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Battlespace: Applications of Modern Strategic Training Models to the Red River War and Little Bighorn Battlefields
Conference
Published on
15 October 2014
Updated on
12 June 2018
Colloquia
The Archaeology of Violence
International colloquium organized by Inrap and the Museum of Louvre-Lens.
October 2, 3 and 4, 2104 at La Scène du Louvre-Lens
The archaeology of violence: wartime violence, mass violence
by Douglas D. Scott, University of Nebraska
As conflict archaeologists have developed techniques for documenting where and how battles took place, battlefield research has moved from documentation and description of past warfare to behavioral and experience assessment of those who were involved. To understand the actions of combatants, archaeologists need conceptual tools that can explain the physical record of conflict. Battlespace is a conceptual tool that has the potential to aid in that explanation.
As presented in modern military training literature, battlespace is a descriptive term that refers to the environment and landscape conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power to complete a military mission. As a training aid, discussing battlespace sensitizes commanders to the diverse contextual factors that can impact military operations. It also provides a set of terms and categories that describe features of conflicted terrain. As a conceptual means of dealing with conflict battlespace may help archaeologists appreciate the diverse factors that were and may have shaped past conflict situations.
This paper describes the battlespace concept and assesses it as an archaeological model of warfare between Native American Indians and the United States Army in the last half of the nineteenth century. Archaeological investigations at the 1876 Little Bighorn Battle, 1874 Red River War, and the 1875 North Platte River Campaign are used to illustrate the model’s utility to conflict investigation.
As presented in modern military training literature, battlespace is a descriptive term that refers to the environment and landscape conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power to complete a military mission. As a training aid, discussing battlespace sensitizes commanders to the diverse contextual factors that can impact military operations. It also provides a set of terms and categories that describe features of conflicted terrain. As a conceptual means of dealing with conflict battlespace may help archaeologists appreciate the diverse factors that were and may have shaped past conflict situations.
This paper describes the battlespace concept and assesses it as an archaeological model of warfare between Native American Indians and the United States Army in the last half of the nineteenth century. Archaeological investigations at the 1876 Little Bighorn Battle, 1874 Red River War, and the 1875 North Platte River Campaign are used to illustrate the model’s utility to conflict investigation.
Douglas D. Scott, Retired in 2006 from the National Park Service after more than 30 years of with the Department of the Interior, his last position was as Great Plains Team Leader, Park Programs, Midwest Archeological Center Lincoln, Nebraska. He is currently an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at Colorado Mesa University. Dr. Scott received his Ph.D. in 1977 in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has worked throughout the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West on a variety of archeological projects. He specializes in nineteenth century military sites archeology and forensic archeology. He is particularly noted for his expertise in battlefield archeology and firearms identification having worked on more than 40 battlefield sites, including Palo Alto, Sand Creek, Big Hole, Bear Paw, Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, Centralia, and Santiago de Cuba. Dr. Scott was awarded the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award in 2002 for his innovative research in battlefield archeology that started with his work at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. His recent book Uncovering History on the archaeology of the Little Bighorn battle received the 2013 United States Literary Award in the area of Anthropology and Archaeology.
Dr. Scott has also been involved with human rights and forensic investigations since the early 1990s. He has worked with the United Nations and various human rights organizations in El Salvador, Croatia, Rwanda, Cyprus, Iraq, and on an animal welfare case in Canada.
Bibliography:
Dr. Scott has also been involved with human rights and forensic investigations since the early 1990s. He has worked with the United Nations and various human rights organizations in El Salvador, Croatia, Rwanda, Cyprus, Iraq, and on an animal welfare case in Canada.
Bibliography:
- Cruse, J. Brett with contributions by Martha Doty Freeman and Douglas D. Scott (contributor), "Battles of the Red River War: Archaeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874". Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 2005.
- Scott, Douglas D.,"Uncovering History: Archeological Investigations at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument", University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2013.
- Scott, Douglas D. and Andrew J. Mcfeaters, "The Archaeology of Historic Battlefields: A History and Theoretical Development in Conflict Archaeology", in Journal of Archaeological Research 19(1):103-132, 2011.
- Bleed, Peter and Douglas D. Scott, "Context for Conflict: Conceptual Tools for Interpreting Archaeological Reflections of Warfare", in Journal of Conflict Archaeology 6(1):43-45, 2011.
- Scott, Douglas D., Peter Bleed, and Benjamin Bilgri, "Archaeological Investigations of the 1865 Rush Creek Battlefield", 25MO81, Morrill County, Nebraska. Central Plains Archeology 13(1):79-129, 2011.