Blood Run National Historic Landmark

Site

The Blood Run National Historic Landmark Site is located on both sides of the Big Sioux River in western Lyon County, Iowa and eastern Lincoln County, South Dakota.

The main portion of the site, which shows evidence of continuous occupation, extends over at least 650 acres. Evidence of occupation and/or use by the site occupants can be found from immediately south of Gitchie Manitou State Park to approximately 1/4 mile south of county blacktop A18. The site can be reached on the east from county blacktop K10.

Evidence of occupation is found on the floodplain adjacent to the current course of the Big Sioux River, suggesting that a great deal of information about the occupants might be lying buried beneath the river-deposited sediments.

From the southern margin of a part of the site owned by the State Historical Society of Iowa (the "Decker Farm"), one can see a small virgin prairie and neighboring cultivated fields. There are about 50 large, visible mounds on surrounding private lands.

To preserve the entire Blood Run site and its `visual environment' requires protection of approximately 2340 acres in Iowa and approximately 1000 acres in South Dakota.

In 1987, the State Historical Society, in cooperation with the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, acquired a small (approximately 230 acres) portion of the site.

The land was locally known as the "Decker Farm." Intensively occupied from the late prehistoric to the early historic period, the property also includes a 100' wide abandoned railroad right-of-way allowing the potential for site access from the east.

The "Decker Farm" property includes an abandoned farmstead (the Martin Johnson farm), which consists of two small barns, a small collapsing residential structure, and a house foundation (the house has been moved and serves as a residence elsewhere in Lyon County). The farmstead was developed by the Norwegian-American settlers.

Land Usage

At the time of first European contact in the 1690s, the area was primarily covered with a variety of prairie species. A few stands of overstory trees probably grew along the river bottom and on the north and east facing valley walls.

At present, pasture and row crops constitute the dominant groundcover.

In current planning, emphasis is being placed on prairie restoration and limited no-till cropping on property owned by the State Historical Society.

Prehistoric use of the site extends back in time to as early as 6500 B.C., judging from a few projectile points (probably spear or dart points) recovered from the surface. Archaeological evidence suggests that principal site use was apparently between 1675 and 1705, when it was occupied by people sharing an Oneota cultural tradition.

Plans for the site include building an interpretive center and trail system.

Site Size/Oneota Culture

Blood Run is the largest of the known Oneota cultural sites: 650-1250 acres. The site margins have not been precisely determined.

The Leary National Register Historic Landmark site, located in extreme southeastern Nebraska, is believed to be the second largest Oneota site: estimates of size (again the margins have not been determined) are consistently over 500 acres.

The Utz National Register Historic Landmark site, located above the Missouri River in central Missouri, is probably the third largest Oneota site, with estimates ranging from 150-300 acres.

Oneota Culture - Native American Culture

The Oneota culture is believed to have originated in Wisconsin. A definable cultural entity by A.D. 1000, it evolved from of a late Woodland cultural base.

Oneota society is characterized by archaeologists as having made shell-tempered pottery which ranged in size from teacup to bushel capacity vessels. Typical was a constricted-necked jar with a flaring rim and one or two pair of handles. A few open-orfice bowls, usually without handles, have been found.

Oneota horticultural activities included growing corn, beans, and squash.

In addition to garden products, the Oneota ate bison, deer, elk, dogs, smaller mammals, fish and molluscs, depending upon regional availability.

Oneota villages were unfortified and often large. Cemetery areas are found, but human skeletal remains are often found amongst village refuse.

Only three Oneota sites (all in northwest Iowa) are associated with mounds.

Oneota earthworks are not uncommon, but are found in northeast Iowa, central Missouri, and northwest Iowa. The earthworks are characteristically `enclosures,' perhaps functioning as fortifications.

Social interactions were apparently Oneota-to-Oneota for the most part, although some interaction with Mississippian peoples is also evident along the Mississippi River Valley and in northern Illinois. Oneota people prospered at the same time as other cultural traditions (Mill Creek, Great Oasis, Cambria, Woodland, and Lower Loup), but data available suggest little interaction with these groups.

The Oneota Tradition and Historic Tribes

Traditional: Oneota: Winnebago, Ioway-Oto, Missouri.

Acquired Oneota: Kansa, Osage, Omaha (these tribes arrived in the plains/prairie border region late and assumed some elements of the Oneota tradition).

