Vickers Focus Environmental Choices and Site Location in the Parklands of Southwestern Manitoba

Abstract

The Vickers Focus people entered the parklands of Southwestern Manitoba sometime around AD 1400, settling in the Tiger Hills uplands. Their ceramics indicate that their original homelands were in south-central Minnesota and northern Iowa and that they maintained connections with the Middle Missouri area to the south. The reconstructed lifeways of the Vickers Focus people, while they were living in this area, indicate that a foraging/horticultural subsistence background influenced their selection of sites. Sometime before AD 1500 they shifted westward into the Lauder Sandhills area southeast of Oak Lake. In their new homeland there is no evidence that they continued to practice horticulture but rather they intensified their foraging activities. While their subsistence strategies appear to have been modified when they relocated themselves, a number of environmental and ecological commonalities link these areas. Both areas are characterized by warm soils, with an abundance of pothole water sources. Ecological complexity and resource richness characterize the local environments. In addition, there appears to have been an active desire to avoid locating their sites along major travel routes in the region. The ecological and environmental parameters of the areas they selected are explored in this paper.

Archaeobotanical evidence of prehistoric maize (Zea mays) consumption at the northern edge of the Great Plains

“…In fact, no artifacts associated with gardening (e.g., scapula hoes, squash knives) have been recovered from the OLS site cluster, and therefore sites in this region were previously interpreted as short-term, seasonal, occupations by small groups of foragers [22]. At other sites, such as Lovstrom, Lowton, and Lockport, however, occasional recovery of scapula or stone hoes and grinding stones suggests that gardening may have occurred locally [32,33,35]; the Lowton site is also unusually large (400 Â 200 m) in contrast to other Plains Woodland sites on the Canadian Prairies [32]. This diversity in the archaeological record suggests that maize may have entered the region through multiple 'pathways', including: During the early historic period, for example, Cree and Assiniboin hunter-gatherers were engaged in extensive trade with the Mandan and Hidatsa [6].…”

“…Local horticulture: Maize and other cultigens may also have been grown locally on the eastern Canadian Prairies. Nicholson [32,33] and Nicholson et al [35] argue, for example, that the Vickers focus (AD 1350e1650) represents an intrusive horticultural manifestation in southern Manitoba, based primarily on similarities in the ceramic assemblage to Plains Village wares, and the recovery of a possible scapula hoe and grinding stones in the TH. Evidence of maize macroremains, scapula hoes, and bell-shaped pits from the Lockport site [13,14] provide somewhat more compelling evidence of horticulture, although this site has received only superficial analysis and remains largely unpublished.…”

“…Artifactual evidence of local gardening is rare to absent, although recoveries from Vickers focus sites in the TH include some grinding stones and a possible bison scapula hoe [32]. One of us [32,33,35] has argued for the practice of small-scale horticulture as support for a foraging subsistence strategy in the TH. In contrast, Vickers sites in the OLS e where no gardening implements have been found e are interpreted as short-term, seasonal, occupations by huntergatherers [22].…”

Can bison play a role in conserving habitat for endangered sandhills species in Canada?

“…Archaeological findings and theory provide additional evidence that bison occupied sandhills, that Plains adapted peoples capitalized on the heterogeneity of these ecosystems (Epp 1984(Epp , 1986Meyer and Epp 1990;Nicholson et al 2002), and that these areas were used strategically for bison procurement (e.g. Frison 1978;Wolfe et al 2007).…”

Light from Ancient Campfires: Archaeological Evidence for Native Lifeways on the Northern Plains

“…This site might be a candidate to be reclassified as Sonota. Other sites in southwestern Manitoba that likely fall within the Sonota phase include United Church, Kain (Nicholson 1985(Nicholson , 1994, Mullet (Nicholson 1985;Scribe 1997:94), Calf Mountain (Joyes 1970:214), Vera (Nicholson and Hamilton 1997), and the Oak Lake Lo calities (Fardoe 1977).…”