Mark D. Mitchell - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mark D. Mitchell
University of Arizona Press eBooks, 2010
Plains Anthropologist, 2001
Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. P... more Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted on robes, drawn in ledgers, and incised or painted as rock art from northern Mexico to southern Alberta, these images illustrate the emphasis placed on horse finery by Plains and Southwestern Indian cultures. Rock art is replete with these decorated bridles. A cursory literature review identified more than 25 sites with illustrated examples, located from northern Mexico through nine ofthe United States and into southern Canada at Writing-On-Stone, Alberta. Given the number of these rock art images and the wealth of comparative material from historical sources and recently published robe art and ledger drawings, we have identified and described seven distinct types of bridle decorations in Plains rock art. These decorations provide clues to ethnic identity of the artists and illuminate the extent of trade networks and intertribal alliances that extended across the region and into the American Southwest. Keywords: biographic rock art; horse tack in rock art; Plains rock art; ledger art; robe art. Decorated bridles are one of the most common pieces of horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted on robes, drawn in ledgers, and incised or painted as rock art from northern Mexico to southern Alberta, these images illustrate the em phasis placed on horse finery by Plains cultures and compose a significant element of the biographic art lexicon, where they were most frequently used to connote a pony dressed up for war.1 At least one of these decorations also served as horse medicine because it was imbued with magical qualities that protected the horse (Wissler 1912:107; Ewers 1955:277-278). In some cases, these decorations also provide clues to ethnic identity of the artists and demonstrate the extent of trade networks and inter tribal alliances that linked Plains societies to one another and to those in neighboring regions. Plains rock art is replete with decorated bridles. A cursory literature review identified more than 25 sites with illustrated examples of this motif, extend ing from the Mexican state of Coahuila through six of the Plains states and into southern Canada at Writing-On-Stone, Alberta (Figure 1, Table 1). They also occur in the historic rock art of the American Southwest at at least seven sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. First recognized in rock art at Chaco Canyon (Brugge 1976) and at Writing-On-Stone (Keyser 1977:43), decorated bridles have subsequently been noted at sites throughout the Plains and adjacent areas
Plains Anthropologist, 2016
Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and N... more Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. While clearly the product of patterned reduction yielding flakes with roughly parallel sides, the cores seldom produced regular flake removals, suggesting a high degree of variability in the resulting microliths. This irregular pattern of reduction contrasts with classic microblade cores from higher latitudes, where uniformity of microblades was desired. When noted by field archaeologists, microcores are variously described as conical or circular scrapers as well as microcores or microblade cores. They occur in low frequencies in several time periods and are seldom identified with associated production debitage let alone microliths. This article examines microlith manufacture and microcore discard in the Northwestern Plains and adjacent regions and proposes that the technology fulfilled a specialized role in the organization of lithic technology linked to the infrequent manufacture of specialty items. keywords microcore, microlith, micorblade, Northwestern Plains, Rocky Mountain Front, lithic Artifacts resembling microblade cores are occasionally referenced in publications and gray literature of the Northwestern Plains and adjacent regions (e.g., Cramer 1984; Kornfeld et al. 1995; Lahren 1976, 2006; Roll and Neeley 2014). Variously referred to as microblade cores, microcores, and conical or circular scrapers, the documentation of this class of artifacts is frequently characterized by ambiguous terminology and limited description (e.g., Greiser 1988; Miller and Greer 1975). As noted by Sanger (1970), uncertainty in the classification and function of similar artifacts is not confined to the Northwestern Plains. While not culturally related to the artifacts presented here, Boldurian (1985) describes potentially analogous occurrences of microlith manufacture in the upper Ohio River Valley and vicinity, as does Connolly (1991) in southwestern Oregon. This article compiles data on a sample of reported microcores and microliths from the Northwestern Plains and adjacent areas and complements Wilson et al.'s (2011) study of microblade technology from the High River area south of Calgary, Alberta (Figure 1; see also Sanger 1968, 1970). We examine several reported occurrences of microindustry and assess patterning in the assemblages in terms of chronology, core and bladelet morphology, and potential use. We hope to raise awareness among archaeologists working in the Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains of a technology that is seemingly uncommon and easily overlooked, but that may contribute to the figure 1 Archaeological sites where microcores or microliths have been recovered on the Northwestern Plains of the conterminous United States.
