2011/02/01 by Cody Newton · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Archaeology and Natural History #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Archaeology and Rock Art Studies #Frontier #Context (archaeology) #History #Documentation #Indigenous #Scholarship #Schism #Archaeology #Ethnography #Anthropology #Sociology #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1179/pan.2011.006
openalex publication_date 2011/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Understanding the trajectories of culture change of Plains Indian groups of the western Great Plains immediately prior to contact is crucial to developing a true understanding of the impacts of European technologies and peoples. This article analyzes late precontact culture change and movement using the Comanche as a case study in order to better understand this crucial portion of indigenous history so critical to the proceeding postcontact processes. The postcontact ramifications of Comanche expansionism are the subject of considerable scholarship, but prior to the first historical documentation of this group in 1706, little is known about these people. The Shoshone-Comanche schism and the route that Comanche groups took to arrive on the Spanish frontier are discussed using information derived from historic and ethnographic accounts, oral traditions, and paleoenvironmental and archaeological data. This discussion highlights the current lack of archaeologically derived data about the late precontact lifeways of many of the historically known Plains Indian groups of the western Great Plains.