The Rocky Mountains, North America

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Au1Bonnie PitbladoDepartment of Sociology, Social Work & AnthropologyUtah State University0730 Old Main HillLogan, UT [email protected]

Keywords: Alpine, Archaic, High country, Hunter-gatherer, Kootenai, Palaeoindian, Protohistoric, Rocky Moun-tains, Shoshone, Ute

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a0005 Geographic Overviews, the Americas(North)/Americas, North: The Rocky Mountains

B L Pitblado, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

Glossary

g0005 archaic As traditionally defined, the period of North Americanprehistory from c. 7500–2000 (dates vary somewhat by region),

when humans continued hunting and gathering, but intensified

and diversified their subsistence base versus the earlier

Palaeoindian period.g0010 forager In this chapter, the term forager is used as a synonym for

‘hunter-gatherer’ (see definition, below). Sometimes this term is

used to refer more specifically to hunter-gatherers with a‘residential’ mobility strategy (a group moves frequently from

camp to camp to camp; rather than establishing a base camp and

sending out task forces to bring resources back to the base, in a

pattern called ‘collecting’). The term forager is usedsynonymously with hunter-gatherer in this chapter because

Rocky Mountain hunter-gatherers used the landscape flexibly,

with the same group potentially ‘foraging’ at one time of year

and ‘collecting’ at another.g0015 hunter-gatherer An adaptive strategy that entails to various

degrees in various settings, the hunting of large and small game,

gathering of vegetable resources, and sometimes fishing. Thislifeway contrasts with a horticultural or agricultural strategy,

which emphasizes cultivation of plants and/or animals and

typically sees reduced mobility.

g0020 mobility A general term for human movement across alandscape. Understanding mobility requires documenting how

far a group moves, but also the particular way in which it utilizes

a landscape. Over the course of a year in the mountains, a group

might simply migrate up and down a mountain, or they mightmove in a large circle around it. A group might camp at a large

base camp for an extended period of time, sending out small

parties to gather resources and return them to camp. Or, an entire

group might move frequently from camp to camp to camp.g0025 Palaeoindian The period of North American prehistory from c.

11 500 to 7500 (dates vary somewhat by region), when humans

lived alongside now-extinct forms of megafauna, includingmammoth, mastodon, camel, and after about 11 000 years ago,

giant bison.

s0005 Introduction

p0005 Within the context of the American West that encom-passes them, the Rocky Mountains are unique. Thestructure of the Rocky Mountain landscape, patternsof human use over the past 11 000 years, even thehistory of archaeological inquiry – all of these distin-guish the Rocky Mountains from their archaeologi-cally better-known neighbors: the grasslands of theColumbia Plateau and Great Plains (seeAmericas,North - Plains (00123)) and the deserts of the GreatBasin (see Great Basin (00430)) and Colorado

Plateau (see Americas, North: Southwest and Color-ado Plateau (00292)).

p0010In a way that the lowland Far West and GreatPlains by definition do not and cannot, the RockyMountains encompass tremendous environmentalvariability in a highly compressed physical space – astructural difference with important implications forprehistoric human use of these dynamic settings. Forexample, whereas Plains residents throughout 11 000years of prehistory organized their subsistence andland-use strategies around the hunting of largegrazing mammals (see Americas, North - Plains(00123)) on a flat landscape (and sometimes in theadjacent mountains), Rocky Mountain-based hunter-gatherers always exploited a highly varied faunal andfloral resource base and moved extremely flexibly up,down, and around the mountain landscape. Agricul-ture, which revolutionized prehistoric subsistenceand mobility on the Colorado Plateau and played acrucial role in parts of the Great Basin and alongsome Plains river systems, was never adopted to anysignificant degree by prehistoric Rocky Mountainhunter-gatherers, and thus rarely if ever influencedtheir decisions about when and where to move.

