Unearthing Crow Tribal History
For nearly a decade between 1875 and 1884, the Crow Indian Reservation was located south of present-day Absarokee, Montana. Although the tribe moved farther east in 1884, the nine years of living at Absarokee were times of monumental change for the Crow people. The launch of a road improvement project for Montana Highway 78, which runs through the Crow Indian Reservation's historic Absarokee site, was the impetus for a major archaeological data recovery investigation by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) in consultation and cooperation with the Crow Tribe. These archaeological excavations revealed much about the daily lives of the Crow people of more than a century ago. Knowing the Absarokee area was steeped in Crow tribal history but unsure of what remained, MDT hired a consulting archaeologist to conduct test archaeological investigations in the project corridor. The findings revealed a series of anomalies, indicating the likely presence of artifacts. Test excavations were conducted in Spring 2006, which led to the recovery of many artifacts. The data collected from the test excavations suggested that the site might contain information valuable to understanding history and therefore was determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. A Section 106 memorandum of agreement, executed prior to excavation, outlined an archaeological data recovery plan and stipulated the presence of a Crow tribal monitor during excavations. In June 2011, a year in advance of MDT's planned highway reconstruction, a data recovery excavation was conducted within the right-of-way limits and on some adjacent private land. FHWA provided partial funding for the work, which lasted 6 weeks and uncovered thousands of artifacts. MDT has partnered with Montana's Project Archeology, a joint effort of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management and Montana State University, to develop an archaeological education curriculum for elementary school students based on the findings from the excavation. Due to the size and significance of the site, MDT has postponed the highway reconstruction project and is working on an alternative design to avoid impacts to as much of the archaeological site as possible.
- Record URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1586080
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Authors:
- Platt, Steve
- Woodmansey, Alan
- Publication Date: 2012-7
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Print
- Features: Photos;
- Pagination: pp 16-19
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Serial:
- Public Roads
- Volume: 76
- Issue Number: 1
- Publisher: Federal Highway Administration
- ISSN: 0033-3735
- Serial URL: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/
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Publication flags:
Open Access (libre)
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Archaeological surveying; Archaeology; Historic preservation; Historic sites; Indian reservations; Native Americans
- Geographic Terms: Montana
- Subject Areas: Highways; History; I50: Construction and Supervision of Construction;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01376040
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jul 20 2012 10:39AM