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Montana Lifestyle in Ancient Times

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Title: Montana Lifestyle in Ancient Times


1
Montana Lifestyle in Ancient Times
2
Food Sources Now and Then
  • Where do you get your food?
  • From the store?
  • From your garden?
  • From hunting or fishing?
  • Is some of your food made from scratch like
    homemade bread? If so, where does the flour to
    make the bread come from?
  • There were no stores in prehistoric times.
  • People hunted or trapped game.
  • People hooked or speared fish.
  • People harvested plants for their fruits, nuts,
    seeds, and roots.

3
HUNTING 12,000 years ago 9,000 years ago 2,000 years ago
Climate The Ice Age was ending glaciers starting to melt. Huge mammals were becoming extinct due to warming. Similar to todays climate
Main Weapon Hand-held spears Atlatl Bow arrow
Hunters Worked together to trap prey in muck and mire in gullies Stampeded and corralled prey. Fished the streams and went eastward for bison hunts
The Hunted Ice Age bison, mastodons, huge woolly mammoths Bison, deer, elk Bison, deer, elk, antelope, birds, moose, rabbits, beaver, etc.
Conditions Hunting very dangerous. Increased distance from prey possible due to atlatl. Smaller projectile points improved safety and accuracy.
4
The Bison
  • Ancient people fished the many streams, but there
    were few, or no, bison west of the Continental
    Divide.
  • Annual trips eastward for bison hunts.
  • Grasses growing on plains contained protein that
    enabled animals to build up mass.
  • Extra weight helped animals survive cold winter
    months.
  • For over 11,000 years, large game was the main
    source of subsistence (the way by which a culture
    obtains its food) for many prehistoric people of
    Montana.

5
Hunting the Bison
  • Young hunters served long apprenticeships with
    their elders.
  • Before 1700, hunters did not have horses.
  • Used drive lines to funnel animals into areas
    where hunters waited to ambush them.
  • Used drive lanes two converging lines which led
    bison to buffalo jumps (pishkuns).
  • Built sophisticated wooden corrals which could
    hold as many as twenty bison.
  • Used natural traps, such as ravines or sand
    dunes, to capture their prey.

6
Paleoindian Clovis Culture
  • First appeared in North America about 13,000
    years ago.
  • Named for a small number of artifacts found in
    1936 and 1937 near Clovis, New Mexico.
  • Stone points
  • Two long bone points with impact damage
  • Stone blades
  • Several cutting tools made on stone blades
  • Clovis sites have been identified throughout much
    of the contiguous United States, including in
    Montana.
  • Distinctive hallmark of the Clovis Culture is the
    Clovis point
  • fluted spear point
  • Made of rock
  • Bifacial (fluted on both sides)

7
The Anzick Clovis Site
  • A cache (hidden storage space) of Clovis
    artifacts was found in 1968 in Park County,
    Montana.
  • Found on the Anzicks property
  • Contained artifacts and a childs skeleton.
  • Believed to be a burial site
  • Dates from 1,200 to 1,400 years ago.
  • The oldest recognized culture in North America
    is Clovis and caches from this early period are
    rare. Only seven examples from the western states
    have been scientifically described. The Anzick
    cache from Montana is the largest with 100
    pieces. http//lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pa
    ges/2003novemberdrakecachepage2.htm optional web
    link to return to this side click on the back
    button at the web site.

8
The Anzick Clovis Site - Montana
  • Only one partial Clovis skeleton has ever been
    unearthedthis child who was buried in the bluff
    near the Shields Riverand the secrets locked
    within those bones could provide answers that
    have eluded archaeologists since the first Clovis
    artifacts were discovered in the Southwest 70
    years ago.
  • http//outside.away.com/outside/magazine/200002/20
    0002bones2.html
  • optional web link to return to this slide,
    click on the web site back button

9
Other Important Clovis Finds in Montana
  • Another Clovis site in Montana is the McHaffie
    site, discovered near Clancy.
  • During the construction of the post office in
    Gardiner, Montana, in the 1950s, an obsidian
    projectile point of Clovis origin was found that
    dated from approximately 11,000 years ago.
    (Wikipedia - optional.)

