Conflict, politics, and ideology: Human remains in central Kansas Little River Focus council circles

More than a century after their discovery, archaeologists continue to debate the purpose of structures, known as council circles, found in the Little River focus of central Kansas. Waldo Wedel ([1940a.] Rv2: Ossuary. This is the field notes for the council circle excavations at Tobias in 1940. <i>Waldo R. Wedel and Mildred Mott Wedel Papers</i>, Box 42. National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.) thought they were ossuaries. Later, he suggested solstice registers (Wedel [1967a] The Council Circles of Central Kansas: Were They Solstice Registers? <i>American Antiquity</i> 32:54–63.). Vehik ([2002]. Conflict, Trade, and Political Development on the Southern Plains. <i>American Antiquity</i> 67:37–64; [2022]. Ideology and Political Development: The Little River Focus Council Circles of Central Kansas. In <i>People in a Sea of Grass: Archaeology’s Changing Perspectives on Indigenous Plains Communities</i>, edited by Matthew E. Hill, and Lauren W. Ritterbush, pp. 72–97. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.) proposed they were ritual facilities built as part of a strategy to increase political power, wealth, and authority. Baugh and Blaine ([2017]. Enduring the Violence: Four Centuries of Kirikir’i‧s Warfare. <i>Plains Anthropologist</i> 62(242):99–132.) argued the presence of human bone indicated the facilities were fortifications. Investigated here is the distribution of human bone in council circles and other Little River focus contexts. Also explored are several test implications for their use as fortifications. Results indicate that the council circles were not fortifications, but instead reflect continued attempts to increase power and authority.