Shoshoni Emigrant Interaction at Fort Bridger, Wyoming 1843-1868

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Contact and Colonialism" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

From 1983 to the present, excavations have been underway at Fort Bridger State Historic Site in southwest Wyoming.  In excavation we found a protohistoric component that indicates extensive Shoshoni trade at the site from 1843-1868.   The Shoshoni traders interacted with westward-bound emigrants headed to Oregon, Utah, and California and trading became an integral element in the "Fort’s" life. This presentation will look at the nature of this interaction and briefly describe how trade items like horses, blankets, and shoes led to a sustainable economy that helped Native Americans proactively negotiate their way through a changing world.  Here at Fort Bridger, iron and lithic technologies merged to sustain the Shoshoni lifeways in accordance with their cultural traditions and provided the mechanism to produce goods that could be traded to emigrants. In this presentation we will look at the material cultural remains recovered in terms of technological change and cultural continuity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Contact and Colonialism   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 102