p0015As for archaeological research itself, the Rockieshave only recently been subjected to intensive inves-tigations. The first systematic archaeological researchin the western United States focused on Southwesternagricultural sites and began well over a century ago(see Americas, North: Southwest and Colorado Pla-teau (00292)). Plains archaeology likewise registers along history of inquiry, with classic Palaeoindian siteslike Folsom and Clovis documenting by 1927 that thefirst Americans lived alongside now-extinct ice-ageanimals (see Americas, North - Plains (00123)). Theremarkable preservation of textiles, subsistence de-bris, and even ancient human remains in dry cavesof the Great Basin have for many decades lured pro-fessional archaeologists to work in that setting aswell (see Great Basin (00430)).

p0020The Rocky Mountains, on the other hand, weretraditionally viewed by archaeologists as marginalto a broad-scale understanding of the prehistory ofwestern North America, a point punctuated by thedates of the first archaeological conferences focus-ing on subregions of the west. The first ‘Pecos

AU2,3

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Conference’, an informal gathering of Southwesternarchaeologists, was held in 1927; the first PlainsAnthropological Society meeting in 1931; and thefirst Great Basin Anthropological Conference in1954. Rocky Mountain archaeologists, however,had to wait until 1993 to attend the first-ever RockyMountain Anthropological Conference in Jackson,Wyoming.

p0025 The overarching goal of this contribution is tosummarize what archaeologists have learned notjust since 1993, when the subdiscipline could finallysustain its own conference, but from the earliest ink-lings that the Rocky Mountains may have been moreto prehistoric people than a snow-capped backdropto daily lowland activities and an impediment totravel. The chapter first introduces the Rocky Moun-tain region and environment, and then discusses ele-ments that make the archaeological record of theRocky Mountains unique: its prehistoric chronologyand general observations about land use through time(seeHunter-Gatherers, Ancient (Foragers and Collec-tors) (00154)); and site types and the many reasonswhy the prehistoric people used the Rocky Mountainlandscape.

s0010 Defining the Rocky Mountains andTheir Environments

p0030 Geologically speaking, the Rockies are young land-forms, having emerged about 65 000 000 years agowhen colliding continental plates drained an inlandCretaceous sea and uplifted the earth to elevationsexceeding 4000 m above sea level (m asl). Volcanicactivity, some in the ancient past and some morerecent, has further shaped the Rocky Mountainlandscape. Streams carved and continue to carvedrainages that originate at the Continental Divide –the backbone of the Rockies – and carry rainfall andsnowmelt east to the Atlantic Ocean or west to thePacific. During the Pleistocene (Ice Age), 1.8 millionto 11 000 years ago (see Glaciation and Ice Ages(00120)), powerful mountain glaciers sculptedcraggy Rocky Mountain peaks and gouged out giantU-shaped montane valleys, putting the finishingtouches on a dynamic and rugged landscape.

p0035 Extending approximately 4800 km (3000 miles)from Alberta and British Columbia south to north-ern New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains encompasslarge portions of eastern Idaho, western Montana,central and western Wyoming, and central Colorado(Figure 1). The highest individual Rocky Mountainpeaks are located in Colorado, with 4401m (14 440 ft)asl Mount Elbert the highest of all. Elevations ofpeaks at northern latitudes are more modest in abso-lute terms than those located farther south. In the

Canadian Rockies, for example, the highest mountainis 3954 m (12,972 ft) asl Mount Robinson, 447 m(nearly 1500 ft) lower than Mount Elbert.

p0040When most people conjure an image of the RockyMountains, they envision the jagged, snowcappedpeaks of the towering giants that inspired innumera-ble pioneer stories, paintings, and songs (Figure 2).This pervasive, imposing image may be the singlemost important reason why it took archaeologistsso long to recognize that the Rockies were a viablehome for prehistoric people and a viable region forinvestigation. With a few notable exceptions, such asDenver University archaeologist E.B. Renaud, whoconducted surveys in the Southern Rockies in theearly 1930s, most early archaeologists implicitlyand sometimes explicitly concluded that a region sorugged and treacherous could not have supportedprehistoric human occupations. Their turn-of-the-century mindset was not equipped to reconcile thata region that claimed the lives of westward-boundEuropean-American settlers, could have sustainedsubstantive, even year-round occupations byindigenous Americans.

