Golden Hills RC

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Golden Hills RCD
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What were we asked to do?

• Assist in establishing the national significance
  of important cultural resources along the LHNSB.
• Develop strategies to preserve, protect,
  interpret, and promote such resources.

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Making the case for significance
Select major themes Conduct Research Prepare
NRHP/NHL nominations

• Select major themes
• Historic gateway to the Plains with a
• treasure trove of untapped records
• Legacy of two major Late Prehistoric earthlodge
  communities
• Glenwood and Mill Creek
• First in the Nation Native American Burials
  Protection

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Late Prehistoric Earthlodge Builders Southwest
Iowa Glenwood Phase lodges Northwest Iowa Mill
Creek villages
Mill Creek descendants Mandan, Hidatsa, and
Arikara Glenwood Descendants Pawnee and Arikara
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Legacy of spectacular Mill Creek and Glenwood
sites, an extraordinary opportunity to learn
about

• Population movement and change
• First sedentary agriculture on the eastern Plains
• Emergence of a native Plains lifeway that
  persisted for centuries
• Two unique Late Prehistoric Loess Hills cultures
• Transformation of an environment
• Late Prehistoric economy, technology, trade,
  belief systems
• Cultural, political, and native landscape

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Equitable treatment of human burials
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Prepare and Submit National Register and National
Historic Landmark Nominations
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Implications of Archaeological Sites being on the
National Register

• Landowner can continue same land management
  practices as previously, although preservation is
  always recommended.
• There is no law that protects these sites more
  than others, unless Federal money will be used in
  a way that could harm the sites important
  resources.
• Grant monies can be obtained to help preserve or
  study the site.
• Some states have tax relief programs for owners
  of these sites Iowas not yet developed at
  archaeological sites, although this is in the
  works.

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Project required a partnership and a team effort.
Building on whats come before.
Partnership among local residents, descendant
communities, landowners, researchers,
organizations, state and federal agencies. Team
effort by OSA staff and colleagues. Tonight we
report the results thus far.
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Kick-offLoess Hills Seminar
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Public Engagement
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Raising awareness
New signage
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New Displays
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Archaeology of the Loess Hills, 2008-2009 Bill
Whittaker, Cindy Peterson, Joe Artz, Melanie
Riley, and Company
Golden Hills RCD
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Archival Research -Reviewed all Loess Hills
sites -Occupation from Paleoindian through
Historic periods -Ca. 300 earthlodges
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• Floor plans for about 100 Nebraska phase lodges
  have been documented in excavations on both sides
  of the Missouri River

• Lodges vary
• Size
• Entryways
• No. and size of pits
• No. of posts
• Facing direction

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Archival Research Distribution of Lodges
10-mile theory
Lodges per km2
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• Field Survey
• 34 sites investigated
• Collector Interviews
• Surface Survey
• Soil Core
• Auger Test
• Test Excavation
• Up to 55 new lodges
• found

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Survey Old sites better defined By field work
(shown here) By plotting Orrs suvey using
GIS Using new LiDAR technique
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Soil Coring Defining lodge location and shape
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Test Excavation Three Glenwood lodges
13ML102- Twin Lodges
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13ML98- Historic Fill Schematic
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13ML102- Lodge Floor Features
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Kimball Mound, North of Sioux City
Orr 1939
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Results Although many sites have been
destroyed, confirmed that there are many sites
still intact. Historical records are a treasure
trove of information and are underutilized. Recor
ded several new sites, including possibly more
than a dozen new lodges. The Loess Hills have
some of the most spectacular archaeology in the
United States. Many thanks to the scores of
people who have helped with this effort!
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GIS and the Glenwood Locality

• Geographic Information System
• In a GIS, maps of soil, topography,
  archaeological sites, etc, can be laid one on top
  of the other.
• At right, Nebraska Phase earthlodges are overlain
  on a shaded relief (elevation) map of the
  Glenwood locality.
• GIS allowed us to compare and calculate values to
  study the relationship of earthlodges with the
  landscape.

Lodges (red dots) overlain on a digital
elevation map (DEM)
Birds eye view from south
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GIS and the Glenwood Locality

• Predictive Models
• Our Earthlodge model asked
• What kind of land are lodges usually found on?
• What kind of land did people look for when
  deciding where to build?

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GIS and the Glenwood Locality

• The Glenwood people
• Would build on slopes as steep as 15o
• Stayed within 300-800 ft of the steep valley
  edges, avoiding open, flat terrain.
• Preferred slopes that receive the most sunlight
  during the growing season.
• Preferred areas with neutral to acidic soils
• 3) and 4) strongly suggest lodges were near their
  fields, something weve never known before.

Orange means very suitable for earth lodges
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LiDAR and Lodges Light Detection and Ranging

• Iowa is the one of the first states in the nation
  to have LiDAR images for the entire state.
• Mills County data became available just this
  summer.
• How does it work?
• A plane flies back and forth, at a constant
  altitude
• Lasers aboard the plane measure distances to the
  ground every 5 feet.
• Because the planes altitude is known, the
  elevation of the ground surface is measured to
  within a foot or better.

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LiDAR and Lodges Light Detection and Ranging
Shaded Relief LiDAR Image of Newly Discovered
Earthlodges near Glenwood
Lodge depression
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LiDAR and Lodges Light Detection and Ranging

• The laser light reflects more intensely from
  moist or organic-rich surfaces.
• Such areas show up darker.
• Several earthlodges were detected in this way by
  our LiDAR research.

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LiDAR and Lodges Light Detection and Ranging

• Using LiDAR, we detected 129 lodge depressions at
  73 sites (purple dots on map).
• Previously only 86 lodges were known at these
  sites.
• Eight sites had never been precisely located
  before.
• 20 sites were previously known only as artifact
  scatters.
• Great potential for finding more lodges
  throughout the Loess Hills
• One of only a few first studies, the first to use
  LiDAR to identify moisture differences in soil

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Collections

• Ceramics and C14
• Lithics (stone)
• Flora (plants)
• Fauna (bones)
• Pipestone

Joe Tiffany Richard Josephs Steve Lensink Melody
Pope Mary Adair James Theler John Cordell Rich
Fishel Lynn Alex Jason Titcomb Tom Emerson
1250-1400 AD
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Scrapers from a previously excavated lodge at
13ML176 illustrate an emphasis on
processing animal hides
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Architectural study
Jan Nash
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National Register of Historic Places and
Archaeological Sites

• Two sites nominated to National Register
• One earthlodge site, in West Oak Forest Park,
  near Glenwood.
• One village site, north of Sioux City, privately
  owned.
• One additional site awaiting landowner permission
  to nominate it
• This is a site with two adjoining earthlodges,
  outside Glenwood, privately owned.
• One additional site already on National Register
  will be nominated as a National Historic Landmark
• Earthlodge site, in Pony Creek Park, near
  Glenwood.

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The way forwardstrategies to preserve,
protect, interpret, and promote resources, now
and into the future.Welcoming the voice of
descendant communities.
Glenwood Archaeological State Preserve 2009 917
acres, 109 archaeological sites, 27
earthlodges National Register of Historic
Places, National Historic Landmarks Archaeologica
l Conservancy Interpretive Signage New
exhibits Research report, professional
presentations, booklet Loess Hills Interpretive
Center Management plans