Special to the HT
MEEKER | The White River Alliance and the Rio Blanco County Historical Society are co-sponsoring an event on Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Heritage Culture Center.
Archaeologist H. “Sonny” Shelton, is an archaeologist, faunal analysis specialist, and field crew member for Grand River Institute and is a Dominguez Archaeological Research Group (DARG) associate. Shelton has worked for over 30 years as an archaeologist in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Utah. Her primary area of research is the study of how bison were hunted specifically in western Colorado as opposed to the Great Plains.
She has also been privileged to serve the public as a Registered Nurse for many years. The Western Colorado Bison Project, a Dominquez Archaeological Research Group (DARG) project funded by History Colorado State Historical Fund and DARG, has produced interesting results concerning the complex relationship of bison and the prehistoric/historic hunters of western Colorado.
The project has analyzed and collected data from over 700 bison bone specimens with cultural modification evident on a significant number of these.
Radiometric and other data analyzed during the project have greatly expanded our understanding of the presence and importance of bison to early western Colorado inhabitants. This presentation is an overview and summary of the work and results to date, including contributions from the Meeker and Craig area.
The Western Colorado Bison Project is the first in-depth archaeological work of its kind to focus exclusively on bison procurement and analyzing and dating culturally modified bison bone in western Colorado. Please join us for this informational evening.
