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In the North American Great Plains archaeologists struggle to define interpretative frameworks to capture events, people and processes between 1500 C.E. and 1800 C.E. Europeans did not simultaneously colonize all of North America and for many groups, especially on the Plains, Indigenous peoples were impacted by European colonization yet not extensively written about. Although the term 'colonialism' is broad enough to encapsulate the direct and indirect consequences of colonial activities, it is difficult to highlight the sheer diversity of Indigenous responses to the effects of colonialism outside of the colonies themselves. Instead, the concept of 'pericolonialism' better frames these processes and calls attention to the importance of refuge spaces where Indigenous peoples were experiencing parallel impacts as their neighbours close to the colonies. A case study is provided from the Central Plains to show how an explicitly decolonizing approach can better capture the creative resistance to European colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal projectile points were the earliest non-native made weapons to enter the Plains and would likely have caused significant changes in Protohistoric period warfare. Despite this there has been little effort to identify and study these artifacts in Plains rock art, even though it is almost our only archaeological record of warfare from this period. Recent research at Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon, located in central Montana, has identified a number of metal projectile points used by shield bearing warriors. Described and discussed along with about 30 other examples from rock art sites across the region, these points provide significant insight into the introduction and earliest use of metal tools on the Plains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diet breadth and group formation models are employed to test hypotheses related to the subsistence practices of the inhabitants of the Crandall site, 14RC420. This small protohistoric habitation is affiliated with the Little River focus of the Great Bend aspeci in central Kansas. Based on the fauna! remains recovered from 21 storage pits, bison were an abundant, highly-ranked, and specialized resource exploited by the Crandall hunters. These people optimized their hunting strategy by increasing pursuit costs to consistently procure bison through year-round hunting of both resident and migrant herds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social history of the Kirikir'i·s peoples is dependent on traditional history, archaeology, ethnohistory, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. By using these different lines of evidence, this paper explores one of the primary models (Vehik's "conflict and prestige" model) used to explain protohistoric Kirikir'i·s political development. Because of Vehik's emphasis on warfare and prestige, certain components of Kirikir'i·s social history are either excluded or disregarded. As a result, a political economy perspective is advocated which sees the Protohistoric period as a dynamic era beginning prior to the arrival of Europeans but which is able to account for changes after the appearance of these aliens. Only by unraveling the geopolitical impact of alien interaction as part of the social historical dynamic upon the indigenous societal systems of the Plains, Southwest, and Southeast will scholars of the Protohistoric period be able to understand both the processual and post-processual components of cultural interaction, exchange, and political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the archaeological and ethnohistorical study of Wichita Indian villages from the protohistoric period. Details about the role of the Wichita Indians in the Southern Great Plains during the protohistoric period are provided. The interactions of Wichitas with European settlers and with other Indians are also described.