Kansas and the Postrevolt Puebloan Diaspora: Ceramic Evidence from the Scott County Pueblo

Native American communities underwent significant upheaval, ethnic blending, and restructuring in the Spanish colonial period. One archaeological example is the appearance of a seven-room stone and adobe structure in western Kansas, known as the Scott County Pueblo (14SC1). Previous researchers used Spanish documents to attribute the site to Puebloan refugees from Taos or Picuris in the mid- to late 1600s. Here we examine the Smithsonian and Kansas Historical Society ceramic collections for evidence of Puebloan women at the site. We find a high proportion of bowls at 14SC1, suggesting the maintenance of Puebloan food-preparation and-serving patterns, as well as some vessels apparently made by Puebloan potters in western Kansas. We cannot falsify our null hypothesis that the Scott County Pueblo included people from one or more northern Rio Grande pueblos during the mid-1600s, or A.D. 1696–1706, or both.