Bad Pass Archaeology

Graduate student Maureen Boyle gives a GPS demonstration to the 2007 archaeology field school.L-R: Patrick Hill, Ted Preator, Karina Black, Catherine Page, Kelly Branam, Ed Herrmann, Zac Muller, Jake Gee, Kirk Chambers, and Ashley Howder.

he Bad Pass Trail runs for or stone circles. These sites provide essential miles along the western side information about the past lives of Plains of rugged Bighorn Canyon in inhabitants. Of the many indigenous groups southern Montana and northern who followed the Bad Pass Trail, the Crow still Wyoming. Today it consists of live closest to Bighorn Canyon. According to numerous rock piles or cairns, which once Crow Studies scholar Timothy McCleary, the helped guide travelers along the treacherous word for prehistory in the Crow language is canyon country. People also left behind rocks translated as “when we used stones to weigh that once held down the bottoms of lodges down our lodges.” Research at stone circle sites at campsites along the trail, which remind us in Bighorn Canyon is a highly effective way to of where tipis once stood. Archaeologists call combine anthropological inquiry, interpretive these circular arrangements of rocks that cover and innovative public outreach, and Native much of the North American Plains tipi rings American participation.

>> By Laura L. Scheiber, Judson Byrd Finley, and Maureen P. Boyle

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April/May • Copyright 2008 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com Field school students map tipi rings at Mustang Flat, Bighorn Canyon NRA, overlooking Bighorn Canyon and the Bighorn Mountains to the east. L-R: Evan Lewis, Karina Black, Catherine Page, Ashley Howder, Ed Herrmann, Patrick Hill, Kirk Chambers, Zac Muller, Kelly Branam, and Ted Preator.

For the last three summers, we have University (Bloomington, Indiana), the canyon country served as a natural directed archaeological field schools at Northwest College (Powell, Wyoming), travel corridor between the Bighorn Basin Bighorn Canyon National Recreation and Little Big Horn College (Crow and High Plains to the south and the Area (NRA) in Carbon County, Agency, Montana). unglaciated Missouri Plateau to the north Montana. Students assist with document- By combining traditional mapping tech- for thousands of years. Domestic activity ing stone circle sites using 21st century niques with digital technology, we provide was a strong component of travel, evi- technology. This work is part of a larger a comprehensive package for understand- denced by numerous stone circles located research project, Exploring Historical ing domestic space and everyday lives. within the park boundaries. Second, and Social Landscapes of the Greater Bighorn Canyon NRA provides a unique Bighorn Canyon lies at the heart of Crow Yellowstone Ecosystem, which involves setting to address questions about stone territory. The Crows immigrated to the researchers and students from Indiana circles as a record of domestic life. First, area as recently as the late 16th century.

Stone Circle Studies We propose instead that the variation is Stone circles are recognized as one of a product of a hundred years of recre- the few forms of preserved indigenous ational artifact collection. We believe our domestic architecture on the North current fieldwork paints a positive picture American Plains, dating at least to 5,000 for stone circle research, and the sites at years ago. Prior to the historic use Bighorn Canyon are a perfect test-case of wooden stakes as tent pegs, Plains for this approach. Indians used stones as tipi weights. We developed a four-stage data Once moved, stones often stayed in collection methodology that allows us to place, preserving the superstructure conduct analysis at distinct complemen- characteristics of the lodge. Stone circles tary levels. First, we teach our students at Bighorn Canyon supply abundant how to hand-draw accurate planview archaeological data while also linking maps of each stone circle using graph During this time, they were in transition contemporary Crow Indians to their paper, measuring tapes, protractors, from a semi-sedentary horticultural life own history through vast oral traditions. and compasses. Planviews capture the to one as nomadic bison hunters. These Between 1968 and 1974, nearly 120 stone singularity of individual rocks that make changes brought about transformations circle sites were documented at Bighorn up the stone circles. in social and ritual life. Soon afterward, Canyon NRA and the surrounding area, Second, we record information on Crow Indians made contact with the first as described by Larry Loendorf and Lori each rock, feature, and artifact using Dell Euroamerican explorers. Impacts of 19th Weston in a 1983 Plains Anthropologist Axim X51v Personal Data Assistants century culture contact and colonialism article. We estimate that as many as 1,000 (PDAs) and Magellan ProMark 3 reverberated with extant transformational stone circles within the park boundaries survey-grade GPS receivers. PDA data trends in Crow life as they changed from require reinvestigation under the current recording is an efficient, high-speed a nomadic hunting culture with horti- National Park Service condition assess- process that reduces human transcription cultural roots to a sedentary ranching ment mandate. Loendorf and Weston error and provides immediate program and reservation-based lifeway. Domestic attributed sparse or absent artifacts at compatibility with Microsoft Access. The campsites in Bighorn Canyon bear sites along travel corridors like the Bad Windows Mobile version of Access called witness to these transitions. Pass Trail to brief occupational durations. Data on the Run allows researchers

