48 Nebraskaland • October 2019
quickly
adopted
European
technology, abandoning stone
tools and pottery, leaving far fewer
artifacts to discover."
Of those tribes that inhabited
the western Sandhills at one time
or another, most are familiar to
us, such as various Lakota (Sioux)
bands, Cheyenne, Comanche,
Arapaho, and Pawnee. But less
known to the average Nebraskan
are the Plains Apaches, who lived
in and transitioned through
the region over several
centuries.
Along the Middle Loup River
near what is now Mullen,
Nebraska, one mid-1600s
Plains Apache village thrived.
Originally discovered in 1947
by an advanced archaeological
team surveying for a potential
reservoir project, most of the
village remained unearthed until 71
years later when the student team
descended upon it with shovels,
trowels, and sifters.
Using ground-penetrating radar
and a magnetometer to locate best
areas to dig, the team first noticed
burned structural remains which
were once frameworks for small
dome-shaped houses that would
have been covered in hides, grass
or possibly clay. No one will ever
know if the structures burned
during occupancy or by prairie fires
after the village was abandoned.
In precisely dug rectangular
trenches the team located
fireplaces and a diverse assortment
of stone artifacts. Nearby garbage
pits brimmed with bones from
bison, deer, antelope and small
mammals. Turtles were also on
the menu, as their numerous shells
revealed. A few pottery sherds
helped to identify the Plains
Apache tribe, while carbon dating
of the village's organic matter
pinned down the era.
Originally from arctic Canada and
Alaska, the Plains Apaches began
migrating south over 1,000 years
ago. Their artifacts have also been
located along the Republican River
and westward to the foothills of the
Rockies, but the Mullen site seems
to be one of a handful that was an
actual village, likely consisting of
extended family bands. "Dozens
probably lived in this village on
and off for several years or even
decades," Bozell said.
To live in the Nebraska
An arrow shaft straightener,
made from a bison rib bone, is
one of the more unusual finds
unearthed from the Plains Apache
camp.
Back in the Lincoln lab, Talon O'Connor works to clean and label artifacts
found over the course of the summer's field school.
