During Julia’s internship here, she did a lot of background research on the Cattle Oiler archaeological site, and the history of the River Basin Surveys more broadly. This research led her into trying to figure out the elusive past of the Great Plains Native American groups who lived around the Missouri River Basin in villages like the Cattle Oiler site or H.P. Thomas in the past, as we’ve told you about in previous posts (Click here: 1, 2, 3, 4). For those of you who are new to Plains archaeology, we hope this post will help explain these events, people, and places.
The Cattle Oiler site (39ST224) is one of several archaeological sites along the Missouri River excavated during the River Basin Surveys (RBS) project, which ran from the summer of 1945 to 1969 (Snyder et al. 2000, 17).
Image by Julia Grasso. Original photograph by Daniel E. Moerman, 5/12/1965. “Big Bend. Site 39ST224. High shot of 39ST224, Photo NW.” Field Number E65-L1-5. 4x5 Tri-X Pan. Courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
The River Basin Surveys Project started when the Army Corp of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation started developing extensive plans to implement water-control programs and dams across the major rivers of the Great Plains (Jennings 1985, 282). Archaeologists realized the threat to prehistoric and historic sites throughout the U.S that would result from these actions and took steps to save the prehistory of the area before these sites were flooded. One of the more extensive construction projects planned by the U.S. government during this period was the installation of dams all along the Missouri River, where five dams would be used to provide hydroelectric power, irrigation and reduce the risk of flooding in the surrounding area (Wedel 1967, 590). As a result, “90% of evidence of human use of the [river’s] main stem” would be destroyed (Jennings 1985, 282).
Various institutions at the federal and local level partnered together to form the River Basin Surveys (RBS) and the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program (IASP) to save these resources; among these institutions were the Bureau of Reclamation, the Corps of Engineers, the Smithsonian (including the Bureau of American Ethnology), the National Park Service, the Committee for the Recovery of Archeological Remains, and many local universities, museum, and historical societies. This multi-decade undertaking not only trained the next generation of archaeologists but also created a collection of archaeological materials that is unparalled in its size, scope, and the systematic manner of its excavation. Over three million specimens were collected, providing a massive corpus of evidence to draw from to create "a detailed picture of centuries of prehistoric life and early contact with European traders and settlers" (Hull-Walski et al. 2012).
For more about this massive undertaking (along with many great photos!), download this PDF poster created by one of our Collections Managers in Anthropology, Deborah Hull-Walski (et al.), "Dammed If We Do and Dammed If We Don't: The River Basin Surveys and Interagency Archeological Salvage Programs 60 Years After."
You might be familiar with similar salvage archaeology projects that have happened in response to dams, such as the Aswan Dam project in Egypt, which necessitated the relocation or emergency excavation of many Egyptian archaeological sites.
"The statue of Ramses the Great at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel is reassembled after having been moved in 1967 to save it from being flooded." Source Wikipedia.
"The Aswan Dam: During its construction in the 1960s, the Aswan Dam held back greater amounts of water each year. As the water rose, many important archaeological sites were flooded, such as these sphinxes lining the avenue of the Temple at Wadi es-Sebua. In 1964, the sphinxes and temple were rescued and put on higher ground." Image and text source.
While Cattle Oiler did not have towering statues and temples, it was nevertheless an important archaeological site to save from the Big Bend Dam. Cattle Oiler is a multicomponent site, which means it was occupied in several different phases over time. There have been several investigations into the site, beginning as early as 1956 by Harold Huscher. The last excavations of Cattle Oiler were conducted by Daniel D. Moerman in May through June 1965 and finished by David T. Jones in July and August of the same year (Moerman and Jones 1966, 1).
Overall site map of the Cattle Oiler site (39ST224) (Moerman and Jones 1966, 6).
One of the larger questions concerning Cattle Oiler is, which Plains Indian culture occupied the site? The components present at the site are the Initial Middle Missouri (IMM) and Extended Middle Missouri (EMM). While often used in Plains Indian literature, IMM and EMM are general terms signifying different time periods and cultural groups who occupied the Missouri River Basin. Cattle Oiler is predominantly associated with the IMM phase, lasting from AD 1000 to 1100 (Johnson 2007: 168). Evidence suggests that sites such as Cattle Oiler, located further south along the Missouri River, were abandoned around AD 1100 to 1200, before the beginning of the EMM phase (AD 1200 to 1300) (Johnson 2007: 185). However, Cattle Oiler contains EMM components, which raises many questions.
How can a site previously abandoned contain components from a chronologically later group? One of the possibilities for the time discrepancy is that EMM groups intruded on IMM villages during the site’s occupation, either sharing their culture with the present groups or totally replacing IMM people. Another possibility is that after the site was abandoned, EMM groups adopted the site long after IMM groups left. In either scenario, the material culture of each group was enmeshed with the other.
“Distribution of Plains Village components within the Middle Missouri subarea during Period 6 (AD 1500-1550)” (Johnson 2007, 186).
So, who are the elusive IMM and EMM groups? The Plains Village Indians occupying the Missouri River basin from their first settlements in the initial Middle Missouri period (AD 1000 to 1100) to the final Post-Contact Coalescent period (AD 1650 to 1886) include several different descendant Native American groups: the Mandan, Hidatsa, and the Arikara. As an IMM period site, Cattle Oiler is more often culturally affiliated with the ancestral Mandan and Hidatsa groups.
Finally as a note of curiosity, you may be wondering how on earth the site got the name, "Cattle Oiler." What the heck is a cattle oiler? Well, because of the relatively flat vistas (the area being the Great Plains, after all), there were not always big noticable natural features to name the archaeological sites after. Since we will never know what name the ancestral Native groups gave to their village, archaeologists at the time named it after the only distinguishing feature on the landscape: a cattle oiler left over from a farmer who grazed his cattle in the area. A cattle oiler is a device that farmers provide for their cows so that they can scratch any pesky itches, and while doing so, oil themselves on the brushes that release insect repellent (video(s)). The more you know... :)
One type of cattle oiler seen in use. Image Source.
For more on unraveling the connections between IMM and EMM prehistoric groups, see our next post where Julia shares her final report on the comparison of the pottery from round vs. circular houses at Cattle Oiler.
By: Meghan Mulkerin, Collections Specialist Contractor, and Julia Grasso, Intern.
References Cited
Jennings, Jesse D. 1985 River Basin Surveys: Origins, Operations, and Results, 1945-1969. American Antiquity 50(2): 281–296.
Johnson, Craig M. 2007 A Chronology of Middle Missouri Plains Village Sites. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 47. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Jones, David T. 1969 Investigations at the Cattle Oiler Site, 39ST224, Big Bend Reservoir, South Dakota. Revised version of Moerman and Jones, 1966.
Snyder, Lynn M, Deborah Hull-Walski, Thomas D. Thiessen, and Myra J. Giesen 2000 Postwar Partners in Archaeology: the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, and the River Basin Surveys in the Missouri River Basin (145-1969). CRM 1: 17–20.
Wedel, Waldo R. 1967 Salvage Archaeology in the Missouri River Basin. Science 156(3775): 589–597.