University of Arizona Press eBooks, 2010
View related articles View Crossmark data My children, look at the earth! The earth will be shake... more View related articles View Crossmark data My children, look at the earth! The earth will be shaken. Thus my Father says to me (p. 498-499). The stories, songs, and prayers of this volume present not only invaluable Arapaho language texts for anyone interested in the Arapaho language, but a vital window into Arapaho history and culture. Collected here are varied and multivocal stories of a people undergoing great changes with fortitude and creativity. Cowell, Moss, and C'Hair have done a superb job of presenting both the original Arapaho texts and English translations and framing them with comments that make these stories accessible to all readers. The book is recommended for any Native American or Western collection.
Reviews in Colorado Archaeology
Decisions about which sites to preserve and study are among the most critical that archaeologists... more Decisions about which sites to preserve and study are among the most critical that archaeologists make. Sound preservation decisions depend on well-supported assessments of archaeological site importance, which in turn depend on agreed frames of reference or contexts. For archaeologists working in Colorado and adjacent regions, one of the most important frames of reference is a series of context documents published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists. As is true of any synthesis of archaeological data, those contexts are now in need of renewal, and in some cases revision. To provide one venue for context updates, Paleocultural Research Group has inaugurated an online, refereed journal called Reviews in Colorado Archaeology (RCA) that publishes authoritative and critical reviews, original research, National Register contexts, and methodological primers. RCA also publishes separately numbered, book-length contributions and distributes monographs or edited volumes pr...
Antiquity
Depictions on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armou... more Depictions on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was the military strategy adopted by Comanche and Apache peoples between 1650 and 1750 – after the arrival of the horse and before the availability of firearms.
Plains Anthropologist, 2015
Plains Anthropologist, 2016
Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and N... more Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. While clearly the product of patterned reduction yielding flakes with roughly parallel sides, the cores seldom pro- duced regular flake removals, suggesting a high degree of variability in the resulting microliths. This irregular pattern of reduction contrasts with classic microblade cores from higher latitudes, where uniformity of microblades was desired. When noted by field archaeologists, microcores are variously described as conical or circular scrapers as well as microcores or microblade cores. They occur in low frequencies in several time periods and are seldom identified with associated production debitage let alone microliths. This article examines microlith manufacture and microcore discard in the North- western Plains and adjacent regions and proposes that the technology fulfilled a specialized role in the organization of lithic technology linked to the infrequent ...
Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term History. In Across a Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, 1400-1900, 2010
Mitchell, Mark D. and Laura L. Scheiber (2010) Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term Histor... more Mitchell, Mark D. and Laura L. Scheiber (2010) Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term History. In Across a Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, 1400-1900, edited by Laura L. Scheiber and Mark D. Mitchell, pp. 1-22. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Few cultural and political events have stimulated as much debate among social scientists as the Columbian Quincentennial. For archaeologists especially, the 1992 commemoration of Columbus’s landfall in the New World provoked a wide-ranging and critical debate. At first, the discussion was largely reflexive and focused on the political context of archaeological practice, on the responsibilities of archaeologists to descendant communities, and on the disciplinary divide separating history from anthropology. More recently, attention has turned to the development of new theoretical approaches for studying colonial interaction, inspired especially by political economy and poststructural social theory. The result has been a surge of interest in post-1500 indigenous communities and a rapidly growing body of archaeological knowledge about the ways in which the processes of European colonialism were integrated, accommodated, resisted, and transformed by native peoples.
