RSS
Home
History of Yellowstone Park
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The Yellowstone Park area is a series of high volcanic plateaus averaging over 8000 feet in height above sea level. The pine forest covered plateaus are actually massive volcanic flows. About 60,000 years ago a giant crater of 1000 square miles was formed by a series of violent eruptions which spewed out tons of molten rock from just beneath the surface leaving a thin crust which collapsed forming the crater. Subsequent lava flow and forest growth now obscure the massive crater.
Yellowstone Park went through three ice age periods and glaciation: one about 25,000 B.C., one about 10,000 B.C., and one at 6500 B.C. By 6500 B.C. Homo sapiens was at the Park judging from archaeological remains. Early inhabitants to the region went there for hunting for food and clothing, to find materials to make weapons, to gain refuge from other hostile groups or climate, and to find precious stones like obsidian.
.jpg)
Obsidian Rock http://www.galleries.com/minerals/MINERALO/OBSIDIAN/obsidian.htm
When lava cools quickly volcanic glass or obsidian is formed. Before Columbus, obsidian was a highly valued trade item in Mexico (Aztecs) and Guatemala (Mayans) and in North America. Obsidian, when flaked, makes a very sharp edge for cutting tools. The best known source in the Yellowstone National Park for obsidian is Obsidian Cliff half-way between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction in the northwest part of the Park. This was the route I drove out of the Park when I was there in May 2009. http://www.examiner.com/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m5d19-Yellowstone-On-a-Budget
At least 8,000 to 10,000 years ago American Indians were visiting the Yellowstone Park area for hunting game and to find obsidian. The archaeological periods represented by finds of hunting spear tips are Clovis (9500 B.C.), Folsom (9000-8000 B.C.), Plano (8000-5500 B.C.), and Archaic (5000 B.C.) periods. Homo sapiens was visiting the Yellowstone Park region between 11,500 to 7500 years ago. Mummy Cave in Wyoming just east of the Park on the North Fork Shoshone River was lived in off and on over a 9,000 year period. http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/aamonth/2007.asp
.jpg)
Mummy Cave Wyoming
After the Archaic Period, more settled life styles developed with agriculture and co-operative hunting beginning in the Folsom Period. In the Prehistoric Period, (5000 to 500 B.C.) the weapon used for hunting was the spear and atlatl, a wooden tool used to launch the spear. The bow and stone tipped arrow came into use about 2,000 B.C. and there is the question of where that technology originated and how did the bow and arrow technology find it's way to North America. In the Late Prehistoric period (500 B.C.) there was a large human population in the Park region.
.jpg)
The Spear Throwing Tool Atlatl
The horse was introduced by the Spanish to the area around present day Sante Fe, New Mexico around 1600 A.D. and the horse spread rapidly into the Plains and Plateaus of western North America. Shoshones had horses by 1700 or 1720 A.D.
Blackfoot also lived in the Yellowstone Park area until the early 1800s when the Blackfoot population suffered a large decline due to small pox and other diseases. Major epidemics occurred in 1781, 1837, and 1869-70. 6000 Blackfoot, two-thirds of their population, died in 1837. The January 1870 Baker Massacre on the Marias River further hampered the Blackfoot in the area that is now Montana. http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=615
The Crow Tribe arrived later. Early accounts claim that the Crow separated from Hidatsa farming villages on the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota, about 1776, and arrived in southern Montana but they had already established a Plains life style. The Crow speak a Siouan language (Teton, Yankton, Sisseton, Mandan, Assiniboine, Osage, Omaha, Hidatsa, and Crow). The Crow name for themselves is Ap sar roo kai which actually means "a thing that flies." Crows are known for their excellent horsemanship and distinctive styles of beautiful clothing decorated with beads and porcupine quills. Crows also hunted in the Yellowstone Park area but the tribe that is most often associated with living in the Park are the Shoshone ("Snakes") of southern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northwest Utah. The Bannock Indians of southwest Idaho lived among the Shoshone and are closely related to them. The Bannocks were Northern Paiutes from Oregon that moved to southern Idaho in about 1600 A.D. The Bannocks call themselves Banakwut. The Shoshone call them Ba naite (the people from below). Both of these tribes had horses by the early 1700s.
The Shoshone, believed to have arrived in the Yellowstone Park area about 1300 A.D., are Uto-Aztecan speakers and their language is related to that of the Hopi (northern Arizona) and Aztecs (Valley of Mexico). There are several bands of Shoshone. The Lemhi Shoshone of central Idaho and Salmon River mountains, the Northern Shoshone of southern Idaho and northern Utah, and the Eastern Shoshone of western Wyoming. The Shoshone names for themselves are based upon dietary staples, e. g., Kutzundika (Buffalo Eaters), Agaidika (Salmon Eaters), and Tukudika (Sheep Eaters).
Shoshone http://www.shoshoneindian.com/
The Shoshone called the Sheep Eaters lived in the high mountain plateaus and valleys of what is today Yellowstone Park. Earliest reports of them are from explorers and trappers. In 1811 the Hunt party bound for Astoria, Oregon crossed the Rockies just south of the Grand Tetons and camped near present day St. Anthony, Idaho. A Shoshone man and his son visited their camp. They had bows and obsidian point arrows and wore deer and sheepskin clothing of the best quality.
Even after Yellowstone became a National Park in 1872, the Sheep Eaters lived in wikeups and inaccessible niches and caves around Mammoth Hot Springs, the shores of Yellowstone Lake, the Hoodoo Region, and all the sheltered valleys of the Park. The Bannock that lived in this region were called panaiti toyani (mountain dwellers). These groups sometimes had few horses and used the dog travois. They had beautiful clothing from tanned elk, deer, and sheepskin. They were known for fine quality tanning because they used two brains per hide. They made moccasins from elk and badger hides, hats and leggings from fox and coyote with the fur left on, and blankets from antelope lined with rabbit. Wolf skin made highly prized blankets and they could trade their quality hides for buffalo robes, awls, axes, kettles, tobacco and ammo.
http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/history.html
They made sheep horn bows, a powerful composite bow, worth 5 to 10 ponies in trade. They also had stone cooking pots from the steatite quarries in the Wind River, Teton, and Big Horn mountains.
(1).jpg)
The Bannock Trail dates to pre-history and it was just one of the many routes used to cross the Rockies.
One band of the Shoshone, the Tavonasia of the Washakie (Wind River Shoshone), camped near the Yellowstone Park geysers and bathed in the hot springs and prayed to the spirits. The Nez Perces when they were passing through the Park after leaving Oregon used water from the hot springs for cooking. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1549.html http://www.3rd1000.com/history3/events/bannock.htm
One of the nice things about living in the Billings, Montana area is that we are in very close proximity to Yellowstone National Park. Just take Interstate 90 to Laurel and then take U.S. Highway 212 right to the Park. http://mapquest.com
Gregan Wortmann
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
Single, married or something in between? Find what you need for Valentine's Day.
