Before statehood
Topographically, Oklahoma is situated between the Great Plains and the Ozark Plateau in the Gulf of Mexico watershed. [1] The western part of the state is subjected to extended periods of drought and high winds in the region may then generate Dust storms. The eastern part of the state is humid subtropical climate zone. The Dry line, an imaginary line that separates moist air from an eastern body of water and dry desert air from the west, usually bisects the state and is arguably an important factor in pre-historic settlement, with agrarian tribes settling in the eastern part of the state and Hunter-gatherer tribes settling in the western part of the state. [edit]Before 1500 CE Caddoan Languages Modern day man has been in Oklahoma as long as the oldest known documented paleo cultures in the field of archaeology/anthropology. From the oldest projectile points of the Clovis Culture to the highly advanced Folsom and breaking off down into the lesser known cultures who's artifacts and kill sites have been well documented all over the state (Dalton, Midland, HellGap, Alberta/Scottsbluff, Calf Creek), the Homosapien race was present and very active in what is now today known as the State of Oklahoma. During the first "officially" documented exploration undertaken by Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto the indigenous peoples that populated the pan-shaped landlocked state were part of a larger cultur
l group called Plains Caddoan. The Caddoan languages are a family of languages including those spoken by the Caddo, Wichita, Pawnee, and Kichai peoples. [edit]The Caddoan Mississippi Culture Main articles: Mississippian culture and Caddoan Mississippian culture A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures. Between 1000 and 1600 AD, much of the eastern part of the US (including the eastern part of what is now Oklahoma) was part of dynamic cultural communities that are generally known as the Mississippian culture. These cultures were agrarian, their communities were built on mounds, and trade between communities was based on river travel. There were multiple chiefdoms that never controlled large areas or lasted more than a few hundred years.[2] The Caddoan Mississippian culture appears to have emerged from an earlier Mississippian Culture during the Woodland period (1,000 BCE to 1,000 AD) from the western Louisiana area around 800 AD. The Caddoans flourished around the Red River. The Caddoan Homeland was on the geographical and cultural edge of the Mississippian world and had similarities to both Mississippian Culture and Plains Traditions. The Caddoan communities were not as large as other Mississippian communities, were not fortified, they did not established large, complex chiefdoms, with the possible exception of the Spiro Mounds, along the Arkansas River.
