Crow/Hidasta (Culture Keyword)
1-11 (11 Records)
During a field trip in conjunction with the Fall 2006 meeting of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists (WAPA), the authors led a group to the Gateway petroglyphs (48LN348), which had been recorded two years before (Keyser and Poetschat 2005). During the site visit a combination of low-angled Fall sunlight (on September 16) and the attention of several experienced rock art researchers resulted in the recognition of a large elk figure, only parts of which (legs, antlers) had been...
"Bear Coming Out": A Distinctive Plains Shield Motif (2004)
Bear Gulch, an extensive rock art site in central Montana, has several examples of a distinctive shield design showing a bear emerging from its den. This design is known from both ethnographic shields and other rock art images across the Northwestern Plains, including two shields at the Castle Gardens site in Wyoming and one from Montana’s Valley of the Shields site. The comparison of the designs from Bear Gulch with others from both ethnographic sources and other rock art sites illustrates part...
Besant-Woodland Artifacts from the Cedar Gap Site (48NA83) In Northwestern Natrona County, Wyoming (2012)
Investigations at the Cedar Gap site ( 48NA83) resulted in the identification of a buried bison bone bed, buried bison bone processing areas, stone circles and stone cairns, and an extensive scatter of chipped stone artifacts along with pottery fragments. A Besant/Woodland component is present which includes the bone bed and processing areas. A Late Prehistoric to Protohistoric component is also present in at least one stone circle. The site contains one of the relatively few Besant components...
“I Was in the Thick of the Fight:” Counting Coup at 48SW82, Southwestern Wyoming (2011)
Coup counting is a central theme of Plains Biographic art in all media, occurring both as scenes of personal combat and as tallies of unfortunate enemies on whom coup has been counted. While combat scenes are undoubtedly the most common Biographic art depiction (Figure 1), tallies proclaiming a career’s worth of accomplishments resulting from a series of such combat episodes are more frequent than has been portrayed in the Biographic art literature. [...] One such Biographic coup count tally and...
"My Name Was Made High:" A Crow War Record at 48HO9 (2011)
Until quite recently the Bighorn Basin has not been known for its Biographic rock art imagery. In fact, in their excellent overview of the region, Francis and Loendorf (2002:179-183) note only two sites in the Bighorn Basin proper—Military Creek and Mahogany Buttes—that contain horses and riders, and both of those are in the Bighorn Mountain foothills on the basin’s extreme eastern edge.1 They also note (Francis and Loendorf 2002:181) that “illustrations of Historic period weaponry are less...
"My Name Was Made High:" A Crow War Record at 48HO9 (2010)
Until quite recently the Bighorn Basin has not been known for its Biographic rock art imagery. In fact, in their excellent overview of the region, Francis and Loendorf (2002:179-183) note only two sites in the Bighorn Basin proper—Military Creek and Mahogany Buttes—that contain horses and riders, and both of those are in the Bighorn Mountain foothills on the basin’s extreme eastern edge.1 They also note (Francis and Loendorf 2002:181) that “illustrations of Historic period weaponry are less...
A Prehistoric Stone Line Complex from Northwest Wyoming (1997)
The Two Dot Flats site (48PA1068) was discovered in 1989 during cultural resource investigations of the Dead Indian Pass area by the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist for road construction activities by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (Eakin 1990). The Two Dot Flats site consists of over 400 stone cairns presumed to be parts of a prehistoric bison drive line complex, and around 40 stone circles believed to both predate the drive system and be a part of it.
Reconnaissance Survey of the Big Horn County, Montana, Bison Jump-and-Kill Site (2000)
A Gatchell Museum Field Team conducted reconnaissance surveys of a Bison Jump-and-Kill site in Big Horn County, Montana, on May 15 and July 1, 1999. The Jump is over sandstone cliffs some 3.0 to 4.3 meters in height. That height may have been reduced somewhat by erosion of the past few millennia. Test holes and a two meter long trench yielded numerous bison bone pieces. Many were burned and charred and some showed cut and impact marks interpreted to be of human origin. Evidence of a probable...
Review of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies (2011)
Review of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies
Symbolism and Ritualistic Uses of the Bison Skull Among the Plains Indians of North America (2003)
Archaeological data show acts which may at first appear to involve merely the acquisition of food are, indeed, interwoven with spiritual beliefs and emotions. Bison kill sites have been investigated to gain information regarding hunting strategies and food appropriation. However, some of the sites have yielded additional information taking us beyond the procurement of food, widening our view to include religion, rituals and ceremonialism. The Cooper site (Bement 1999) offers early evidence of...
Twentymile Biface: A Hilltop Offering in Northeastern Wyoming (2009)
A finely made bifacial skinning knife was left on a small natural pointed hill apparently as a non-utilitarian offering placed on a high promontory, a common prehistoric practice across much of western North America. Age is unknown, but the tool is believed to date from the Late Prehistoric Period or terminal Archaic, or about A.D. 200-1200.