Chapter 2 An introduction to Yellowstone and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
2.4 The Original Inhabitants of Yellowstone
It is a common misconception that Yellowstone National Park was uninhabited when the first European Explorers arrived in the region in the 1800’s. The human history of the Yellowstone region goes back more than 11,000 years. The stories of people in Yellowstone are preserved in archeological sites and objects that convey information about past human activities in the region, and in people’s connections to the land that provide a sense of place or identity.
Today, park managers use archeological and historical studies to help us understand how people lived here in the past. Ethnography helps us learn about how groups of people identify themselves and their connections to the park. Research is also conducted to learn how people continue to affect and be affected by these places, many of which have been relatively protected from human impacts. Some alterations to the landscape, such as the construction of roads and other facilities, are generally accepted as necessary to accommodate the needs of visitors today. Information on the possible consequences of modern human activities, both inside and outside the parks, is used to determine how best to preserve Yellowstone’s natural and cultural resources, and the quality of the visitors’ experience.
The Earliest Humans in Yellowstone
Human occupation of the greater Yellowstone area seems to follow environmental changes of the last 15,000 years. How far back is still to be determined— there are no known sites in the park that date to this time—but humans probably were not using this landscape when glaciers and a continental ice sheet covered most of what is now Yellowstone National Park. The glaciers carved out valleys with rivers that people could follow in pursuit of Ice Age mammals such as the mammoth and the giant bison. The last period of ice coverage ended 13,000–14,000 years ago, sometime after that, but before 11,000 years ago, humans were here on this landscape.
Archeologists have found physical evidence of human presence in the form of distinctive stone tools and projectile points. From these artifacts, scientists surmise that they hunted mammals and gathered berries, seeds, and plants.
As the climate in the Yellowstone region warmed and dried, the animals, vegetation, and human lifestyles also changed. Large Ice Age animals that were adapted to cold and wet conditions became extinct. The glaciers left behind layers of sediment in valleys in which grasses and sagebrush thrived, and pockets of exposed rocks that provided protected areas for aspens and fir to grow. The uncovered volcanic plateau sprouted lodgepole forests. People adapted to these changing conditions and were eating a diverse diet including medium and small animals such as deer and bighorn sheep as early as 9,500 years ago.
This favorable climate would continue more than 9,000 years. Evidence of these people in Yellowstone remained uninvestigated long after archeologists began excavating sites elsewhere in North America. Archeologists used to think high-elevation regions such as Yellowstone were inhospitable to humans and, thus, did little exploratory work in these areas. However, park superintendent Philetus W. Norris (1877–82) found artifacts in Yellowstone and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Today, archeologists study environmental change as a tool for understanding human uses of areas such as Yellowstone.
More than 1,850 archeological sites have been documented in Yellowstone National Park, with the majority dating to the Archaic period. Sites contain evidence of successful hunts for bison, sheep, elk, deer, bear, cats, and wolves. Campsites and trails in Yellowstone also provide evidence of early use. Some of the trails used in the park today have likely been used by people since the Paleoindian period.
Some of the original inhabitants from this area included peoples from the Apsáalooke (also known as the Crow), and Dakota, Nakota, or Lakota peoples collectively known as the Sioux. They arrived sometime during the 1500s and around 1700, respectively. Prehistoric vessels known as “Intermountain Ware” have been found in the park and surrounding area, and these link the Newe, also known as the Shoshone to the area as early as approximately 700 years ago. Many Tribal Nations, who still currently occupy and utilize the Yellowstone area and ecosystem also have in depth knowledge about their peoples’ histories in and around YNP.
Increased Use
Indigenous Peoples seem to have increased their use of the Yellowstone area beginning about 3,000 years ago. During this time, they began to use the bow and arrow, which replaced the atlatl, or spear-thrower, that had been used for thousands of years. With the bow and arrow, people hunted more efficiently. They also developed sheep traps and bison corrals, and used both near the park, and perhaps in it. This increased use of Yellowstone may have occurred when the environment was warmer, favoring extended seasonal use on and around the Yellowstone Plateau. Archeologists and other scientists are working together to study evidence such as plant pollen, landforms, and tree rings to understand how the area’s environment changed over time.
