The Archaeological Occurrence of Bison on the Snake River Plain

Abstract

This article documents the archaeological occurrence of bison (Bison bison) on the Snake River Plain. Evidence from thirty-two Paleoindian and Archaic sites suggests that use of bison occurred on the western and eastern Plain. Sites reflect a variety of local environments and activities. The presence of bison, though relatively common in Late Archaic contexts, does not suggest that bison were depended upon as a major resource. Contrary to Butler s (1978) assertion that bison use decreased during the Late Archaic period, it appears that bison hunting was relatively more common in the later prehistory of the Plain

“They Went as High as They Choose:” What an Isolated Skull Can Tell Us about the Biogeography of High-altitude Bison

“…2). The distribution in northern Utah (Lupo and Schmitt, 1997), southeastern Idaho (Butler, 1978;Cannon, 1997;Plew and Sundell, 2000), and southwestern Wyoming (Lubinski, 2000) indicates bison were present throughout the Holocene with population density possibly fluctuating in relation to climate patterns. However, several authors have argued that the sagebrush-steppe never supported large herds of bison (Mack and Thompson, 1982;Daubenmire, 1985), therefore making for an inconsistent resource (Henrikson, 2003(Henrikson, , 2004.…”

The Holocene History of Bison in the Intermountain West: A Synthesis of Archaeological and Paleontological Records from Eastern Oregon

“…Paleontological specimens of bison encountered by explorers gave proof that bison were in the region at one time, yet no temporal data was available for understanding the chronology of these specimens. Previous archaeological research on bison suggests that more components containing bison remains have been dated to the late Holocene -2,500-150 B.P than any other time period (Lupo and Schmitt 1997;Lyman 1985;Plew and Sundell 2000;Schroedl 1973) (Table 2.1 and 2.2). Early Holocene records exist, but are rare and most likely represent the remains of an extinct species of bison (Butler 1971;Schroedl 1973).…”

“…Following up on Butler' s (1978) work, Plew and Sundell (2000) recently summarized more bison records from the Snake River Plain. Their paper was aimed at extending the knowledge of bison in the region to the western Snake River Plain, an area without much previous work.…”

“…A major difference between the two studies is in the number of sites used to draw conclusions about changes in bison abundance. Butler ( 1978) uses data from four locales, whereas Plew and Sundell (2000) use data from 32. Lupo and Schmitt (1997) Lupo and Schmitt did not discuss sites older than 1600 BP; however, they did discuss data from other Fremont aged archaeological sites in the northeastern Great Basin.…”

“…Several archaeological sites in the Great Plains region and parts of the Snake River Plain contain evidence of communal bison hunting activities, where large numbers of bison were taken at a time (Butler 1971;Lupo and Schmitt 1997;Plew and Sundell 2000;Reher and Frison 1980;Wilson and Davis 1978). On the other hand, fewer records of such obvious bison procurement exist in much of the Intermountain West.…”