Fort Randall Reservoir Archeology, Geology, History

Evidence indicates that the earliest Americans came to the New World from northeast Asia by way of the Bering Sea area. This movement began 15-20,000 years ago, if not earlier, and ultimately carried men to the most remote parts of the Americas. The early Americans were representative of several economic traditions. Some hunted big game, particularly the mammoth and archaic bison. Some were gatherers of seeds, roots, and other wild food products. These early migrants were few in number and very mobile. Family groups or small bands spread gradually throughout the New World, seeking more varied and dependable sources of wild plants and following the movements of game animals.

We do not know just when the first wanderers reached the Fort Randall area, for indeed, there are no dated remains of this early period from within the limits of the reservoir. However, on the basis of radiocarbon (C¹⁴) dates of charcoal and bone from archeological sites nearby, we must infer that Early Hunting groups were present. A specimen from Logan Creek in northeastern Nebraska is dated as 6,633±300 years old. An other, from the Simonsen Site in northwestern Iowa, dates at 8,430±270 years. Dates of comparable antiquity have been obtained on samples from sites in Frontier County, western Nebraska and from Fall River County, South Dakota. On the basis of such evidence, it is reasonable to believe that man had reached the Fort Randall region by at least 6,000 B.C.

Recent excavations at the Medicine Crow Site, a short distance to the north of the Fort Randall Reservoir, have provided evidence that suggests considerable antiquity. Similarly, a fragmentary projectile point of an early type was excavated at the Spain Site, within the Fort Randall area. Although as yet undated, these data provide additional evidence of the great age of human occupancy in the region.

Spear or dart points of The Early Hunters, from archeological sites in South Dakota and Wyoming. Photo — Missouri Basin Project, Smithsonian Institution

Spear or dart points are found at almost all of these early sites. In addition, stone tools suitable for scraping and cutting hides are often present. This suggests that hunting was of prime importance. A shallow milling slab and several smooth handstones, found at the Ray Long Site in western South Dakota, indicate that some of these early groups also gathered wild seeds or plants and ground them into meal. Little is known of other industries that may have existed. Techniques for working stone were by no means crude. Manufactures of bone, wood, and basketry may have been of equal quality but the remains of such objects, if they ever existed, have long since perished.

The earliest peoples arrived in the Plains in time to hunt the mammoth, bison, and other animals that were characteristic of the Glacial Age (Pleistocene Period). The most important hunting weapon was the spear thrower—a stick held in the hand and used as a lever to impart extra force to a thrown spear or dart. Examples of such throwing sticks have been found in dry caves of the West and similar objects are in use today by such diverse peoples as the Eskimo and certain Indians of Middle America.

As time passed, the Pleistocene animals disappeared, and with their extinction, our present day bison or "buffalo" populated the Plains. New peoples appeared in the area, but the subsistence pattern and general way of life remained much the same. Even the introduction of the bow and arrow, a major technological event, did not change the old hunting pattern greatly. On the contrary, it made it more efficient. The hunting economy, supplemented by wild plant foods and, perhaps, by occasional fresh water mussels and fish, remained characteristic well into the first millenium A.D.