The Cherokee Excavations Revisited: Bison Hunting on the Eastern Plains

Abstract

Current models use climate change associated with Holocene Altithermal warming to explain differences between Paleoindian and Archaic bison seasons of kill on the Great Plains. These models, however, do not take into consideration the very different ecological conditions between the eastern and western Plains during this period. Reanalysis of the Cherokee Sewer site bison dentition and fetal elements indicates a late-fall to early-winter season of bison kill on the Paleoindian and Early Archaic horizons, rather than a mid- to late-winter season of kill suggested in the original report. Dentition studies also show a shift in bison mortality from younger animals to older ones during the Altithermal onset and maximum. Combined, these results suggest bison hunters on the eastern Plains used different adaptive strategies to cope with climate change than those seen on the western Plains.