A new voice at the Center of Excellence for Bison Studies in South Dakota asks a question few people ask.

Dr. Jeff Martin is Assistant Professor of Bison Biology & Management in the Department of Natural Resource Management and the new Extension Bison Specialist stationed at the new SDSU Bison Center of Excellence.

Located at South Dakota’s West River Research & Extension Center in Rapid City, SD, his research is interdisciplinary across wildlife biology, climatology and human dimension. He seeks to answer questions of wildlife conservation and production in a changing world.

Dr. Martin’s research on Buffalo (as a scientist he prefers to call them ‘Bison’) is at the nexus of two paradigms: changing climate and changing cultural values. He attempts to merge understanding of conservation science with direct stakeholder engagement to improve conservation for wildlife across, for example, working ranch herds compared with wildlife parks.

In this article Dr. Martin explores both direct and indirect drivers and consequences of body size change using Great Plains buffalo as a focal species. He notes that since 1980, young steer and heifer cattle carcass sizes have increased 25%, nearly 4 pounds per year, from 673 pounds to 846 pounds.

Bison carcasses have only reported reliable weight data since October 2015, but this still demonstrates an increase in weight over time for males and females by 6% (age less than 30 months), a gain of nearly 5 pounds per year, from 588 pounds to 623 pounds.

What are the consequences of this drive for larger carcasses? Turns out there may be many—some depending on how far south the bison are being raised. Others unexpected. And there are costs.

In the end, Dr Martin leaves us with an unanswered question: When is the size of a Bison carcass ‘Just right?’

A second-generation bison rancher, Martin has personally witnessed how the bison industry has worked together to become more educated on climate change and other pressing issues. “I’m excited to be able to bring in the extensive resources of Extension to help train, problem solve and educate the current and next generation of bison managers,” Martin said.

Below is his “Goldilocks” research paper.

Goldilocks and Bison Carcass Size Considerations

By Jeff Martin, Assistant Professor and SDSU Extension Bison Specialist
March 24, 2023, SD State University, Brookings SD 57007

Most of us are familiar with the childhood story of Goldilocks and the three bears, where the little girl tries to find the bed that wasn’t too hard, nor too soft, but “just right.” This concept can be applied to many facets of life and business.

For livestock, discussions and evaluation of body size, carcass weight and dressing percentage come up regularly. While many strive to have the biggest, thickest or heaviest, these size traits can sometimes lead to production or conformation issues: infertility, sway back, exorbitant health and feed costs, susceptibility to heat stress, etc.

Heat stress in particular is becoming more prevalent, in step with more frequent and longer heat waves, especially on densely populated feed yards in the southern Great Plains.

Are Bison Too Big, Too Small or ‘Just Right’?

Unfortunately, high mortality rate events are becoming more frequent and are associated with prolonged heat wave events. However, heat waves have been around for a while and so have cattle (and bison for that matter). So, are today’s cattle and bison too big, too small, or “just right”?

Meats sourced from bison (Bison bison) and beef cattle (Bos taurus) have long been utilized as protein sources for consumers in North America. However, the systems utilized for bison and beef production vastly differ.

For example, the beef system slaughters on average 28.8 million head per year, whereas the bison system slaughters on average 41,700 head per year. This magnitude of difference is like comparing apples to nuts (and not the edible kind of nuts, but instead nuts for fastening bolts).

Back to the point, population size and body size have tradeoffs: larger body sizes consume more food, therefore, restricting population sizes through carrying capacity coupled stockings rates.

However, body size determines required food intakes, measured as daily minimum dry matter intake (DMI) (Ehlert and Brennan 2021a); there’s a handy little Grazing Calculator to help you with the math (Ehlert and Brennan 2021b).

Stocking rates rely on this static assumption of predictable body size. Stocking rates, measured as animal units (AU), typically use a fixed, static body mass measure (usually around 1,000 pounds of cow/calf pair).

For example, if you have a 1,200-pound cow and a 200-pound calf pair (collectively 1,400 pounds), then you have 1.4 AU per cow/calf pair. Now let’s say you have only 100 AUM of forge available in your pasture for one month.

With 1,000 pounds cow/calf pair (1 AU) you may sustain up to 100 head for a month, however with 1,400 pounds cow/calf pair (1.4 AU), you may only sustain up to 71.4 head for that same month.

Larger body sizes have other tradeoffs: longer lifespan, higher reproduction potential, lower mass-specific metabolism, faster growth rates, higher total digestive intake, higher total manure output, etc.

