Between about 1100 and 1400 AD, central and eastern Kansas and Nebraska were
inhabited by groups of people who archaeologists 
know
collectively as the Central Plains tradition (CPt). The CPt way of life was
characterized by small groups of people (probably extended family units) living
in small hamlets of two to three mud and thatch lodges located along the blufftops
of major waterways. These hamlet sites were occupied during most of the year
and small plots of corn, chenopodium, amaranthus, sunflower,
gourds, and other cultigens were maintained. This was not a totally sedentary
way of life, however, and the evidence we have points to great reliance on
wild plant and animal resources for subsistence. There is little evidence
for social hierarchy or intergroup conflict and the ties binding the groups
that we recognize together were probably based on marriage networks, hunting
alliances, extended kinship ties, and economic relations.
Meanwhile in the St. Louis area the great chiefdom of Cahokia was going through its cycle of rise and fall. Unlike the humble CPt people, the Mississippian people of the American Bottom lived in villages centered around the great metropolitan center of Cahokia. Large burial and temple mounds characterize Cahokia and evidence for high levels of social inequality exist everywhere from vast differences in placement and size of dwellings to the great burial of Mound 72 to the sheer volume of labor mobilization that was required to build Monk's Mound (28.1 meters / 92.2 feet tall), the central mound towering over modern I-70. The hasty construction of palisades around the central plaza in the Cahokia's later days suggests the presence of conflict with other groups or with factions living at Cahokia's periphery. The leaders of Mississippian society drew much of their power from mythical genealogies that connected them to the sun and other supernatural beings. Economically the elaborate network of subchiefs and administrators was supported by trade in exotic materials such as obsidian, copper, and mica and in prestige objects such as earspools and gorgets. Pots were made of shell-tempered clay and decorated with icons of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex including icons of the sun, bird spirits, and warfare.
These two seemingly unrelated societies maintained some level of contact throughout the entire period in question. At the intersection of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska, but centered in northeast Kansas we find evidence for two unusual archaeological cultures. The Steed-Kisker and Nebraska phases of the CPt are located in this area and show so much influence from Cahokia that Steed-Kisker is often listed as a Plains variant of the Mississippian. Steed-Kisker ceramic assemblages, unlike any other CPt group, are characterized by shell-tempered pottery decorated with imagery of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Few residential structures have been located at Steed-Kisker sites, but at least one in the wall-trench style (again characteristic of Mississippian patterns) has been recorded. It is also argued by some that SK burial patterns structurally resemble the elaborate mound burials of Cahokia. Clearly there was some kind of contact between SK and Cahokia that included exchange of materials and ideas. There is absolutely no evidence, however, for any adoption of social hierarchy or inequality among the SK people, and so archaeologists have debated the nature and affiliation of SK since its original description in the 1940s.
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