10
Earliest Tools
  • Early Montana stone tools - about twelve
    thousand years old.
  • Quarry - a specific place where people obtained
    tool stone.
  • Prehistoric people often traveled great distances
    to collect particular kinds of tool stone.
  • Obsidian is one type of lithic material (stone)
    collected. It is a volcanic glass which is
    frequently black, but may be other colors.

11
Obsidian Cliff
  • in Yellowstone National Park
  • a quarry that ancient people used heavily.
  • a National Historic Landmark.
  • A source of lithic materials.
  • A site used by indigenous people in prehistory
    for thousands of years
  • Arrowheads from Yellowstone obsidian have been
    found as far away as Ohio.

Courtesy of National Park Service
12
Stone Tools Lithic Tools
  • Pebble tools -
  • made by very primitive humans.
  • broken rocks with edges.
  • Early humans used pebble tools for crushing
    animal bones.
  • Hand-axes -
  • used in hunting, food preparation, and many other
    tasks.
  • One end of the hand-axe was shaped into a point.
  • Blade and core tools -
  • created from prepared pieces of lithic raw
    material.

13
Projectile Point Patterns
  • Arrowheads that have been found have shown large
    variety.

14
Stone tools used in early Montana
  • atlatl used to throw long narrow darts tipped
    with projectile points.
  • butchering knives used to cut up animals.
  • scrapers stone to clean animal hides.
  • stone drills used to make holes in wood, bone,
    and animal hide.

15
Atlatl
16
How to Use an Atlatl
17
History of atlatl
  • Word atlatl is of Aztec origin
  • Used in Montana for 12,000 years
  • Existed throughout the world for over 30,000
    years.
  • Could kill large wooly mammoths in North America
    and leather-clad Spaniards in South America.
  • An atlatl-thrown dart could travel over 100 miles
    per hour.

18
You be the chiseler!
  • Imagine what it would have been like to make your
    own stone weapons and tools.
  • Write down what the objects might have been used
    for.

19
Test your Skill
  • To see if you can correctly identify the uses for
    ancient stone tools, go to the PBS NOVA link
    below, an interactive mind challenge.
  • Once youve explored the activity, click on the
    web site back button to return to this slide.

20
Non-Stone Tools
  • awls
  • Used to shred fibers for thread and fishing nets.
  • used to pierce holes in animals hides.
  • bone needles
  • size of toothpicks,
  • tiny hole in one end like modern sewing needles.
  • sinew
  • animal tendons used as thread
  • twine
  • plant material used as thread
  • parfleche hide container made by sewing
    together pieces of animal hide, especially from
    bison

21
Other Non-Stone Tools
  • Ancient people used antler and horn, along with
    bone.
  • Used for digging sticks
  • Used for flintknapping
  • Hafted a point to a bone handle with cordage.
  • Used wood and bison horn for ladles, spoons,
    bowls, and cooking tongs.

22
Tools for Food Preparation
  • Pottery
  • relatively recent technology
  • used for food storage and for cooking
  • made by coiling strings of clay together or hand
    shaping a pot from a lump of clay
  • heated or fired to improve their durability
  • Carved steatite (soapstone) vessels
  • Made from soapstone (talc) found in southwest
    Montana
  • Baskets
  • Made from coiled or woven pieces of plant
    materials.
  • used as bowls and for seed parching (drying)
    trays
  • Cedar bark
  • used to make containers used for storing food and
    other items.

23
People and Plants
24
Plants Used by Early Montanans
  • Prehistoric Montanans did not plant gardens or
    raise animals for food.
  • They depended on plant foods they gathered and
    animals they hunted in the wild.
  • They were nomadic, moving as the seasons changed
    to hunt and gather wild food in different places.
  • Lived along the warmer river bottoms during cold
    weather.
  • Traveled to the foothills and mountains during
    warm weather to hunt animals and gather roots,
    bulbs, and berries.

25
The Importance of Plants
  • In Montanas rigorous climate, people needed many
    calories (food energy) to survive.
  • In late winter and early spring, prehistoric
    groups often went hungry as food supplies got
    low.
  • Did not have the technology to store large
    quantities of food.
  • Kinds of plants, and availability, varied from
    eastern to western Montana, from lowlands to high
    mountains, and from spring through summer to
    fall.