The Little Ice Age
Climatic evidence confirms the Yellowstone area experienced colder temperatures during what is known as the Little Ice Age—mid-1400s to mid-1800s. Archeological evidence indicates fewer people used this region during this time, although more sites dat¬ing to this period have been located. Campsites appear to have been used by smaller groups of people, mostly in the summer. Such a pattern of use would make sense in a cold region where hunting and gathering were practical for only a few months each year.
Historic Tribes
Greater Yellowstone’s location at the convergence of the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau Indian cultures means that many Tribes have a traditional con¬nection to the land and its resources. For thousands of years before Yellowstone became a national park, it was a place where people hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian, and used the thermal waters for religious and medicinal purposes.
Tribal oral histories indicate more extensive use during the Little Ice Age. Kiowa stories place their ancestors here from around C.E. 1400 to 1700. Ancestors to contemporary Blackfeet, Cayuse, Coeur d’Alene, Bannock, Nez Perce, Shoshone, Crow, Sioux, Lakota, and Umatilla, among others, continued to travel the park on the already established trails. They visited geysers, conducted ceremonies, hunted, gathered plants and minerals, and engaged in trade. The Shoshone report family groups came to Yellowstone to gather obsidian, which they used to field-dress bison. Some Tribes used the Fishing Bridge area as a rendezvous site. The Crow occupied the area generally east of the park, and the Blackfeet occupied the area to the north. The Shoshone, Bannock, and other Tribes of the plateaus to the west traversed the park annually to hunt on the plains to the east. Other Shoshonean groups hunted in open areas west and south of Yellowstone. In the early 1700s, some Tribes in this region began to acquire the horse. Some historians believe the horse fundamentally changed their lifestyles because Tribes could now travel faster and farther to hunt bison and other animals of the plains.
Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters
The Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters, were a band of Mountain Shoshone that lived for thousands of years in the area that would become Yellowstone National Park. Throughout the park, archaeological sites reflect use of resources within this landscape by the Tukudika and other Native American Tribes.
The Name Tukudika
Traditionally, Shoshone names were derived from places the bands traveled to or from foods they hunted or gathered. Tukudika (also Tukudyka’a, Tukadika) means “eaters of the mountain sheep.” The Tukudika lived in northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho. Related bands bore the names “salmon eaters,” “elk eaters,” and “bison eaters.”
Because the name Sheep Eater can appear to equate these peoples with the bighorn sheep itself, the term was once considered derogatory. The name Sheep Eater suggests a Shoshone social hierarchy on which the Tukudika occupied one of the lowest rungs: whereas other Shoshone bands were hunting and consuming the “grander” bison and elk, the Tukudika were hunting the “inferior,” elusive, mountain-dwelling bighorn sheep. Contemporary understanding of this name is more nuanced. The name does not signify that Tukudika ate only bighorn sheep; it means, simply, that the bighorn sheep was this group’s primary source of meat. Indeed, the Tukudika’s diet consisted of at least 50% plants, roots, nuts, and berries. However, the visceral connection between the Tukudika and the bighorn sheep is undeniable, for these peoples made their hunting bows from the same animal these weapons were designed to kill.
Tukudika Culture
Traveling in extended-family groups, the Tukudika followed the park’s rivers and streams to hunt game, harvest plants, and find suitable campsites. They traveled to higher elevations in the warmer months and stayed at lower elevations, often outside “park” boundaries, during the colder months. According to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of southeastern Idaho, some Tukudika stayed in the park year-round.
Obsidian Cliff is important to Tukudika culture. When they lived in the park, the Tukudika quar¬ried obsidian (dupi or tuupi) at this site. Working in family groups, they quarried pits atop Obsidian Cliff with shovels made from bison or elk bone. (Archaeologists have identified and stud¬ied more than 50 obsidian quarries at this site.) After quarrying the obsidian (volcanic glass), the Tukudika worked the material with elk antlers. A cantaloupe-sized rock yielded two to three arrow¬heads. Because of its sharpness, obsidian was the primary material for arrowheads and tools. It played roles in medicine and religion as well. More information on the importance of this site and its resource can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/ photosmultimedia/0006sheepeater-cliff-iy.htm. The Tukudika paired arrowheads manufactured from obsidian and other stone materials with well-designed, extremely durable hunting bows made from the horns and sinews of bighorn sheep. They soaked the horns in geothermal waters to soften them, then shaped the pliable horns into bows. These highly effective bows were sought-after objects which the Tukudika traded with other Tribes throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Plains. Sheepskin was used to make distinctive, high-quality clothing, another desirable trade goods from this Native American group.
