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• II An Overview of Cultural Forces in the~Project Vicinity American Indian Tradition In reference to prehistoric occupations, the study area is outside of both the classic Anasazi and the San Rafael Fremont culture areas. It is, however, located within the geographical area thus far assigned to the Uncompahgre Complex, which, as a regional variant of the Desert culture tradition, has been defined from sites on the Uncompahgre Plateau west of the study area. At this writing few appreciable indications for Anasazi or Fremont manifestations have been noted in the Gunnison "Country." The territory of the historic "Eastern" Ute Peoples (Stewart 1971) covered nearly all of Colorado westward to the Green River in Utah and clear]y encompassed the Gunnison Country as recently outlined by this author in special reference to the Uncompahgre Valley (Baker 1978). According to the most recent investi- gations, the Utes are credited with a long occupation in west-central Colorado, and Buckles (1971) has directly postulated that ancestral Utes are responsible for leaving the archaeological culture record represented in the Uncompahgre Complex. If one accepts Buckles' conclu- sions based on his work on the Uncompahgre Plateau; west-central Colorado may be perceived as having witnessed a relatively steady occupation from • an unknown point in remote prehistory by peoples who participated in the generalized "Archaic" or Desert culture tradition as locally manifested in the Uncompahgre Complex which emerged as "Ute" culture in the historic period. This view is, however, not fully compatible with suggestions of possible population displacements and problems of similarities in archaeological cultures among peoples of potentially differing linguistic backgrounds and cultural heritage. Wormington (1955), Wormington and Lister (1956), and Schroeder (1965) have touched upon such issues, but as of this writing the question of a long Ute ancestry in west-central Colorado is moot, since archaeological data do not exist which will support a counterargument to Buckles' view of a long Ute presence in the area. Much of this issue is linguistic and ethnographic, and will not be resolved in the near future. The chronology which Buckles (Table I) presented for the Uncompahgre Complex is, thus far, the only specific cultural chronology which is rooted in archaeological excavation and applicable to the Gunnison drainage in the vicinity of the present study area. Buckles has postulated nine Phases, in the evolution of the Uncompahgre Complex as it emerged following the Paleo-Indian tradition, which, regionally speaking, is poorly understood. According to Buckles, these Phases commence with the Shavano Phase about 7,000 B.C. and end with the Es Galante Phase which, in a general way, represents the historic Ute Culture (Buckles 1971: Table 6).