Local archeologist leads statewide survey of Paleoindian points

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Local archeologist leads statewide survey of Paleoindian points

By COURTNEY LOWERY COWGILL • For the Tribune • October 9, 2009

 
The tools that Montana's early peoples left behind hold invaluable clues to piecing together the state's early history.


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Archeologists say the state is brimming with these clues but they're hard to find and often it's not the archeologists who unearth them.

Ruthann Knudson, a semi-retired archeologist and adjunct professor in Great Falls, estimates that 95 percent of Paleoindian artifacts (defined as those older than about 8,500 years) are found by people she calls "avocational archeologists."

Knudson said farmers, ranchers, hikers and the like — the Montanans who work the land and know how to read the land — are the best collectors because they're the ones out in Montana's vast spaces.

"Collecting is about loving the land, and picking up a piece of it," she said.

But that means a lot of Paleoindian artifacts — which are mostly "fluted" points, stone tips of tools characterized by their "fluted" grooves — are scattered across the state, in homes, on farms on ranches, even in safety deposit boxes.

"We just don't know where a lot of these things are," Knudson says.

Which is why Knudson has teamed with the Montana Historical Society and state archeologist Stan Wilmoth to take a statewide survey of Paleoindian artifacts.

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"We want to get more people talking about what they know and what they have," Knudson says.

Archeologist Leslie Davis did pioneering work in the late '80s on Paleoindian artifacts, which unearthed many new pieces, but this will be the first broad-based survey in the state, Wilmoth said.

Knudson and Wilmoth are asking private collectors to submit digital photos, descriptions and if possible, approximate locations of their artifacts, either directly to Knudson or via an online form available on the Society's Web site. (www.montanahistoricalsociety. org/shpo/forms.asp)

Some information, such as the specific location of the find or the owners' names would be made public only with permission.

The archeologists are interested in any information, even if it's just a description of an artifact or some knowledge of where artifacts might be.

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Montana Historical Society state archeologist Stan Wilmoth show an artifact in the field. Archeologists say Montana is brimming with artifacts. (MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTOS)

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"The whole project is about information, education and sharing," Knudson says.
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Knudson will compile the information and analyze it as well as submit it to the Paleoindian Database of the Americas, a nationwide survey of artifacts. Montana does have some data in that database, compiled by Davis in the 1980s. Davis submitted 64 points and hopes to add many more with the survey.

Wilmoth says in many cases, just the information is the most valuable part. The survey is not an invitation to go digging up possible sites.

"What we'd really like the opportunity to do is send a professional like Ruthann or others to come out and dig the site," he said.

Context is key with artifacts, Wilmoth said.

"If they're part of a larger whole, and we remove them from that whole then we've diminished the value of those points," Wilmoth said.

Little is known about the Paleo-indian people in Montana, and the information sources that do exist are outdated or not centered enough on Montana. Marie Wormington's 1957 book "Ancient Man in North America" and George Frison's "Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains"offer some basic study of early people in this part of the country, but neither address Montana specifically.

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Part of the reason for the gap in knowledge in Montana of Paleo-indian peoples is that artifacts are difficult to find. In total, there are 40,000 archeological dig sites in the state. Only 100 of them are classified as Paleoindian.

Part of the reason might be the geography. Montana is a glacial state, meaning many artifacts are buried in glacial lake beds. When the glaciers melted, pulverized rock and dust, called loess, filled in the depressions. Essentially, wind and dust, both of which Montana has aplenty, are the reasons so many of Montana's artifacts are so deeply buried.

Also, most Paleoindian artifacts in the nation are discovered during excavation for building. Considering the vast undeveloped land in Montana, there have been relatively fewer of those large-scale excavation finds.

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Add to that the fact that 28 percent of Montana's 93 million acres is public land, and therefore artifacts found on those lands is subject to the Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. That meant those "avocational archeologists" Knudson refers to were no longer allowed to collect artifacts from public lands.
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There have been some large-scale finds across the state, some private, some public. Total, Wilmoth says there are about 100 total recorded Paleoindian points in Montana. The big finds, like the McHaffie site near Montana City, on which Knudson did her doctoral study, the Ansick site near Wilsall, the Mill Iron Site near Ekalaka, the Barton Gulch site in the Ruby River valley and the Myers-Hindman site near Livingston have all furthered scholars' understanding of Montana's early people.

But, Knudson says, there is much more yet to be learned and much of that knowledge can come from the small and scattered private collections of everyday Montanans.

By having more data to work with, scholars can begin to paint a better picture of where and when Paleoindian cultures lived. They can start to see how climate effected the lives of the early people and they can look for variations in the craftsmanship of the tools — all important information to better understand Montana's early history.

And that understanding is not only important to scholars, Knudson says.

Studying history is one thing, but being able to see tangible, tactile evidence of those who lived on the land before us is invaluable.

"It helps us understand our place in this world," Knudson says.