Larger bodies in heat are presented with yet another math problem: surface area (skin) to volume (body mass) ratio. Body mass scales nearly 1:1 with volume, but only scales at 1:0.67 for surface area. Meaning that, with increasing body mass, there is much less skin (surface area) per unit volume.

This is equivalent to building a Cummins diesel engine and only using a radiator from a Ford Model T, and driving it across the Mojave Desert in summer—it’s going to overheat and fail, because the radiator is too small to dissipate internally generated and absorbed solar heat.

This metaphor applies to the skin of large animals being too small to effectively dissipate heat generated from rumination, metabolism and absorbed solar radiation.

Conventional wisdom suggests that larger bodies produce larger carcasses; therefore, suggesting that you then make more money per animal.

But if you have such larger animals, resulting in increased mortality due to more intense and frequent heat waves and increased feed requirements, do your profit margins actually pencil out?

Trends in Carcass Size

Since 1980, steer and heifer beef cattle carcass sizes have increased 25%, nearly 4 pounds per year, from 673 pounds to 846 pounds (Figure 1; black solid curve and black trend line); a trend that continues from 2015 to present (Figure 1; gray trend line).

Unfortunately, USDA has only reported data reliably for bison carcass weight since October 2015. But this short interval still demonstrates an increase in weight over time for young (e.g. age less than 30 months) males and females by 6%, a gain of nearly 5 pounds per year, from 588 pounds to 623 pounds (Figure 1; yellow dashed line and yellow trend line).

For bison, the increasing carcass size trends described above are counter to observations made about live body size and body mass declining in response to warming and drought in wild and semi-wild herds (Martin and Barboza 2020, Martin and Klemm 2022).

Yet, increasing bison carcass size aligns with processor observations at various processing plants that are challenged to deal with the consequences of carcasses being too large (Conley et al. 2018).

Data are from USDA ERS and USDA NASS (USDA 2016, United States Department of Agriculture 2019) and bison data from SDSU Economics Webtool (Martin et al. 2021).

Is Increasing Bison Size a Benefit?

Yet for beef, the increasing carcass size trends—and associated increasing mortality rates—follow the predictable progression of artificial selection (Klemm and Briske 2021, Martin and Klemm 2022).

This suggests that the private bison sector may be on an unsustainable path heading for even costlier consequences of increasing carcass sizes occurring in parallel with impending heat waves, droughts and other extreme weather events. It behooves managers in the private sector to reconsider the trajectory bison body size is going.

In fact, to counter large carcass sizes, many bison processors already apply oversize carcass penalties in the form of lesser dollars per pound. Processor issues are related to diminished cutting efficiency and carcasses potentially dragging on the floor.

Similarly, if the surprise for Goldilocks was that she woke up in a house full of bears—then the surprise for managers with larger carcass sizes is that larger animals living on the range and in finishing lots struggle to survive heat stress.

References

• Conley, K., B. Dineen, B. Anderson, M. Jacobson, and D. Gehring. 2018. Is a bigger carcass really better?. National Bison Association. Bison World 4:14–19. Westminster, Colorado.
• Ehlert, K., and J. Brennan. 2021a. The Importance of Math in the Art of Grazing. Brookings, South Dakota.
• Ehlert, K., and J. Brennan. 2021b. Grazing Calculator. Brookings, South Dakota.
• Klemm, T., and D. D. Briske. 2021. Retrospective Assessment of Beef Cow Numbers to Climate Variability Throughout the U.S. Great Plains. Rangeland Ecology & Management 78:273–280.
• Martin, J. M., and P. S. Barboza. 2020. Decadal heat and drought drive body size of North American bison (Bison bison) along the Great Plains. Ecology and Evolution 10:336–349.
• Martin, J. M., and T. Klemm. 2022. Climate Change Impacts on Large-Bodied Grazing Ruminants and Forage Grazing. C. Miller Hesed and H. Yocum, editors. Synthesis of Climate & Ecological Science to Support Grassland Management Priorities in the North Central Region. United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins, Colorado.
• Martin, J. M., H. Menendez III, and J. Brennan. 2021. Bison Economics Tool. South Dakota State University Extension 1–3.
• United States Department of Agriculture. 2019. 2017 Census of agriculture United States summary and state data. Accessed 21 Jun 2019.
• USDA. 2016. Overview of the United States Cattle Industry. USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Services 1–19.

Contact Dr. Jeff Martin:

SDSU West River Ag Center
Bison Center for Excellence
711 N Creek Drive
Rapid City, SD 57703
605-394-2236; 1-605-688-4792

Email: Jeff.Martin@sdstate.edu

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

“Enhancing Tribal Tourism while Preserving our Tribal Traditions & Sharing our Own Stories”

  [This report on Tourism and Powwows is excerpted from publications developed by the 5 North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance tribes. With permission from ND Tourism.]

