Ute and Fremont Indians, Radiocarbon, and Ancient Wood: Dating Ephemeral Colorado Prehistory

Summary

This volume centers on a newly developed empirical methodology for mitigating for the “old wood effect” in radiocarbon dating of ancient wood, such as piñyon and juniper, in the Desert West of the United States and other regions where old wood complicates radiocarbon dating. The Desert West was once the home of the Fremont and Ute Indians with their so sparse and ephemeral archaeological cultures which are not easily radiocarbon dated. The new methodology was developed via the Old Wood Calibration Project, a joint venture between Centuries Research, Inc., and the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona. The volume details the methods developed by that project which allow for correction of radiocarbon dates based on old wood. It then reevaluates the corrected dates via comparison against other methods of dating, including newly discovered ethnohistorical information, to determine the earliest time frame for the appearance of the Ute Indians in Colorado and for the duration of the Fremont in the state. In these regards it tests Steven Baker’s projected date ranges for the Fremont occupation of the Douglas Creek Arch in Northwestern Colorado, along with his from the Uncompahgre Valley Ute Project, and Alan Reed’s supposedly empirically derived hypothesis for the timing of the Eastern or Colorado Utes’ appearance in Colorado, and particularly for its west-central area. To date Reed’s hypothesis remains the only summary of a radiocarbon record for any early appearance of the Ute People in Colorado. The tests show that Baker’s projected occupation for the Fremont at ca. AD 800 to 1300-1400 or 1500 is generally accurate. However, it demonstrates that Reed’s hypothesized date of AD 1100 for the appearance of the Utes lacks any credible supporting data and must be revised to ca. AD1500-1600. This finding indicates that the Utes seemingly moved into territories that had been previously depopulated by the Ancestral Puebloans by ca. AD 1300 and that Utes were likely not responsible for that depopulation. It also demonstrates why it is unlikely that west-central Colorado, particularly in the region about Montrose County, was the location of some of the earliest Ute occupations in the state as scholars of the Ute have so commonly believed. The volume deals only with the Colorado manifestation of the “Numic Spread” as part of its role in the prehistory of the Desert West. It does not, however, delve into broader theory and discussion about it.

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