Adornment Assemblage Linked to Wyoming Native American Site

RIVER BEND, WYOMING—In the 1970s, archaeologists conducting a salvage operation prior to construction discovered a significant Native American site near the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming. However, much of the material from the River Bend site, officially known as 48NA202, was lost or scattered over the past five decades and never fully studied. Science News Today reports that researchers have recently collected and reanalyzed artifacts from the site, revealing that it characterizes a pivotal time in Native American history that bridges both the pre- and post-European contact periods. The site is particularly exceptional for the more than 5,000 adornment artifacts that were found—the largest adornment assemblage ever found in the state. The objects, which are made from bone, stone, ocher, metal, shell, and antler, represent indigenous traditions but also new technologies and changing styles. For the Indigenous peoples of the Plains, personal adornments were far more than decoration; they conveyed identity, status, family ties, spiritual beliefs, and individual achievements. The team was surprised to find objects of European origin, such as metal awls, which would have gradually replaced native tools made from bone or stone. “We haven’t seen awls like this at other sites from the same period,” said Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton. “But they seem to be among the first types of metal tools to appear at early contact sites.” Experts believe the area was associated with the Eastern Shoshone people and was inhabited between 1700 and 1725. To read about tools used to sew cold weather clothing 13,000 years ago in Wyoming's High Plains, go to "Ice Age Needlework."