The Tukudika were skillful hunters. They designed drive lines and corrals to aid in the hunting of big-horn sheep, and they built fish traps of stone and timber. Unlike most other Indian Tribes of the western United States, including other bands of Shoshone, the Tukudika did not adopt the horse. Instead, they continued to hunt on foot, accompanied by dogs (satii, sadee). These medium to large dogs resembled both wolves and huskies and served as both work dogs and companions. Some scholars have speculated that hunting on horseback would have hindered the group’s techniques for alpine hunting. Dogs were used to pull travois (two-pole sleds) laden with game or belongings. Evidence that Native Americans, possibly Tukudika, were buried with their dogs has been found throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
For cooking and storage, the Tukudika made bowls and other containers out of steatite, or soapstone, a metamorphic rock soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. Although steatite is a soft stone, it is surprisingly durable. Steatite deposits are plentiful throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but archaeologists have not yet determined whether this material was quarried in the park. Some archaeologists claim the vessels were cached and returned to, season after season. Others interpret the containers as heirlooms or as ceremonial vessels and maintain that the Tukudika would have transported them from site to site. These bowls are distinct from Intermountain Ware, a type of pottery made from different clays and tempers and associated with other Shoshone groups. The Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner, Montana, houses several steatite bowls and pottery sherds found in the park.
The Tukudika built simple yet versatile shelters composed of curved lodgepole and grass thatching. When situated against a rock face, these newe-gahni (Shoshone houses, houses built to suit a specific purpose) proved sturdy and resistant to the elements. These structures are similar to, but probably distinct from, the wickiup, or conical timber lodge, a structure found throughout the park and associated with several Tribes.
Encounter
The stories that a culture creates and transmits are rooted in that culture’s traditions, customs, social mores, and belief system. When two cultures en¬counter one another, misunderstandings and con-flicts can arise. In the Rocky Mountain West, some of the first recorded stories of encounter between European-Americans and Indigenous peoples came from Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery expedition of 1804–6. Thirty years later, Osborne Russell, a young fur-trapper, wrote some of the first descrip-tions of European-American—Tukudika encounters in the park. In 1835, he met a small group of Tukudika in the Lamar Valley, and he portrayed them favorably, if somewhat romantically. Other explorers and trappers were not so open-minded. Many accounts were one-sided, prejudiced, fearful, or even hostile. These stories and reports failed to consider the Indigenous peoples’’ agency, self-sufficiency, and vast knowledge of Yellowstone’s landscape and resources.
Accounts of the Tukudika had far-reaching ramifications. Unflattering stories, coupled with fear-mongering directed at “savage” and “primitive Indians”, built public support for the United States government’s removal of Yellowstone-area Indigenous peoples to reservations. To the founders of the world’s first national park, true wilderness was uninhabited wilderness. They believed that Native Americans did not belong in the national park and that their removal would enable a return to a pristine paradise.
Change
The Tukudika continued to inhabit the landscape for several years after Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872. By 1900, the Tukudika had been incorporated into the Eastern Shoshone tribe of the Wind River Reservation in central-western Wyoming, and into the Mountain and Lemhi Shoshone and Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho. Once confined to reservations, the Tukudika suffered many imposed barriers to continuing of their traditional lifeways. Today, some Tukudika descendants live on both of the aforementioned reservations. Some of these descendants prefer the name Mountain People to Tukudika or Sheep Eater for its emphasis upon place rather than food source. These peoples and many others from other Tribes who originally occupied the Yellowstone area still have strong connections to the area and some have and practice treaty rights for ceremonial purposes in the park.
Media attributions
- Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook, by the National Park Service is Public Domain. Minor modifications to language were made to the text by Laticia Herkshan.