Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:58:32.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Buffalo Pound in North-Western Plains Prehistory: Site 48 CA 302, Wyoming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

George C. Frison
George C. Frison*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Ruby site, 48 CA 302, in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, is a buffalo pound dating to late Middle Period with a radiocarbon age of 1670± 135 years: A.D. 280 GX-1157). The site was contained in steadily aggrading alluvial deposits allowing close stratigraphic control. Features included most of a buffalo pound, part of the drive lane, and an associated ceremonial structure.

An attempt to explain the operation of this pound is based on historical accounts for various north-western Plains tribes and on problems of buffalo handling encountered with modern herds, allowing for changes brought about by the introduction of the horse. The ceremonial structure is explained in the context of shamanistic activity occurring with communal hunts in ethnographic and historical accounts. Archaeological data from the same area and time period suggest this pound is a variant of other communal buffalo procurement methods, including buffalo jumps, that occurred yearly to provide food for winter use and that required consolidation of the society into larger groups than could effectively exploit the environment during the remainder of the year.

A large segment of the meat processing area remains intact and will eventually be used in an attempt to test hypotheses concerning butchering methods, tool use, and nature of social groups involved.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 77 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1971

References

Bentzen, Raymond C. 1962 The Mavrakis-Bentzen-Roberts bison trap, 48 SH 311. Report of the Sheridan Chapter, Wyoming Archaeological Society.Google Scholar
Chittenden, Hiram M., and Richardson, Alfred T. 1905 Life, letters and travels of Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, S. J. 1801–1873, Vol. 3. Francis P. Harper Google Scholar
Coues, Elliott, editor 1897 New light on the early history of the greater northwest, Vol. 2. Francis P. Harper.Google Scholar
Ewers, John C. 1949 The last bison drives of the Blackfoot Indians. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 39:355–360.Google Scholar
Ewers, John C. 1955 The horse in Blackfoot Indian culture, Vol. 2. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 159.Google Scholar
Flannery, Regina 1953 The Gros Ventres of Montana. Catholic University of America Anthropological Series, No. 15.Google Scholar
Fletcher, Alice C, and La Flesche, Francis 1906 The Omaha tribe. Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report No. 27.Google Scholar
Forbis, Richard G. 1960 The old women’s buffalo jump, Alberta. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 180, Pt. 1:56–123.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1967a Archaeological evidence of the Crow Indians in Northern Wyoming: a study of a Late Prehistoric period buffalo economy. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1967b The Piney Creek sites, Wyoming. University of Wyoming Publications, Vol. 33, No. 1.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1968a A functional analysis of certain chipped stone tools. American Antiquity 33:149–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, George C. 1968b Site 48 SH 312: an early Middle Period bison kill in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 13:31–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, George C. 1970 The Kobold site, 24BH406: a post-altithermal record of buffalo jumping for the northwestern Plains. Plains Anthropologist 15:1–35.Google Scholar
Garretson, Martin S. 1938 The American bison. New York Zoological Society.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Melvin R. 1924 Old Assiniboine buffalo-drive in North Dakota. Indian Notes 1:204–211.Google Scholar
Grinnell, George B. 1892 Blackfoot Lodge Tales.Google Scholar
Grinnell, George B. 1961 Pawnee, Blackfoot and Cheyenne. Charles Scribners Sons.Google Scholar
Henry, Alexander 1809 Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the years 1760–1776. I. Riley.Google Scholar
Hind, Henry Youle 1860 Narrative of the Canadian Red River exploring expedition of 1857.Google Scholar
Hornaday, William T. 1887 The extermination of the American bison. Smithsonian Report U. S. National Museum, Pt. 2:367–548.Google Scholar
Jenness, Diamond 1938 The Sarcee Indians of Alberta. National Museum of Canada, Bulletin No. 90.Google Scholar
Kehoe, Thomas F. 1967 The Boarding School Bison Drive site. Memoir 4, Plains Anthropologist.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, David G. 1940 The Plains Cree. Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History 37:155–316.Google Scholar
Oliver, Symmes C. 1962 Ecology and cultural continuity as contributing factors in the social organization of the Plains Indians. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 48:1–90.Google Scholar
Roe, Frank Gilbert 1951 The North American buffalo. University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall D. 1968 Tribesmen. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Secoy, Frank R. 1953 Changing military patterns on the Great Plains. Monograph No. 21, American Ethnological Society. J. J. Augustin.Google Scholar
Spencer, Robert 1959 The North Alaskan Eskimo: a study in ecology and society. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 171.Google Scholar
Turney-High, Harry H. 1937 The Flathead Indians of Montana. Memoir No. 48, American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Umfreville, Edward 1790 Present state of Hudson’s Bay and the fur trade.Google Scholar
Wissler, Clark 1910 The material culture of the Blackfoot Indians. Anthropological Papers American Museum Natural History 5:1–175.Google Scholar