Focusing on southwestern Minnesota, north-central Iowa, and southeastern South Dakota, the author describes the dramatic environmental changes that occurred during the precontact millennia and their impact on the human, animal, and plant cultures of the region once treated as the insignificant edge of the Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands.

Dr. Anfinson’s synthesis reveals how the successions of peoples in this transition region selectively accepted–and denied–influences from the better-known cultures that flourished around them.

Archaeologists and historians of Native Americans, as well as amateur and armchair archaeologists, will welcome this valuable addition to the region’s geological, natural, and cultural history.

Author information

Scott F. Anfinson is an Interdisciplinary Archaeological Studies faculty member at the University of Minnesota, a State Historic Preservation Office archaeologist, and a native son of southwestern Minnesota.

• 156 pages
• 8.5 x 11 inches
• ISBN: 9780873513555