26
How Were Plants Used in Ancient Times?
  • Used as food
  • Used for medicine to cure ills and heal wounds.
  • Used as a poultice, a moist covering for burns,
    cuts, and bruises.
  • Used for cordage, a braided form of ancient
    string.
  • Made from fibers of sagebrush, cedar, yucca and
    other plants.

27
Prehistoric Plant Use
  • Over 300 species of plants used by prehistoric
    people of Montana (estimate).
  • Purple coneflower rattlesnake bites
  • Wild rose tea cure stomach problems
  • Yarrow disinfect wounds
  • Huckleberry arthritis
  • A 9,000 year-old net made of juniper bark cordage
    was found in Mummy Cave near the Montana/Wyoming
    border.
  • The net was used to trap animals.

28
Roots A Primary Plant Food
  • Important root crops provided minerals, vitamins,
    carbohydrates, and protein.
  • Camas root harvested after it flowered
  • Bitterroot harvested before it flowered
  • Biscuit root
  • Indian breadroot
  • Digging stick was made of wood and/or antler.
  • Once a root was dug, it could be processed, or
    prepared.
  • Dried in the sun and saved for winter meals
  • Boiled or steamed
  • Roasted in pits dug in the ground
  • Eaten plain, mixed with berries, or added to stews

29
Roots provided variety of foods
  • Camas root
  • Stored whole, squeezed into little cakes, or
    mashed and formed into round loaves.
  • Main sweetener used before sugar was introduced.
  • Roots dried and then ground with mano and metate
    to create flour.
  • Mano and metate were used to mash and grind the
    root back and forth until the root was finely
    ground.
  • Prehistoric mano and metate stones show the wear
    of many years of use.
  • www.nps.org

30
Berries and Fruits
  • Berries were an important staple, especially
    during the fall.
  • Serviceberry
  • Huckleberry
  • Chokecherry
  • Gooseberry
  • Currant
  • Buffaloberry
  • Berries harvested after the first frost are
    considered the sweetest.
  • Eaten fresh
  • Dried in the sun on hides
  • Ground with a mano and metate
  • Mixed with fat and meat and then formed into
    loaves and dried (pemmican).

31
Ancient Ways of Cooking Food
  • Ancient people used excavated pits and hide
    containers to cook their food
  • They heated the stones
  • Placed the hide containers directly on the stones
  • Covered with earth or mulch, allowing meat to
    cook for several hours or even days.
  • 2. They also cooked meat directly on large flat
    rocks heated in fire pits.
  • 3. They sometimes roasted meat on a spit over an
    open fire or fire hearth.

32
Cooking Food
  • Drying Racks
  • Willow frames with hundreds of pieces of meat
    hanging on them
  • This sun drying preserved food for the long
    winter months

33
Cooking Objects and Their Uses
  • Hide Containers
  • Made from animal skins
  • Never placed directly over a fire (would burn)
  • Hot stones added to water inside container
  • Foods added to boiling water (stone boiling).
  • Used for roots, bulbs, plants, and meat

34
Ancient Shelters
  • Ancient lifestyle required housing that was easy
    to transport and assemble.
  • Some shelters were not mobile.
  • Caves and Rock Shelters
  • Wickiups
  • Pithouses
  • Cribbed log structures
  • Most popular was the tipi.

35
Tipi
  • Is conical in shape.
  • Long, narrow fir poles were placed upright and
    leaning together for support.
  • Animal hides buffalo sewn together formed the
    outer covering.
  • Rocks placed around the bottom of tipi to the
    hide cover down.
  • Exteriors of tipis were sometimes painted with
    symbols and designs.

