Saint Croix Oneota and 14th Century Migration into the Saint Croix Valley of Minnesota and Wisconsin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Sheffield site is the only known Late Precontact Oneota village along the Saint Croix River of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Additionally, a small collection of Oneota ceramics from a nearby rock shelter site and isolated Oneota sherds point to a slightly more widespread presence in the valley. Still, the general geographic isolation of the Sheffield site and these other finds raises questions of the timing of the spread of Oneota into the valley and the relationships of the site’s occupants to other Oneota complexes in the Upper Midwest. This paper summarizes what is known of Oneota in the Saint Croix Valley and reports on the Science Museum of Minnesota’s investigations at the Sheffield site between 2013 and 2018. The Sheffield site has long been tied to Blue Earth Oneota of south-central Minnesota, based on excavations from the 1950s. But, more recent studies of Oneota complexes in the Midwest point to more regional identities, challenging that broad assessment. Geophysical survey and renewed excavation, along with examination of unstudied collections has led to new interpretation of the nature of the site and our understanding of the movement of the Oneota tradition into the Saint Croix Valley during the 14th century AD.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24834