p0045Archaeologists have since recognized, however,that the very ruggedness – the steep vertical rise –that inspires and intimidates, also translates to a di-verse resource base for a host of plants and animals –including humans. Ascending Mount Elbert (or anyother Rocky Mountain peak) reveals ever-changingecological communities as one traverses the moun-tain’s flanks to its summit. Table 1 lists the environ-mental zones of the Rocky Mountains, their elevationranges, and a few examples of the literally thousandsof species of flora and fauna that occupy them.Figure 3 illustrates these data visually, with iconsrepresenting the plants, animals, and other resourcesrelevant to human survival (e.g., sources of rawmaterial for chipped stone tool and groundstoneproduction) of the major Rocky Mountain life zones.

s0015The Rocky Mountain ArchaeologicalRecord

p0050Having provided a sense for the unique physiographicand environmental properties of North AmericasRocky Mountains, we turn now to archaeologists’current understanding of when, how, and why prehis-toric people occupied them.

s0020Prehistoric Chronology and Land Use

p0055Archaeologists have known since the 1960s, whenNational Park Service Archaeologist Wilfred Hustedfirst proposed the theory, that humans have occupiedthe Rocky Mountains on a sustained basis for at least10 000 years – nearly as long as people are known to

2 Geographic Overviews, the Americas (North)/Americas, North: The Rocky Mountains

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f0010 Figure 2 Rocky Mountain grandeur: The sort of imposing vista that convinced early archaeologists that throughout prehistory, the

mountains were more a backdrop to the life of grassland and desert people than a viable region to make a living.

0 70 140RockyMountains

Cartography by T. Grim May 2006

280 420 560Kilometers

NM

N

AZ

UT

San JaunMtns

Denver

Front Range

Sangre de C

risto Ra.

Cheyenne

NE

Casper

Bighorn Mtns

Wind River Mtns WY

Billings

MT

ID

Boise

OR

NV

Helena

Spokane

WA

Snak

e

Columbia Range

Flathead

Bitterroot

North Platte

SD

CO

Santa Fe

CA

Colorado

Salt Lake City Uinta Mtns

Wasatch M

tns

Teton R

angeG

reen

Kings

f0005 Figure 1 Map showing the location of the Rocky Mountains.


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t0005 Table 1 Environmental zones and characteristic resources of the Rocky Mountains

Zone Elevationa Florab Fauna OTHER RESOURCES

RELEVANT TO HUMANS

Foothills 1500–2400 m Pinon pine, juniper,

oak, prickly pear,

thistle, blue grama,

milk vetch

Mule deer, rabbit, coyote, fox, fowl,

lizard, snake

Rock outcrops forming overhangs

for shelter; sandstone for

grinding tools

5000–7900 ft

Montane 2400–2900 m Ponderosa,

lodgepole, and

limber pine,

Douglas fir, aspen,

strawberry,

blueberry,

gooseberry,

dandelion

Moose, elk, mule deer, black bear,

bobcat, marmot, porcupine, fowl

Outcrops of chert, quartzite (and

occasionally obsidian) to quarry

for stone to make tools

7900–9500 ft

Parks 1800–3000 m Grasses (including

edible ricegrass),

shrubs, bistort, wild

plum and rose,

sego lily,

chokecherry

Often dense herds of bison and

pronghorn, elk, mule deer, rabbit,

rodent, game and other birds

Chert and quartzite outcrops and

cobble sources to quarry for

stone to make tools

6000–10000 ft

Subalpine 2900–3500 m Engelmann spruce,

aspen, bristlecone

pine, glacier lily,

elderberry

Elk, bighorn, mountain goat, mule

deer, black bear, lynx, weasel,

hare, rodentc

Respite from scorching heat of

lowland summer9500–11500 ft

Alpine >3500 m Mosses, alpine

anemone, dwarf

clover, scarlet

paintbrush

Elk, bighorn, mountain goat, mule

deer, marmot, weasel, pika,

ptarmigan

Passage across the continental

divide>11500 ft

Riparian

(Streams,

Lakes,

etc.)

