This volume surveys recent developments in the archaeology of the Central Plains covering cultural traditions of the Woodland-era Kansas City Hopewell, late prehistoric Plains traditions, and ancestral and early historic Wichita, Pawnee, Arikara, Kanza, Plains Apache, and Puebloan migrants. In this sometimes harsh and often productive environment, Native peoples thrived for some 14,000 years, creating complex societies which evolved over the past 2,000 years that are covered by this study.
Ten scholars contributed twelve essays covering a myriad of topics that benefit from new research. Several major themes emerge. To what extent were plains people influenced by groups to the east and the west of the Great Plains? What was the impact of trade with faraway groups? What was the role of agriculture on the plains and how did it develop? These topics and more give a new and better understanding of life on the Great Plains over the past 2,000 years.
