Bison Ethology and Native Settlement Patterns During the Old Women's Phase on the Northwestern Plains (Paperback)

Traditionally, it has been thought that the lives of bison and Native Americans were intricately entwined, with the movement of the animals influencing the movement and behaviour of the people. However, there is another school of thought that argues that there was no mass migration of bison and that the encounters between people and bison were less predictable. This thesis examines different types of evidence, includig ethnography, oral traditions and bison dental remains, to uncover trends in the movement of bison and their relation to identified human sites, focusing on twenty-one sites on the northwestern plains dating to the Old Women's Phase or late prehistoric period.