that Lewis recorded inhis journal at FortClatsop in February 1806Gilman assigns to his "physical revulsion to the coastal Indians," an unlikely source forhis strongcondemnation of allNative peoples inNorth America (p. 252). This is a handsome book, with superb maps and a design that invitesreading. Itcould stand a better index, and there are a few odd mistakes, such as using out-of-date references to theYakama Nation of Washington State,but there isa lotabout the expedition here that will surprise readers. Gilman concludes the book with an important essay on what happened to the journals and collections Lewis and Clark brought back to St. Louis in September 1806. The provenance of Lewis and Clark Expedition material is fascinating, and itunderscores the importance of research on collections in creat ingan exhibition of this size and scope. Readers who want thebasic storyof theLewis and Clark Expedition should stick with thestandardworks, but forexperienced students of the expedition, Lewis and Clark: Across the Divide isamust ad dition to their libraries. Finding Lewis and Clark: Old Trails,New Directions Edited by JamesP. Ronda and Nancy Tystad Koupal South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Pierre, 2004. Illustrations, index. 217 pages. $17.95 paper. Reviewed byAlbert Furtwangler Salem, Oregon In april 2003, theSouthDakota StateHistori cal Society sponsored a conferenceon Lewis and Clark and the Louisiana Purchase. This book contains eleven of thenineteen conference Reviews 315 papers,which reflect many of theauthors' recent books or works in progress. Two papers reconsider historical back grounds.W. Raymond Wood surveys shifting relations among Indian tribes of theUpper Missouri region in 1804 and explains how the pressures of European empires and American expansion were creating dynamic changes there. Peter J.Kastor examines how the Louisiana Purchase changed the aims and methods of theCorps of Discovery, thenmolded the two captains' later careers. Three papers discuss legacies.William E. Foley presents a briefportrait of William Clark, based on his new, full-lengthbiography. Robert McCracken Peck traces the scientific artifacts of the expedition as theypassed throughmany hands. JoniL.Kinsey discusses early works of art about the expedition, including sketches in the explorers'journals and laterillustrationsof their deeds and theirplant and animal specimens. Four papers look atmodern media thathave reinterpreted theAmerican West. Richard W. Etulain summarizes severalnovels thatretellthe Lewis and Clark storyand glamorize the lead ing characters, especially Sacagawea. Greg Mac Gregor offersfifteensample photographs from his project thatrecorded theexpedition route as it looks today. JosephA. Mussulman describes his work in creating an interactiveWeb-site history of the expedition and itsbackgrounds. Robert J. Myers develops the point that such Web sites can support improvedmethods for teachingAmerican history. The book opens and closeswith twogeneral essays. James P...

Prologue to Lewis and Clark: the Mackay and Evans Expedition

Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition. By W. Raymond Wood. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003. Pp. xvii, 234. Illustrations, maps. Cloth, $34.95.)Amid the ongoing bicentennial celebrations of the justly famous Lewis and Clark expedition, it is wise to remember that other Euro-Americans preceded the Americans into the Missouri River Valley and farther west. Many of those travelers, especially French coureurs du bois, will remain forever obscure as they left little or no documentation while exploring, trading with Indians for furs, and living beyond the reach of Euro-American civilization. Other pre-Lewis and Clark explorers mounted organized ventures on behalf of France, Spain, or Britain and produced copious records, some of them familiar to the Americans sent west by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. The Mackay and Evans expedition was one such official exploration, up the Missouri River on behalf of Spain from 1795 to 1797.W. Raymond Wood has published work on the Mandan and Hidatsa trading network on the upper Missouri River, and his expertise on the archeological and documentary sources for the region contributes to this well-researched study. The numerous maps and illustrations add to Prologue to Lewis and Clark's value as a reference work on the late eighteenth-century Missouri River Valley.Wood establishes the background of the Mackay and Evans expedition by discussing earlier explorations of the Missouri River and the river's importance as part of Spain's late eighteenth-century North American empire. Spam's claim to lands west of the Mississippi River, including the Missouri River region, stemmed from secret negotiations with France, which ceded Louisiana to Spain at the end of the Seven Years War in 1762. Spanish title remained in effect until secret negotiations in the Treaty of San Ildelfonso ceded the region back to Napoleon's France in 1800, shortly before Jefferson purchased the area from Napoleon for the United States. It was never entirely clear where the boundary between British and Spanish territory lay; the American Revolution and creation of the United States added to the confusion. Besides Britain and the United States, Spain also worried about Russian contacts with the northwest coast of North America as an intrusion on her territory. The international imperial context, the ever-present desire to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, and the news that British and French fur traders maintained contact with Indian groups far up the Missouri, all pushed Spanish officials to mount more than one expedition up the Missouri River in the last decade of the eighteenth century. The first major Spanish venture up the river, under the direction of the Missouri Company, left St. Louis in June 1794 under the command of Jean Baptiste Truteau. He made it as far as the Ankara Indian villages near the mouth of the Grand River in present-day northern South Dakota before returning to St. Louis in 1796. In 1795 a second expedition, also under the auspices of the Missouri Company, did not make it as far as Truteau had before being plundered by Indians.Using tightly written narrative and excerpts from the documents produced by the expedition's leaders, Wood describes the Missouri Company's and Spain's third major expedition up the Missouri River. …

Archaeology on the Great Plains:Archaeology on the Great Plains.