The native tribes of North Dakota are an essential part of the state’s history and we welcome you to explore reservations and experience Native American culture.

Learn about each tribe’s history, language and traditions by visiting attractions like reconstructed earth lodge villages or attend a powwow and celebrate the culture through song and dance. 

There are approximately 30,000 Native Americans living in North Dakota.

Though individual tribes have distinct and different origins, histories and languages, Plains Indians are united by core beliefs and values that emanate from respect for the earth and an understanding of humankind’s relationship with nature.

Ni-mi-win: The Powwow

Powwows (or “Ni-mi-win” in the Ojibwe language) are the Native American people’s way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships and making new ones. 

They are also one of the best ways to experience Native American culture, music and traditional crafts.  

There are several different stories of how the powwow was started.

 Some believe that the War dance Societies of the Ponca and other Southern Plains Tribes were the origin of the powwow.

 Another belief is that when the Native American tribes were forced onto reservations the government also forced them to have dances for the public to come and see.

 Before each dance, they were lead through the town in a parade, which is the beginning of the Grand Entry.

Powwow singers are very important figures in the powwow. Without them there would be no dancing. The songs are of many varieties, from religious to war to social.

 As various tribes gathered together, they shared their songs, often changing the songs so singers of different tribes could join.

 With these changes came the use of “vocables” to replace the words of the old songs. Thus, some songs today are sung in “vocables” with no words. Yet they still hold special meaning to those who know the song.

Many songs are still sung in Native American Languages either newly composed or revivals of old songs. These songs are reminders to the Indian people of their old ways and rich heritage.

Boozhoo! Tawnshi! Legend of the Jingle Dress

The Jingle Dress Dance is commonly seen in competitive pow wows, performed by women and girls in First Nations and Native American communities.

The dance gets its name from the rows of metal cones—called “ziibaaska’iganan”—attached to their dresses, which make a distinctive sound as they dance.

The ritual has a rich history, and there are few sights as mesmerizing as watching and hearing the women perform the light, elegant dance style in their Jingle Dresses.

North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (NDNTA)

The North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance says it is the first in the nation to unite all the tribes of a state to work together on tourism. The new coalition will promote the culture and history of sovereign nations. 

The vision of the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (NDNTA) is to enhance and promote Tribal Tourism as a means of economic development and growth for all ND Tribal Nations, while maintaining respect for sovereignty, tribal traditions and lands.

The mission of NDNTA is to protect, promote, preserve and educate the world about the culture, history and environment of our sovereign nations. NDNTA will promote and educate through sustainable tourism while developing economic opportunities for our people and nations.

North Dakota’s Native American tribes have a colorful history. A relatively new nonprofit intends to educate the world on their cultures and heritage.

“One of the main things is to promote our stories from our perspective to the world and being able to work with partners throughout the state to promote tourism and create jobs,” says Les Thomas, former Native Tourism Alliance board chair. “To enhance and promote Tribal Tourism as a means of economic development and growth for all North Dakota Tribal Nations, while maintaining respect for sovereignty, tribal traditions and lands.”

Five North Dakota Tribes

The NDNTA is a coalition representing the tourism interests of the 5 ND Tribal Nations: Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA), Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA)

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, is located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in central North Dakota. The reservation consists of 988,000 acres, of which 457,837 acres are owned by Native Americans, either as individual allotments or communally by the tribe.

The Tribal headquarters is located 4 miles west of New Town, ND. Chairman Mark N. Fox and the MHA Nation Tribal Business Council invite you to visit the Fort Berthold Reservation and learn more about our government, culture and history.

 Travel to where Lewis and Clark stayed with the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Tribes! See what the explorers saw as you learn the history of MHA Nation, from their historic trade route to modern-day innovations.

Visit the Dakota people of the Spirit Lake Nation, the namesakes of two American states, and explore culturally significant sites like Fort Totten all while learning history from tribal elders such as the region’s military and boarding school.

The Spirit Lake Tribe consists of four (4) districts. Tribal members living in each district are as follows:

Mission District         692
Woodlake District     266
Fort Totten District   947
Crowhill District       164

For tourists; there is fishing on Spirit Lake in the summer months which you can continue until the end of winter. Also visit the Fort Totten State Historic Site located in Fort Totten and which the people of Spirit Lake call ‘The Square.’