All elevations

and zones

Water birch,

cottonwood,

mountain alder,

willow, cattail

Beaver, fish, swan, goose, duck, frog,

toad

By definition, water; stream

cobbles to quarry for stone to

make tools

aElevations are approximations, and those given are more typical for the Southern (higher) Rockies. The same life zones and resources

characterize peaks at more northerly latitudes, but they occur at somewhat lower absolute elevations.bThousands of plants and animals occupy the various life zones of the Rocky Mountains. A very few characteristic examples are listed in

this table.cMost of the larger species are seasonal (summer – early fall) residents of the high country; smaller species survive the winter by

hibernating.

f0015 Figure 3 Schematic diagram representing the variability in Rocky Mountain resources by environmental zone. Table 1 complements

this figure, listing approximate elevations of Rocky Mountain environmental zones, as well as typical flora, fauna, and other resources

(relevant to prehistoric humans) of each zone.


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have occupied North America generally. The firstarchaeologically recognizable North American cul-ture, Clovis (see Peopling of the New World(00243)), penetrated the Rockies, but left only alight signature of their tenure, 11 500–10 800 radio-carbon years before present (see Carbon-14 Dating(00044)). Clovis spear points have been recovered asisolated surface finds throughout the Rocky Moun-tains, but Rocky Mountain Clovis sites are limited innumber, type, size, and elevation (they are particular-ly rare in the subalpine and alpine zones, probablybecause some – though not all – Rocky Mountainpeaks were still glacier-covered during the latestPleistocene).

p0060 By subsequent Folsom time, 10 800–10 200 radio-carbon years before present, evidence suggests thatPalaeo-Americans had started to move into the RockyMountains on a more sustained basis. Though manyarchaeologists associate them intimately with theHigh Plains, Folsom people and their contemporariesfrequently hunted bison in large Rocky Mountainparks (e.g., Figure 4), including Colorado’s MiddlePark, San Luis Valley, and Gunnison Basin. A few oftheir kills occurred during the winter months, sug-gesting that some of these early occupants may haveutilized the Rocky Mountains on a year-round basis.Folsom folk also occasionally camped in rocksheltersin the Bighorn Mountains of northern Wyoming, andin open foothills settings farther north, in the ElkhornMountains of west-central Montana.

p0065 If there is any doubt as to whether or not someFolsom bison hunters utilized the Rockies on a year-round basis, there is no doubt that after Folsom time,prehistoric groups moved into this niche and neverlooked back. A few residential sites,most exceptionally

two large rockshelters in the foothills of northwesternWyoming – Mummy Cave in the Absaroka RangeandMedicine LodgeCreek in the BighornMountains –show human occupation beginning in the very earlyHolocene and continuing through the recent historicpast. Such deeply stratified, continuously used siteshave played an immeasurably important role in char-acterizing 10 000 years of human use of the RockyMountains.

p0070From approximately 10 000–7 500 radiocarbonyears before present, Palaeoindians utilized all envi-ronmental zones of the Rocky Mountains, exploitedlocal Rocky Mountain stone raw materials, andmanufactured spear points that differed from thoseof their contemporaries living either on the Plainsto the east or in the Far West. In addition to hostingwhat seminal Central Plains and Rocky Mountainarchaeologist George C. Frison has termed ‘Foothill-Mountain’ groups (year-round late Palaeoindian re-sidents), the Rockies were also used seasonally bylowland late Palaeoindian people needing orwanting such resources as chipped stone and ground-stone raw material, vegetable and nut crops (notablypinon) that grow only in the mountains, and largegame (perhaps because it is more pleasant to huntbighorn by a columbine-ringed alpine lake thanbison by a desiccated Plains playa in August). Archae-ologists lack sufficient numbers of sites to offerwell-substantiated models for how late Palaeoin-dians moved around the mountain landscape, butavailable evidence suggests that like subsequent Ar-chaic hunter-gatherers, late Paleoindians organizedtheir mobility strategies according to seasonal con-straints and resource needs of both the short andlong term.

f0020 Figure 4 High altitude (c. 3100 m (10 170 ft) asl) mountain meadow – reasonably considered a park – in the Upper Rio Grande Basin of

southern Colorado. This photograph was taken from the Black Mountain Folsom site, a hunting camp nestled today at the fringes of

subalpine forest. Margaret Jodry excavated the site in the 1990s.


