ANTH 376 Prehistory of the Northern Plains
The Northern Plains of North America is a vast territory stretching from central Manitoba and Saskatchewan south to Nebraska, east to northern Iowa and west to the Rocky Mountains. It is a stark and harsh landscape but one with abundant streams, animals (particularly bison), and wild plants. These resources sustained Native American populations for over 12,000 years. The course will trace the earliest small nomadic mammoth and bison hunting groups, through the development of agricultural groups living in large permanent earthlodge villages to the ultimate dramatic collapse of Native culture in the 19th century through a combination of intertribal warfare, epidemic disease and the colonization of the area by Euroamericans.