2022-05-10_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - M1993041

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i 32 neighboring areas probably had some impact on lifeways in northeastern Colorado, the overall subsistence strategy in this area appears to have remained generally similar to that of the Archaic Stage. i By approximately 1, 000 years B.P., cord-marked ceramics began to be replaced by smooth surfaced forms, indicative of the Middle Ceramic period. This transition coincided with the introduction of small side-notched projectile points. Both traits are generally considered diagnostic of the Upper Republican phase which was centered geographically in Nebraska (Cassels 1983: 170- 173) . The temporal span of the Middle Ceramic period in eastern Colorado corresponds also with the Old Woman's phase or Late Side-Notched Arrow Point tradition of the northwestern plains (Reeves 1978) . Although Frison (1978) attributes the appearance of small side-notched projectile points and smooth ceramics on the Wyoming plains to northwestern influences, this region of influence has been traditionally overlooked by Colorado archaeologists . In Eighmy's chronology the Middle Ceramic period terminates at the beginning of the Protohistoric period, ca. 275 years B.P. Previous chronologies, and some contemporary efforts, include a Late Ceramic period between the Middle Ceramic and Protohistoric periods. While a three-part division of the Ceramic period is justified by -morphological changes in artifact assemblages in some regions, eastern Colorado ceramic artifacts exhibit little variability between the onset of the Middle Ceramic period and historic contact. 2.2.4 Protohistoric/Contact Stage This stage is the period between early contacts of American Indians with European items and the beginning of frequent con- tact. Eighmy (1983: 149) notes that virtually all proto-historic stage sites in northeastern Colorado are attributed to the Dismal River Phase of the Plains Apache. Nonetheless, numerous tribes including Palome and Cuartelejo Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, and