Better homes and pastures: Human agency and the construction of place in communal bison hunting on the Northern Plains

Oetelaar, Gerald A.

doi:10.1179/2052546x13y.0000000004

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The frequency of communal drives, jumps and pounds diminished, as the increased velocity and mobility of horses allowed mounted hunters, solitary or in small groups, to locate bison over a wide range and quickly overtake and harvest them with the bow or firearms (Oetelaar, 2014). Among the Hidatsa, a Native American group living along the Missouri River and its tributaries in present-day North Dakota, this shift from sit-andwait to active-search on horseback is described by Hanson (1986, pp.…”

Section: Numerical Analysis -Search Mode Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sit-and-wait versus active-search hunting: A behavioral ecological model of optimal search mode

Ross

Winterhalder

2015

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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We model the behavioral ecology of search mode for randomly moving predator and prey. Active-search is favored at low prey movement velocity, ambush at high prey velocity. Sit-and-wait mode is favored if predator movement is energetically costly. Ambush is favored if faster predator velocity alerts prey or impedes their detection. Optimal predator velocity in active-search mode balances costs against prey movement. a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tDrawing on Skellam's (1958) work on sampling animal populations using transects, we derive a behavioral ecological model of the choice between sit-and-wait and active-search hunting. Using simple, biologically based assumptions about the characteristics of predator and prey, we show how an empirically definable parameter space favoring active-search hunting expands as: (1) the average rate of movement of prey decreases, or (2) the energetic costs of hunter locomotion decline. The same parameter space narrows as: (3) prey skittishness increases as a function of a hunter's velocity, or (4) prey become less detectable as a function of a hunter's velocity. Under either search tactic, encounter rate increases as a function of increasing prey velocity and increasing detection zone radius. Additionally, we investigate the roles of habitat heterogeneity and spatial auto-correlation or grouping of prey on the optimal search mode of a hunter, finding that habitat heterogeneity has the potential to complicate application of the model to some empirical examples, while the effects of prey grouping lead to relatively similar model outcomes. As predicted by the model, the introduction of the horse to the Great Plains and the introduction of the snowmobile to Arctic foraging communities decreased the metabolic costs of active-search and led to a change in normative hunting strategies that favored active-search in place of sit-and-wait hunting.

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Section: Numerical Analysis -Search Mode Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sit-and-wait versus active-search hunting: A behavioral ecological model of optimal search mode

Ross

Winterhalder

2015

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…These persistent places are often associated with specific points on the landscape linked by a network of paths and trails and encompass both natural resource patches (e.g., places to gather lodge poles, berry patches, paint, and stone sources) as well as areas of cultural significance, including prominent topography (e.g., Chief Mountain), natural features or anomalies on the landscape (e.g., the Sweet Grass Hills and Cypress Hills, or glacial erratics), hydrology (e.g., named lakes, rivers, and streams), monuments (e.g., medicine wheels, Napi effigies, and cairns), sacred sites that are perceived as focal points of spiritual energy (e.g., Writing-On-Stone), and the locations of both mythical and historical events. The Blackfoot visit these areas not only to obtain key resources, but also to fulfill ritual obligations, renew ties with ancestors, keep history and songs alive, and negotiate with spirits for the welfare of the group (Oetelaar 2014, 2016; Oetelaar and Oetelaar 2006, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Blackfoot followed a seasonal round and, while its precise features are debated, most archaeologists agree that the movements of bison influenced the movements of human groups living in the Northwestern Plains, and, consequently, the location of all types of archaeological sites (Fisher and Roll 1998; Frison 2004; Peck 2004; Peck and Hudecek-Cuffe 2003; Vickers 1991). Blackfoot residential groups probably did not directly follow bison herds, but instead developed knowledge of bison behavior to predict where bison would be and to manipulate herd movement through the judicious use of fire (Oetelaar 2014; Peck 2004:112). Because bison movements predictably occur at the same season in the same place, human groups could reliably find bison in certain areas at specific times of the year, and thus would set up their hunting complexes and adjacent camps near these “intercept sites” (Bamforth 1988; Barsh and Marlor 2003; Brink 2008; Hamilton et al 2014; Peck 2004).…”

Section: Blackfoot Land Use Systems From the Precontact To The Contacmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Pastoralist Landscapes in the Northwestern Plains

Bethke¹

2017

Am. Antiq.

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This article examines the extent to which the adoption of the horse created a transition in modes of production from hunting and gathering to nomadic pastoralism by tracing the horse's impact on Blackfoot settlement patterns and landscape use during the Precontact and Postcontact periods on the Northwestern Plains. While changes in hunting techniques, raiding frequencies, and certain social implications such as status and wealth differentiation have been studied from an ethnohistoric perspective, less work has been done to trace the subtle changes to patterns of landscape use that may have directly resulted from the adoption of horse husbandry by the Blackfoot people. This study applies Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology to broadly distributed Precontact- and Contact-period archaeological sites of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana to reveal the role of horse husbandry on landscape use in the Northwestern Plains. This research expands on previous ethnohistorical work, while also contributing a new, material dimension to the dynamics of this transition at various spatial scales.

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“…The coordination of bison drives, driveline placement, and tribal participants had to be carefully organized in order for communal hunts to be successful (Frison 1978; Oetelaar 2014). In many cases, this included the arrangement, distribution, and manipulation of habitation sites, processing centers, and the local environments around targeted jumps (Verbicky-Todd 1984).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Driveline preparation, hunting, and processing tasks required the participation of large numbers of people, and by the Late Prehistoric period (ca. A.D. 250–1700) archaeological evidence indicates that communal bison hunting was an important fall event (Frison 1978; Oetelaar 2014). Crow tribal historian Charles Ten-Bear reported that the tribe would move to bison hunting grounds to conduct communal hunts in the fall (Medicine Crow 1978).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacheeishdíio (Place Where Men Pack Meat)

et al. 2017

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Bacheeishdíio (“Place Where Men Pack Meat”), now called Grapevine Creek in English, is the subject of Crow oral traditions that document the cultural significance of the landscape and celebrate centuries of bison hunting in the drainage. We report an ongoing, community-based project that integrates archaeological field training and research goals into a collaborative indigenous archaeology project supporting the expressed goal of the Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Office to prepare a district-level nomination for the Grapevine Creek drainage basin. This paper describes findings from field investigations that document buffalo jump locales, a previously unreported bison bonebed, and associated archaeological features in the drainage, grounding Crow oral traditions that document buffalo jumps and large-scale bison hunts firmly into the landscape. We take a holistic approach that incorporates multiple lines of evidence to assess the archaeological record associated with bison jumps and bison hunting on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana. Results of this project include an enriched understanding of the Grapevine Creek archaeological record, greater awareness of buffalo hunting strategies on the northwest Plains, and, through field training, enhanced cultural resource management capabilities for the Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Office.

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Better homes and pastures: Human agency and the construction of place in communal bison hunting on the Northern Plains

Cited by 17 publications

References 48 publications

Sit-and-wait versus active-search hunting: A behavioral ecological model of optimal search mode

Sit-and-wait versus active-search hunting: A behavioral ecological model of optimal search mode

The Archaeology of Pastoralist Landscapes in the Northwestern Plains

Bacheeishdíio (Place Where Men Pack Meat)

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