Cultural Geology Guide: The yellowstone Region, Part 3

American Indians of Yellowstone

By Julie Francis

YELLOWSTONE — Perched atop the Continental Divide, the Yellowstone region lies at the juncture of three major “culture areas” defined by early anthropologists – the Great Plains, the Columbia Plateau, and the Great Basin.

Recent reviews of archaeological, ethnographic and historic data, combined with interviews of tribal consultants, document long-standing use of the region by diverse groups of people. Yellowstone figures prominently in the cultural identities of many tribes. The thousands of geysers and mud volcanoes are reminders of the dynamic geology of the region, but they also served as portals to supernatural worlds and were used for fasting and vision quests.

The Crow hunted, gathered plants and minerals, used the geysers for fasting and retain many place names for spots in the eastern part of the park. Supernatural beings resided in some places.

The Kiowa in Oklahoma trace their origins to somewhere near Yellowstone National Park.

The Blackfeet clearly roamed into and through the Park from the north; the Salish speaking Flathead and Pend d’Oreille certainly hunted bison and may have occasionally wintered in Yellowstone.

The Nez Percé hunted bison east of the Bitterroot Mountains and had knowledge of trails and geography of the park prior to the 1877 war.

Much of the 1878 Bannock War was fought just outside the park boundaries.

The eastern Shoshone guided military expeditions into and through the park on well-established trails and included Yellowstone as part of their aboriginal land claims. Indeed, the Sheepeaters, or Mountain Shoshone, were year-round residents.

Often portrayed as impoverished, backwards and fearful, the Sheepeaters were, in fact, sophisticated hunters of mountain sheep, highly skilled flint knappers and craftsman, builders of wooden traps and wickiups, and also kept many dogs as beasts of burden. Ancestors of the Sheepeaters and other Shoshone likely also created the intricate and complex rock art known as the Dinwoody tradition.

Native tribes were removed from their traditional homelands onto reservations throughout the 1870s and thus forced to relinquish claims to the Yellowstone region.

With the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 as a natural area to be preserved for the public, American Indians were effectively banned from the park. However, many indians often left the reservations to hunt in their traditional areas.

Anxious to quell the fears of tourists, especially after the 1877 Nez Percé and 1878 Bannock wars, Park officials asserted that American Indians did not use the area because they feared the geysers and mud pots as places of evil.

In 1879, the Sheepeaters were removed from the park, and in 1880 all hunting was banned. Thus, Indians could be arrested for poaching in their traditional hunting territories.

Rumors of Bannocks on the loose in the park persisted into the 1890s. Many traditional ties were broken and are only now being restored to tell a far more rich and complex picture of human and natural history.

Yellowstone Archeology

The volcanic origins of the Yellowstone region have influenced American Indian cultures for thousands of years, with the use of obsidian as the best known example. Obsidian is natural glass formed when some types of lava cool quickly. With fresh edges sharper than many steel razors, the rock is suited for many types of stone tools and was a highly valued resource.

Each different lava flow exhibits a unique chemical signature, and modern trace-element analyses can tie individual artifacts to specific sources. Obsidian Cliff is the best known, and stone from this source was traded as far east as the Ohio Valley.

Several other obsidian sources have been identified in southeastern Idaho, the Grand Tetons, and in Yellowstone National Park. The distribution of obsidian artifacts from these sources across Wyoming points to complex social networks and relationships between ancient peoples across thousands of miles.

The elevated Yellowstone Plateau, severe winters, and rugged glacial topography have also influenced archaeologists’ perceptions of how ancient peoples used this area.

Traditionally archaeologists assumed that the region was used mainly in the summer by people heading to the mountains from the plains and that modern tribes only moved into the area within the last few hundred years. Sites such as Mummy Cave, with a continuous record of occupation for 10,000 years, and Dead Indian Creek, with evidence of deer hunting, ceremonialism and at least one residential structure over 4,000 years old, provided hints of something more complex.

More recent research, much of which has been sponsored by the Wyoming Department of Transportation, indicates that highly sophisticated hunters of medium game animals, such as deer, pronghorn and in particular mountain sheep, moved into the high elevations soon after de-glaciation. Sinuous drive lines of deadfall timber follow high ridges and lead into cleverly disguised catch pens where sheep were trapped and captured, sometimes using juniper bark nets. Once subdued and killed, the animals were completely used for food.

Village sites near treeline, with evidence of intensive white bark pine nut gathering and processing, have also been discovered. Evidence from several other sites also suggests that ancient American Indians may well have lived in the mountains on a year-round basis. Winter camps have been found in Sunlight Basin and along the North Fork of the Shoshone River; spring usage for both intensive pronghorn hunting and root gathering has been found in the Pinedale area.

Most of the stone tools and waste flakes are made from “local” sources, including obsidians and various cherts and quartzites found in the Absaroka volcanics. Notably absent are stone tools made from sources in the nearby Bighorn Mountains and on the plains.

All of this points to the presence of a year-round, resident native population in the mountainous Yellowstone region beginning at least 10,000 years ago and continuing into modern times, forming an increasingly complex picture of the region’s ancient peoples.

Be sure to check out Part 1: The Flight of the Nez Percé, and Part 2: The Beartooth Scenic Byway