Sourcing red pipestone artifacts from oneota villages in the little Sioux Valley of Northwest Iowa

The exchange of some Oneota red pipestone artifacts commonly, but sometimes incorrectly, identified as manufactured from catlinite from southwest Minnesota, likely created fictive kinship alliances between unrelated groups from ca. A.D. 1450 into the early 1700s. Researchers have determined, however, that red pipestone raw material occurs across a wide area within the United States and Canada. Determining the provenance of this red pipestone raw material is thus critical to understanding Oneota trade and alliance building. Using Portable Infrared Mineral Analyzer (PIMA) technology to identify the raw material sources of 84 red pipestone artifacts from seven Oneota villages in the Little Sioux valley of northwest Iowa, we demonstrate that while the local inhabitants had access to the catlinite quarries, they also used a wide range of pipestones from other sources. The possible implications of these multiple source areas are also discussed.