News Humans

Drones find signs of a Native American ‘Great Settlement’ beneath a Kansas pasture

The sprawling town may have been home to thousands before Spanish explorers arrived

drone view of pasture in Kansas

Remote-sensing devices mounted on drones identified a large earthwork beneath the surface of this cattle pasture in Kansas. Researchers suspect the site was once part of one of the largest Native American settlements north of Mexico.

J. Casana

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Specially equipped drones flying over a Kansas cattle ranch have detected the buried remnants of a horseshoe-shaped ditch made more than 400 years ago by ancestors of today’s Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, scientists say.