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p0075 The Archaic era is, throughout North America,traditionally defined as the period of prehistory ush-ered in by an intensification and diversification ofresource use by hunter-gatherers as the last of themegafauna went extinct; and ushered out whengroups adopted agriculture. Neither of these definingphenomena was particularly noteworthy in theRocky Mountains. Earlier mountain-based, post-Folsom Palaeoindians used the same broad spectrumof plant and animal resources that later Archaic peo-ple did, and RockyMountain residents never adoptedagriculture to an appreciable degree. Nonetheless,because the term ‘Archaic’ is so ensconced in theNorth American archaeological literature, RockyMountain archaeologists use the term, but view it asa chronological designation (for the period c. 7500–2000 radiocarbon years before present), rather thanas a label for a unique adaptive posture.

p0080 During the Rocky Mountain Archaic, hunter-gatherers left behind increasingly obvious signaturesof a year-round presence on the landscape. Numerousfoothills-zone rockshelters with long histories of oc-cupation, and a significant number of subterraneanhouse structures – often located in parkland settingsand some reflecting winter occupation – representresidential mountain base camps. Palaeoclimatic re-search at Rocky Mountain localities from Canada toNewMexico indicates that environmental conditionsfluctuated over the course of the Archaic. Changingenvironmental conditions engendered concomitantshifts in land-use strategies of Rocky Mountainhunter-gatherers. For example, winter residences inmountain parks are more commonly associated withintervals of warmer or more equable temperatures,whereas foothills rockshelters were preferred winterbase camps during colder spells. Under all environ-mental conditions, site types, sizes, and distributionssuggest that mountain-adapted, Archaic foragers uti-lized the landscape flexibly, sometimes foraging logis-tically from residential base camps for up to a seasonat a time and at other times moving residentially fromcampsite to campsite (see Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient(Foragers and Collectors) (00154)).

p0085 Archaeologists refer to the period immediately fol-lowing the Archaic as the Formative or Late Prehis-toric; and to the period following that as theProtohistoric. The term Formative connotes theadoption of corn agriculture and is misleading wheninvoked to label Rocky Mountain people who onlyrarely cultivated plant species of any kind (althoughsome mountain archaeologists still use it). In anyevent, the terms Formative and Late Prehistoric bothrefer to post-Archaic residents who lived alongsideothers, such as the Hisatsinom (Anasazi) and Fre-mont, who did engage in agriculture or horticulture

(and who in some cases – notably the Fremont – usedthe Rockies occasionally or regularly); and prior tothe arrival of the first Europeans in North America.

p0090Once Europeans began recording their encounterswith indigenous cultures of North America, includingin the Rockies, archaeologists refer to the period asthe Protohistoric. Throughout the Formative/LatePrehistoric and the Protohistoric, Rocky Mountainresidents continued flexibly exploiting a diversity ofplant and animal resources. The major change forthem – as for so many Native Americans – camewith the adoption of European-introduced horses(see Historical Archaeology in the United States(00145)) in the 1700s. The horse not only permittedmountain-dwellers who embraced it to use theirland differently—typically much more expansively –but also for theretofore pedestrian-based tribes fromadjacent regions to penetrate the Rockies either forthe first time or to a greater extent than they hadpreviously. Adoption of the horse caused such pro-found changes in the fabrics of mounted societies thattrying to glean insights into settlement patterns ofpedestrian Rocky Mountain foragers from later,mounted counterparts – even of the same ethnicity –is problematic at best.

