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Canadian River or near a spring-fed stream or tributary. The population in some areas was dense. The five-mile long Buried City complex on Wolf Creek has more than 100 dwellings capable of housing 15 to 20 people each. The dwellings are spaced about 100 yards from each other, thus resembling the settlement pattern of an
American suburb with houses on large lots. If all these dwellings were occupied at the same time, the population may have been 2,000. Along 50 miles of the Canadian River were more than 300 multi-family dwellings with a population that may have exceeded 10,000. The total population of the Texas Panhandle during the Antelope Creek Phase may have totaled as many as 30,000. Water can be scarce on the Great Plains, but beneath the surface is the
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probably practiced water harvesting or “Ak-Chin” dryland farming techniques. Crops were planted in arroyos or other depressions which caught runoff from thunderstorms and preserved enough moisture to permit crops to grow and mature. Given the unpredictability of rainfall, a family probably planted small fields – as did other
Southwestern peoples—in several different micro-environments with the objective of maximizing the possibility that some of their fields would be productive. In their farming, the Antelope Creek people used bone-tipped digging sticks and bison scapulas as shovels and hoes.
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the house at a lower level. A platform or table on the west wall of the house may have been an altar. Storage bins were also located against the west wall and pits for storage were dug beneath the benches. Four upright wooden posts near the center of the dwelling held up the roof which was probably sloped and made of intertwined straw and saplings. There was, however, a large variety in the structures built by the
Antelope Creek people. The time and effort involved in stone-slab and plaster construction implies confidence by the people in the permanence of their settlements.
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and the
Antelope Creek people moved to better agricultural lands. The third is that they were forced out of their homes by other Indians, most likely the Apache who were new arrivals to the Southern Plains. Whatever the reason, most archaeologists speculate that the Antelope Creek people migrated eastward to Kansas and Oklahoma and become the Wichita and affiliated tribes, whom Coronado met in
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rooms ranged in size from small up to 60 square meters (roughly 30 feet by 20 feet). The multi-room dwellings appear to have been constructed between 1200 and 1350. Thereafter, individual dwellings were preferred, often about 6 meters by 6 meters (20Ă—20 feet) in size and using the same stone-slab construction methods.
179:. The water of the Canadian River is salty, so the Antelope Creek people often lived where streams had cut 100 to 200 feet deep into the caprock. Springs and small spring-fed watercourses tapping into the aquifer were abundant and reliable. Timber for building and fuel was found in these valleys and canyons.
142:. That opinion is based primarily on the fact that in historic times the farming communities on the Southern Plains were primarily Caddoans. An alternative thesis is that the Antelope Creek people were Pueblo Indians who moved or were pushed onto the Great Plains from their homes near the valley of the
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preserves more than 700 quarries where the
Indians dug out the flint. Most of the quarries are holes six feet or more in diameter and four to eight feet deep. The presence of Alibates Flint was undoubtedly an economic incentive to settle nearby to control trade in the stone. Alibates flint tools have
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were abundant. Bison or
American buffalo are believed to have been uncommon on the southern Great Plains before AD 1000. As the bison population expanded thereafter due to climatic conditions, they became the principal source of protein for people on the southern Plains and their abundance stimulated
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Houses typically consisted of an east-facing vestibule leading to a single square room recessed about one foot (30 cm) into the ground. The house was divided into thirds. Along the north and south walls of the house were raised benches or platforms; the hearth was located in the center third of
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Most archaeologists believe that the
Antelope Creek Phase was a western expansion of farming communities from Oklahoma into the Texas panhandle or an extension southward of similar farming communities from further north. Although farming was difficult in the dry climate of the Texas panhandle, other
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The
Antelope Creek people grew corn, beans, squash and probably sunflowers. The Texas Panhandle is a marginal area for unirrigated agriculture, prone to drought and with the bulk of the 16- to 20-inch annual rainfall coming in a few thunderstorms that cause flooding. Thus, the Antelope Creek people
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Several reasons have been advanced for the disappearance of the
Antelope Creek people in this region. The first theory is that they exhausted their resources over time and were forced to resettle elsewhere. The second theory is that drought made agriculture increasingly infeasible in the Panhandle
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Foraging of wild plants for food was probably important for the
