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<br />Woodland <br /> <br />there is a marked increase in the use of harvested and <br />domesticated plants, including wild rice and com. <br />1bis more sedentary lifestyle is matched by the <br />app~ara1Jce of villa~s. Ojibwa movement into <br />Minnesota begins in this period, <br /> <br />AD 1680-1800 <br /> <br />Early <br />Euroamerican <br /> <br />Ceramic and stone tool technologies begin to <br />disappear and be replaced with metal trade goods, <br /> <br />A,D,1800- <br />present <br /> <br />Euroamerican <br /> <br />Euroamerican settlements begin and Euroamerican <br />material culture becomes dominant. <br /> <br />This periodization scheme is, of course, an oversimplification, and during the Initial and <br />especiaUy T emmai 'w' uo4htnd period t::.Xtensive and intricate local and regional cultures <br />developed within Minnesota, some with their own unique ceramic and lithic traditions. The <br />lack of previous archaeological research in the Elk River area, however, prevents ~ny <br />conjectures about such developments in and around Elk River, <br />Of particular interest is the period from AD tODD-AD 1300. In the woodlands and <br />prairies of southem and central Minnesota the archaeological record indicates this was a <br />period of strong cultural changes, marked by changing ceramic types and agricultural <br />practices. Clustered villages appear in this period, and there is some evidence for defensive <br />palisades, all indicating that tensions were high and safety and protection were a strong <br />cultural concem. These tensions and changes reach more northem parts of Minnesota by <br />AD, 1300, with similar village clusters being fonned and intensification in the use and <br />storage of wild rice, 2 <br />At the height of these tensions c, AD. 1300 Elk River may have fallen become a "no <br />man's land." There is evidence for a sharp cultural divide between northem and southem <br />Minnesota that accompanied the evidence of increasing tension and violence. During such <br />periods it is not uncommon for buffer zones to develop, as happened during the historic <br />Dakota-Ojibwa conflict,3 It may be that as a buffer zone, the Elk River area was not <br />inhabited in this period. <br />Slighdy more is known about the Native Americans of Minnesota in the Early <br />EuroAmerican period after 1680, but specifics about the Elk River region remain unknown. <br />This was a period of great change and fragmentation of Native American groups caused by <br />numerous internal and extemal factors, not the least of which was the widespread effect of <br /> <br />10 <br />