Archaeology on the Great Plains. W. Raymond Wood. ed. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. 522 pp.

The prehistory of Missouri

The Prehistory of Missouri is a fascinating examination of the objects that were made, used, and discarded or lost by Missouri's prehistoric inhabitants over a period of more than eleven thousand years. Missouri's numerous vegetation zones and its diverse topography encompassed extreme variations, forcing prehistoric populations to seek a wide range of adaptations to the natural environment. As a result, Missouri's archaeological record is highly complex, and it has not been fully understood despite the vast amount of fieldwork that has been conducted within the state's borders. Michael J. O'Brien and W. Raymond Wood explore the array of artifacts that have been found in Missouri, pinpointing minute variations in form. They have documented the ranges in age and distribution of the individual forms, explaining why some persisted while others quickly disappeared. The book provides a comprehensive survey of what is currently known about Missouri's prehistoric peoples, often revealing how they made their living in an ever-changing world. The authors have applied rigorous standards of archaeological inquiry. Their main objective - demonstrating that the archaeological record of Missouri can be explained in scientific terms - is accomplished.

The Way to Independence: Memories of a Hidatsa Indian Family. 1840‐1920

The Way to Independence: Memories of. Hidatsa Indian Family, 1840‐1920. Carolyn Gilman and Mary Jane Schneider. with essays by W. Raymond Wood, Gerard Baker, Jeffery R. Hanson, and Alan R. Wool worth. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987. 371 pp., color plates, b/w illustrations, maps, line drawings, bibliography, index. $24.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper).

Papers in Northern Plains Prehistory and Ethnohistory. W. Raymond Wood, editor, with contributions by William M. BassIII , Stephen A. Chomko, Alan S. Downer, Susan K. Goldberg, Richard L. Jantz, Lynn R. Johnson, Teresita Majewski, George Peter NicholasII , Arnold R. Pilling, William L. RuhleII , Carlyle S. Smith, Sandra M. Todd, Robert E. Warren, and W. Raymond Wood. Special

Papers in Northern Plains Prehistory and Ethnohistory. W. Raymond Wood, editor, with contributions by William M. BassIII , Stephen A. Chomko, Alan S. Downer, Susan K. Goldberg, Richard L. Jantz, Lynn R. Johnson, Teresita Majewski, George Peter NicholasII , Arnold R. Pilling, William L. RuhleII , Carlyle S. Smith, Sandra M. Todd, Robert E. Warren, and W. Raymond Wood. Special Publication of the South Dakota Archaeological Society No. 10, L. Adrien Hannus, series editor. South Dakota Archaeologial Society, Sioux Falls, 1986. xi + 216 pp., figures, tables, references cited. $25.00 (paper). - Volume 53 Issue 4

Review: Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818, by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen

Review: <i>Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818</i>, by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen

Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders Among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1783–1818. Edited and introduction by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. American Exploration and Travel Series. Pp. xx, 353. $29.95.

Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders Among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1783–1818. Edited and introduction by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. American Exploration and Travel Series. Pp. xx, 353. $29.95.

"Only One Truth": Assimilation and the American Indian

Larry W. Burt. Tribalism in Crisis: Federal Indian Policy, 1953-1961. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982,180 + x pp. Thomas W. Dunlay. Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army. 1860-90. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. 304 + xii pp. Laurence M. Hauptman. The Iroquois and the New Deal. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981. 256 + xviii pp. Peter Iverson. Carlos Montezuma and the Changing World of American Indians. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1982. 222 + xv pp. Clyde A. Milner II. With Good Intentions: Quaker Work among the Pawnees. Otos. and Omahas in the 1870s. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. 238 + xvi pp. Richard K. Nelson. Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1983. 292 + xvi pp. W. Raymond Wood and Margot Liberty, eds. Anthropology on the Great Plains. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.306 + vii pp. Celebrating the passage in 1887 of an act designed to break up the reservations and provide individual Indians with their own allotments, the Indian Rights Association offered a model definition of assimilation: the "general policy of gradually making the Indian in all respects as the white man."1 A constant in American thinking about the "Indian problem," often posited as the only alternative to racial extinction, assimilation dominated policy in the years after the Civil War. A vigorous attack on its assumptions through the 1920s shaped the Indian New Deal in the next decade, but assimilation was back in vogue in the wake of World War II. By the 1960s it was out of favor again, but it still constitutes a major ideological position in policy debate as one of the poles implied by the current catch-phrase "self-determination." Indians should be free to choose whether to live outside or inside white society, to remain distinctive, in short, or to assimilate. Not surprisingly, the issue of assimilation looms large in most studies of the American Indian.