Antelope Creek People, particularly because agriculture in the drought-prone panhandle was always hazardous and the abundance of bison varied from season to season and year to year. Among the wild foods eaten were acorns, hackberries,
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The evidence points to a three-faceted strategy for subsistence among the Antelope Creek people: (1) hunting bison and other animals; (2) cultivation of maize, beans, squash, and sunflowers; and (3) foraging for edible nuts, fruits, and seeds. The relative importance of each of these activities is
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Hundreds of Antelope Creek settlements have been discovered. Archaeologist Christopher Lintz identified eleven different variations of buildings in villages, hamlets and isolated farmsteads. The most notable buildings were rectangular, single-storied, multi-room structures with up to 30 rooms. The
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Although some Antelope Creek people lived in the multi-family dwellings, more often they clustered in hamlets of individual homes with a population of not more than eight families. Between hamlets were isolated farmsteads of one or two houses. Most dwellings were located on terraces above the
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Pioneering archaeologist Alex D. Kreiger summed up the evidence: “To attempt to classify Antelope Creek Focus as either a Plains or Pueblo culture is infeasible, for it was clearly a combination of both... One can hardly escape the impression that the peoples of this focus were Plains
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Food was often cooked in pottery vessels which were made locally and also imported—increasingly as time went on—from the Rio Grande Pueblos. Trade increased dramatically after 1350, indicating the growth of a more outward looking and possibly more mobile Antelope Creek culture.
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The unique and enigmatic characteristic of Antelope Creek was the construction of large stone-slab and plaster houses and one-story apartment blocks. Elsewhere on the Great Plains pre-historic Indian farmers lived in homes constructed from wood, earth, and straw.
150:. It is also possible that the Antelope Creek people were neither Caddoan nor Pueblo, but an entirely different people. Nor is it certain that all the people of the Antelope Creek culture spoke the same language or belonged to the same ethnic group.
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Antelope Creek men probably wandered long distances from their village to hunt bison. Although bison were their most important prey, the bones of deer, antelope, and smaller game have also been found in the ruins, plus a few mussels and fish.
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The Antelope Creek people were the most southwestern of the cultures making up the Plains Village Tradition which stretched from North Dakota to Texas and extended westward in river valleys from the Eastern Woodlands into the Great Plains. The
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a growth in population and complexity of the hunting-gathering societies that had inhabited the region for thousands of years. Archaeological sites confirm increased exploitation of bison after AD 1200.
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agriculturalists who pushed southward from one valley to another as far as eastern New Mexico. Here contact was established with Puebloans who were expanding their territories at the same time.”
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The Journey of Coronado, 1540–1542, from the City of Mexico to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the Buffalo Plains of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, As Told by Himself and his Followers
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A major asset of the Canadian River Valley was the large deposits of colorful Alibates flint that could be chipped into tools and weapons and traded to other cultures. The present-day
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The Canadian River and the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. The Antelope Creek People lived mostly on terraces overlooking the river or in side canyons with springs.
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adopted the cultivation of corn (maize) and by AD 900 they were living in semi-permanent villages along the watercourses traversing the plains, including, for example, the
350:, accessed Nov 11, 2010; Drass, Richard R. and Flynn, Peggy. “Temporal and Geographic Variations in Subsistence Practices for Plains Villagers in the Southern Plains.”
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The Antelope Creek People were bison hunters, maize farmers, and foragers. They are best known for building large, stone, multifamily dwellings, unique on the
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mesquite, buckwheat, plums, persimmons, prickly pear, mallow, cattail, purslane, goosefoot, knotweed, domesticated marshelder, and bulrush.
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in Oklahoma. By AD 1250, these river valleys were heavily populated with villages of up to 20 houses situated about every two miles.
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Architecture and Community Variability within the Antelope Creek Phase of the Texas Panhandle. Studies in Oklahoma’ Past No. 14
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Drass, Richard R. “Redefining Plains Village Complexes in Oklahoma: the Paoli Phase and the Redbed Plains Variant.”
