Problems and Potential in Plains Indian Demography

Vehik, Susan C.

doi:10.1080/2052546.1989.11909525

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Smallpox, typhoid, measles, cholera, whooping cough, and other maladies may have wiped out as much as one-half of a tribe's population during the course of any one severe epidemic. 37 Epidemics signi cantly reduced population numbers and had a substantial impact upon tribal societies. However, the adverse effect on the growth of those who survived them is open to debate.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nutritional Success on the Great Plains: Nineteenth-Century Equestrian Nomads

Prince

Steckel²

2003

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

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Native Americans have often been portrayed as merely unfortunate victims of European disease and aggression, but data on human stature show—and travelers' accounts and skeletal records confirm—that the equestrian Plains nomads were ingenious, adaptive, and nutritionally successful in the face of exceptional demographic stress. Much of their extraordinary achievement can be attributed to a rich and varied diet, a modest disease load other than epidemics, a remarkable facility at reorganization following demographic disasters, and egalitarian principles of operation.

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confidence: 99%

Nutritional Success on the Great Plains: Nineteenth-Century Equestrian Nomads

Prince

Steckel²

2003

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

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“…The stories contained in the work of Echo-Hawk (2018) parallel this narrative; wherein he postulates a small-scale re-occupation of the Republican valley in the 1820s by refugees of epidemics in the larger Loup River villages. The chronology of this story coincides generally with a documented smallpox epidemic among the Pawnee along the Platte and Loup occurring in 1824-1825 (Vehik 1989). The convergence of this information is intriguing and could suggest a scenario in which groups of Kitkhahki splintered from the main Pawnee settlements in the Loup to establish and reoccupy villages in the Republican valley for a variety of reasons.…”

Section: Kitkahahki Historymentioning

confidence: 52%

Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon Dating at a Late Contact Period Kitkahahki Pawnee Site on the Central Great Plains, Usa

et al. 2021

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This study obtained calendar dates by radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (14C AMS) dating sequential tree-rings of wooden support posts from the buried remains of traditional Kitkahahki Pawnee earthlodges preserved at an archaeological site on the Central Great Plains, USA. The tree-ring segments from the site were dendrochronologically analyzed prior to this study, but the cross-matched site chronology could not be definitively cross-dated and was thus “floating” in time. Our study represents the first floating tree-ring chronology from the Great Plains to be anchored in time by means of independent radiocarbon analysis. Three specimens were analyzed and dated to 1724–1774 CE (82.0% probability), 1774–1794 CE (95.4% probability), and 1800–1820 CE (95.4% probability). These dates correspond to the hypothetical timing of Kitkahahki ethnogensis, the main phase of village growth in the area, and a later reoccupation during a turbulent period in regional history. The results of this study conform to a scenario in which chaotic social conditions correspond to an increase in residential mobility between the core of Pawnee territory and a southern frontier in the Republican River valley.

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“…Among the Osage, full-blooded Indians tended to select allotments clustered near traditional Osage villages with little farming potential, while mixed-blood Indians selected allotments based on soil fertility and crop potential (Vehik, 1989). At White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, the allotment process was characterized by massive land fraud and limited choice of allotments by the Anishinaabeg, resulting in dispossession and poverty (Meyer 1991).…”

Section: All Else Being Equal We Would Expect That Mother's Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

American Indian Mortality in the Late Nineteenth Century: the Impact of Federal Assimilation Policies on a Vulnerable Population

Hacker¹,

Haines²

2005

Annales De Démographie Historique

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Under the urging of late nineteenth-century humanitarian reformers, U.S. policy toward American Indians shifted from removal and relocation efforts to state-sponsored attempts to "civilize" Indians through allotment of tribal lands, citizenship, and forced education. There is little consensus, however, whether and to what extent federal assimilation efforts played a role in the stabilization and recovery of the American Indian population in the twentieth century. In this paper, we rely on a new IPUMS sample of the 1900 census of American Indians and census-based estimation methods to investigate the impact of federal assimilation policies on childhood mortality. We use children ever born and children surviving data included in the censuses to estimate childhood mortality and [responses to] several questions unique to the Indian enumeration [including tribal affiliation, degree of "white blood", type of dwelling, ability to speak English, and whether a citizen by allotment] to construct multivariate models of child mortality. The results suggest that mortality among American Indians in the late nineteenth century was very high -approximately 62% [standardize as % or percent throughout] higher than that for the white population. The impact of assimilation policies was mixed. Increased ability to speak English was associated with lower child mortality, while allotment of land in severalty was associated with higher mortality. The combined effect was a very modest four percent [as above] decline in mortality. As of 1900, the government campaign to assimilate Indians had yet to result in a significant decline in Indian mortality while incurring substantial economic and cultural costs.

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Problems and Potential in Plains Indian Demography

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Nutritional Success on the Great Plains: Nineteenth-Century Equestrian Nomads

Nutritional Success on the Great Plains: Nineteenth-Century Equestrian Nomads

Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon Dating at a Late Contact Period Kitkahahki Pawnee Site on the Central Great Plains, Usa

American Indian Mortality in the Late Nineteenth Century: the Impact of Federal Assimilation Policies on a Vulnerable Population

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