36
Preserving Ancient Shelters
  • Prehistoric shelters are fragile and rare.
  • Caves, rockshelters, pithouses, wickiups, and
    tipi rings have been disturbed by treasure
    hunters, who seldom find anything. This destroys
    irreplaceable information.
  • Report any archaeological find you discover to
  • USFS (United States Forest Service)
  • BLM (Bureau of Land Management)
  • SHPO (State Historic Preservation Officer)

37
Preserved Art
  • Ancient people used technology to create art to
    express themselves.
  • Based on scientific dating, the oldest rock art
    in Montana is 2,000 years old.
  • Rock art in Montana includes many different kinds
    of designs.
  • Animals
  • People
  • Abstract designs
  • Handprints

38
Pictographs Painted Images
  • Drawn with liquid paints or solid crayons
  • Raw pigment is ground to a powder
  • Pigment obtained from
  • Charcoal
  • Local hematite
  • Red clay earth
  • Powder is mixed with animal fat until sticky
  • Painted with animal hair brushes or with fingers
    and hands.

39
Pictograph Image
  • Handprints common in Montana rock art.
  • Sometimes drawn.
  • Sometimes hands dipped in red ochre paint, like
    these.

40
Petroglyphs Carved Images
  • Lines of petroglyph were carved with pointed
    stone tools or antler tines.
  • Sometimes evidence of use of hammerstone seen.
  • Most petroglyphs were on sandstone, which is
    softer and smoother than other kinds of rocks.
  • Many rock art sites are sacred to modern Indians.
  • Sites can be viewed, but shouldnt be touched
    because they are fragile.

41
Dating Petroglyphs
  • Some rock art can be dated by the type of images
    portrayed. This depiction of a person was made
    some after A.D. 1700, when the horse and the gun
    were first acquired by Montanas native people.

42
Optional Extension Activity Click on Link
desired from choices below
  • Cooking Making Pemmican
  • Art Rock Art
  • Traditions - Storytelling
  • Plants Native Plant Research and Writing
  • Artifacts - Quicktime Movie
  • Flintknapping

43
Extension Activity Rock Art
44
Rock Art contd
Back to Choices
45
Flintknapping - Quicktime Movie
  • View a Quicktime movie on flintknapping performed
    at the Huntsville Archaeological Fair in 2006.
  • http//tides.sfasu.edu/Teachers/Tides/docs/Virtual
    Expeditions/videos/htpp.html
  • Right-click and save-as to download.
  • (This take at least ten minutes to download and
    another ten to view. Have an additional activity
    ready to perform while youre waiting for the
    Quicktime movie to download.)
  • After downloading is finished, click play button
    to view.

Back to Choices
46
Extensions - Storytelling
  • Stars in prehistoric times
  • people used the stars for navigating.
  • There were no bright lights to interfere with the
    starlight entering the atmosphere.
  • Stories were told about how some of the stars
    came to be.
  • Imagine you are a Paleolithic Montanan viewing a
    sky filled with stars.
  • Just like the ancients did, you can see patterns
    in the stars the patterns are called
    constellations.
  • Write a story about a mythical creature or a
    special human(s) that you can pick out from a
    star arrangement with your unaided eye.
  • Visit the web site on the next slide to get
    started.

47
Extensions Creative Storytelling
  • Open your web browser.
  • In the address box, type the URL
    www.sky-map.org.
  • At the site, use the zoom slider bar to make the
    image zoom out (to one notch away from the top of
    the zoom slider bar).
  • Click on the circled icon to display the
    constellations.
  • Follow directions on the next slide.

48
Creative Storytelling contd
  • Click on the circled icon to view the night sky
    above your location.
  • Enter your location in the search box when the
    dialog box appears.
  • When the dialog box returns your latitude and
    longitude, click on Go to see a view of the
    night sky above Butte.
  • Make sure your zoom slider bar is not all the way
    to the top or the star patterns are difficult to
    see.
  • Engage your imagination as you view the night sky.

Back to Choices
Pick out a pattern in the stars that you like and
write an imaginary story about it. Be creative.
Be original. Be descriptive. Use good writing
style.
49
Extension Activity - Cooking
  • We will make pemmican the indigenous way
    following the recipe provided by The Montana
    Historical Society on the next slide.
  • For fun, you can visit a web site to see a
    healthy energy bar that resembles pemmican.
    Contemporary Lakotas run this company. (Click on
    web sites Back button to return here.)

Back to Choices
50
Back to Choices
51
Extension Activity for Plants
  • Choose a native Montana plant from either of the
    two lists youll find at the links below.
    Research the plant using at least two sources to
    make the research your own.
  • List of Native Plants (ones with language
    translation)
  • More Native Plants (ones without language
    translation)
  • An excellent resource for researching Montanas
    plants can be found at this site.

