Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

This book is about the human history of the Great Plains, the immense grassland at the heart of North America, beginning with its initial settlement by human beings toward the end of the Ice Age and continuing into the early 20th century. The Great Plains include a million or more square kilometers from the Canadian parkland in the north to Central Texas in the south and from the Rocky Mountains in the west to roughly the 94th meridian in the east (Figure 1.1). We know the deep human history of this region primarily through archaeological evidence and indigenous traditional histories, although this evidence is not widely known outside the Plains. This part of the world is a neglected and often maligned region, perhaps as much among professional archaeologists as among the urban elites of New York and Los Angeles.