Chapter 3
 An ice age created a land
bridge connecting Asia
w/ North America.
 The first humans came
to North America by
crossing that bridge.
 When the ice age ended,
the land bridge flooded,
becoming the Bering
Strait.
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1961: scientists discover evidence of Paleo Indian
hunters in Oklahoma.
Thousands of years ago, six-foot tall bison, camels,
horses, and sloths the size of elephants lived in the
area that is Oklahoma.
Columbian mammoth bones were found at the
Cooperton site in Kiowa County.
Soil deposits date to about 30,000 years ago at
Burnham site.
3
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The Clovis people, named after the New Mexico site
where first artifacts were reported, were known for
their spears (spear point usually 3-4 inches long)
There is an important Clovis site near Stecker in
Caddo County.
The Clovis people first hunted mammoths and then
switched to bison as the mammoth population
declined.
Click for information on Jake
Bluff.
4
 Reached Oklahoma
11,000 years ago
 Domebo: archaeologists
find skeleton of a
mammoth w/ Clovis
points still within it’s
bones.
 Caddo County
 Ate seeds, hunted, told
stories, and slept beside
open fire.
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The Clovis people, named after the New Mexico site
where first artifacts were reported, were known for
their spears (spear point usually 3-4 inches long)
There is an important Clovis site near Stecker in
Caddo County.
The Clovis people first hunted mammoths and then
switched to bison as the mammoth population
declined.
Click for information on Jake
Bluff.
6
 Descendants of the Big
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Game hunters
More complex society,
based on foraging.
Hunted modern species of
buffalo and deer.
More skilled than BGH.
Atlatl: wooden throwing
stick.
Made baskets, nets, string,
canoes.
Petroglyphs
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As climate changed, the people adapted and their
culture changed.
They become hunters and harvesters and made
flour and stored it in baskets.
Pieces of bone and antler became spear points,
needles, awls, punches, and atlatl hooks.
They ate a variety of wild animals and knew how to
start a fire with a wood drill.
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 Planted corn, beans,
pumpkins, and squash.
 Built houses using poles w/
thatch roofs.
 Still hunted and gathered
on prairie close to farms.
 First pottery in area.
 Made by women
 Coil Method
 Helped w/ food
preparation and storage
 Water gathering
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Bow and arrow were developed about this time and
made hunting easier.
Because farming meant growing crops, people
moved less and villages began to develop.
 A.D. 900
 People become social
 Plains Village Farmers
 Archeologists have
found more than 200
sites w/ at least 12
dwellings along Washita
River.
 Houses square w/ clay
and grass plaster and
thatch roofs.
 Traded w/ people in
distant communities.
• Archeologists have
found more than 200
sites w/ at least 12
dwellings along Washita
River.
• Houses square w/ clay
and grass plaster and
thatch roofs.
• Traded w/ people in
distant communities.
 Planted greater variety of
crops
 Tobacco
 tools
 More effective hunters
 Bow and Arrow
 Pottery
 Early religion?
 No elaborate ceremonies
 No social classes
 No mounds
600-1500 AD
 Advanced, sedentary society
 Unprecedented horticultural activity and population
growth.
 Complex social and political hierarchies,
ceremonialism, long distance trade
 Spiro is one of the best examples of North American
Caddoan culture.
 Located on the Arkansas River,
where it is constricted by Ozark
and Ouachita Mountains.
 Excellent spot to monitor and
control the flow of people,
commerce, and information
between the bison hunting
plains people and farming
centers in the southeast
 Evidence suggests that by 850
the “Spiro” mound builders
were in complete control of the
area.
 There is no evidence of defensive works/structures or
strife with neighbors.
 The Spiro site was a ceremonial-
burial center surrounded by
small hamlets.
 Mounds are full of burials
including STATUS GOODS.
 Status Goods: items denoting
wealth, power or prestige that
are interred with an individual.
 The largest of the Spiro Mounds it is 33 feet tall,
400 feet long and 115 feet wide.
 It holds approximately 700 burials.
 We know that Spiro mastered a great network of
trading partners.
 How do we know this???
 Galena from SE Missouri and Iowa
 Quartz from central Arkansas
 Flint from Kansas
 Copper from eastern Tennessee and the Carolinas
 Conch shell from Florida
 Which of these status goods was considered most
valuable??
 Copper and conch shell because they were from
the farthest areas
 There was more copper and marine shell at Spiro
than at any other North American site.
 Exotic goods arrived finished, suggesting they were
sent as TRIBUTE to seal political alliances or as
payment for religious rituals.
 An extended period of drought probably moved the
villages south to the Red River Valley and the mounds
were generally abandoned over many decades.
 Over many, many, many generations, these people reorganized themselves into what is today known as the
Wichita Indian Tribe.