Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 01/25/2021

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Native American contexts are commonly divided into three major traditions: Paleoindian, Archaic, and Woodland. Late Woodland is further subdivided into Plains Village, Mississippian, and Oneota Traditions. These divisions are based on significant changes in how these communities lived, with a special focus on subsistence strategies. Historic contexts are generally divided into Contact and Post-Contact periods. The Contact period begins with early European exploration and continues through the Post-Contact period including Euro-American settlement and Minnesota statehood. The following is a general summary of these traditions using the Author's general knowledge and various disseminated sources for information including the OSA's website, Elden Johnson's 1988 The Prehistoric Peoples of Minnesota, Gibbon and Anfinson's 2008 Minnesota Archaeology: The First 13,000 Years Archaeology of Minnesota: The Prehistory of the Upper Mississippi River Region. 4.1 Pre-Contact Period 4.1.1 Paleoindian Tradition (11,500 to 7,500 B.C.) The Paleoindian Tradition in Minnesota is divided into two periods: Early Paleoindian and Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic (Gibbon and Anfinson 2008). Throughout the Paleoindian, Native American communities were small, mobile, and focused on hunting. However, between the early and late periods, the environment and available food resources changed dramatically. The beginning of the Early Paleoindian Tradition is characterized by retreat of glacial ice and the growth of spruce forests. During this time, now extinct megafauna like mastodon, mammoth, and large bison were available for hunting. The Early Paleoindian period is poorly understood in Minnesota because most evidence for Paleoindian lifeways comes from isolated finds of large fluted projectile points (Gibbon and Anfinson 2008). Based on more plentiful sites in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States, it is generally assumed Native American populations were small, consisting of highly-mobile hunters and foragers who followed large game throughout the landscape (Gibbon and Anfinson 2008). By the Late Paleoindian period, modern vegetation zones had established themselves in Minnesota. Modern animal species like white tail deer, grouse, and fish were available for Native American communities to hunt and fish. Lithic tool evidence from Late Paleoindian sites in Minnesota take the form of stemmed rather than fluted points and a wider range of tool types including groundstone tools (Gibbon and Anfinson 2008). Again, lifeways during this time are poorly understood, but based on three well-documented sites found in Minnesota (Cedar Creek- 21AK58, Bradbury Brook-21ML42, and Browns Valley-21TR5), communities are still small, highly-mobile and focused on hunting larger animals and foraging for wild plants. However, stone toolkits did diversify and communities began exploiting smaller territories. It is also likely populations started to increase (Gibbon and Anfinson 2008). Phase I Archaeological Survey of Proposed Capstone Homes Housing Development 8 Ramsey, Anoka County, Minnesota Nienow Cultural Consultants, LLC