The Plains Phase

The Plains Phase is categorized as part of the Woodland culture. Sites belonging to the plains woodland grouping tend to be located along rivers and lakes. Sites may not be individually related to a specific river or lake but the spatial distribution of the sites clearly indicate an association. This may well have been a seasonal sort of relationship where the population returns each winter to the flat bottom lands and wooded valleys of the river or lake.

When people were predominately hunting and gathering, territories were separated by clearly definable variables within that physical environment. These variables focused on usable resources contained within that particular setting: water, firewood, plant and animal resources, etc. Populations that adapted to the exploitation of a particular microenvironment, have come to be identified with these microenvironments. By Woodland times, different groups of people living in different geographic contexts were clearly perceivable.

All Plains Woodland sites have produced a fair number of side and corner notched projectiles. Artifacts include large and small weapon points, the usual smattering of scrapers, blades and the occasional sherd. The ceramics are thick walled, calcite tempered and of a utilitarian conical shape. Pottery was not very plentiful among the river sites and when it does occur, it usually takes the form of jars with rounded bottoms with little or no neck. Design is limited to cord roughened exteriors and an occasional dentate rim.

Bibliography

The Prehistoric People of Minnesota, Eldon Johnson 2. Plains Woodland, Michael Clark 3. Prehistory of Southern Minnesota, Michael Scullin 4. EMuseum, Minnesota State University of Mankato