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Rediscovering Iowa's "Silent City"
Rediscovering Iowa's "Silent City"
See how efforts to preserve the heritage of Iowa' indigenous people also include ag research.
By Darcy Maulsby
Traveling the backroads of Lyon County in the extreme northwest corner of Iowa brings you to a place of unparalleled rural beauty, where the Big Sioux River flows among the tree-covered, rolling hills. Now try to imagine this site as it was 500 years ago — a large village and ceremonial site for the ancestors of the Omaha, Ponca, Iowa and Otoe tribes, which archaeologists call the Oneota Culture.
It’s all part of the Blood Run National Historic Landmark (NHL), an archaeological site on the border of northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota. “Centuries ago, this was one of the biggest communities in America,” says Gerald “Gerry” Schnepf, marketing and development director for the Oneota Archival and Research Center (OARC).
Dubbed the “Silent City,” Blood Run is the largest Oneota cultural site discovered to date in the Upper Midwest and is among the oldest sites of long-term human habitation in the U.S. Schnepf and other leaders are striving in the long run to preserve this heritage by encouraging federal officials to designate Blood Run as a National Historic Monument.
They’re also raising funds to build OARC, a $15 million facility slated for the Iowa side of the Blood Run region. Part of this 35,000-square-foot complex will house artifacts, documents and other materials associated with Oneota Culture. OARC will also include an agricultural research station dedicated to exploring native agricultural practices.
“Every aspect of the people who lived here centuries ago was tied to the land,” says Schnepf, who notes that most of Blood Run’s agricultural areas and artifacts are located on the Iowa side of the Big Sioux River. “What can we learn from indigenous people’s agricultural heritage?”
One Place, Many People
While it’s unclear exactly when people first began living in and around Blood Run, artifacts reveal that the region became a magnet for settlement about 500 years ago. Blood Run had evolved into a thriving community by the time William Shakespeare became a celebrated playwright in England.
The residents of Blood Run weren’t isolated, either. “The direct ancestors of the Oneota Culture developed a craft and trade center that connected people up and down the Big Sioux River and beyond,” explains John Doershuk, state archaeologist at The University of Iowa.
From roughly 1500 to 1700 AD, Blood Run had a population of approximately 4,000 residents. They hunted bison and cultivated crops, including corn, beans and sunflowers. “Think what it would take to feed 4,000 people a day,” says Schnepf, who grew up on a farm near Blood Run (named for Blood Run Creek, which turns red with iron oxide during heavy rains).
Spanning nearly 3,000 acres, Blood Run remained a major hub and regional trading center until the early 1700s. “Soon after that, the people dispersed, and the area became part of the hunting territory of the Dakota peoples,” Doershuk notes.
After European colonization, farming and gravel quarries became widespread throughout this region. “Some of the archaeological legacy at Blood Run has been damaged and lost through the years, reflecting the need for action,” says Bill Green, state archaeologist of Iowa from 1988 to 2001. “It was by no means a sure thing that any of it would be protected or preserved.”
Protecting a Rich Heritage for Future Generations
Still, Blood Run remained a time capsule of indigenous culture. No other Oneota site of such size and integrity is known to exist in the United States. Thanks to a great deal of effort from many people, organizations, agencies and tribes, portions of the Blood Run site are now preserved in Iowa and South Dakota.
South Dakota’s newest state park, Good Earth at Blood Run, is located southeast of Sioux Falls. The park contains hiking trails and an 11,000-squarefoot visitor center showcasing the cultural and historical significance of the Blood Run site. A nonprofit group called the Friends of Blood Run (including representatives from each tribe in the Oneota Culture) also preserves the region’s history. They sponsor an annual 5K trail run in the area to raise awareness and funds.
In Iowa, Schnepf and other leaders continue to raise money for OARC, which will become a central repository for all the artifacts that have been recovered from the site. “Researchers, students and tribal members from throughout the Midwest and Great Plains, as well as residents of the region, will find much to inspire them,” Green says. “The agricultural research station will facilitate the study of various plants grown by Native Americans in the region, including extinct or neglected varieties of native plants that might be ’re-domesticated.’”
All these efforts respect and protect the heritage of Blood Run, one of the few places where a direct connection between “pre-contact” and “post-contact” history is well documented through oral tradition and written records, Green says.
“It’s important to honor and learn your history,” Schnepf notes. “I’m excited about all the untold stories that can be shared and knowledge that can be gained through OARC at Blood Run.”
