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• The 5pparent end of the Fremont Culture in the region is roughly coincident with the <br />drought of t1.D. 1275-1300 and the ensuing influx of people f7om the Southavest into the <br />Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Although new investigations are being conducted into <br />Post Fremont formative groups that occupied Northwest Colorado and Utah. Newcomers to <br />the area were part of a larger group of Numic Speakers (Shoshonean) of the Uto-Aztecan <br />language phylum (Smith 1974:10). Descendants of these people are the historically <br />documented Utc and Piute groups that occupied the Northern Colorado Plateau and Great <br />Basin areas. Linguists are fairly certain that the Numic speakers were in southwestern <br />Colorado by A. D. 1300. Their appearance in the Fremont territory ca. A.D. 1200 is based on <br />finds of Sltosltone pottery mired with the upper strata of Fremont artifacts in many cave sites <br />in Utalt (Jennings 1973:235). Unfortunately, evidence of their early cultural material is scant, <br />which precludes a precise description of their lifeway. <br />As shown in the studies by lennings, a specific pottery type is a chronological <br />indicator of early Ute sites. It is a cntde brownware made with a coarse temper of crushed <br />rock and fired at low temperatures. It was first named by Buckles as Uncompahgre <br />Rrownware and was stratigraphically assigned a date of A.D. 1550 to 13S I (Buckles <br />1971:505). However, the date for the pottery leas been pushed back by recent finds. Grand <br />River Institute recovered charcoal and Uncompahgre Browmvare from a washed out hearth <br />feature in site SRB3939, located in the Piceance Basin. A calibrated date of A. D. 1350tS5 <br />. • (SSOt30 BP, Beta-37S l9) resulted from the processing of the carbon sample. At the Pioneer <br />Point Site, located in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, Uncompahgre Brownware <br />ceramics (micaceors and non-micaceous tempered) were also recovered and dated. Over <br />_, seven hundred sherds were recovered. These were associated with features dating ca. A. D. <br />1476, 474170 B.P., and A. D. 1466, 4S4tS0 Q.P. (Dial 1989:19). <br />Diagnostic of the Ute occupation in western Colorado are small tri-notched points or <br />side-notcltetl points having a concave base, called Desert Side-notched, and narrow <br />ttnnotched points, referred to as Cottomvood Triangular. Besides the Pioneer Point Site, two <br />other single component sites found in west-central Colorado and east-central Utalt containing <br />these point types have been dated. Site SML•5997, an open campsite on Glade Park, <br />produced a C-14 date of ca. A.D. 1410 (Conner and Piontkowski, in progress). Site <br />•~ 42GR2236, an open campsite located near Moab, yielded a date of ca A.D. IZSO (Reed <br />~ 1990). Desert Side-notched and Cottomvood projectile points were also found at the <br />Pioneer Point Site. Metal points were a fairly recent addition to the projectile types and <br />'~ probably do not date earlier than the IS00's. <br />Campsites that the Utes occupied within the past 100 to 200 years often leave remains <br />1 of small teepees (frameworks of six to eight poles for skin coverings) and wickiups (small <br />bntsh- orbark-covered stntctures) that are found throughout western Colorado. Amore <br />permanent cultural manifestation of the Utes is their rock art. Their rock art adorns many <br />canyon walls, caves and boulders in the region. <br />I~ ~ 10 <br />1~ <br />