Trip to Blood Run
On September 16, 1997 the fourth, fifth and sixth
grade "Wings" students spent an afternoon hiking around the Oneota Indian site
called Blood Run. They learned many things about the Indians who used to live there
from Ranger/Naturalist Jim Lenderts of the Lyon
County Conservation Board.
The Blood Run / Rock Island National Landmark
site is a 225 acre plot of land owned by the State Historical Society of Iowa and is
located near Granite, Iowa, in Lyon County. This area was once the site of the
largest known Oneota civilization. The 225 acres of land owned by the state is just
a small piece of the original Blood Run site that is estimated to be 650-1250 acres of
land in Iowa and South Dakota.
Blood Run got its name from the stream that
runs through the site and empties into the Big Sioux River. The rocks along the
stream are rich in iron ore and at one time may have leached into the stream giving the
water a reddish tint.
The Oneota culture dates from approximately
A.D. 1000 to the time of European contact (at the end of the 17th century). The
Winnebago, Ioway, Oto, and Missouri are known as "traditional" Oneota. The
Kansas, Osage, and Omaha are the "acquired" Oneota. They are called
"acquired" because these groups originated in another place and moved into an
Oneota area, acquiring Oneota cultural traits. The Yankton Sioux are believed to
have shared Oneota traits as well.
The Oneota village was a trading place where
various tribes may have met to trade their goods. The Oneota hunted bison and elk,
and gathered acorns, walnuts, raspberries, and plums. They supplemented their diet with
the corn, beans, and squash they grew in small gardens. If food was scarce, the
Oneota would move to a new area or sometimes raid the supplies of a neighboring village.
They dug holes into the ground up to seven feet
deep to store their vegetables for the winter and for times when food supplies were
low. It was through the more recent activity of a gravel quarry in the center of
what is now this site, that these famous cache pits were discovered. These pits were
dug into the floors of their huts and were eventually used for garbage disposal.
The mounds are another interesting feature of
the Blood Run site. The original Blood Run settlement had 176 documented mounds of
which 80 are still visible today. These mounds were apparently used as burial
mounds. The largest mounds still measure 80 feet across and six feet high.
These mounds were carefully constructed of clay and rocks. This construction has
helped the mounds keep their shape after years of cultivation. Mounds are rare; only
three Oneota sites (all in Northwest Iowa) are associated with mounds.
The Blood Run site contains a tremendous amount
of history and is being looked at as possibly becoming a national park. Currently
Blood Run is only accessible to the public with a Lyon County Conservation employee.
- Information courtesy of Lyon County Conservation
Board, 311 1st Ave. East,
Rock Rapids, IA 51246.
Phone: 712/472-2217
-
Students and Ranger/Naturalist, Jim
Lenderts, Gather Around an Unusual Pitted Boulder
For more information on the Oneota culture try these links:
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