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• The apparent end of the Fremont Culture in the region is rouglily coincident with the <br />drought of A.D. 1275-1300 and the ensuing inFlux of people from the Southwest 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 Ute 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. 1300 is based on <br />finds of Shoshone pottery mixed with the upper strata of Fremont artifacts in many cave sites <br />in Utah (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 Jennings, 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 />Browmvare and was stratigraphically assigned a date of A.D. 1550 to I S31 (Buckles <br />1971:505), However, the date for the pottery has been pushed back by recent finds. Grand <br />River Institute recovered charcoal and Uncompahgre Brownware from a washed out hearth <br />feature in site SRB2929, located in the Piceance Basin. A calibrated date of A.D. 1350185 <br />• ($80180 BP, Beta-37319) resulted from the processing of the carbon sample. At the Pioneer <br />j Point Site, located in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, Uncompahgre Brownware <br />' ceramics (micaceous and non-micaceous tempered) were also recovered and dated. Over <br />i., seven hundred sherds were recovered. These were associated with features dating ca. A. D. <br />~ 1476, 474170 B.P., and A. D. 1466, 484tS0 B.P. (Dial 1959:19). <br />,., Diagnostic of the Ute occupation in western Colorado are small tri-notched points or <br />side-notched points leaving a concave base, called Desert Side-notched, and narrow <br />tinnotclted points, referred to as Cottomvood Triangular. Besides the Pioneer Point Site, two <br />re other single component sites found in west-central Colorado and east-central Utah containing <br />~ ; these point types have been dated. Site SN(L-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 />±1 42GR223G, an open campsite located near Moab, yielded a date of ca A. D. 1280 (Reed <br />.!~ 1990). Desert Side-notched and Cottomvood projectile points were also found at the <br />Pioneer Point Site. Nletal points were a fairly recent addition to tl~e projectile types and <br />'1 probably do not date earlier than the I S00's. <br />J <br />Campsites that the Utes occupied within the past 100 to 200 years oRen leave remains <br />"j of small teepees (frameworks of six to eight poles for skin coverings) and wickiups (small <br />~ brush- orbark-covered structures) 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 />~• 10 <br />~~~ <br />L~ <br />