Oneota

  General Description   ’Oneota’ is the modern name given to a group of late prehistoric or protohistoric cultures, known solely from their material remains and centred on modern-day Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Midwestern United States. ^[1] Oneota migrations can be traced archaeologically: for instance, some groups using Oneota-style material culture began appearing alongside Mississippian populations in the American Bottom region (modern southwestern Illinois) during the Sand Prairie phase (c. 1275-1400 CE). ^[2] We are concerned here with the period of Oneota activity between c. 1400 and 1650 CE, but it should be noted that the roots of the tradition are to be found before 1400. Small quantities of European trade goods appear in the Illinois archaeological record around the beginning of the 17th century CE, marking the beginning of the ’protohistoric’ period in this region. ^[3]
Population and political organization
Oneota society was relatively egalitarian, more so than the preceding Mississippian cultures: there is a lack of evidence from Oneota settlements or funerary contexts for inherited status or class distinctions. ^[4] It has been suggested that political leadership was provided by ’big men’, who relied on informal support from village populations and could not pass on their positions to their children. ^[4]
Reliable estimates for the size of the Oneota population between 1400 and 1650 CE are lacking. ^[5]

[1]: (Hall 1997, 142) Hall, Robert L. 1997. An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/8KH357GV.

[2]: (Pauketat 1994, 47) Pauketat, Timothy R. 1994. The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/NJHPTUJ8.

[3]: (Emerson and Brown 1992, 102) Emerson, Thomas E., and James A. Brown. 1992. "The Late Prehistory and Protohistory of Illinois." In Calumet and Fleur-De-Lys: French and Indian Interaction in the Midcontinent, edited by J. Walthall and T. Emerson, 77-125. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/C877T4HD.

[4]: (Gibbon 2001, 390-91) Gibbon, Guy E. 2001. "Oneota." In Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 6: North America, edited by Peter N. Peregrine and Melvin Ember, 389-407. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/QU7PNRMC.

[5]: (Hart 1990, 570-71) Hart, John P. 1990. "Modeling Oneota Agricultural Production: A Cross-Cultural Evaluation." Current Anthropology 31 (5): 569-77. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/MJKQA3W5.