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passed through the Texas Panhandle in 1541 he met only nomadic and semi-nomadic buffalo-hunting Indians he called
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Derrick, Randall. “The Antelope Creek Focus: An Advanced, Pre-Columbian Civilization in the Texas Panhandle.”
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dating from AD 1200 to 1450. The two most important areas where the Antelope Creek people lived were in the
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The Antelope Creek settlements were abandoned between 1450 and 1500. When Spanish conquistador
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563:“The Antelope Creek Focus: Advanced, Pre-Columbian Civilization in the Texas Panhandle.”
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Brooks, Robert L. “From Stone Slab Architecture to Abandonment” in Perttula, Timothy K.
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The opinion of most archaeologists is that the Antelope Creek people spoke a
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http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/settlement.html
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http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/settlement.html
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The Antelope Creek Phase is also called the Antelope Creek Focus, the
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http://www.panhandlenation.com/history/prehistory/antelope_creek.htm
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http://www.panhandlenation.com/history/prehistory/antelope_creek.htm
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and the Buried City complex in Wolf Creek valley near the town of
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http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/research/index.html
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http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/who.html
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http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/who.html
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463:"Villagers > Research History > Understanding Variation"
443:: Norman: OK Archaeological Survey, 1986. See also Brooks, 336
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392:. College Station: Texas A&M U Press, 2004, pp. 334–335
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Archaeology of Pre-Historic Native America: An Encyclopedia
55:. Settlements are also found in Oklahoma near the town of
66:. Their culture combined characteristics of Southwestern
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that they once lived in stone houses in the Southwest.
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https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bba07
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language and were probably ancestors of the historic
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Cultural Complexes and Chronology of Northern Texas
81:, the Optima Focus, and the Upper Canark Variant.
322:http://www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/counties/garvin.htm
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405:. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1946, p. 73
554:. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co, 1904, 142–215
550:Winship, George Parker (Ed. and Translator)
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439:The basic reference is Lintz, Christopher.
189:Prehistoric agriculture on the Great Plains
127:been found up to one thousand miles away.
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124:Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
634:Archaeological cultures of North America
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354:, Vol. 135, No. 128, 1990, pp. 187–188
31:was an American Indian culture in the
138:and affiliated tribes, possibly, the
311:, Vol 44, No. 168, 1999, pp. 121–140
500:city/index.htm Texas Beyond History
205:Arrowheads made from Alibates flint
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624:Archaeological sites in Oklahoma
605:, Texas State Historical Society
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228:Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
59:and along the Beaver River.
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298:. NY:Routledge, 1998, p. 20
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467:www.texasbeyondhistory.net
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593:, Alibates Flint Quarries
574:, accessed Nov 11, 2010;
254:of Nebraska also have an
222:The end of Antelope Creek
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535:Handbook of Texas Online
533:”Antelope Creek Phase.”
416:"OAS -- Oklahoma's Past"
346:”Texas Beyond History.”
333:”Texas Beyond History.”
68:Ancestral Pueblo peoples
541:, Accessed Nov 17, 2010
390:The Prehistory of Texas
337:, accessed Nov 11, 2010
324:, accessed Nov 11, 2010
285:; accessed Nov 10, 2010
114:food resources such as
644:Pre-Columbian cultures
591:Antelope Creek Culture
511:Texas Beyond History.
486:Texas Beyond History.
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158:Houses and settlements
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639:Plains Village period
515:, accessed 7 Aug 2016
502:Accessed Nov 11, 2010
490:, accessed 7 Aug 2016
352:Plains Anthropologist
309:Plains Anthropologist
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603:Antelope Creek Phase
597:Antelope Creek Phase
242:(possibly Caddoan).
29:Antelope Creek Phase
18:Antelope Creek Phase
294:Gibbon, Guy E. Ed.
72:Great Plains tribes
570:2012-03-15 at the
320:”Oklahoma’s Past”
281:2012-03-15 at the
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232:Querechos
194:unclear.
568:Archived
279:Archived
37:Oklahoma
472:Nov 17,
374:Nov 11,
248:Quivira
136:Wichita
132:Caddoan
96:Washita
252:Pawnee
238:) and
236:Apache
140:Pawnee
85:Origin
57:Guymon
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