The Lykins Valley Site (5LR263): An Early Nineteenth Century Indigenous Occupation At The Western Edge Of The Central Plains

Description

Understanding the degree by which North American indigenous cultures were impacted by contact with previously unknown materials and peoples has catalyzed a useful debate about what specifically constitutes change and continuity in Native systems. This debate has exposed the difficulties in understanding post contact change, particularly in regards to material goods that oftentimes have very nuanced cultural histories (Silliman 2009; Tveskov 2007). Use of chipped stone tools and butchering processes which can be linked to Native practices serve as the primary criteria for interpreting the Lykins Valley site as a Native American occupation. However, at least in a qualitative sense, the continued use of traditional technologies and practices, such as chipped stone tools and precontact butchering practices at sites with European-derived trade goods and introduced livestock, constitutes post contact Native cultural continuity despite the lack of a precise metric for measuring such change.