At the River Bend site, near the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming, archaeologists analyzed more than 5,000 artifacts to better understand Native American adornment practices in the 18th century.
The site was initially excavated in the 1970s, ahead of a planned construction project to level the area. Even though hundreds of square meters were dug at the time, nearly 75 percent of the site and its potential findings were lost.
Still, these original efforts determined that the site was occupied between 1700 and 1750, after Europeans had landed in North America. An initial analysis of some of the artifacts indicated that the site was likely occupied by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe ancestors based on a combination of objects like tri-notched arrow points and steatite (soapstone) that have been commonly identified from Shoshone sites.
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Spencer Pelton and his colleagues, including the site’s original expert Carolyn Buff, recently analyzed the full collection of 5,000 artifacts, including bone, stone, ocher, metal, shell, and antler. Their research was published in Plains Anthropologist late last month.
Despite some loose ends after 30 years of inactivity, the analysis sheds light on a transitional phase in Native American history before and after contact with European material culture.
Some of the earliest finds included shell disk beads, commonly found in the early Great Plains and other North American cultures, that would have been strung on necklaces or recovered from the dead’s neck, wrists, and ankles at grave sites.
Olivella shaped shells were also identified in small numbers and indicates long-distance trade or travel of some kind in order to retrieve the shells. In later periods, they were worn as necklaces, earrings, and adorned shirts.
Mollusk shells and elk ivory pendants also found at the site are believed to have come from a later period in and around the 1800s, replacing Olivella around the 1830s.
There is also evidence of shell bead production that likely utilized metal awls for piercing holes in a given surface—a tool still commonly used today. This tool is thought to have increased the production of shell ornaments at the site.
Plains Indian clothing and body adornment would have indicated one’s status, war accomplishments, and place in society.
As one of the richest cache of adornments in the state, the site offers a rare glimpse into a transitional moment in history. This additional information can be used to better understand Plains Indian adornment practices and how they changed from contact and trade with Europeans.