 Sullys Hill National Game Preserve near Fort Totten has a herd of North American Bison, prairie dog town, scenic outlooks and a Visitor Center.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Home to the Hunkpapa, Ihanktonwan, Hunkpati and Sihasapa bands of the Dakota Lakota Oyate, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe welcomes you in helping preserve our culture and identity by experiencing traditional storytelling, caring for buffalo and grazing our grasslands.

The Dakota people of Standing Rock include the Upper Yanktonai in their language called Ihanktonwana which translates “Little End Village” and Lower Yanktonai, called Hunkpatina in their language, “Campers at the Horn” or “End of the Camping Circle.” When the Middle Sioux moved onto the prairie they had contact with the semisedentary riverine tribes such as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara.

Eventually the Yanktonai displaced these tribes and forced them upstream. However, periodically the Yanktonai engaged in trade with these tribes and eventually some bands adopted the earthlodge, bullboat and horticultural techniques of these people, though buffalo remained their primary food source.

Today Yanktonai people of Standing Rock live primarily in communities on the North Dakota portion of the reservation.

The Lakota, as the largest division of the Sioux, subdivided into the Ti Sakowin or Seven Tents and Lakota people of the Standing Rock Reservation included two of these subdivisions, the Hunkpapa which means “Campers at the Horn” in English and Sihasapa or “Blackfeet” (not to be confused with the Algonquian Blackfeet of Montana and Canada which are an entirely different group.)

The new culture revolved around the horse and buffalo. Today the Lakota at Standing Rock live predominantly in communities located on the South Dakota portion of the reservation.

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa

Travel back in time to the late 1800s while locals tell you how the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians lived off the land. Learn the history and traditions which were influenced by 3 unique cultures: Anishinabe, Cree and Metis!

The Turtle Mountain Chippewa community is a vibrant multi-cultural community that includes traditions from the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) people and the Metis/Cree people to create a culture that is both unique and beautifully colorful and vibrant. 

Strength of the Alliance

Some of the tribes already had separate marketing departments. The alliance is helping unite them and partnering with the ND Department of Tourism.

Since re-establishing the NDNTA in May 2016, the regional Alliance has made significant strides with the support of its partners to establish their organizational structure, identify priority initiatives and gain visibility for indigenous tourism development. Main achievements include:

• The creation of the five-reservation NDNTA, operating as a nonprofit, with 10 voting directors and 8 non-voting advisory committee members
• Endorsement of NDNTA by 5 tribal councils and 5 tribal colleges
• Establishment of a Tourism Department within Spirit Lake Nation
• Vetted organizational bylaws and strategic plan for the NDNTA
• Identification of near-term experience development opportunities
• Increased awareness of North Dakota indigenous tourism through media coverage

The North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance is a nonprofit that works across the 5 tribal nations of North Dakota to implement a strategy for North Dakota Indian Country to build tourism capacity, advocate for infrastructure, conduct collective marketing and facilitate the development of cultural tourism enterprises.

We build partnerships with federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions to prioritize tourism as an economic development strategy for our tribes. Through these efforts, we hope to educate North Dakota communities and visitors alike about our diverse histories and traditions through cultural tourism.

The Mission of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Heritage Center is to preserve, promote, and apprise the history, culture and language of the Tribe in order to promote wellness within the community and surrounding communities by educating the public—especially the youth—of the beautiful, health, holistic, diverse and living cultures here and how this can be used to benefit the lives of community members now and in the generations to come.

Turtle Mountain Heritage Center
39SkyDancer Way NE; Belcourt ND 58316
701-244-5530
Chiiiippewaheritage19@hotmail.com

“It’s an opportunity for each tribe to showcase what they have and tell their own story and bring the people off the highways and interstates,” said Darian Morsette, Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Tourism director.

One of the focuses for the group is showing the differences in the cultures and histories of the tribes.

“You want to make sure that the cultural sensitivity is there, the understanding is there and the knowledge, the questions can be answered. We want to make sure that the people are comfortable in coming into North Dakota and saying there’s Native Americans, where are they,” said Jason Morsette, Tourism Alliance.

The group was given $5,000 from each of the tribes to help get started and other grants and donations will help operate the venture.

They expect to market to some of the same areas the Department of Tourism targets, such as northern Europe.

Contact Information

Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation headquarters
404 Frontage Road New Town, ND 58763
(701) 627-4781

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribal office:
605-698-3911
webadmin@swo-nsn.gov

Spirit Lake Nation Tribal Office
PO Box 359, Fort Totten, ND 58335
Phone: 701-766-4221

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Headquarters
1 Standing Rock Ave; Fort Yates, ND 58538
701-854-8500
info@standingrock.org

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal Headquarters
4180 Highway 281; Belcourt, ND 58316
701) 244-2400
selinaree2000@yahoo.com
Tribal HQ Front Desk
(701) 477-2600
info@tmbci.org

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

The following is excerpted from the “Guide to Tribal Nations”—the Oceti Sakowin Homelands—developed by the tribes of the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance.

