Abstract

Archaeological reconnaissance and excavation in the Lauder Sandhills of southwestern Manitoba has revealed a dense cluster of late Pre-Contact archaeological sites that can be termed culturally exotic. These sites relate to the Vickers Focus that is believed to derive from the Missouri and Mississippi River drainage basins of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas. After two field seasons of reconnaissance, at least seven sites have been recorded within less than 2 square kilometres: more than tripling the former inventory of Vickers Focus sites in Manitoba. This begs the question, what environmental conditions attracted these people to the Sandhills locality, and also from what cultural milieu these people derived. Palaeo-environmental reconstructions indicate that they were attracted to a rich ecotone composed of wetlands and deciduous forest groves surrounded by mixed grass prairie. We further propose that Vickers Focus reflects a northerly expression of the late Plains Woodland Tradition, with as yet undetermined linkages to the Plains Village groups who brought sedentary horticultural village life to the eastern Plains.