The Aftermath of Colonization: Wichita Subsistence Change in the Southern Plains

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

European colonization of North America had profound impacts on Native American populations. These include the introduction of European diseases and warfare, the consolidation and abandonment of traditional lands, and the eventual forced relocation to reservations. Previously, much archaeological focus has been on the demographic, social, and political responses to European Contact. However, European colonization also greatly impacted traditional subsistence practices of Native Americans and has garnered far less attention. Changes in subsistence are important because they can be used as a measure to understand how Native Americans responded to European influences, the impact on their traditional lifeways, and potentially the relationship between Europeans and Native populations. This research presents preliminary results from a faunal study of the Upper Tucker site on the southern Plains, a site occupied by the Wichita and their ancestors in northeast Texas along the Red River during the period of European contact. This research examines the subsistence strategies at the site with a particular focus on how bison were utilized. The results of this study can contribute to archeologists understanding of potential changes, or continuity, in subsistence patterns in response to European occupation and interaction on the southern Plains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33429