The Central Mississippi Valley chapter of the Arkansas Archaeological Society hosted a lecture about Native American migrations into Arkansas. 

David Dye, professor of archaeology at the University of Memphis, spoke at the Arkansas State University Museum about Native American migrations into Northeast Arkansas during a lecture that was open to the public. 

Sarah Stuckey, archaeological assistant for the central Mississippi Valley chapter of The Arkansas Archaeological Society, said the chapter has meetings every month September through May and this presentation was for the chapter’s October meeting. 

Dye said he became interested in this topic through conversations with archaeologists Dan and Phyllis Morris. He said Dan Morris was interested in an idea no one was talking about very much about how there were people living in Mississippi and at some point in time most of them migrated to the east. 

Dye said Dan and Phyllis Morris believed the triggers for migration were political and environmental: populations had expanded and the sandy soils could not provide the needed food resources. 

“In part I agree with them,” ​the professor of archaeology said. “I also came up with another idea that I think may be equally important, perhaps even more important, which is the idea of droughts.” 

During his lecture, Dye highlighted the role of tree ring analysis in assessing past droughts and their impact on populations, the role of religion and politics in these Native American societies as well as different environmental impacts that led to mass migrations. 

He said archaeologists do not like to use external factors, like climate, to explain why people do things and would rather use internal things like conflict within a group of people or the economy.  

“My philosophy is, ‘if it looks like a duck and it swims like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck,” Dye said. “When you see a major drought hitting a place for 25 or 30 years, and those people pack everything up and they leave, I think that drought probably has something to do with that.”

Mitchell Chellel, an archaeologist working for the Department of Energy Southwestern Power Administration, said a lot of people are fascinated by archaeology but don’t know how prehistorically rich this area is. 

Chellel said students can gain knowledge of cultural practices that are still active today from being involved in discussions like this. 

“David (Dye) talked a lot about in his lecture tonight, about the fundamental consistency of human nature and how we look at these cultures in the past, and we sometimes think, Oh, they’re very different, but that’s just a real thin veneer of difference underneath. People are all the same,” Chellel said. 

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