Continuity and change in the Native American village : multicultural origins and descendants of the Fort Ancient Culture /

Clark (Ohio State) reconstructs the origin of the last prehistoric Native American culture in the Middle Ohio Valley, known as Fort Ancient, charting the changes that occurred through the late 17th century. In a major new synthesis, drawing on the excavated Sunwatch Village in Dayton, Ohio, he shows how a regional way of life developed with the introduction of corn agriculture from Mississippian cultures downstream. Through comparison with the possible historical descendants of Fort Ancient, the Winnebago, Omaha, and Osage, he reconstructs probable village structure at Sunwatch and how it developed over time. He links the end of Fort Ancient, before extensive contact with expanding English colonization from the Atlantic coast, to climate change affecting agriculture, an economic shift to include bison hunting, and general disruption in Native American life due to the first European contact. Well written and illustrated and including a current bibliography, the book belongs in colleges and universities with programs in archaeology and anthropology. Because of the topic, it will also have wide appeal to a larger readership using public libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --R. Berle Clay, emeritus, University of Kentucky