Other: Central Minnesota data suggests that the Yankton/Yanktonai Sioux may have shared in the Oneota tradition in the late 1600s.

Blood Run is unique among Oneota sites because of the documented 176 mounds. Approximately 80 mounds are still visible on the surface. Other unique features of the site were `boulder circles' and pitted boulders.

The mounds appear to have been made of carefully selected stone and soil which were tightly packed. Although most mounds are quickly reduced or destroyed by cultivation, many large mounds at Blood Run survived due to the methods employed in their construction.

Some mounds are still over six feet high and measure 80 feet in diameter. One of the 176 mounds was apparently an effigy. What it represents is still undetermined.

There may have been an earthen serpent effigy, reported by some as extending 1/4 mile in length. No trace of this edifice remains. It may have been destroyed by railroad construction or perhaps a portion of an earthen enclosure was mistaken by some as serpent-shaped.

The mounds that have been excavated and described in archaeological reports were constructed primarily for human burial.

Mounds are generally regarded by Native Americans as holy places. They may contain human remains and associated artifacts, placed in accord with Native American ritual and belief systems.

Boulder outlines were characteristic features of the Blood Run site. Over 100 of these were in the form of circles, approximately 30 feet in diameter, and ovals, approximately 60 feet long and 30 feet wide. They were probably placed around the lodges of site occupants. None are visible today.

The Omaha appear to have been the principal occupants of Blood Run at the time of European contact. This may have been before the Omaha and Ponca separated. The Ioway (and, probably, the Oto) also lived on the site intermittently. The Ioway, Oto and some Sioux bands were known to the French as the "Prairie Sioux;" the Sioux were, at times friendly and may have been a significant presence at Blood Run as well. According to Omaha legend, the Arikara and Cheyenne were also present on the site at times. No documentation is found in historic records of the Yankton being at Blood Run until after the Omaha left. The Omaha met the Dakota speakers when they (Omaha) went into Minnesota and South Dakota.

The time of most intensive occupation was probably during the late 1600s - early 1700s, at which time as many as 10,000 individuals may have simultaneously occupied the site, trading and interacting in social and ceremonial activities.

The Blood Run site offered an excellent location for tribal interaction at the turn of the 17th century. It was located on a major body of water which offered access to trade materials (Bijou Hills quartzite, pipestone), good food supplies (bison and elk) and afforded easy access to both plains and prairie resources. It may have also been chosen due to its close vicinity to European traders and their sought-after trade goods.

Excavations

Mound Excavations:

Office of State Archaeologist and Luther College - 1985. Field school did a salvage excavation of one mound remnant.

University of Wisconsin - 1964. One small mound just north of Johnson (later, Decker) farmstead.

Charles F. Keyes/Ellison Orr (WPA) - 1934. Apparently, one mound on Johnson (later, Decker) farm.

F. W. Pettigrew - late 1800s. Several mounds on South Dakota side probably some on Iowa side as well.

Fredrick Starr, Davenport Academy of Science - late 1800s. Four mounds.

6. Numerous Amateurs.

Village Excavations:

The Office of the State Archaeologist, Luther College, the Iowa Archaeological Society, the South Dakota Archeological Society, and Augustana College conducted excavations in 1985 and 1986.

Cache or storage pits which functioned like root cellars were the principal features excavated. The pits were located using heavy machinery and then excavated with trowels and shovels. The soil was screened through 1/4" mesh and all the materials bagged for washing, cataloging, and analysis.

Materials that were found in these pits, which ranged in size up to nine feet in diameter and over six feet in depth, are listed below:

• Pottery fragments.

• Chipped stone - arrowpoints, knives, and scrapers.

• Ground stone maul (hammer) - heads with encircling grooves for affixing the handle.

• Ground stone grinding implements - probably used for processing corn and beans.

• Bone tools - especially hoes made from the shoulder blade of the bison or elk, some awls, punches, flaking tools of antler, and items of ornamentation.

• Pipestone - fragments of plaques, pipes, and items of adornment.

• Items suggesting trade with Europeans - including small beads, brass kettle fragments, brass beads and tinklers, and iron knives.

• Animal bone - principally bison, with some elk and dog. Fish bone and molluscs were rare in the features excavated.

Dating of the Blood Run site has been done primarily by using to historic documents and the presence of European trade items. Some storage pits will be dated using radiocarbon (C14) analysis.