But even as research on colonial interaction has become more prominent and methodologically sophisticated, many scholars have continued to rely on untested conceptual frameworks for understanding how and why native societies changed after the advent of European. Despite evidence of their inadequacy, the same conventional explanations for the course of post-1500 culture change continue to be given. American Indians and First Nations peoples continue to be portrayed as primitive environmentalists, living lightly on the land in a homeostatic state of nature, even as evidence mounts that they were responsible for shaping the ecosystems encountered by the first European settlers. Archaeologists continue to assume that European technologies rapidly and decisively replaced indigenous technologies, despite evidence for the persistent use of stone and bone tools. Historians acknowledge the impact of native actions on colonial society, but the dominance of the colonists, with their more powerful weapons, their superior disease resistance, and their outsized avarice, is seldom questioned. And although the triumphal story of European progress has lost some of its luster, the teleology at its heart can still be found in the assumption of inevitable cultural collapse that infuses research on recent native peoples. In part, the ongoing reliance on conventional narratives of change reflects the asymmetrical outcome of colonial interaction. In the end, the result was decisive: millions of native people dead, the survivors driven from their homes, forced to assimilate, forced to deny their heritage and their identity. Many of their descendants now live in crushing poverty. The consequences for native peoples have been so overwhelming that many scholars have believed they also were inevitable, and this has discouraged critical
In part, the ongoing reliance on conventional narratives of change reflects the asymmetrical outcome of colonial interaction. In the end, the result was decisive: millions of native people dead, the survivors driven from their homes, forced to assimilate, forced to deny their heritage and their identity. Many of their descendants now live in crushing poverty. The consequences for native peoples have been so overwhelming that many scholars have believed they also were inevitable, and this has discouraged critical research on the course of colonial interaction. But the assumption of inevitability merely poses questions: On what evidence are conventional narratives based? Who produced them and when? In this chapter, we explore the origins of these narratives, consider why they have endured, and introduce approaches to challenge them.
American Antiquity, 2007
... Project. American Antiquity 71:381-396. Owsley, Douglas W, and Richard L. Jantz (editors) 199... more ... Project. American Antiquity 71:381-396. Owsley, Douglas W, and Richard L. Jantz (editors) 1994 Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration, War fare, Health, and Subsistence. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. ...
The Plains Anthropologist, 2001
Page 1. Decorated Bridles: Horse Tack in Plains Biographic Rock Art James D. Keyser and Mark Mitc... more Page 1. Decorated Bridles: Horse Tack in Plains Biographic Rock Art James D. Keyser and Mark Mitchell ABSTRACT Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted ...
on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was... more on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was the military strategy adopted by Comanche and Apache peoples between 1650 and 1750 -after the arrival of the horse and before the availability of firearms.
Books by Mark D. Mitchell
∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
University of Arizona Press eBooks, 2010
Plains Anthropologist, 2001
Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. P... more Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted on robes, drawn in ledgers, and incised or painted as rock art from northern Mexico to southern Alberta, these images illustrate the emphasis placed on horse finery by Plains and Southwestern Indian cultures. Rock art is replete with these decorated bridles. A cursory literature review identified more than 25 sites with illustrated examples, located from northern Mexico through nine ofthe United States and into southern Canada at Writing-On-Stone, Alberta. Given the number of these rock art images and the wealth of comparative material from historical sources and recently published robe art and ledger drawings, we have identified and described seven distinct types of bridle decorations in Plains rock art. These decorations provide clues to ethnic identity of the artists and illuminate the extent of trade networks and intertribal alliances that extended across the region and into the American Southwest. Keywords: biographic rock art; horse tack in rock art; Plains rock art; ledger art; robe art. Decorated bridles are one of the most common pieces of horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted on robes, drawn in ledgers, and incised or painted as rock art from northern Mexico to southern Alberta, these images illustrate the em phasis placed on horse finery by Plains cultures and compose a significant element of the biographic art lexicon, where they were most frequently used to connote a pony dressed up for war.1 At least one of these decorations also served as horse medicine because it was imbued with magical qualities that protected the horse (Wissler 1912:107; Ewers 1955:277-278). In some cases, these decorations also provide clues to ethnic identity of the artists and demonstrate the extent of trade networks and inter tribal alliances that linked Plains societies to one another and to those in neighboring regions. Plains rock art is replete with decorated bridles. A cursory literature review identified more than 25 sites with illustrated examples of this motif, extend ing from the Mexican state of Coahuila through six of the Plains states and into southern Canada at Writing-On-Stone, Alberta (Figure 1, Table 1). They also occur in the historic rock art of the American Southwest at at least seven sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. First recognized in rock art at Chaco Canyon (Brugge 1976) and at Writing-On-Stone (Keyser 1977:43), decorated bridles have subsequently been noted at sites throughout the Plains and adjacent areas
