Human Skeletal Populations Of The Northwestern Plains: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract

Preliminary analysis has been completed on samples of American Indian skeletons from three museums in Wyoming, and special collections from Montana, Wyoming, northern Colorado and western Nebraska. All 84 specimens come from burial sites within the Northwestern Plains geographical region, and cover a temporal span of approximately 5,000 years. Fifty-four cranial and postcranial measurements, and 47 morphological observations were recorded for each complete specimen; and means and indices were compared among the various regional and temporal samples. Important temporal changes and a few regional differences are suggested by the preliminary results.