Between A.D. 1675-1725 Apache peoples known as the Dismal River Complex (and related to populations in the southwest, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas) developed a semi-sedentary, earthlodge-swelling lifestyle in western Nebraska. Some aspects of the material culture and lifestyle are distinctively southwestern, while other aspects reflect the culture of tribes such as the Pawnee.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lovitt Site is one of the most extensively studied Dismal River sites in the state. Food was obtained primarily by hunting bison, deer, and other game, and was supplemented by growing corn and squash. Artifacts manufactured by village inhabitants, along with trade items of both European and southwestern Native American manufacture, have been found.