‘Warfare on the Northern Plains’ is Sunday Science topic

“Warfare on the Northern Plains: Quantifying the Construction of Community Fortifications at the Molander Site” will be the topic of the Central Colorado Humanists Sunday Science program at 10 a.m. Jan. 5 at A Church, 419 D St.  

Dr. Mark D. Mitchell’s presentation will cover the largescale defensive systems built by Indigenous farmers of what is now North Dakota, what they tell us about warfare of the period and the implications for the communities that built them, a press release stated.

Large-scale warfare in North Dakota of the 1500s necessitated building elaborate defensive systems by farmers to protect their towns. The labor-intensive structures required planning and coordination to complete the many steps of developing deep ditches, log palisades and guard towers. The mid-18th-century Molander sites, a Hidatsa community, offers an opportunity to investigate fortification design and planning and to quantify the construction effort required.

Mitchell is research director for Paleocultural Research Group, a nonprofit that conducts citizen-science research, trains students and educates the public on the archaeology and paleoecology of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Mitchell holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and has more than 35 years of experience in archaeological field and laboratory research. 

His prime research interests are the political and economic development of post-A.D. 1200 farming villages of the Missouri River Valley and American Indian land use in the San Luis Valley and adjacent mountains. He is the author of books, journal articles, book chapters and monographs on the archaeology of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

Central Colorado Humanists sponsor Sunday Science on the first Sunday of each month. Each presentation features a science topic that is understandable by both scientists and nonscientists. 

The doors open at 9:30 a.m. Admission is free, and the public is welcome.