Welcome to the land of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota. There are 9 Native American tribes that call South Dakota home and each of them has a unique story to tell.

Working together, they welcome visitors into their communities in order to educate and share.

When visiting Native communities, you will experience genuine hospitality, discover authentic art and hear about the fascinating history and unique culture of the people known by many as ‘Sioux.’*

People of the Great Sioux Nation prefer the terms Lakota (meaning Friend, Ally, or Brother People), Dakota and Nakota when referring to themselves as a people and a nation.

These are the names of the group’s different dialects, regions and economies.

The Powwow

Colorful finery, elaborate feather-work and intricate beadwork describe the visual atmosphere of a powwow or ‘wacipi’ (pronounced wah-CHEE-pee; Lakota, Dakota and Nakota for ‘they dance).

Spirited drumming and singing fill the air as dancers complete their fancy footwork.

Many of today’s powwows feature competitions in categories such as traditional, fancy and jingle-dress dancing.

During the intertribal dance, spectators have a chance to enter the dance ring.

Vendors at powwows provide an opportunity for visitors to sample foods like Indian tacos, fry bread and ‘wojapi,’ a fruit sauce or jam.

The wacipi, as practiced in the Plains region, is a social event which can last from one to several days.

It is a time when Lakota, Dakota and Nakota tribal people conduct honorings, giveaways and family gatherings. Friends meet, camp, visit and reconnect as tribal nations.

During the summer months, the celebration is usually held outdoors, with a shade or covered area where the audience and dancers sit.

The center area or arena is reserved for the dancing. Dances are either for men or women and competitions are divided into age categories. The dancers move in a clockwise direction, which represents the circle of unity and the never-ending cycle of life.

Singers are usually under or adjacent to the shade or covered area between the audience and the dance arena.

Powwow singers and drummers play a very important part of the celebration, providing rhythm for the dancers. They sing many types of songs, including honor and family, war and conquest, jo, encouragement, humor and mourning.

Attire worn by a dancer is called ‘regalia’ and should not be referred to as a costume.

Development of a dancer’s regalia often takes years to create and may include gifts which have deep meaning.

Catch the spirit at one of these or many other wacipi celebrations across the state.

When attending please remember to be respectful.

Visitor Guidelines

South Dakota’s tribal community’s welcome visitors. The following guidelines will help travelers enjoy their visit while honoring the people, lands and culture.

A visit to tribal administration offices for additional information is recommended.

Native American communities comprise a diversity of tribal members who practice varying degrees of tradition.

Traditionalists expect tribal members and visitors to conduct themselves in a manner that is respectful of tribal religion and ceremonies.

With this in mind it must be recognized that a code of conduct practiced at one community or event may not be appropriate at another.

Some communities may have policies about picture-taking, sketching and audio/video recording. Visitors should always ask for permission.

When attending ceremonial events, please prioritize appropriate dress, speech and behavior. An unkempt appearance can be offensive where many people wear their finest.

Do not disturb sites that contain devotions or offerings. These include pipes, bundles, ties, flags of colored material, food offerings and other items. These sites are considered sacred.

The ancestors of today’s tribes left many artifacts and ruins behind. Resist the impulse to pick up souvenirs.

Native American remains and artifacts are protected federally by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which carries stiff penalties for violations.

*The US government officially recognized the Lakota as ‘Sioux’ in 1825 and has applied this name to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota in official documents ever since.

The term ‘Sioux’ is a fragment of the French and Ojibwa word ‘nadouessioux’ which is believed to be a derogatory term meaning ‘little snakes.’ The name may have resulted from a history of territorial conflicts between the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota and the Ojibwas.

The word ‘Sioux’ appears in this publication when necessary, but efforts were made to use the more accepted terms of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota. As this guide was taken from many sources [including oral histories] there are inconsistencies in the spelling of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota words.

Watch for buffalo herds as you travel across the open prairies.

Herds can also be viewed at Bear Butte State Park, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park [all in South Dakota].

Please observe buffalo at a distance.

Tribal Contact

[For more information on powwows and local events year around, contact the following Tribal Headquarters.]

