2018-03-19_PERMIT FILE - C1981019 (2)

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Data Recovery Repot for Three Sites at the Collom Project Colowyo Coal Company Thermal feature use increases during this period throughout the Intermountain West. Feature styles and diversity remain similar as the ones documented for the Archaic Era. Regional thermal feature radiocarbon date frequencies are at their highest level during the Formative Era throughout the Intermountain West (Creasman and Thompson 1997; Reed and Metcalf 1999; Spangler 2000). Researchers debate if the high radiocarbon frequency reflects human population increases; increased use of thermal features; or a taphomic/sampling phenomenon. 2.5 Protohistoric The Protohistoric lasted from approximately AD 1300 to 1881. The Numic speaking Ute were the predominant protohistoric tribe of the northern Colorado River Basin. (Reed and Metcalf 1999). The Ute archaeological sites are often identified by the presence of Uncompahgre Brown -ware ceramics (still rare for the Project region), Cottonwood Triangular projectile points, Desert Side - notched points, and features like wickiups and peeled trees (Church et al. 2007; Martin et al 2005). The Protohistoric period is characterized by a major shift in Native American technological organization, subsistence practices, and demographics. Technologies shifted as indirect and later direct European contact led to the adoption of metal and glass implements and firearms (West 1998). No technological change altered the adaption and cultural of western Colorado Native American groups more than the arrival of the horse. The Ute's rapidly adopted the horse when it arrived in the late 1600s and their range increased onto the western Great Plains. The adoption of the horse and relative isolation of western Colorado made the Ute one of the strongest tribes in the region. In 1849 the Ute signed the Treaty with Utah that submitted the tribe to United States jurisdiction and ensured peace with the Euro -American arrivals to the region. The 1861 Uintah Reservation Executive Order designated much of western Colorado and northeastern Utah to the Ute. However, the original geographic boundaries granted by the order were continually amended and opened to Euro -American settlement under subsequent treaties and forced removals until the region was largely controlled by Euro -Americans by 1881 (Potter 2015). 2.6 Research Design Tetra Tech developed the following research design based on the cultural material discovered at each site; the reported results from the 2005 Collom Expansion baseline cultural resource inventory (Lowe et al. 2006); the Principal Investigator's (PI) regional cultural resource experience; and associated reported archaeological data pertaining to western Colorado. The research questions presented here are designed to overlap and support one another. Information contributing to one question will help support another and yield a more comprehensive overall analysis of the recovered information. The presented design is not an exhaustive list of all possible research questions. The chosen questions are what the PI determined to be most applicable based on the cultural material observed at each discovery during he developed of the HPTPs. 2.6.1 Cultural Chronology Prehistoric archaeological research requires a strong baseline cultural chronology. Without quality data regarding the potential age and duration of cultural material signatures, higher level research questions cannot be pursued. Several chronologies have been developed specifically for western Colorado (Black 1991, Reed and Metcalf 1999, Stiger 2001). The chronologies are based on regionally specific archaeological research and cultural resource management directed investigations. The first data recovery analysis step is to compare the recovered chronometric data from each site to an established regional chronology. For the current project, Tetra Tech primarily utilized Reed and Metcalfs (1999) cultural chronology with support from the Uinta and Wyoming Basin cultural chronologies as appropriate. Recovered radiometric data will be used to Tetra Tech February 2018 11