CSC professor kicks off Lewis & Clark series

“Their stories do not begin with Lewis and Clark,” he said. “They were there for centuries – perhaps thousands of years prior to the arrival of Lewis and Clark.”

Hyer presented details about the many tribes that inhabited the Great Plains, such as “village farmers” like the Hidatsas, Mandans and Arikaras, and “bison hunters” like the Lakota, Cheyenne and Crow.

He described the American Indians of the time period as “masters of the environment” in many respects, and said they were intelligent about trade, cultivating crops and locating food items. He also told about the natives’ use of horses and dogs to complete daily tasks.

Hyer said the Knife River Sites near the Missouri River in central North Dakota are home to extensive evidence about American Indian life of those days. Because of the heavy trade activity of the sites, he likened the area to today’s Wal-Mart. Because of established trade networks, Hyer said the American Indians in that region were able to specialize in certain goods and still obtain the items they needed to live. For instance, he said researchers have found copper from the Great Lakes and shells from the Gulf of Mexico in the area.

“Sometimes these items were coming from 1,500 miles away, so the trade networks were very impressive,” he said.

Hyer also talked about relations between tribes. He said that the frequency of skirmishes between groups varied, but that many of the villages were fortified to keep other regional factions from attack.

“There were periods in which groups got along quite well, and there were others in which there was conflict,” he said.

Hyer said that European settlers spread disease, such as smallpox and influenza, as they moved westward. He said some tribes in North America lost 90-95 percent of their populations because of plague.

“I used to assume that there was one devastating plague, and that’s not the case. They got hit over and over again,” he said. “You have to understand how that would affect any society.”

Hyer’s presentation was an installment of the Dorset Graves Lecture Series at the Reta King Library. The series of speakers about Lewis and Clark has been scheduled to coincide with a traveling exhibit that is in the library through April 18. Its title is “Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country.”

Next up in the lecture series is a presentation by independent scholar Mike Her Many Horses of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, who will speak about finding Crazy Horse’s relatives Tuesday, March 18. Dr. Gary Moulton of Lincoln will present “Lewis and Clark Among the Indians” on March 25. Both lectures will begin at 7 p.m. in room 108 of the library.