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
PO Box 590, Eagle Butte, SD 57625
605-964-4155

 Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
PO Box 50, Fort Thompson, SD 57339
605-245-2221

 Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe
PO Bos 283, Flandreau SD 57028-0283
605-997-3891

 Lower Brule Sioux Tribe
PO Box 187, Lower Brule, SD 57548
605-473-5561

 Oglala Sioux Tribe
PO Box 2070, Pine Ridge, SD 57770
605-867-5821

 Rosebud Sioux Tribe
PO Box 430, Rosebud, SD 57570
605-747=2381

 Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
PO Box 509, Agency Village, SD 57262
605-698-3911

 Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
PO Box D, Fort Yates, ND 58538
701-854-8500

 Yankton Sioux Tribe
PO Box 1153, Wagner, SD 57380
605-384-3641

Regional Tourism

Black Hills & Badlands
1851 Discovery Circle, Rapid City, SD 57701
605-355-3600
BlackHillsBadlands.com

Glacial Lakes & Prairies
1200 33^rd St SE #314. Watertown, SD 57201
605-886-7305
SDGLacialLakes.com

Southeast South Dakota
317 Broadway, Suite 7, Yankton, SD 57078
605-665-2435
SoutheastSouthDakota.com

South Dakota Missouri River
20207 South Dakota Highway 1804
Pierre, SD 57501
605-224-4617
SDMissouriRiver.com

Excerpted from “A Guide to Tribal Nations—Oceti Sakowin Homelands”—developed by the 9 Tribal Nations of South Dakota and published by TravelSouthDakota.com, SD Dept of Tourism, Pierre, May 2022. Reprinted with Permission.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Prized Knapping Stone of the Northern Plains

By Gene Gade

No man’s land on a World War I battlefield? Impact craters on Mars or the Moon? An abandoned bombing range?

From the air, certain pastures near the Knife River in central North Dakota are as pockmarked as any of the above.

However, these pits are not the result of violence or astronomical cataclysms. They are really hundreds of small mines used by Native Americans to quarry a precious resource over a period of at least 11,000 years.

What resource? Native Americans were digging for nodules of a dark brown rock, variously described as caramel or root beer colored, and well known to archaeologists and geologists as Knife River Flint (KRF).

KRF was one of the most sought-after materials used to make tools and weapons and was traded over a vast area of the continent.

Chunks or nodules of Knife River Flint like this were found scattered through the quarries. They were dug out of the soil, fashioned into points and traded to visiting tribes for at least 11,000 years. Traded again and again, they became highly prized and have been found thousands of miles away.

Artifacts fashioned from KRF include Clovis points made more than 10,000 years ago and KRF implements have been found thousands of miles from the quarries . . . from Montana on the west, Alberta on the north, New Mexico on the south and New York state in the east.

Clearly, KRF was a valued commodity in a very large and ancient trade network.

What’s special about Knife River Flint?

Chemically, flint is a type of quartz. The primary compound in flint and related minerals is silicon dioxide a.k.a. silica, one of the most common compounds in the earth’s crust. Silica is slightly soluble, so it often dissolves in water, percolates through sedimentary rocks and precipitates where there are voids in the surrounding rock, forming hard nodules of various sizes.

Flint is usually formed within a chalky sediment. Like other forms of silica used to make tools, flint is hard . . .  about 7 on a scale where 10 is hardest. It is also brittle and fractures into long, thin, cores. When struck by a skilled “knapper,” flint and its “lithic“ cousins in (chert, chalcedony, jasper, agate, etc.), form curved chips called “conchoidal fractures” and can have very sharp edges.

That’s why they make good arrow points and blades. Due to minute impurities, Flint and similar minerals usually have distinct colors and sometimes contain tiny fossils. Often flints are fairly dull and opaque, but some have a shiny luster and are translucent.

Knife River Flint has properties in spades that make it a very desirable tooling stone. Plus its distinctive and beautiful.

Where did the Flint come from?

Nobody knows for certain where Knife River Flint was formed because the parent rock has not been identified with certainty. Most likely it was embedded in rock derived from a peat bog that existed about 50 million years ago. The strata in which it formed were probably part of the Killdeer Mountains.

The flint-bearing rock was apparently carried away by glacial ice or water and deposited in the gravel along what became the Knife River drainage.

Chunks of KRF with diameters of two feet have been found, but most nodules are much smaller. They are distributed in a relatively small stretch of the Knife River valley, but quarrying has been very intense in several small areas along the flood plain.

The largest quarry has been designated a National Historic Site. Another is in a National Wildlife Refuge.

 Knife River Flint in the Trade Network

An impressive trade network linked many parts of North America hundreds of years before Europeans entered the continent and began trading for furs and other goods.

