A. T. Hill
| A. T. Hill | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 29, 1871 Cisne, Illinois |
| Died | March 21, 1953 Los Angeles, California |
| Residence | Nebraska |
| Fields | Archaeology |
| Known for |
Great Plains archaeology; Pawnee archaeology |
| Influenced | Waldo Wedel |
Asa Thomas Hill (November 29, 1871 – March 21, 1953), generally known as A. T. Hill, was an American businessman and archaeologist. His work on sites in and around Nebraska, with such collaborators as William Duncan Strong and Waldo Wedel, was instrumental in the development of Great Plains archaeology.
Hill was born in 1871 in Cisne, Illinois, the oldest of six children of David D. Hill and Angenora Leak Hill. In about 1875, the family moved to Logan in Phillips County, Kansas. After a brief return to Illinois, they settled permanently on a homestead in Phillips County in 1878.
Hill grew up in a sod house. As a child, he was hidden in a straw stack by his mother during the Northern Cheyenne Exodus. On the frontier, schools and teachers were few, and the responsibilities of an oldest son on a dryland farm were many; Hill's formal education ended in the fourth grade.
At the age of 18, Hill left home to ride the rails throughout the western United States. As he travelled, he worked a variety of odd jobs: dishwasher in a mining camp, photographer, portrait painter, and market hunter. In jumping from a moving freight train, he severely injured an ankle; the injury troubled him for the rest of his life.
Hill returned to Logan, where he and his father opened a general store. He married Mayme Rouse of Plainville, Kansas.
In 1806, a party led by Zebulon Pike had visited a Pawnee village on the Republican River shortly after the departure of a much larger Spanish expedition. At the village, Pike had persuaded the Pawnee chief to lower a Spanish flag and to raise that of the United States.
The site of the Pike flag incident was thought to be the Pawnee Indian Village Site near Republic, Kansas. In 1901, the state of Kansas erected a monument on the site; in 1906, a four-day celebration was held to commemorate the centennial of the occurrence.
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