Late Quaternary Bison Population Changes On The Southern Plains

Abstract

An analysis of faunal lists from 160 archaeological and paleontological sites in the Southern Plains reveals a success of long-term periods of presence and absence of the genus Bison in the region. Two absence periods are from about 6000-5000 B.C. to 2500 B.C. and A.D. 500 to A.D. 1200-1300. These long-term changes seem to indicate a combination of fluctuating bison population densities and range shifts. Certain previously documented prehistoric cultural events in particular subareas ofthe Southern Plains vicinity are examined in light of these data.     

Bison Movement Patterns On The Canadian Plains: An Ecological Analysis

Abstract

The primary object of this study is to determine whether bison movements were seasonal and sufficiently regular to be considered migratory.     

Man and Bison on the Plains in the Protohistoric Period

Abstract

The presence of great herds of buffalo on the Central and Southern High Plains in early historic times may have been a recent phenomenon that discouraged reoccupation of the area by horticultural groups and encouraged proto-Apacheans who were already hunters of large herd animals to move southward. Such a possibility is supported by both archaeological and historical evidence.     

Perry Ranch:A Plainview Bison Kill On the Southern Plains

Abstract

Salvage excavations at the Perry Ranch site in southwestern Oklahoma uncovered the association of Plainview projectile points with an extinct subspecies of bison. A radiocarbon date of 7030 ± 190 B.P. has been obtained from bison bone at the site. However, stratigraphic disturbances limit inferences about the cultural activities at the site.     

Notes on the Weasel in Historic Plains Indian Culture

Abstract

One of the smaller mammals of the Creat Plains is the short-legged, slender-bodied, agile and aggressive weasel. The historic Indian tribes of this region did not eat the weasel, but the northern tribes snared these animals in winter to obtain their handsome white pelts. Winter weasel pelts were coveted items in both intratribal and intertribal trade and were used by many tribes to decorate war bonnets, and the finest men’s shirts and leggings. Whole weasels were sometimes tied to shields as war medicine, and some Siouan tribes carv, ed representations of the weasel at the ends of their wooden war clubs. Among the Plains Indians the association of the weasel with warriors’ clothing and weapons appears to have been derived from their recognition of the fighting qualities of the weasel.     

The Tipi as an Element in the Emergence of Historic Plains Indian Nomadism

Abstract

The general consensus of the tipi as a modification of the circumboreal conical lodge is narrowed down by a suggestion of the tipi’s origin in the northeastern boreal forest, which is supported by evidence of intermediary forms and the early use of the tipi northeast of the Plains.     

Ankylosing Spondylitis (Marie Strumpel Disease)In Historic and Prehistoric Northern Plains Indians

Abstract

Ankylosing spondylitis, a form of chronic, progressive spinalarthritis, occurs in about 0.05% of the population of England today. Sporadic reports of this abnormality have appeared in literature pertaining to paleopathology, but to date there has been little opportunity to identify and study this process in large, well documented populations of all ages and.both sexes. In the study of over 2600 Indian burials from North and South Dakota (at least 1415 of which were over 16years of age at death) representing several periods in time, but primarily of Arikara origin, and showing many representative demonstrations of arthritis, we have observed only one specimen with definite Marie-Strumpel Disease (0.07%). Thisincidence compares closely with that found in modern England (0.05%).     

Driving Bison and Blackfoot Science

Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence of buffalo jumping is concentrated in Blackfoot (Nitsitapi) territory. Although the hardware of buffalo jumps has been documented extensively, little is known of the software, in particular the skills required to drive stampeding herds of bison over long distances to the deadfall, on foot, and often for days. The origins and nature of bison driving knowledge is explored on the basis of ethnohistory as well as Blackfoot chronicles, philosophy, and linguistics, and compared with the findings of recent field studies on the relationships between bison and wolves in the northern Great Plains. Blackfoot explanations of bison driving as knowledge learned from wolves are entirely plausible, and shed light on Blackfoot ecological methodology, as well as the development of human–canid hunting relationships generally.