The Coffin Bison Kill (5JA7)

Abstract

A growing body of research is geared towards bridging the blurred perspectives of archaeology and ethnohistory into cohesive statements about the pre- and post-contact history of the Northern Great Plains to elaborate upon the highly dynamic cultural interactions among and between the Native groups who occupied this region, and the myriad Euro-Americans that infiltrated and settled it. This paper seeks to add to the data pool available to these discussions by presenting preliminary results from surveys and test excavations at the Coffin Bison Kill (5JA7), a Late Prehistoric- through Protohistoric-era (ca. 460–120 cal B.P.) bison kill-butchery that is situated at the head of the North Platte River Valley in northern Colorado. This region, and perhaps this site, both feature prominently in Euro-American historical accounts and Native American ethnogeography, and its archaeology can offer a unique window into late period cultural evolution, particularly with regard to the complexities born of US Western expansion.