In what is now the Southwest US, pueblo Indians at Chaco Can[1]yon and other sites carried on extensive trade extending in several directions, especially to Mexico and Central America.

In the Northern Plains, Mandan and Hidatsa Indians were the great entrepreneurs. From their earthlodge villages along the Middle Missouri River, the Mandans and Hidatsas often traded part of their abundant corn, bean and squash products for buffalo meat and hides with the hunting tribes that surrounded them.

More than that, they became the middle men and importers where tribes throughout the region came to acquire goods that did not occur where they lived. The Mandan/Hidatsa trade network extended well beyond North Dakota.

Mollusk shells from the Pacific Northwest, Gulf of Mexico and even the Atlantic Coast are found in excavations of Mandan villages Tribes along the Great Lakes were beginning to mine and smelt copper which also became a trade item.

What durable resource of their own did the Mandan and Hidatsa have to trade? Knife River Flint!

What’s This got to do with the Vore Buffalo Jump?

Not surprisingly, Knife River Flint is found among the bones at the Vore Site. About 7 per cent of the artifacts at the VBJ are made from KRF.

This point demonstrates the sharp edges and translucent properties of Knife River Flint. The brown flecks in the stone are fragments of tiny fossils.

While other types of stone from less distant quarries are dominant, the presence of KRF raises intriguing questions for archaeologists. KRF is so distinctive and the area where it was mined is so restricted, there is no question of where it originated. However, it is not certain who brought it to the Vore site.

A 10,000+ year old Clovis Point made from Knife River Flint that was found in southern Iowa.

Pairing modern tribes with prehistoric stone tools is not exact science. At best, its inferential /circumstantial “evidence.” Having acknowledged that, what inferences can be made about KRF and the VBJ?

 Start with what’s known. The Hidatsa lived in large villages at the confluence of the Missouri and Knife Rivers and probably the dominant tribe along the latter during the period of Vore Site use. They are almost certainly among the tribes that quarried and /or traded the famous flint.

 In the late-1500’s the Hidatsa had a major family feud. The schism was significant enough that some portions of the tribe moved away from the central farming area along the Missouri and shifted their economy toward nomadic buffalo hunting.

 As they adapted to the mobile life on the Plains, the breakaway group developed its distinctive identity. They maintained a trade relationship with their farming cousins, but they continued to adapt to the tipi-dwelling hunting culture. They referred to themselves as “the people of the long-beaked bird,” possibly referring to cranes as a spiritual totem.

 However, other tribes, referred to them (perhaps in a derogatory way) by the name of another bird species. They became known as Crows and that name is still applied to them.

 It’s known from oral history, supplemented by archaeology, that the Crows migrated toward the Black Hills and that they were dominant in the region during much of the 1600’s. The artifacts of Knife River Flint that are found at the Vore Site are mostly from that century.

 From archaeological sites such as one along the base of the Bighorn Mountains, the Crows are known to have conducted communal buffalo jumps. If they did buffalo jumps where the Plains meet the Black Hills, they may very well have used the Vore Site.

 So, the inference is that the ancestors of the Crows may well have brought Knife River Flint to use at the VBJ. Additional research is needed to test such inferences and there’s no better place to do the archaeological component than at the Vore Buffalo Jump.

 Guest Article by Gene Gade. As the County Extension Agent in Sundance Wyoming, Gene Gade served 20 years as president of the non-profit Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, helping to develop and guide the research, education and economic potentials of the Vore site until his retirement to Oregon, where he continued to write for the VBJF Newsletter. Reprinted from the VBJF Newsletter with permission: Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, 369 Old US 14, Sundance WY 82729; Tel: (307) 266-9530, email: <info@vorebuffalojump.org>

Artifacts made from KRF have been found thousands of miles from the North Dakota quarries in every direction. Clearly, it was highly valued as a trade item over 10,000 years ago.

Most likely the nodules were embedded in rock derived from a peat bog that existed about 50 million years ago. Archeologists suggest the strata in which it formed may have been part of the Killdeer Mountains.

Knife River Flint as a trade commodity—(Library of Congress)

Knife River Flint Artifacts Found in Alberta

Anthropologists in Alberta Canada have documented 243 Knife River Flint artifacts found throughout the province, as reported by Emily Moffat, Regulatory Approvals Coordinator, Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Canada.

Over the course of the past 13,000 years, Knife River Flint was shaped into projectile points, tools and some unusual eccentric forms.

Moffat notes that this was a time of limited human mobility—with only dog travois to carry their goods in travelling—compared with modern times.

