by John B. Gregg, MD
February 1996

The William H Over Collection at the University of South Dakota comprised skeletons which were heterogeneous in time, culture, and location. It spanned the interval between about A.D. 800 to 1900, and encompassed the Dakota Historic, Arikara, Mandan, Crow, Middle Plains Woodland and the prehistoric Indian cultures. The collection had a common denominator in that it was limited to the cultures and people who inhabited the geographic boundries of South Dakota. The skeletons were mostly incomplete; for many they were represented by one or several bones. Generally the bones were in good repair and complete. However, the archaeological techniques which were in vogue when the collection was made limited their usefulness. The factor restricting their relevance was that the people represented by skeletons were primarily adults, skewing the explanations which could be obtained from them. Considering that only about one third of those born at that time reached adulthood, it would be unusual for so many to have been adults. Therefore, tabulations made from these specimens are tenuous. Results are documented, knowing this inaccuracy, because they help identify the presence, type, and time representation of pathology in the region.

The Over Collection has a long and varied history. Doctor Over started the collection about the turn of the century. The collection techiques used to collect the specimens was less than optimum according to present day methods. His recording of data accumulating from the specimens was quite often wanting. Be that as is may, considering the amonut of data assembled, and the tremendous insight into the people under study, was fantanstic.

But it was not until 1960 that the search for specific pathology began. This was in the form of a study to determine if ear disease existed in the past. Specifically, it was desirable to know whether the disease, otosclerosis (a process wherein the third of the three bones [ossicles] in the middle ear be- comes fixed in the oval window causing hearing loss), could be found in a skel- eton that had been buried for many years. One of the working hypotheses among researchers as to the cause of otosclerosis was that it may have been produced by previous middle ear infections.

In addition it was desirable to learn whether otosclerosis existed in the Indians of South Dakota. No evidence of otosclerosis had been found in ongoing hearing studies performed on the Indians of this state. Also, the question arose as to whether otitis media (middle ear infections) had existed in past Indian people (see TABLE ONE) (5).

This study was made possible by the then Dean of The Medical School, University of South Dakota, Walter Hard. Through funds set aside for research, the film for making radiographs of the mastoids was possible. X Rays of the mastoid were facilitated by Doctor Thomas Eyres who donated the use of the X Ray equipment at the Medical School student infirmary for the study. With the advice and counsel of Doctor Wesley R. Hurt, Jr., Director of the Over Museum, the skeletal specimens were made availiable from the Museum, and the study guided to successful completion. Ann Holzhueter, a student at the Speech and Hearing Clinic did much of the work analyzing the skulls for stapes fixation. For her effort she received the degree Master of Arts in Speech Pathology from the University of South Dakota.

As the bones were processed, increasing pathology, both in the ears and in the skeleton, came to to the investigators’ attention. The original search, to find ear pathology in the Over Collection, was expanded with time, and the scope of investigation was enlarged to include other bones from the Over Collection skeletons.

Through the years the Over Collection was located many places. Originally it was based at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD. It was removed to the Archaeology Center in Sturgis, SD by Doctor Steve Sigsted. Later it was transferred to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, for cataloging. While in Tennessee, Gregg went through the entire collection on three separate occasions, making it highly unlikely that any significant abnormality was missed. The collection was ultimately reburied.

To broaden the data base, skeletal specimens at South Dakota were supplemented by skeletons at the Museum of the Historical Society of North Dakota, and by those from the Missouri River Basin Project of the Smithsonian Institution. The results of these studies are not the subject of this report (2).

No evidence of otosclerosis was found in the temporal bone studies of regional Native Amercans, but otosclerosis was found subsequently by Walter Birkby in a Spaniard who lived in 17 th century Tucson, died, and was buried in the Presidio cemetery (1).

To present these specimens, and to make it possible to compare their pathology with other series of specimens, they were arranged in groups similar to the Crow Creek study which preceded this discussion. The diseases found are considered in the following categories: