Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:19:05.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Archaeological Investigations in the Choctaw Homeland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jerome A. Voss  and
John H. Blitz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With a focus on the archaeology of the early historic Choctaw, field investigations in east-central Mississippi resulted in the discovery of 73 sites and the confirmation of two previously known sites. Fifty-nine of the 75 sites had either definite or probable Choctaw components. The assemblages on the historic Choctaw sites typically consisted of a complex of four decorated and four undecorated Native American ceramic types along with Euro-American trade goods that suggest site occupation dates during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The better preserved Choctaw phase sites typically were small artifact clusters, probably the remains of individual households, located on low ridges. In several places these sites were grouped in clusters suggestive of the dispersed communities described in historical accounts of the Choctaw. None of the sites has yielded evidence suggestive of sociopolitical centrality.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 125 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Atkinson, J. R. 1984 Kemper County/DeKalb Industrial Park : Preliminary Report on Cultural Resources Survey. Submitted to Kemp, Springer, and Associates, Meridian, Mississippi.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. R., and Blakeman, C. H. Jr. 1975 Archaeological Site Survey in the Tallahalla Reservoir Area, Jasper County, Mississippi. Mississippi State University. Submitted to National Park Service, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Bell, R. E., and Baerreis, D. A. 1951 A Survey of Oklahoma Archaeology. Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society Bulletin 22 : 7–100.Google Scholar
Blitz, J. H. 1985 An Archaeological Study of the Mississippi Choctaw Indians. Archaeological Report No. 16. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.Google Scholar
Brain, J. P. 1979 Tunica Treasure. Peabody Museum Papers vol. 71. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Brown, I. W. 1978 Decorated Pottery of the Lower Mississippi Valley : A Sorting Manual. Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Brown, M. K. 1971 Glass from Fort Michilimackinac : A Classification for Eighteenth Century Glass. Michigan Archaeologist 17 : 97–215.Google Scholar
Bushnell, D. I. Jr. 1909 The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Butzer, K. W. 1982 Archaeology as Human Ecology. Cambridge University Press, New York. Google Scholar
Campbell, T. N. 1959 Choctaw Subsistence : Ethnographic Notes from the Lincecum Manuscript. Florida Anthropologist 12 : 9–24.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. L. 1981 The Chiefdom : Precursor of the State. In The Transition to Statehood in the New World, edited by Jones, G. D. and Kantz, R. R., pp. 37–79. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Collins, H. B. Jr. 1926 Archaeological and Anthropometrical Work in Mississippi. Smithsonian Institution Miscellaneous Collections 78 : 89–95.Google Scholar
Collins, H. B. Jr. 1927 Potsherds from Choctaw Village Sites in Mississippi. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 17 : 259–263.Google Scholar
Davis, D. D. 1981 Ceramic Classification and Temporal Discrimination : A Consideration of Late Prehistoric Stylistic Change in the Mississippi River Delta. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 6 : 55–89.Google Scholar
Duhe, B. J. 1983 Shellhill Plantation : An 18th Century Bayougoula Indian Village? Paper presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Eggan, F. 1937 Historical Changes in the Choctaw Kinship System. American Anthropologist 39 : 34–52.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, C. H. 1952 Creek and Pre-Creek. In Archaeology of the Eastern United States, edited by Griffin, J. B., pp. 285–300. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Ford, J. A. 1936 Analysis of Indian Village Site Collections from Louisiana and Mississippi. Louisiana Department of Conservation Anthropological Study No. 2. Louisiana Geographical Survey, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Forde, C. D. 1931 Hopi Agriculture and Land Ownership. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 61 : 385–414.Google Scholar
Galloway, P. 1984 Technical Origins for Chickachae Combed : An Ethnohistorical Hypothesis. Mississippi Archaeology 19(2) : 58–66.Google Scholar
Griffin, J. W. 1949 An Authentic Glass Scraper. American Antiquity 15 : 56–57.Google Scholar
Haag, W. G. 1953 Choctaw Archaeology. Southeastern Archaeological Conference Newsletter 3 : 25–28.Google Scholar
Halbert, H. S. 1900a Danville's Map of East Mississippi. Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 3 : 367–371.Google Scholar
Halbert, H. S. 1900b Funeral Customs of the Mississippi Choctaws. Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 3 : 353–366.Google Scholar
Halbert, H. S. 1901 District Divisions of the Choctaw Nation. Publications of the Alabama Historical Society, Miscellaneous Collections 1 : 375–385.Google Scholar