p0095On the other hand, early European explorers whoentered the Rocky Mountains for various reasons(passage west, trapping, prospecting, ethnographicinterest), encountered Rocky Mountain populationsthat either never embraced the horse (as in the case ofthe Toyani, a Shoshone band of the Middle Rockies)or whose members could recall how the group made aliving prior to the adoption of the horse (as in the caseof many Ute bands of the Southern Rocky Mountainsand the Kootenai of the Northern Rockies). Suchaccounts provide concrete evidence for how somegroups of Rocky Mountain hunter-gatherers occu-pied the mountain landscape. They demonstrate thatdifferent bands – and even the same bands in differentyears – utilized Rocky Mountain resources in an ex-tremely flexible and local-resource-dependent fash-ion. First Nations in the Rockies and beyond oftenrendezvoused to nurture social ties and exchangeresources, but they also frequently fragmented intogroups of small sizes and varying age and gendercompositions, to take advantage of mountainresources available at different times of year and indiscrete places.

p0100Even before indigenous people of the RockyMoun-tains and elsewhere adopted horses, some bands ofthe Shoshone and Ute used the Rockies on a seasonalbasis, spending other parts of the year hunting bisonon the Plains, or hunting and gathering in the FarWest. Such groups interacted regularly with moun-tain-based bands, in some cases visiting the Rocky


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Mountains expressly for this purpose. This historical-ly documented flexibility in resource use, settlementstrategy, and group membership by populationsbased in the mountains year-round and their contem-poraries (often relatives) based elsewhere but usingthe mountains on a seasonal or occasional basis ishighly consistent with the archaeological evidence ofhuman use of the Rocky Mountains for 10 000-plusyears.

s0025 Predominant Rocky Mountain Site Types

p0105 Having summarized who occupied the Rocky Moun-tains during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene anddiscussed how hunter-gatherers used the mountainlandscape for over ten millennia, it remains to relatecommon archaeological site types of the RockyMountains, and to discuss how they pertain to theabove chronology.

p0110 As a result of their geologic history, the RockyMountains are rich in accessible tool stone (e.g.,Figure 5). Sandstone, chert, and quartzite representuplifted sedimentary (sometimes metamorphosed)sea beds. Obsidian deposits resulted from volcanicflows in the Rockies of Northern New Mexico, Yel-lowstone National Park, and Southern Idaho. Whenprehistoric people found and used primary (outcrop)or secondary (e.g., stream-cobble) deposits of any ofthese rock types, the resultant site is called a quarry.Macroscopic, petrographic, and geochemical finger-printing of artifacts made of various stone types haspermitted archaeologists to trace the movement ofground stone (typically sandstone or basalt) andchipped stone (usually chert, quartzite or obsidian)tools within the Rockies and in some cases, well

beyond their borders (see Lithic Analysis, Chemical(Obsidian, Flint, Chert) (00172) and see (00267)).

p0115Documenting at Rocky Mountain sites the use ofstone that occurs naturally only in that region hasbolstered the argument that some prehistoric groupsused the Rockies on a year-round basis (the presenceof stone that originated elsewhere would weakensuch an argument). On the other hand, documentingthe presence of RockyMountain stone at sites outsidethe Rockies – as commonly occurs – reveals the im-portance of Rocky Mountain raw material to otherswho visited the Rockies to obtain the stone them-selves, or traded to get it. An extreme example illus-trating the value placed on some Rocky Mountainstone comes from Midwestern Moundbuilder sites,where Yellowstone obsidian has been recovered asfar east as the Hopewell heartland (see Americas,North: Eastern Woodlands of the United States andCanada (00124)).

p0120The uplifted sandstones (and sometimes other rocktypes) common in many Rocky Mountain foothillssettings were not only quarried for the manufactureof groundstone tools, they also form natural over-hangs that prehistoric people used for shelter – some-times for extended periods of time, and often inwinter. Only the earliest Clovis people appear not tohave availed themselves of the natural protectionafforded by textured geological formations of theRockies. From Folsom time on (although perhapsonly occasionally in Folsom time), archaeologicalrock shelters from the Northern to Southern Rockiesserved residential functions for mountain-basedhunter-gatherers. Many such sites, including MummyCave andMedicine LodgeCreek (Figure 6), mentioned

f0025 Figure 5 Primary outcrop of high-quality Windy Ridge quartzite. The Windy Ridge quartzite quarry is located about 10 km from Rabbit

Ears Pass in the Gore Range of northern Colorado. The quarry extends to elevations as high as 3050 m (10,000 ft) asl. Diagnostic

artifacts of this raw material span 11 000 years of prehistory, indicating the quarry was long-known and long-used.


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previously, enjoy better preservation conditions thanopen sites, and have afforded archaeologists glimpsesof sometimes numerous storage pits – which can indi-cate both long-term and winter-season occupation –as well as plant and animal remains that can and haverevealed season(s)-of-use of the sites.

p0125 Although prehistoric mountain residents oftenmitigated difficult winter conditions by seeking outnaturally sheltered long-term residential camps, theyalso frequently camped in open settings throughoutall the environmental zones of the Rocky Mountains.Sometimes these camps, like rock shelters, were usedover the longer term; sometimes, the occupationswere ephemeral. Camps occupied for longer periodsof time and/or in winter show greater architecturalinvestment than those used for the short term orduring milder times of year. At the high-investmentend of the spectrum, for example, the central-ColoradoYarmony site was occupied repeatedly between 7000radiocarbon years before present and the Late Pre-historic period and includes two 6500–6000 year-old pit houses. One of the pit houses is associatedwith the burial of a 60 year-old woman, and bothpit houses and the burial represent winter base campactivities.

p0130 The Rockies contain a plethora of other prehistorichouse styles as well, including particularly commonbasin structures, which represent a lower labor in-vestment than deeply excavated pit houses. And, themountains are home to many thousand short-termcamp sites, where hunter-gatherers rested for a matterof days and either did not build shelters at all, or builtshelters so ephemeral that they do not register in thearchaeological record. Ethnographically documented

wickiups, brush structures used by recent indigenousforagers of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains,are examples of structures with little chance of beingpreserved in open mountain settings for more than 50years, much less for several thousand. However, theywere probably as commonly used throughout RockyMountain prehistory as nylon pup-tents are usedtoday by Rocky Mountain backpackers.

p0135A vital source of sustenance for year-round andseasonal Rocky Mountains residents from 11 000radiocarbon years before present through the Pro-tohistoric period were the region’s large mammals.Full-time residents hunted species like mule deer,pronghorn, elk, moose, bison, and bighorn in allzones ranging from the foothills through the treelessalpine. Seasonal residents from adjacent grasslandsand deserts may have taken particular advantage ofthe pleasant conditions of the Rocky Mountain highcountry in summer and early fall to hunt elk andbighorn, and/or of dense congregations of large gra-zers in mountain parks and foothills in the wintermonths. How mountain hunters harvested their preydepending on the target species, environmental struc-ture, and season, but a site type common in theRockies – though highly varied in form – is thegame drive. One of the most efficient ways to obtainlarge quantities of meat at once, without horses, gamedrives assume a variety of forms ranging from longstone walls above timberline to wooden fences withcorral catch-pens at their terminus in lower zones.Many drives have associated hunting blinds made ofstone or brush (the latter must often be inferred forlack of preservation), where members of the huntingparty positioned themselves to nudge the animals

f0030 Figure 6 The Medicine Lodge Creek site, located in the foothills of the Absaroka Range, northwestern Wyoming. Note the natural

overhang produced by the sandstone outcrops characteristic of many foothill regions throughout the Rocky Mountains. Prehistoric people

used Medicine Lodge Creek and other rockshelters in the vicinity repeatedly for 10 000 years.


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along a drive system or dispatch them (Figure 7).Rocky Mountain archaeologists Jim Benedict andSteve Cassells have meticulously documented manyalpine game drives in the Colorado Front Range,demonstrating how intricate and extensive suchsystems can be.

p0140 When archaeologists encounter a game blind at ahigh elevation with panoramic views, they must con-sider the possibility that the feature truly representsthat economic function, and is not, instead, the site ofa vision quest. Even today, many Native Americansview particular loci, and sometimes whole RockyMountain landscapes, as sacred places. From anarchaeological perspective, vision quest sites takemany forms, and are sometimes identified as muchby what is not present at the site as by what is present.Vision quest sites are typically located in high, remoteplaces with commanding views. When present, arti-facts tend not to represent the mundane debris ofeveryday life (as one might see at a short-termcamp site), but are likely instead to be special objects,such as complete pottery vessels or never-launchedprojectile points. Many vision quest sites show evi-dence for prehistoric use, sometimes over long timeframes. Some show use by contemporary FirstNations people.

