13 Utilization of Bison in the Great Plains

Extract

The Olsen-Chubbuck Site is a bison kill. Therefore, it is pertinent to review some of the characteristics of the quarry, for if the archaeologist is to understand the nature and meaning of such kills, he must first understand something about the nature and habits of the bison, particularly the characteristics which made these great beasts susceptible to the techniques of mass slaughter employed by the Indians who hunted them. Moreover, he must understand the methods which the Indians used to kill and butcher the bison, in order to extract the maximum amount of information from his excavations.

If the archaeologist is dealing with prehistoric kills, he must assume that the habits of prehistoric and historic bison were essentially the same, and that the methods of hunting and utilizing them were similar. There can be no doubt that acculturation of the Indian to the use of gun and horse changed, in some cases drastically, the hunting methods of the historic Indians. Yet, the techniques observed by the earliest explorers of interior North America must have remained essentially unchanged over thousands of years. If these assumptions are valid, then we are in a position to comprehend and interpret the evidence recovered in our excavations of bison kills.