STONE TOOLS, POLITICS, AND THE 18TH-CENTURY CHICKASAW IN NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI

The technological analysis of a collection of cores, flakes, unifaces, and bifaces from a Chickasaw site in northeast Mississippi makes it c lear that the lithic industry was substantially reorganized to meet th e functional demands of the early eighteenth-century colonial economy. The focus of this industry was a distinctive, well-made end scraper S imilar tools occur throughout the Midwest during late prehistoric time s and extend into the middle Mississippi River valley during the proto historic. Although the Midwest scrapers are likely a response to the s pread of bison into that region, a study of the distribution of the Ch ickasaw tool kit in time and space suggests that it was used to proces s deer skins, the primary focus of the trade with the French and Engli sh in the Southeast. However stone scrapers are not found on all early eighteenth-century Chickasaw sites. The historical documents suggest that some villages were more successful in their trade relations with the Europeans and were therefore able to replace stone tools with meta l at an earlier date. An examination of the occurrence of stone tools throughout the Southeast during the early historic period indicates th at relative distance to ports of trade was the primary determinant of the rate at which stone-tool technology was abandoned.