More
Back to Choices
52
Extension Activity Plants (contd)
  • EITHER
  • You will write, edit, rewrite, and illustrate
    your chosen plant, which we will bind into a
    class book. Answer the 11 questions on the
    following slide as you research.
  • From http//www.nps.gov/glac/forteachers/4-6-unit-
    three-activity-2-native-harves.htm

OR You will complete a Writing Portfolio
assignment as outlined in Butte School District
1 Writing Curriculum.
Back to Choices
53
Plant Research Questions
  • 1. List the common and scientific names and your
    local tribes name (if available) for the plant
    you have chosen to research. Give a physical
    description of the plant.
  • 2. How is this plant used by native peoples? What
    parts were used and how were they prepared for
    use?
  • 3. Were there any special ceremonies or rituals
    observed when gathering, preparing and using this
    plant?
  • 4. Are there any special legends or traditional
    stories involved with the use of this plant?
  • 5. How does the plant reproduce? How does it
    spread into new territory?
  • 6. In what sort of environment would you look for
    this plant? Does it have special requirements for
    soil, moisture, elevation, shelter, etc.?
  • 7. Is this plant usually found in association
    with other plants?
  • 8. Does your plant have any special relationships
    with other plants or animals?
  • 9. What special contributions does your plant
    make to its habitat?
  • 10. Are there any plants or animals that make
    life difficult for your plant? Is it a rare or
    threatened species?
  • 11. What other interesting information
    can you supply about your plant?

Back to Choices
54
List of Native Plants
  • Serviceberry
  • Tree lichen
  • Blue camas
  • Biscuitroot
  • Chokecherry
  • Bitterroot
  • Lodgepole pine
  • Huckleberry
  • Yampa
  • Western red cedar

Back to Choices
55
More Montanas Native Plants
  • Other plants native to Montana that you may also
    research are
  • Balsamroot
  • Glacier lily
  • Yellow bells
  • Alumroot
  • Kinnikinnick
  • Horsetail
  • Wild rose
  • Buffalo berry
  • Willow
  • Purple coneflower
  • Oregon grape

Back to Questions
56
Montanas Native Plants
  • Serviceberry (sarvisberry, Saskatoonberry)
  • Amelanchier alnifolia (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet ok-kun-okinKootenai squmuSalish s
    saq Black

Back to List
Back to Questions
57
Montanas Native Plants
  • Tree lichen
  • Alectoria fremontii (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet e-simatch-sis
  • Kootenai a a
  • Salish sawtamqan

Back to List
Back to Questions
58
Montanas Native Plants
  • Blue Camas
  • Camassia quamash (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet miss-issiaKootenai xapiSalish
    ltxwe?

Back to List
Back to Questions
59
Montanas Native Plants
  • Biscuit-root (coos-root)
  • Lomatium cous (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet koosKootenai NaptnuqukuSalish pcLu

Back to List
Back to Questions
60
Montanas Native Plants
  • Chokecherry
  • Prunus virginiana (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet pukkeepKootenai A ki'lmakSalish
    txwLo

Back to List
Back to Questions
61
Montanas Native Plants
  • Bitterroot
  • Lewisia rediviva (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet eks-ix-ixKootenai NaqamuSalish
    spegt am

Back to List
Back to Questions
62
Montanas Native Plants
  • Lodgepole pine
  • Pinus contorta (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet manistamiKootenai I ti t'Salish
    qwqwLi?t

Back to List
Back to Questions
63
Montanas Native Plants
  • Huckleberry
  • Vaccinium globulare (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet apa-oapspiKootenai awiyaSalish
    stsa

Back to List
Back to Questions
64
Montanas Native Plants
  • Yampa (wild carrot)
  • Perideridia gairdneri (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet nitzi-katasiKootenai Ni'naSalish
    sgtukwam

Back to List
Back to Questions
65
Montanas Native Plants
  • Western red cedar
  • Thuja plicata (Genus species)
  • Blackfeet sixinikokKootenai I'nat'Salish
    astqw

Back to List
Back to Questions
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