2008-03-03_PERMIT FILE - C2006085 (32)

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• 5 communities than in the earlier stages. It is during the final period of the Late Prehistoric Stage, the Protohistoric, that evidence of migrating groups appears, although this evidence is largely confined to the ethnohistoric records. Archaeological evidence is sparse and ambiguous. The Protohistoric Period is defined in the context area as beginning with the abandonment of the Apishapa groups and concomitant appearance of migrating Athapaskan people (i.e. Apachean), and ending at the regular interaction of native groups with Europeans, ca. AD 1725. Lifestyles tended to maintain the continuity seen from earlier periods, with the Athapaskans adopting a more semisedentary lifestyle partially dependent on maize horticulture. A nomadic lifestyle was also continued in some areas with a greater emphasis on bison, although the scant evidence available indicates the continued exploitation of a wide range of both animal and plant resources. The most apparent change in technology is not projectile point types but ceramic styles. While the Protohistoric Apacheans continued to utilize the small side notched and unnotched projectile point types from the earlier periods, their ceramics were manufactured and decorated differently, creating a unique morphology. Historic Overview Comprehensive historic contexts have been written for the general area of the project. The most recent contexts can be found in the Colorado Mountains Historic Context (Mehls 1984) and Colorado History: A Context for Historical Archaeology (Church et al 2007). Most . of the following information is a synthesis of these resources. Spain, the original European claimant of the present study area, held tenuous control of the region throughout the 16`h, 17`h, and 18`" ,centuries by virtue of Coronado's 1540-41 travels. Until the early 1800s, Spanish explorers, military parties, and traders ventured north out of Mexico, eventually settled New Mexico, and continued to venture farther north into Colorado. They traveled both east and west of Colorado's mountains (Bolton 1949:335-359). The French attempted to counter Spanish incursions by aligning with the Native Americans, but their successes were short-lived after the Seven Years War (French and Indian War) began in 1754. France formally relinquished all claims to the area in 1763 and the Mississippi River served as the boundary between the English and the Spanish empires. A Spanish military expedition in 1719, led by Don Antonio de Valverde, traveled as far north as the Upper Arkansas Valley to track down native raiders of Spanish trading centers in New Mexico. Shortly thereafter, negotiations with the raiders led to increased exploration, trading, and trapping in the Colorado High Country (Mehls 1984). These early Spanish provided many of the first European contact experiences for the native Indians of the Colorado High Country, introducing new goods, ideas, and resources (like horses). The United States had obtained the Louisiana Purchase, which included the territory that is now Colorado, in 1803 and sent expeditions west to document this new territory. The Spanish Empire exercised control over the region, especially in the early 1800s, by patrolling the Upper • Arkansas Valley to discourage other European/American trappers and explorers (Mehls 1984).