Wichita State professor uncovers forgotten native nation that could 'revolutionize' history of the Great Plains | Wichita State News
By: Caelin Bragg
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Great Plains has often been overlooked in the history books of North America, but recent discoveries made by a team of Wichita State University archaeologists are rewriting the history of where the beating heart of North American actually was in the pre-historic era before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
According to research findings by Dr. Don Blakeslee, professor of anthropology and archaeologist at Wichita State, it turns out that the Great Plains was much bigger and much more politically and economically influential in North America than previously thought.
In 2018, Blakeslee discovered the forgotten town of Etzanoa outside of Arkansas City, Kansas. But what he didn't know until now is the true extent of what lies underground: An entire nation of ancestors of today's Wichita tribe towns — called Quivira — totaling more than 200,000 people, who traded goods all across North America and who even had a previously unknown common language.
While some early Spanish documents mention Quivira, the region's significance was until now unknown to the modern understanding of pre-historic North America before Columbus.
"It's going to revolutionize our view of the Great Plains societies, and it already has for me and my students," Blakeslee said. "Charles Mann wrote (in the book) '1491' about the thriving Native American societies before the time of Columbus in South America, Central America and the American Southeast, but when he talked about the Great Plains, he called them distant and sparsely populated and occupied by hunters and gatherers. No. In its day, Quivira was probably the most important native political unit in what's now the United States."
The people who created Quivira arrived in Kansas in the late 1300s, and Quivira was fully formed around 1450. The archaeological evidence shows that they grew crops but also hunted bison in huge numbers. Over 80% of the chipped-stone artifacts from the town of Etzanoa are specialized for processing bison products, and documentary evidence shows that these products were exported from coast to coast.
This discovery shattered the previous understanding of who the people of the Great Plains were — from hunters and gatherers to a continent-spanning unit.
Quivira is barely mentioned in history books because it was as remote as one could get from the early European colonies. Only three Spanish expeditions visited it between 1541 and 1601, and only two of them left documentary records. By the time of the first French visit in 1719, the nation was already in a steep decline.
Its collapse started around 1610, when the Spanish founded Santa Fe and initiated a slave trade based on captives from the plains. The French in Canada and the English in Virginia and South Carolina soon joined them in supplying arms to their native allies in exchange for war prisoners. As a result, raiders from the west had horses and steel-topped weapons, while those from the east were armed with guns. The raids and diseases that Europeans brought to the continent destroyed Quivira around 1700.
Blakeslee's findings — which he will present at the annual Society for American Archaeology meeting March 30-April 2 — focus on three types of evidence discovered about Etzanoa and Quivira: the documentary evidence, the linguistic evidence and the archaeological evidence.
It's going to revolutionize our view of the Great Plains societies.Dr. Don Blakeslee
The documentary evidence
Blakeslee estimates the population of Quivira to have been roughly 200,000, a number that recontextualizes the scale of who occupied the Great Plains. This number is extrapolated from the eyewitness accounts of Etzanoa having a population of 17,000 to over 20,000 people and the presence of 10 or more large towns elsewhere in Quivira.
The town of Etzanoa was originally listed as 22 separate sites until Blakeslee matched the eyewitness accounts to both the archaeological record and to the modern-day landscape. The other large towns discovered are still recorded as clusters of villages rather than large towns.
When recorded more accurately as a connected society of large towns rather than unrelated villages, Blakeslee says, it's clear that Quivira was much more organized and far-reaching than anyone had previously thought.
The Quiviran people also had hereditary chiefs, priests, interpreters and ambassadors they would send to neighboring nations.
"They were an organized society, one far different from the Hollywood version," Blakeslee said. "But they have not been given any recognition at all in American history books."
The linguistic evidence
Evidence in documents from the earliest expeditions to the southwest of the continent shows that some people in Quivira could speak Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec empire. Additionally, Blakeslee has accumulated evidence showing that Nahuatl was the basis for a Lingua Franca, a shared language between speakers of differing native languages, that was in use from Galveston Island in Texas to California, and from Kansas deep into Mexico in pre-historic times. It is the first clear documentation of a pre-historic native Lingua Franca in North America.
Cabeza de Vaca, who was shipwrecked on Galveston Island and later walked to Mexico, was the first European to mention the Lingua Franca. In one passage, he mentioned people who used it would say "xo" (pronounced "show") to call a dog, and "arraca" to get the attention of a person.
Blakeslee, through a chance encounter during a Day of the Dead celebration in his neighborhood, met an individual from Guadalajara who confirmed the words to be Nahuatl, and even corrected the meaning of "arraca" to mean "welcome" instead.
"Here was the clincher," Blakeslee said. "Two words that are still in use that fit the context."
The archaeological evidence
The land area of Quivira was at least as large as the Republic of Ireland, with the currently documented borders being from the Kansas River in the north; the town of Larned, Kansas in the west; east into Missouri; and south into Oklahoma.
Documents from the DeSoto expedition of 1539-1542 indicate large quantities of Quiviran bison products as far east as Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, including meat, robes and war gear such as rawhide shields, helmets and body armor that filled a room in a town in South Carolina. At the same time, other expeditions documented bison rawhide shields in use on the west coast of Mexico and along the Colorado River between Arizona and California. Tobacco pipes made by Quivirans have been found in sites created by the Apache, Pawnee, Missouria and Caddo tribes and in the pueblos of Pecos and Taos.
