Remembering ichaskhah (Camp Creek): Low-Impact Methodologies for Documenting an Early Twentieth-Century Wichita Camp and Dance Ground in Oklahoma

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Spatial Archaeometry: A Survey of Recent High-Resolution Survey and Measurement Applications" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes have a long history of occupation in Oklahoma. This includes evidence of both pre- and postcontact habitations along major and minor waterways near Anadarko, Oklahoma. Here Wichita peoples camped, built grass houses and arbors, and held social gatherings in these spaces leading up to and following the passing of the General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act) in 1887. After allotment, communal camp and dance grounds were especially important focal points for community building. These Allotment period sites are critical to understanding the multigenerational connections between ancestral and contemporary Wichita peoples. This history is also important to the community today. However, few archaeological sites from the Allotment period have been documented. This paper presents a collaborative, low-impact methodology for identifying and recording the ichaskhah (Camp Creek) site that was used from the 1930s until 1963 as a center of Wichita social life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Adventures in Spatial Archaeometry: A Survey of Recent High-Resolution Survey and Measurement Applications   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35665.0