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Posted by Ballpark Frank (24.237.94.196) on 11:29:28 09/20/14
In Reply to: It was interesting... posted by Lynnette
Lynnette,
Thanks for providing this additional information. It is definitely relevant to what was going on at Hudson-Meng. Here are some thoughts on these clues:
1.) The fact that almost all the skeletons were cows or calves could be attributed to either or both of two factors. Osborne Russell, the early trapper and fur trader, quoted in "Journal of a Trapper" speaks repeatedly of he and his companions seeking out a "nice, fat cow" when hunting bison for food. My impression is that cow bison meat was more tender and possibly tasted better. Another possible factor could be that cows and calves were easier (and safer) to dispatch with whatever method these people were using. There was, and still is, a considerable difference in size and strength between bison cows and calves.
2.) I'm fairly ignorant on any possible uses that pre-contact people may have used for bison skulls, other than maybe decorative or spiritual; and that might be more a product of my watching too many old western movies. Depending on how exposed these skeletons were since European-Americans visited this area, skulls may have been picked up and taken home, much the same as people throughout the U.S. have gathered arrowheads and other artifacts over the years. In my readings, I don't remember coming across much information on what practical uses native people had for bison skulls. They sure used virtually all of the remainder of the animal, including using bone to fashion buttons and sewing needles.
3.) The fact that the calves were almost all 6 months or 18 months old when harvested is very significant! It definitely pinpoints the seasonality of the site. Of course, there remains the question of whether both the bison and the native people were seasonal, or whether just one of the groups was. The idea that the coats were prime makes a boatload of sense. A parallel factor could be that fall is also when bison and other ungulates are the "fattest". I recall Dr. Jim Halfpenny talking about how "in summer, grazing animals eat the cereal. In winter, they eat the box." Literally, in places like Yellowstone, bison and elk are starving, from a nutritional standpoint, through the winter. Annually, it is a race to see who can survive to green-up. We hear plenty of stories of bison, deer, elk, and pronghorn dying in late winter or early spring, with their stomachs full of nutritionally worthless plant matter they have eaten during the lean months.
4.) This bison size thing is so confusing. There has been a lot of discussion about "mountain bison" versus "plains bison", particularly in the early days of European-American in-migration to the west. Supposedly, Joel or Milton Estes found a mountain bison carcass or skeleton up high in what is now Rocky Mountain National Park, back in the 1870s or 1880s, but years later, nobody could locate it. Now, we have this situation where many people argue about whether Yellowstone's bison are the only remaining genetic reservoir of "pure" bison. Even that argument flies in the face of historic fact, like how bison were imported from one or more ranches in Texas to bolster the Yellowstone herd. The only certain way of settling this conflict would be to plot the genotypes of every Yellowstone bison. Up here in Alaska, we have a herd of wood bison, descended from a small herd discovered in a remote area of Alberta, long after wood bison were thought to be extinct. The employees at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center tell visitors that wood bison are larger than the plains bison in Yellowstone and other places in the western U.S. I have wrestled with this repeatedly when I visit the place. When I was in Yellowstone in August, I was told by a knowledgeable party that the wood bison are a bit taller in stature, but not any heavier in weight. It sent my brain spinning. We do have plenty of examples of animal species whose forbears were much larger, like bears, tigers, elephants, etc. In the case of bison, the size thing seems real confusing in the lack of a thorough genetic analysis (and agreement on what you are measuring, i.e. height, length, stature, etc.).
Ballpark
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