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°-SEARCH PROBLE`,1S <br />Based on a review of the literature, several problems can be considered when conducting <br />archaeological investigations in the area. The first problem is the presence of material <br />from both Plains and Great Basin stylistic affiliations, and the difficulty in determining <br />whether stylistic similarity indicates cultural affinity. Several authors have begun to <br />address this problem, though no frsme~vork ir. v:hich to conduct field investigations <br />relevant to this problem has been proposed. <br />Ward-Williams and Foster (19'x6) hypothesize that the Yampa River Basin was of major <br />importance in cultural contact between the Plains and the Great Basin. Implicit in this <br />hypothesis is the idea that distinct aboriginal cultures developed in both the Plains and <br />the Great Basin, and made contact as discrete cultural entitle. in the Yampa Basin. <br />Benedict and Olson (1978) suggest a high altitude origin of the ;V1eKean Technocomplex <br />from an Early Archaic adaptation. In their view, a widespread Archaic complex <br />originated from high altitude refuges during the Altithermal. 'This adaptation then <br />spread into the Plains and the Great Basin '~•~-~~ a ~~mmon ancestral area. There are <br />• major differences between the concep~s o :~'.rr.<lict, :vho proposes a single origin and <br />Ltiard-Williams, who implies multiple origins :.o,~ ^~.~::i~a:r; complexes. Recovery of datable <br />material from the Steamboat area, as tve~l as from the surrounding region, would <br />contribute to the goal of understanding the relationships between the Plains and the <br />Great Basin. <br />Another problem, which has been discussed by ^;;veral authors but not e]aborated upon, is <br />settlement pattern. Sites have been foii~id t.^ ,.: 'ocated in passes, saddles, and sage flats <br />above water, with the unifying attribute ,i E~roxirnity to water. An avoidance of <br />northern exposures and of grades greater t.;~an 5040 has also been noted (Arthur 1977; <br />iVlcNamara 1978; Ward-Williams and Fo:;te: 19711). T;ase characteristics have been <br />discovered in different topographic sii~stions, such ns the Routt National Forest and the <br />Yampa Basin. <br />One profitable regional research orientation might focus on changes in site types and <br />environmental and topographic relati~~~i:hip.; through time. Such an orientation would <br />allow for development of a regional perspective on changing patterns of aboriginal <br />settlement and subsistence. <br />,o <br />