Yet Knife River Flint items were regularly transported hundreds of miles from their source in North Dakota, where it was quarried for all those thousands of years. All of it originated in a relatively small region which contains the majority of quarry pits.

The qualities in the Knife River artifacts that made them so desirable to primitive people were no doubt their ability to flake predictably and stay sharp.

However, in addition, some speculate that bison-hunting peoples of the past may have attributed spiritual properties to these rocks of beauty which often have translucent colors described as root beer or coffee. Often tiny fossils are visible within.

Knife River Flint (KRF) was apparently considered significantly more valuable than other flint materials, so great efforts were invested in procuring it, Moffat says.

Dunn and Mercer Counties of North Dakota were the most intensively quarried regions, and evidence of those activities is still found on the landscape today. Pre-contact quarry pits appear as pock marks on LiDAR imagery, a remote sensing technique that removes surface vegetation.

The primary source area is about 200 hectares and contains 29 pit complexes, each with up to 75 individual pits per hectare. On average these pits are 6 metres in diameter and 1 metre deep, with the largest reaching 20 metres in diameter and 2 metres deep.

The pits visible on imagery represent the most recent quarrying activities but many were excavated two or three times prior, illustrating the high demand for KRF.

Moffat notes that KRF was first formed when low-grade coal, or lignite, was turned to stone by silica (or quartz) mineralization. These original rock formations, thought to be about 50 to 30 million years old, were eroded by glaciers and water, resulting in secondary deposits of loose pebbles and cobbles.

KRF could therefore be pried from the ground quite easily as opposed to chipped from a rock face or collected as river cobbles like some other lithic materials. Tools typical to the period, such as fire-hardened digging sticks and bison scapula hoes and shovels, would have been used to unearth KRF.

There are difficulties identifying which artifacts are indeed KRF. Moffat says there is an abundance of similar materials in North America made from other silica-rich rocks such as chert, chalcedony and petrified wood which can resemble KRF. Larger pieces of KRF may even have plant fossils embedded within it, similar to petrified wood. The geochemistry of KRF is quite variable.

Ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence can be used to tell some rock types apart. KRF was once thought to fluoresce a specific color, which helped archaeologists identify it, but recent work suggests that it fluoresces a range of colors under longwave UV light—from yellow-gray to orange, with some specimens of KRF that do not fluoresce at all.

The chain of interactions that transported KRF to Alberta and other far-reaching regions thousands of years ago is remarkable, according to Moffatt. KRF cobbles, cores and tools were passed between countless hands to get from the quarries to the people who used the stone on a daily basis.

The presence of KRF and any other exotic material at archaeological sites therefore signals a rich history of human connection and an incredible journey across cultural landscapes of the past.

For more information:

Ahler, S.A. 1986. Knife River Flint Quarries: Excavations at Site 32DU508. State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck, North Dakota.

Clayton, L., W.B. Bickley, Jr., and W.J. Stone. 1970. Knife River Flint. Plains Anthropologist 15:282-290.

Clark, F. 1984. Knife River Flint and interregional exchange. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 9:173-198.

Dawe, R.J. 2013. A review of the Cody Complex in Alberta. In: Paleoindian Lifeways of the Cody Complex, edited by M.P. Muñiz and E.J. Knell, pp. 144-187. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Evilsizer, L.J. 2016. Knife River Flint Distribution and Identification in Montana. M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.

Gregg, M.L. 1987. Knife River Flint in the northeastern Plains. Plains Anthropologist 32:367-377.

Hickey, L.J. 1977. Stratigraphy and Paleobotany and of the Golden Valley Formation (Early Tertiary) of Western North Dakota. Geological Society of America Memoirs 150, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.

Kirchmeir, P.F.R. 2011. A Knife River Flint Identification Model and its Application to Three Alberta Ecozone Archaeological Assemblages. M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Kristensen, T., E. Moffat, M. J. M. Duke, A. J. Locock, C. Sharphead, and J. W. Ives. 2018. Identifying Knife River Flint in Alberta: A Silicified Lignite Toolstone from North Dakota. Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper 38:1-24.

Root, M.J. 1992. The Knife River Flint Quarries: The Organization of Stone Tool Production. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.

Root, M.J. 1997. Production for exchange at the Knife River Flint quarries, North Dakota. Lithic Technology 22:33-50.

Steuber, K.I. 2018. Geochemical Characterization of Brown Chalcedony during the Besant/Sonota Period. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

VanNest, J. 1985. Patination of Knife River Flint artifacts. Plains Anthropologist 30:325-339.

Written by Emily Moffat, Regulatory Approvals Coordinator, Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Canada.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog