BUFFALO Let The River Be: A History of the Ozark's Buffalo River

1. Vance Randolph, We Always Lie to Strangers. Tall Tales From the Ozarks (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), p. 14.

2. T.C. Hopkins, Marbles and Other Limestones (Little Rock: Brown Printing Company, 1893), p. 7; United States, Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo River Basin, Arkansas, White River Basin Comprehensive Study, Missouri and Arkansas, vol. I (Little Rock: Corps of Engineers, 1964), p. 5.

3. Vance Randolph, The Devil's Pretty Daughter and Other Ozark Folk Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), p. xiii.

4. Milton D. Rafferty, The Ozarks: Land and Life (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980), p. 4.

5. Oscar H. Hershey, "River Valleys of the Ozark Plateau," American Geologist, XVI (December 1895), pp. 352-357; Oscar H. Hershey, "Peneplains of the Ozark Highlands," American Geologist, XXVII (January 1901), p. 41; Nevin M. Fenneman, Physiography of Eastern United States (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938), pp. 659-662.

6. William D. Thornbury, Regional Geomorphology of the United States (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1965), pp. 262-270.

7. Ibid.

8. Isiah Bowman, Forest Physiography (New York: Arno Press, Inc., 1970), pp. 452-455; Fenneman, Physiography of Eastern United States, pp. 632-634, 656; A.H. Purdue, "Physiography of the Boston Mountains, Arkansas," Journal of Geology, IX (November-December 1901), p. 697.

9. G.I. Adams, Zinc and Lead Deposits of Northern Arkansas, United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper No. 24 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 16; [United States, Land Office], Original Field Notes, T16N R20W, Typescript Copy, State Land Office, Little Rock, Book 1598-A, Bundle 181, p. 12; Ibid., T15N R22W, Book 1609, Bundle 182, p. 420; Ibid., T15N R16W, Book 565-AB, Bundle 62, p. 10.

10. The wealth of prehistoric remains in the protected shelters prompted Mark R. Harrington, an archeologist for the Museum of the American Indian, to label these peoples the Ozark Bluff-dwellers. The term is misleading, however, and should be replaced with a series of sequential periods or phrases. Far from being the anomalous cultural group described by Harrington, the prehistoric inhabitants of the Ozarks were part of a broad series of cultural patterns found throughout the Mississippi Valley and adjacent regions. They experienced continuous change throughout the prehistoric period and, significantly, made extensive use of sites in addition to the bluff shelters. See L. Mark Raab, "Expanding Prehistory in the Arkansas Ozarks," in Arkansas Archeology in Review ed. by Neal L. Turbowitz and Marvin D. Jeter, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 15 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1982), pp. 233-239; James A. Brown, Prehistoric Southern Ozarks Marginality: A Myth Exposed, Special Publication of the Missouri Archaeological Society No. 6 (Columbia: Missouri Archaeological Society, 1984.)

11. George Sabo III, David B. Waddell, and John H. House, "A Cultural Resource Overview of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, Arkansas," multilith (Russellville, Arkansas: Forest Service, 1982), pp. 48-75.

12. Daniel Wolfman, Archeological Assessment of the Buffalo National River, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Report No. 18 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1979), originally prepared in 1974 with the title "Archeological Inventory of the Buffalo National River"; Sabo, et al., "A Cultural Resource Overview," 1982.

13. George Sabo III, "The Huntsville Site (3MA22): A Caddoan Civic Ceremonial Center in the Arkansas Ozarks," paper presented at the 47th annual meeting of the Society for American Archeology, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 1982; Davis W. Stahle, "Reports on the 1976-1977 Excavations in Northwest Arkansas by the Fayetteville Research Station and the Arkansas Archeological Society," in Contributions to Ozarks Prehistory, ed. by George Sabo III, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 27 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1986); Michael P. Hoffman and James Cherry, "The Watt's Farm Site (3WA6), and the Mystery of Caddoan Culture in the Western Arkansas Ozarks," paper presented at the 1983 Caddo Conference, Natchitoches, Louisiana, March 1983; Gayle Fritz, "Mounds in Northwest Arkansas: A More Positive Approach to Late Prehistory in the Ozarks," in Contributions to Ozarks Prehistory, ed. by George Sabo III.

14. L. Mark Raab, Gayle Fritz, Daniel Wolfman, Robert H. Ray, and George Sabo III, "The Arkansas Ozarks," in A State Plan for the Conservation of Archeological Resources in Arkansas, ed. by Hester A. Davis, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 21 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1982), pp. NW1-24.

15. Charles R. McGimsey, Indians of Arkansas, Arkansas Archeological Survey Publications on Archeology, Popular Series No. 1 (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1969), p. 34; James A. Scholtz, "A Summary of Prehistory in Northwest Arkansas," The Arkansas Archeologist, X (1969), p. 58.

16. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, vol. II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 95-99.

17. Grant Foreman, Indians & Pioneers: The Story of the American Southwest Before 1830 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1930), p. 26; Charles C. Royce, "The Cherokee Nation of Indians," in Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1883-'84 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887), p. 204.

18. Foreman, Indians & Pioneers, pp. 26-27.

19. On a contemporary map of Arkansas the eastern boundary would start near Morrilton on the Arkansas and run to near Batesville on the White. The western line would commence near Fort Smith and reach the White River at the mouth of the Little North Fork Creek, presently under the waters of Bull Shoals Lake. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. II, pp. 140-142; Charles C. Royce, comp., Indian Land Cessions in the United States, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1896-'97, Part 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899), p. 721.

20. Joseph McMinn to Secretary of War, November 29, 1818, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, vol. II (Washington: Published by Gales and Seaton, 1834), p. 482.

21. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 218.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid., pp. 141-142.

24. [United States, Land Office], Original Field Notes, T14N R17W, Typescript Copy, State Land Office, Little Rock, Book 559A, Bundle 62, p. 1124.

25. Ibid., T15N R16W, Book 559A, Bundle 62, p. 477.

26. The survey error was corrected the following year. Cherokee Delegation to President James Monroe, March 3, 1824, in United States, Indian Affairs Office, Letters Received, 1824-1881, Cherokee Agency (West), National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy No. 234, Roll 77, p. 2.

27. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 247.

28. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. II, pp. 288-292.

29. Royce, "Cherokee Nation," p. 248.

30. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Collected and Prepared Under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Per Act of Congress of March 3d, 1847, vol. III (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1853), p. 50.

31. Theodore H. Lewis, "Route of De Soto's Expedition From Taliepacana to Huhasene," Mississippi Historical Society Publications, VI (1903), pp. 458-459.

32. Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, vol. I (New York: The Grolier Society, 1931), p. 283; Vance Randolph, The Ozarks, An American Survival of Primitive Society (New York: Vanguard Press, 1931), p. 288.

33. Mark R. Harrington, The Ozark Bluff-Dwellers, vol. XII of Indian Notes and Monographs (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1960), pp. 143-144; Gene Waters, "An Ozark Bluff Dwelling," Central States Archeological Journal, XIII (October 1966), p. 143.

34. Elliott Coues, The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, To Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7, vol. III (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1895), First Part of Captain Pike's Chart of the Internal Part of Louisiana.

35. Ibid., pp. 357-510; Zebulon M. Pike, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike With Letters and Related Documents, ed. by Donald Jackson, vol. I (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), pp. 459-460.

36. William T. Hornaday, "The Extermination of the American Bison, With a Sketch of its Discovery and Life History," in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution for the Year ending June 30, 1887, Part 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889), pp. 278-388; J.A. Allen, "History of the American Bison, Bison Americanus," in Ninth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Embracing Colorado and Parts of Adjacent Territories: Being a Report of Progress of the Exploration for the year 1875 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877), pp. 474, 528.

37. Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, vol. II (Philadelphia: Lippincott Company, 1962), p. 291.

38. Charles E. Cleland, "Faunal Remains From Bluff Shelters in Northwest Arkansas," The Arkansas Archeologist, VI (1965), p. 47.

39. Duane Huddleston, "Navigation of the Buffalo River—Epic Trip of Steamboat Dauntless," Yellville (Arkansas) Mountain Echo, March 13, 1969; John Quincy Wolf, Life in the Leatherwoods, ed. by John Quincy Wolf, Jr. (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1974), p. 139.

40. United States, Statutes at Large, "An Act to provide for the establishment of the Buffalo National River in the State of Arkansas, and for other purposes," March 1, 1972, vol. LXXXVI, p. 44; United States Army Corps of Engineers, Public Hearing, November 18, 1964, Box 219-B2/2, Ozark Society Papers, Special Collections Library, University of Arkansas.