Implications of the Promontory, Dismal River, and Franktown Archaeological Records for Apachean Prehistory

Earlier investigators—including Julian Steward, Waldo Wedel, Jim and Dee Gunnerson, and Mel Aikens—each voiced the suspicion that the Promontory Culture and the Dismal River Aspect reflected the presence of Proto-Apachean populations in the eastern Great Basin and Central Plains. The Gunnersons also saw notable similarities linking the two archaeological constructs. Although these suspicions saw relatively little subsequent attention, both archaeological records have received more intensive study in recent years. At the same time, linguistic, genetic and anthropological studies have provided ever sharper focus for what we should expect for migrating ancestral Apachean populations in an era when opportunities for hunter-gatherers expanded. Papers in this session will explore search images developed from interdisciplinary perspectives for Proto-Apachean archaeological records, along with reports on renewed investigations of key sites, high resolution chronologies, a focus on perishable artifacts (like moccasins) more apt to reflect cultural identity than lithic assemblages, a synthesis of the footwear "landscape" in late prehistoric period Great Basin and Plains records, insights into demography, a better understanding of subsistence activities and paleoenvironments through isotopic and zooarchaeological analyses, evidence of interaction with surrounding societies, and a clearer picture of ceramic assemblages derived from formal studies and sherd geochemistry.