Upper right: Measurements are made of each rock in a tipi ring, then data is entered into PDAs. to create drop-down menus to record window into subsurface qualitative data such as artifact material deposits. David Maki type, which again reduces typing errors. from Archaeo-Physics PDA attribute collection covers a wide conducted gradiometry range of descriptive and quantitative data surveys using a Geoscan for each stone circle, including diameters, Research FM256 orientations, and presence or absence fluxgate gradiometer. of doorway openings and associated [Editor’s Note: A previous features such as cooking hearths. Archaeo-Physics article, The ProMark 3 equipment provides “Imaging the Buried Past,” fine-grained, sub-centimeter location appeared in The American data on individual stones, features, and Surveyor in July 2005 and artifacts. The use of the ProMarks also is available in our online allows us to fine-tune our methodolo- archives.] Data is collected gies in the field, particularly to choose in transects spaced at 0.50 Maureen Boyle takes GPS shots on rocks in a tipi ring appropriate duration of shots depending meters, with 8 samples while Megan Lewis operates a PDA. on satellite coverage and feature type. collected per linear meter Thus, all stones in a circle can be shot for an overall data sample at a consistent 15-second interval that density of 16 samples per square meter. samples from domestic hearths. Taken streamlines our data across circles, sites, This step is particularly informative together, this archaeological data provides and field seasons. Locational data from for guiding excavation decisions as a baseline for understanding occupational the receivers are uploaded to ArcMap it measures the differential magnetic chronologies of stone circle sites and 9.1 GIS software on a Dell D610 laptop properties of cultural features (stone American Indian domestic life. computer. We daily plot the GPS data, circles and fire hearths) buried within which is joined to attribute information unmodified geological matrices. Using Survey-Grade GPS for each item in an Access data table. Small targeted excavations provide We use three GPS receivers to record Geophysical survey is the third ana- the final analytical level, which allows spatial information from stone circle lytical level that provides an important us to collect essential datable charcoal sites. The first receiver is set up as a base,

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April/May • Copyright 2008 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com Tipi rings at Mustang Flat (2007) collecting static data in a stable location Commendations: although mission planning alleviates throughout the day. Base location is 1. The system is ideal in flat or rolling some of these problems. fixed at each archaeological site in order topography and sparsely vegetated 2. The set-up from site to site and day to to increase accuracy among rover data environments (e.g., high-altitude desert day is a trial-and-error process. Using collection events (e.g., between filenames and open plains) with excellent satellite a fixed base point is necessary to and collection days) and to ease post- coverage. facilitate later post-processing. field data correction with permanent 2. The equipment is fairly easy to use, 3. The base tripod set-up is highly critical. regional base stations, or continuously and students benefit from training in High winds can knock over the base operating reference stations (CORS). GPS technology. station. The two additional receivers act as 3. The ProMark 3s provide phenom- 4. Although attribute data can be rovers, collecting stop-and-go survey data enal confidence intervals in spatial recorded directly onto the GPS at individual points. The stop-and-go coordinates. receivers using the mobile mapping survey mode allows the GPS operator 4. These coordinates are tied into the program, we chose to use the GNSS to move quickly and efficiently from UTM system, not arbitrary grids, Solutions survey software for post- point to point at a consistent recording which is usually the case when using processing because the confidence interval. This mode also facilitates in-field a total station. levels are a few millimeters as opposed data collection by allowing the GPS 5. The Global Satellite Navigation to about 20cm. This means that the operator to alter recording intervals when Systems (GNSS) Solutions software attribute and coordinate data for each appropriate, to stop between collection offered by Magellan in concert object need to be merged later, and shots for any length of time, and presents with the ProMarks is relatively that keeping the log points consistent is a user-friendly educational mode for user friendly. absolutely critical. field school students. We average 6 mm 5. Data must be post-processed every accuracy vertically and horizontally with Cautions: evening to ensure that all of the this data recovery system. 1. Poor satellite coverage in topographic receivers collected data for the day Both advantages and disadvantages basins with tree cover means that and to ensure that the assigned GPS exist for the use of this equipment and single frequency GPS systems such log points correspond with associated should be considered by anyone who is as the one we are using are not as PDA attribute log points. considering using survey grade GPS for consistently useful in remote wilder- 6. The fixed base station coordinate data archaeological research. ness areas where we are also working, must be post-post-processed against

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April/May • Copyright 2008 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com the CORS stations, available online tools]. David Maki has surveyed 22,700 sets useful across disciplines. Our meth- through the National Geodetic Survey. square meters with subsurface remote odologies allow for increased accuracy Because we stay in remote locations sensing equipment. We performed in spatial analysis and for increased and do not have access to the Internet limited excavations within several stone coverage of archaeological landscapes during our fieldwork, we cannot circles, revealing occupations that span at fine-grained scales that aid in site perform this task until after we leave between 2,500 and 300 years ago. We conservation for future generations. We the field, often months later. have laid the foundation for a successful also bring the accessibility of geographic multi-year program that will assist knowledge in digital spatial models such Results of the Study Bighorn Canyon NRA in meeting its as GIS to diverse audiences. Finally, Two years ago we implemented our programmatic needs while advancing our work is primarily a non-invasive staged approach to stone circle analysis our research program. surface mapping technique, which only along documented travel segments of Archaeology along the Bad Pass Trail minimally impacts the archaeological the Bad Pass Trail with funding from is a combination of academic research, sites we hope to protect. the Western National Parks Association, education, heritage, and resource Indiana University Office of the Vice management. We recommend that Laura Scheiber is an Assistant President for Research, Bighorn Canyon archaeologists consider adopting similar Professor of Anthropology at Indiana NRA, and Northwest College. Students protocols if they are working in open University. Judson Byrd Finley is have recorded 3,782 rocks from 72 stone country, are interested in household- an Adjunct Faculty at Northwest circles and 65 features at five archaeo- level archaeological analysis, want to College and consultant for Western logical landscapes. We also documented maximize and standardize archaeological Geoarchaeological Research. attribute data on 2,109 stone tools and site recording across landscapes, and Maureen Boyle is an Archaeology in debitage [the sharp-edged flakes or mate- wish to incorporate educational science Social Context Graduate Student at rial left over from the making of stone programs that provide GPS/GIS skill Indiana University.

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