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This excerpt from "Protection of Mounds
at Blood Run in Northwestern Iowa" published in the 2020 Central States Archaeological
Societies 2020 October Journal
Read the complete column in the Central States
Archaeological Societies 2020
October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2021
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Figure 1. Aerial photograph of the main mound group
looking south.
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Abstract
Blood Run is the largest Oneota site on record. The concentration of mounds
and occupations date from about 500 years ago and extend for over four
miles on both sides of the Big Sioux River. There were at least 275 mounds
in 1880, but there are now fewer than 100 as a result of excavation, construction,
mining and agricultural activities. While some areas of the site are currently
protected, the main mound group continues to experience agricultural erosion
every year. This important cultural resource clearly warrants protection
efforts that are more rigorous than those that are currently being applied.
Introduction
Blood Run National Historic Landmark is mainly located in the extreme northwestern
corner of Iowa in Lyon County. Portions of the site extend across the Big
Sioux River where South Dakota’s Good Earth State Park recently opened.
There are some mounds on the west side of the river, but the main mound
group and the largest number of mounds are on the Iowa side.
The location is near the northwest margin of the Prairie Peninsula that
extends all across Iowa as tall grass prairie and large river valleys. This
wide bioregion provided resources for a Native American culture known as
the Oneota. More than four hundred years ago, Blood Run was a home for Oneota
people and an integral part of an extensive trading network. The Archaeological
Guide to Iowa calls Blood Run “…the largest and most complex
protohistoric Oneota site known, forming a cultural landscape without parallel” (Whittaker
and others, 2015). However, that cultural landscape is under assault because
the mounds have been in danger for many years.
The site has been impacted by amateur excavations, railroad construction,
gravel extraction and agricultural tilling. It’s been about a century
since the first two posed any threats, and it’s been decades since
gravel operations have directly encroached on the main mound group. Although
the site is designated as a National Historic Landmark and some of the mounds
are owned by the State of Iowa, the majority of the main mound group is in
danger from conventional agricultural activities. The low sun angle in this
aerial photograph (Fig. 1) enhances the topographic relief on individual
features in the main mound group and makes them easier to see. It also illustrates
the problem of exposure in a bare field in contrast to the mounds hidden
in protective grass. However, cultivation is only slowly eroding mounds whereas
construction and mining activities completely removed them.
Ancient History
Between the 1400s and the 1700s, Blood Run was home for a series of interrelated
villages and mound groups. Round and oval shaped dwellings were mixed in
among individual mounds. At times this community of distinct neighborhoods
probably consisted of more than 5,000 residents. And for several ....
Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2020
October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2021
