9. Late Prehistoric Oneota in the Central Plains Lauren W. Ritterbush T he Oneota tradition is an Upper Mississippian complex best known from ar- chaeological investigations in the Midwest. Oneota sites in that region have been dated between abou t A.O. 1000 and the earliest portion of the Historic period. Sev- eral well-known, but until recently little-studied, sites in Kansas and Nebraska are clearly affiliated with this archaeological tradition. Those sites in the Central Plains that contain Oneota components dating to the Late Prehistoric period are the Leary (25 RH1), Ashland (25CC1, 25SD147), and various White Rock phase si te s (Figure 9.1). Additional Oneota artifacts have also been found among late prehistoric assemblages from southern Kansas. Modern studi es of Oneota sites in Kansas and Nebraska indicate westward mi- gration of certain midwestern populations in the late thirteenth or early fo urteenth centuries. Little is known about their fate after about A.O. 1450, although this cultural tradition continued in the Midwest, including along the eastern edge of the Central Plains, into the Protohistoric period. The expansion of Oneota peoples into the I I 14AH302 • • 14AH301 14KW311o 0 14KW404 co I K$ • 14CM:lo3 Qt\ 14CM406 , __ ,L.._r ' Figure 9.1. Map of the Central Plains showing locations of the Leary and Ashland sites and White Rock phase sites, as well as those Plains Border variant sites in so uthwestern Kansas that include Oneota materials in their assemblages 151