s0030 Conclusion

p0145 This chapter has provided a flavor for the prehistoryof the Rocky Mountains, both in terms of the archae-ological record that prehistoric people left behind andthe lifestyles they led. A key theme of the chapter hasbeen flexibility. From the time people first occupied

the Rocky Mountains over 10 000 years ago, theyhave taken full advantage of the suite of subsistenceresources available on a vertically oriented landscapeand of the many potentially successful land-useoptions available for exploiting those resources atany given moment.

p0150Archaeological evidence suggests that from thedawn of human use of the Rockies, some groupschose to live there full-time, occupying all environ-mental zones (though not always in the same wayfrom culture to culture, or even from year to year).Evidence also suggests that again, even during theearliest period of use, other groups viewed theRockies as a seasonal retreat from the grasslands tothe east or arid lands to the west. This pattern ofmultiple-use continued throughout the Archaic, For-mative/Late Prehistoric, and Protohistoric periods,culminating in historic and ethnographic accountsof Shoshone, Ute, and other indigenous mountaingroups that mesh neatly with reconstructions of pre-historic land use.

p0155Reasons why prehistoric people used the Rockieswere as varied as the environmental zones that morphso dramatically with elevation and latitude. For some,the Rocky Mountains were home-sweet-home,meeting every conceivable human need during everyseason of the year. For others, the Rockies were aplace to temporarily rendezvous with friends andfamily, escape the heat of a Plains or Great Basinsummer, hunt bighorn or elk via communal gamedrives or bison in mountain parks, procure raw mate-rials for making chipped stone and groundstone tools,harvest pinon or other pine nuts to store for winterconsumption back at a Far Western residential base,

f0035 Figure 7 A game blind associated with an alpine game drive system in the Devil’s Thumb Pass area of the Indian Peaks Wilderness,

west of Boulder, Colorado. This blind, like the many others associated with game drives in the vicinity, provided cover for hunters waiting to

ambush elk and bighorn sheep. Sites associated with Devil’s Thumb game drives have been dated to older than 9000 radiocarbon years

before present through the recent past.


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or pay homage to the spirits who dwelt there. In fact,as any resident of Jackson, Wyoming or any Plains, orFar Western travel agent will attest, although thedetails may have changed a bit, the mountains con-tinue to play a vital and dynamic role in the lives ofcontemporary westerners who rely on them foreconomic, social, and spiritual fulfillment.

See also: Americas, North - Desert Southwest, Border-

lands and Northern Mexico (00076); Americas, North -

Plains (00123); Americas, North: Eastern Woodlands of

the United States and Canada (00124); Historical Archae-

ology in the United States (00145); Americas, North:

Plantation Archaeology (00248); Americas, North: South-

west and Colorado Plateau (00292); Americas, North:

Sub-arctic (00396); Americas, North: Northwest Coast

(00397); Americas, North: Rocky Mountains (00398).

Further Reading

Cassells ES (1997) The Archaeology of Colorado, 2nd edn.

Boulder: Johnson Books.

Frison GC (1991) Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains, 2nd edn.

San Diego: Academic Press.Husted WM and Edgar R (2002) National Park Service, Midwest

Archaeological Center and Southeast Archaeological Center,Special Report No. 4, Technical Report Series No. 9: The Ar-chaeology of Mummy Cave, Wyoming: An Introduction toShoshonean Prehistory. Lincoln: National Park Service.

Janetski JC (2002) Indians in Yellowstone National Park. Salt LakeCity: University of Utah Press.

Madsen DB and Metcalf MD (eds.) (2000) University of UtahAnthropological Papers 122: Intermountain Archaeology. SaltLake City: University of Utah Press.

Pitblado BL (2003) Late Paleoindian Occupation of the SouthernRocky Mountains. Niwot: University Press of Colorado.

Stanford DJ and Day JS (eds.) (1992) Ice Age Hunters of theRockies. Niwot: University Press of Colorado.


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