Laserfiche WebLink
yet be demonstrated in western Colorado. Jennings (1968) discussed <br />• this, but there is as yet no evidence of such a stage in the region. If <br />such evidence were fouiul to be present, it could push the cultural <br />chronology of the area back many thousand years beyond that of the <br />Paleo-indian. As discussed, evidence of pretustoric Indian occupation <br />in mountainous regions, such as those of the Gunnison Country, has been <br />I sparse and is generally believed to represent seasonal exploitation of <br />the environment with little evidence of permanent year-round occupation <br />(Lister 1962:45; Schroeder 1953: and Baker 1980). <br />Score archaeologists working in western Colorado loosely speak of <br />the Archaic Stage which followed the Paleu-Indian and preceded the <br />historic Ute tradition. In using the term "Archaic", these individuals <br />are, however, generally speaking of the basic Desert Culture (Jennings <br />1957) or pre- or incipient pottery tradition which is locally reflected <br />in the Unoarpallgre Crnplex. As pointed out by Buckles, this traditicui <br />may have persisted in the area for nearly 9,000 years. In this period, <br />it has been postulated that the tradition ranained generally stable. It <br />is t)nught to have undergone minor adjustments in the cultural <br />asserblage as a response to local environmental adaptations and contact <br />with peoples of the Fremont and Anasazi persuasions in the general <br />period ca. 700 to 1300 (Buckles 1971). <br />It is important to note that the Escalante Phase (Table 1) may only <br />be representative of the historic Ute culture in the early historic <br />period. Once the Utes acquired horses, their cultural profile changed <br />• dramatically from that of the early historic period. It certainly <br />changed again as part of the Ute's reservation experience during what <br />sane ethnohistorians refer too as the phase of Administrative <br />Stabilization (Leacock and Lurie 1971:9-12). So, while the Fscalante <br />Phase may represent the early historic profile of the Utes, this profile <br />was almost certainly altered enough in the course of the contact <br />experience that otie should be prepared to reoogrize at least two more <br />potential cultural phases within the Fscalante. <br />As outlined, most of the available regional archaeological data is <br />drawn fran the lh~crnpahgre Plateau and other areas west of the actual <br />Rxky Mountains which encompass must of the Gunrison Country and the <br />Orchard Valley Mine Project area. There is no local chronology for the <br />project area except that for west-central Colorado in general. <br />N-~e» expanded baseline cultural resource studies were camienced in <br />1984, only four prelistoric resources were known fran the approximately <br />5,902 acres which had been inventoried in association with development <br />of the Orchard Valley bline up to that time (Baker 1964:58). This <br />included two sites and two isolated finds. The 1984 study (Baker 1984) <br />added 10 additional prehistoric resources to the data base including <br />five isolated finds and five sites. At the conclusio:i of the 1984 field <br />effort, enough resources had been located that it was possible to see <br />srne patterning in the distribution of prehistoric sites in at least a <br />portior. of tl:e North Fork crountry. This limited data base seamed to <br />show a clusterir~y on the terraces and benches at the mouths of streams <br />• w}u;re they issue from the high bluffs o>>to the high terraces of the <br />North Fork Valley itself. These locations appeared to correlate with <br />1V <br />