Halbert, H. S. 1902 Bernard Romans’ Map of 1772. Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 6 : 415–439.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1903 Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report No. 20. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Hudson, C. M. 1976 The Southeastern Indians. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Hume, I. N. 1970 A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Kelly, A. 1974 Topography. In Atlas of Mississippi, edited by Cross, R. D., pp. 4–7. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson.Google Scholar
Krakker, J., Shott, M., and Welch, P. 1983 Design and Evaluation of Shovel-Test Sampling in Regional Archaeological Survey. Journal of Field Archaeology 10 : 469–480.Google Scholar
Lankford, G. E. 1983 A Documentary Study of Native American Life in the Lower Tombigbee Valley. Cultural Resources Reconnaissance Study of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee System Corridor, Alabama; vol. II : Ethnohistory. University of South Alabama, Mobile.Google Scholar
Lovis, W. A. 1976 Quarter Sections and Forests : An Example of Probability Sampling in the Northeastern Woodlands. American Antiquity 41 : 364–372.Google Scholar
Marsh, W. M. 1978 Environmental Analysis for Land Use and Site Planning. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Parker, J. W. 1982 Archaeological Test Investigations at 1 Su7 : The Fort Tombecbe Site. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 28 : 1–104.Google Scholar
Peebles, C. S., and Kus, S. M. 1977 Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies. American Antiquity 42 : 421–448.Google Scholar
Penman, J. T. 1977 Archaeological Survey in Mississippi, 1974-1975. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.Google Scholar
Penman, J. T. 1983 Archaeology and Choctaw Removal. In Southeastern Natives and Their Pasts : A Collection of Papers Honoring Dr. Robert E. Bell, edited by Wyckoffand, D. G. Hofman., J. L. Oklahoma Archeological Survey Studies in Oklahoma's Past No. 11. Norman, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Perino, G. 1978 Probable Choctaw Sites on the Lower Mountain Fork and near the Junction of the Mountain Fork with Little River. Paper presented at the Historic Site Conference, Fort Townson, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Phillips, P. 1970 Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949-1955. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology No. 60. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Quimby, G. I. 1942 The Natchezan Culture Type. American Antiquity 7 : 255–275.Google Scholar
Quimby, G. I. 1957 The Bayou Goula Site, Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Fieldiana : Anthropology 47. Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago.Google Scholar
Rowland, D., and Sanders, A. G. 1927 Mississippi Provincial Archives : French Dominion, vol. 1. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.Google Scholar
Saltsman, E. J., and Cross, R. D. 1974 Climate. In Atlas of Mississippi, edited by Cross, R. D., pp. 12–15. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson.Google Scholar
Schmitt, K., and Bell, R. E. 1954 Historic Indian Pottery from Oklahoma. Oklahoma Anthropological Society Bulletin 2 : 19–34.Google Scholar
Smith, B. D. 1978 Variation in Mississippian Settlement Patterns. In Mississippian Settlement Patterns, edited by Smith, B. D., pp. 479–503. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, V. P. 1978 Location Theory and Complex Chiefdoms : A Mississippian Example. In Mississippian Settlement Patterns, edited by Smith, B. D., pp. 417–453. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, V. P. 1981 Plaquemine Ceramic Chronology in the Natchez Region. Mississippi Archaeology 16 : 6–19.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, V. P. 1983 Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns : An Archaeological Study at Moundville. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Swanton, J. R. 1931 Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Swanton, J. R. 1946 The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 137. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Voss, J. A. 1984 Archaeological Investigations at the Proposed Kemper County/DeKalb Industrial Park, Kemper County, Mississippi. Submitted to Kemp, Springer, and Associates, Meridian, Mississippi.Google Scholar
Ward, R. A. Jr. 1983 English Earthenwares Associated with Early 19th Century Choctaw Sites. Mississippi Archaeology 18(1) : 37–45.Google Scholar
White, R. 1983 The Roots of Dependency : Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Williams, S. B. 1981 Some Historic Perspectives on Southeastern Ceramic Traditions. In Traces of Prehistory : Papers in Honor of William G. Haag, edited by West, F. H. and Neuman, R. W., pp. 115–122. Geoscience and Man, vol. 22. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Witthoft, J. 1966 A History of Gunflints. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 36 : 12–49.Google Scholar
Woods, P. D. 1980 French-Indian Relations on the Southern Frontier, 1699-1762. Studies in American History and Culture No. 18. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar