Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

198 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
Since the kills were in the bottom of the arroyo,
spring runoff and flood waters had varying effects
on the various cultural components. Some were
preserved intact; others were washed out and
disturbed to certain degrees; while others were
moved out entirely. This also explains satisfactorily
the mixing of components observed in many
instances at the Agate Basin site, since a slight
amount of down cutting at one spot could remove
part of an older component and then deposit it
further downstream on top of a younger component.
The Horner Site
Further evidence of late fall and winter bison
killing is preserved at the Horner site. First regarded
as only a manifestation of the Cody complex
at about 9,000 years ago, recent investigations
have revealed Alberta components going
back to about 10,000 years ago. Jepsen (1953)
claimed the Cody components to be late fall or
early winter kills; the Alberta components are of
about the same season or possibly later in the
winter.
Paleotopographic studies do not support the
former presence at Horner of any favorable topographic
features that alone would have formed a
trap. We now propose that the apparent favorable
location for the animals resulted in construction
of an artificial trap. The new evidence from
Horner now argues for at least 1,000 years of
bison procurement rather than a single event in
that locality. This adds a strong measure of continuity
to the procurement activities and supports
also the idea of planned yearly activities. The
concentration of bison bones gave a first impression
that it was nothing more than a discarded
pile of disarticulated bones. However, as the bottom
of the pile was explored, larger units and
finally complete animals were revealed. The abrupt
ending of the edges of the bone concentration
now suggest some containment of the animals.
The most likely means for this was probably
a corral of heavy logs that would not have required
pestholes. The cobble terrace would have
been especially difficult as a medium into which
postholes could have been dug. Freezing of the
meat would have been accomplished with no
difficulty in late fall and winter.
The Carter-Kerr/McGee Site
A Paleo-Indian site also related to animal procurement
is located in the Powder River Basin
near Gillette, Wyoming. The Carter-Kerr/
McGee site can be understood only in terms of
animal behavior in relation to the site topography.
Although only a remnant of the site survived
the processes of erosion, what does remain provides
a record of animal procurement for Clovis
through the Cody complex, or for a period of
over 2,000 years. Paleo-Indian components
present include Clovis, Polsom, mixed Agate Basin
and Hell Gap, and mixed Alberta and Cody
complex. All are in situ and are in stratigraphic
sequence (Prison, 1977).
The site is located toward the head of an arroyo
that once flowed into a wide, shallow Pleistocene
lake. The arroyo, today, has a wide, flat bottom
and steep sides. The bottom is close to the water
table and is swampy for a good share of the spring
and early summer resulting in a thick cover of
tall grasses. Assuming similar conditions in Paleo-
Indian times with the added attraction then of
the water and grass around the Pleistocene lake,
ideal conditions for large herbivores were present.
In addition, other arroyos leading away from the
lake offered ideal topographic conditions for large
animal trapping.
My current interpretation is that the Paleo-
Indian components are located adjacent to what
was then an animal trap strategically located
toward the head of the arroyo. The configuration
of the eroding arroyo at any given time determined
the exact location of animal procurement
activities. This location could have changed from
year to year depending upon snow melt and
rainfall conditions. In fact, the present arroyo
formed a highly efficient animal trap during 1977
(Prison et al., 1978:394), but moisture from an
unusually heavy snow pack during the winter of