Plains Anthropologist, 2016
Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and N... more Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. While clearly the product of patterned reduction yielding flakes with roughly parallel sides, the cores seldom produced regular flake removals, suggesting a high degree of variability in the resulting microliths. This irregular pattern of reduction contrasts with classic microblade cores from higher latitudes, where uniformity of microblades was desired. When noted by field archaeologists, microcores are variously described as conical or circular scrapers as well as microcores or microblade cores. They occur in low frequencies in several time periods and are seldom identified with associated production debitage let alone microliths. This article examines microlith manufacture and microcore discard in the Northwestern Plains and adjacent regions and proposes that the technology fulfilled a specialized role in the organization of lithic technology linked to the infrequent manufacture of specialty items. keywords microcore, microlith, micorblade, Northwestern Plains, Rocky Mountain Front, lithic Artifacts resembling microblade cores are occasionally referenced in publications and gray literature of the Northwestern Plains and adjacent regions (e.g., Cramer 1984; Kornfeld et al. 1995; Lahren 1976, 2006; Roll and Neeley 2014). Variously referred to as microblade cores, microcores, and conical or circular scrapers, the documentation of this class of artifacts is frequently characterized by ambiguous terminology and limited description (e.g., Greiser 1988; Miller and Greer 1975). As noted by Sanger (1970), uncertainty in the classification and function of similar artifacts is not confined to the Northwestern Plains. While not culturally related to the artifacts presented here, Boldurian (1985) describes potentially analogous occurrences of microlith manufacture in the upper Ohio River Valley and vicinity, as does Connolly (1991) in southwestern Oregon. This article compiles data on a sample of reported microcores and microliths from the Northwestern Plains and adjacent areas and complements Wilson et al.'s (2011) study of microblade technology from the High River area south of Calgary, Alberta (Figure 1; see also Sanger 1968, 1970). We examine several reported occurrences of microindustry and assess patterning in the assemblages in terms of chronology, core and bladelet morphology, and potential use. We hope to raise awareness among archaeologists working in the Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains of a technology that is seemingly uncommon and easily overlooked, but that may contribute to the figure 1 Archaeological sites where microcores or microliths have been recovered on the Northwestern Plains of the conterminous United States.
University of Arizona Press eBooks, 2010
View related articles View Crossmark data My children, look at the earth! The earth will be shake... more View related articles View Crossmark data My children, look at the earth! The earth will be shaken. Thus my Father says to me (p. 498-499). The stories, songs, and prayers of this volume present not only invaluable Arapaho language texts for anyone interested in the Arapaho language, but a vital window into Arapaho history and culture. Collected here are varied and multivocal stories of a people undergoing great changes with fortitude and creativity. Cowell, Moss, and C'Hair have done a superb job of presenting both the original Arapaho texts and English translations and framing them with comments that make these stories accessible to all readers. The book is recommended for any Native American or Western collection.
Reviews in Colorado Archaeology
Decisions about which sites to preserve and study are among the most critical that archaeologists... more Decisions about which sites to preserve and study are among the most critical that archaeologists make. Sound preservation decisions depend on well-supported assessments of archaeological site importance, which in turn depend on agreed frames of reference or contexts. For archaeologists working in Colorado and adjacent regions, one of the most important frames of reference is a series of context documents published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists. As is true of any synthesis of archaeological data, those contexts are now in need of renewal, and in some cases revision. To provide one venue for context updates, Paleocultural Research Group has inaugurated an online, refereed journal called Reviews in Colorado Archaeology (RCA) that publishes authoritative and critical reviews, original research, National Register contexts, and methodological primers. RCA also publishes separately numbered, book-length contributions and distributes monographs or edited volumes pr...
Antiquity
Depictions on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armou... more Depictions on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was the military strategy adopted by Comanche and Apache peoples between 1650 and 1750 – after the arrival of the horse and before the availability of firearms.
Plains Anthropologist, 2015
Plains Anthropologist, 2016
Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and N... more Microcores and microliths have been identified in archaeological sites in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. While clearly the product of patterned reduction yielding flakes with roughly parallel sides, the cores seldom pro- duced regular flake removals, suggesting a high degree of variability in the resulting microliths. This irregular pattern of reduction contrasts with classic microblade cores from higher latitudes, where uniformity of microblades was desired. When noted by field archaeologists, microcores are variously described as conical or circular scrapers as well as microcores or microblade cores. They occur in low frequencies in several time periods and are seldom identified with associated production debitage let alone microliths. This article examines microlith manufacture and microcore discard in the North- western Plains and adjacent regions and proposes that the technology fulfilled a specialized role in the organization of lithic technology linked to the infrequent ...
Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term History. In Across a Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, 1400-1900, 2010
Mitchell, Mark D. and Laura L. Scheiber (2010) Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term Histor... more Mitchell, Mark D. and Laura L. Scheiber (2010) Crossing Divides: Archaeology as Long-Term History. In Across a Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, 1400-1900, edited by Laura L. Scheiber and Mark D. Mitchell, pp. 1-22. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Few cultural and political events have stimulated as much debate among social scientists as the Columbian Quincentennial. For archaeologists especially, the 1992 commemoration of Columbus’s landfall in the New World provoked a wide-ranging and critical debate. At first, the discussion was largely reflexive and focused on the political context of archaeological practice, on the responsibilities of archaeologists to descendant communities, and on the disciplinary divide separating history from anthropology. More recently, attention has turned to the development of new theoretical approaches for studying colonial interaction, inspired especially by political economy and poststructural social theory. The result has been a surge of interest in post-1500 indigenous communities and a rapidly growing body of archaeological knowledge about the ways in which the processes of European colonialism were integrated, accommodated, resisted, and transformed by native peoples.
But even as research on colonial interaction has become more prominent and methodologically sophisticated, many scholars have continued to rely on untested conceptual frameworks for understanding how and why native societies changed after the advent of European. Despite evidence of their inadequacy, the same conventional explanations for the course of post-1500 culture change continue to be given. American Indians and First Nations peoples continue to be portrayed as primitive environmentalists, living lightly on the land in a homeostatic state of nature, even as evidence mounts that they were responsible for shaping the ecosystems encountered by the first European settlers. Archaeologists continue to assume that European technologies rapidly and decisively replaced indigenous technologies, despite evidence for the persistent use of stone and bone tools. Historians acknowledge the impact of native actions on colonial society, but the dominance of the colonists, with their more powerful weapons, their superior disease resistance, and their outsized avarice, is seldom questioned. And although the triumphal story of European progress has lost some of its luster, the teleology at its heart can still be found in the assumption of inevitable cultural collapse that infuses research on recent native peoples. In part, the ongoing reliance on conventional narratives of change reflects the asymmetrical outcome of colonial interaction. In the end, the result was decisive: millions of native people dead, the survivors driven from their homes, forced to assimilate, forced to deny their heritage and their identity. Many of their descendants now live in crushing poverty. The consequences for native peoples have been so overwhelming that many scholars have believed they also were inevitable, and this has discouraged critical
In part, the ongoing reliance on conventional narratives of change reflects the asymmetrical outcome of colonial interaction. In the end, the result was decisive: millions of native people dead, the survivors driven from their homes, forced to assimilate, forced to deny their heritage and their identity. Many of their descendants now live in crushing poverty. The consequences for native peoples have been so overwhelming that many scholars have believed they also were inevitable, and this has discouraged critical research on the course of colonial interaction. But the assumption of inevitability merely poses questions: On what evidence are conventional narratives based? Who produced them and when? In this chapter, we explore the origins of these narratives, consider why they have endured, and introduce approaches to challenge them.
American Antiquity, 2007
... Project. American Antiquity 71:381-396. Owsley, Douglas W, and Richard L. Jantz (editors) 199... more ... Project. American Antiquity 71:381-396. Owsley, Douglas W, and Richard L. Jantz (editors) 1994 Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration, War fare, Health, and Subsistence. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. ...
The Plains Anthropologist, 2001
Page 1. Decorated Bridles: Horse Tack in Plains Biographic Rock Art James D. Keyser and Mark Mitc... more Page 1. Decorated Bridles: Horse Tack in Plains Biographic Rock Art James D. Keyser and Mark Mitchell ABSTRACT Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted ...
on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was... more on rock in south-east Colorado show mounted warriors with horses clad in leather armour. This was the military strategy adopted by Comanche and Apache peoples between 1650 and 1750 -after the arrival of the horse and before the availability of firearms.
∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).