The people of Quivira received various items in return. So far, Blakeslee has documented pottery in Quiviran sites that came from North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. These archaeological sites have yielded the northernmost example of a type of pottery made in the vicinity of El Paso, and the southernmost example of a type made in central North Dakota.
The items that traveled the farthest are pieces of obsidian from central Mexico and Jalisco, far down the west coast. So far, Quiviran sites have yielded more of the central Mexican obsidian than all of the rest of the archaeological sites in the United States.
Courtesy Artifacts from central Mexico have been discovered in Quiviran sites, including the highest concentration of obsidian among all archaeological sites in the United States.
An experience of a lifetime
Wichita State students working on this research with Blakeslee are receiving a hands-on learning experience they'll likely never forget.
Kait Carter is a WSU graduate student majoring in anthropology who has found a passion in uncovering and illuminating the history of the site.
"There's so much knowledge out there that could be acquired, and just reconstructing history is extremely interesting," Carter said. "I wish a lot more people were in the field to try and help."
Brogan Gillmore, a graduate student majoring in anthropology with a focus on public archaeology, is equally as excited to share the discoveries being made in the Great Plains.
"The work we are doing here at WSU is really phenomenal," Gillmore said. "We're seeing a lot of amazing stuff. It blows your mind."
About Wichita State University
Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling almost 22,000 students between its main campus and WSU Tech, including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student centered and innovation driven.
Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students.
The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.
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LINK TO ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE: https://thenewstalkers.com/trout-giggles/group_discuss/18654/laser-mapping-reveals-a-forgotten-maya-city-in-the-jungle#cm1993202
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Great discovery and I have to wonder if Quivira is somehow related to the great city of Cahokia in Missouri and Illnois? both are close in time frames both have extensive trade routes covering hundreds if not thousands of miles
Cahokia disappeared around 1400 and Quivira reached it's potential around 1450 could these people be related?
They are roughly 500 miles apart.
This is an absolutely amazing story. What an important discovery on many levels - the size and organization, the extent of trade, the linguistic findings.
It is simply amazing, G.
I had always wondered when civilization peaked in kansas.
And now you know, devan.
A truly fascinating post, Kavika. That you so much for sharing it with us.
Growing up I had always been fascinated by anthropology and archaeology, and had always wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up, going on digs and hoping to find ancient treasures, remnants of human artifacts and all other sorts of ancient history of the world in which we live. I studied many articles and books about archaeology and anthropology with the hopes it would prepare me for the studies I would face in becoming one.
However, my being able to follow my life's dream was not to be, there were many obstacles in my life that did not allow me to do so. But, being able to finally find the true history of my Cherokee ancestry and its culture, beliefs and traditions was a true blessing. My ancestors on both sides found it best for their safety and that of their family in many states not to reveal their being Native American and hid it from their children, who went on to never know the truth of their true ancestry. I was very fortunate to be able to find out about my Cherokee heritage from my Great-Grandmother before she walked on, as she felt it was time to reveal my Cherokee background. And I went on to research who my family Cherokee ancestors were on both sides.
And I made sure that I passed on this knowledge to my children and Grandchildren and now to my Great-Grandchildren. I want them to be proud of their own Cherokee heritage and pass it down to their own families.
I can thank my serious study about archaeology and anthropology growing up that helped my later research and find out about my true heritage.
Happy that you enjoyed it, RW. It is an amazing discovery.
Check out the link I posted at the end of this article, it's another amazing discovery and Gsquare posted it.
Yes, I saw the link, and I will need to leave the house for a bit, and I will be sure to check out the link when I return. I can imagine the the great joy and fascination when such discoveries are made. And they can open the door to other such discoveries, and at times, provide insight to how various people lived, died and survived as they developed going forward, or simply disappeared. One of my favorite histories is the Mayan empire. They left such a great footprint on the earth.
I have read the link and it is really amazing the discoveries being made that gives new life to those who have played an important part in our world, their wondrous achievements and legacies that have been lost for so long a time, have now been reborn.
Hey Sister! So good to see you here again!
I love this! Great!
Happy that you enjoyed it, CB.
I love truth and this is positive truth.
What an amazing discovery! I never thought of N. American Indians in the same way as S. American ones, but this shows that there as a society in the plains that we never knew about buried in the earth.
There were many great civilizations that have been hidden for a long, the euro centric rarely listen to us.
Empathically!
Great article! I was taught that the Great Plains tribes were nomadic but apparently not. This find is amazing and will lead to other great discoveries
Some were nomadic some were not and some practiced both.
It will be exciting to see what other discoveries this will lead to.
I think we've discussed some of this tangentially before. There have been some recent discoveries like this that totally transform our history of N. America. I find it all fascinating - both the information presented in the article, but also the hows and whys of what makes up the official historical narratives in our past (it's often political).
I'm wondering how much evidence we'll find of how large a trading area there was. I mean did was there trade between N & S American groups? And if so how far did that extend? Or was it just migration that spread culture?
That would be interesting to find out. I was asking that same question to myself. Were they trading all over N and S America?
The trading area went SW to the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Mexico and as far north as present day ND.
I didn't know how far south the trading route went, but I did know it went that far north. We talked about that before on another article. I need to take some time and deep dive the Santee and maybe even further back if I can find it.
Sounds great, EG.
Yes, Natives call it Euro-centric.