The Steed-Kisker culture is a cultural phase (name that archaeologists give to a group of culturally similar peoples) that is part of the larger Central Plains Village tradition of the

Plains Village period The Plains Village period or the Plains Village tradition is an archaeological period on the Great Plains from North Dakota down to Texas, spanning approximately 900/950 to 1780/1850 CE. On the west and east, Plains villagers were bounded by the ...

. This term applies to the prehistoric peoples who occupied the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

region of the modern-day United States in prehistoric times. The Steed-Kisker culture applied to those living primarily in the area of present-day

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

, Missouri (MO) for the several hundred years from about 900 to 1400 CE. From about 1000 to 1250, they are believed to have originally been made up of a group of farmers who migrated from the

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south-w ...

region east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. As they adapted to local conditions and materials, they made changes in their traditional customs. They are considered to link the people of the Plains Village period to the larger Middle Mississippian culture and trading network. Initially numerous Cahokia-style projectile points were found here, and a trading link was theorized. But more recently, other evidence, such as "wall trench house construction, quantification of non-local trade materials", and evidence of two temple mound communities on the lower Missouri River (which were destroyed, used for fill in railroad development in the 19th century) have indicated more direct relations and early settlement by people from Cahokia. The

Cloverdale archaeological site The Cloverdale archaeological site ( 23BN2) is an archaeological site located near present-day St. Joseph, Missouri. It is situated at the mouth of a small valley that opens into the Missouri River. Excavations have shown that the site was first ...

near

St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ ...

is one of the more important sites associated with the phase, showing occupation about 1200 CE. Other sites with Steed-Kisker occupations include the Crabtree Site (23CL164), the Katz Site (23CL163) and the Steed-Kisker Site, for which the culture is named.

was more than 320 miles by waterways from the Cloverdale site; it was located near a small tributary of the

Illinois River The Illinois River ( mia, Inoka Siipiiwi) is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River and is approximately long. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, it has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the D ...

and east of the

in present-day Illinois, on a latitude with the future site of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. It had a large territory of influence along the major tributaries.

Notes

References

* Logan, Brad. "Archaeological Investigations at the Evans Locality Stranger Creek Valley, Northeastern Kansas-2003" Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work. Kansas State University, Manhattan, 2003. * O’Brien, Patricia J. "Steed-Kisker: A Western Mississippian Settlement System." In, ''Mississippian Settlement Patterns'', edited by Bruce D. Smith, pp. 1–19, 1978. Academic Press, New York. * O'Brien, Patricia J. "Steed-Kisker: A Cultural Interpretation." ''The Missouri Archaeologist'' 42: 96–108, 1981. * O'Brien, Patricia J. "Ancient Kansas City Area Borders and Trails." ''The Missouri Archaeologist'' 49: 27–39, 1988. * O'Brien, Patricia J. "Steed-Kisker: The Western Periphery of the Mississippian Tradition.: ''Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology'' 18 (1): 281-283, 1993. * Roper, Donna. "Central Plains Tradition" In ''Kansas Archaeology'', edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 105–132, 2006. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence. * Wedel, Waldo R. "Archaeological Investigations in Platte and Clay Counties, Missouri." Smithsonian Institution, ''United States National Museum Bulletin 183''. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1943. Middle Mississippian culture Native American history of Missouri Archaeological cultures of North America Plains tribes 9th-century establishments in North America 14th-century disestablishments in North America {{US-archaeology-stub

See also

Notes

References