Upper Mississippian culture, which existed in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois and New York consisted of several different cultures, with the Orr phase being the most recent (Gibbon, 129). confined to the southern part of Minnesota, Mississippian cultures can be distinguished from woodland cultures in that evidence of storage pits and scapula hoes indicate the utilization of agriculture as an adaptive strategy (Wilford, 138). The Orr Focus is a part of the Oneota aspect.
Although the Orr culture is "poorly represented in Minnesota" because of the "lack of a worthwhile village site," some data from the Orr culture phase dating from roughly 150 to 750 b.p. has been obtained from burial sites. Specifically, the grave goods placed with the deceased have yielded information about copper ornaments in beaded form that were traded with the French during historic times and pottery (Wilford, 141). The pottery that has been collected from Orr sites is notably "shell-tempered," like the pottery from Silvernale and Blue Earth sites, as opposed to the older "grit-tempered" pottery found in Cambrian sites (Wilford, 138). Moreover, a defining feature of Orr pottery is the "strap handle" attached to the lip and the shoulder area and the decorations on the rim and handles which consist of straight lines running parallel to each other or meeting at angles (Griffin, 4). As Lloyd Wilford claimed on page 141 of "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota," the pottery of the later Orr culture is "more decadent" than that of the previous Mississippian cultures. Basing his conclusion on the pottery alone, Wilford may have been incorrectly implying that the Orr culture was advanced in complexity relative to Cambria, Silvernale, Blue Earth, and other Mississippian cultures.
Much like the other Mississippian cultures, simple triangular projectile points were found on Orr sites, indicating that hunting was important for subsistence along with agriculture (Wilford, 141). These activities contributed to the partially sedentary lifestyles of the people. Tending gardens required at least part of the village to remain at home, while the movement of the buffalo accompanied the migration of the people in order for the animals to be hunted (from the class discussion).
Gibbon, Guy E. 1974. "A Model of Mississippian Development and its Implications for the Red Wing Area in Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology." Minnesota Prehistoric Archaeology series no. 11. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
Griffin, James B. "The Orr Focus." Minnesota Archaeologist, vol. 15, January. 1949.
Wilford, Lloyd A. 1941. "A Tentative Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity, vol.6.