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Submitted by Greg Vogl on Thu, 09/11/2014 - 11:08

Plains Woodland

Added by yongli on 02/25/2016 - 14:13, last changed on 11/11/2019 - 09:41

Plains Woodland pot

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The Plains Woodland period covers approximately a thousand years of Colorado prehistory across a large portion of the state. Plains Woodland describes the groups of people occupying much of the western plains from present-day Nebraska and Kansas, west of the Missouri River, to the eastern plains of...

Tree-Ring Dating

Added by yongli on 02/25/2016 - 13:19, last changed on 12/19/2019 - 01:07
Tree-ring dating is formally known as “dendrochronology” (literally, the study of tree time). It is the science of assigning calendar-year dates to the growth rings of trees, and Colorado figures prominently in its development and application in archaeology and other disciplines. Uses...

Fluted Points

Added by yongli on 12/29/2015 - 12:38, last changed on 10/11/2019 - 10:50
Fluted projectile points represent the earliest North American stone tool technology, although they comprise a small portion of the overall stone technology observed in the New World. These easily recognized spear points represent one form of technology used by the earliest human inhabitants of...

Ghost Dance

Added by yongli on 12/29/2015 - 12:16, last changed on 04/16/2020 - 12:58
Ghost Dances are key ceremonies within a broader Native American religious movement that developed in the late nineteenth century in response to the westward expansion of whites. By that time, most Colorado tribes lived on reservations outside of the state. The dances are performed to activate the...

William Bent

Added by yongli on 12/29/2015 - 11:23, last changed on 05/23/2021 - 08:52
William Bent (1809–69) played a pivotal role in the early development of Colorado. He initially came to the area as a fur trapper but became a liaison between whites and Native Americans via his trading fort on the Arkansas River near present-day La Junta . The Santa Fé Trail was the strategic...

Willard Frank Libby

Added by yongli on 12/28/2015 - 12:30, last changed on 11/11/2020 - 01:07
Willard Frank “Bill” Libby (1908–80) was a native Coloradan who won the Nobel Prize for inventing the radiocarbon dating method. Radiocarbon dating is one of the most commonly used dating techniques by archaeologists and other scientists across the world. Willard Libby was born in Grand...

Barney Ford

Added by Nick Johnson on 12/10/2015 - 14:54, last changed on 09/21/2021 - 06:54
Born into slavery in 1822, Barney Ford escaped to freedom and moved to Colorado in 1860. He soon became a successful businessman and an influential civic leader who pushed for Colorado statehood with suffrage for all. Ford died in Denver in 1902 and has been recognized for his contributions to the...

Hannah Marie Wormington

Added by yongli on 11/19/2015 - 16:19, last changed on 10/10/2019 - 10:07
As a pioneering woman in a field dominated by men, Hannah Marie Wormington (1914–94) carved a scholarly niche for herself on the frontiers of American archaeology. She was a larger-than-life figure whose impact went far beyond the dozens of publications she produced to include mentorship for many...

Mistanta (Owl Woman)

Added by yongli on 11/16/2015 - 13:44, last changed on 12/28/2017 - 13:41
Mistanta (Mis-stan-stur, ca. 1810–47), also known as Owl Woman, was the Southern Cheyenne wife of the American trader William Bent . Born about 1810, she is credited with helping maintain good relations between the white settlers and the Native Americans of the Colorado plains . As the eldest...

The Tenth Mountain Division

Added by yongli on 11/16/2015 - 13:11, last changed on 10/14/2019 - 09:43
The Tenth Mountain Division (hereafter, the Tenth), was US Army division created in 1941. The Allies took notice of a Finnish division of soldiers on skis that defeated and embarrassed a larger and better-equipped invading Soviet force during the Winter War of 1939. Inspired by Finland’s success,...

Walter Paepcke

Added by yongli on 11/16/2015 - 12:59, last changed on 12/10/2017 - 01:07
Walter P. Paepcke, a Chicago businessman, was pivotal in developing Aspen into a resort known for its exceptional skiing and as a hub for intellectuals, artists, politicians, and celebrities. Paepcke’s efforts have made Aspen stand out among Colorado’s many ski towns and resorts. Born...

Koshare Scouts

Added by yongli on 11/16/2015 - 12:55, last changed on 10/23/2019 - 01:07
The Koshare Scouts is primarily made up of Boy Scout troop 2230 in La Junta , Otero County , that has studied Native American lore and performed tribal rituals since the 1930s. This imitative white group is part of a long American history of “playing Indian.” In the twentieth century, groups like...

The Gateway Tradition

Added by yongli on 11/13/2015 - 09:32, last changed on 11/04/2019 - 12:06
The Gateway tradition refers to a set of archaeological sites within western Montrose and San Miguel Counties, Colorado, that appear similar to Pueblo II –period (AD 900–1150) sites to the south in the core homeland of the Ancestral Puebloans (Figs. 1 and 2). The sites in Montrose and San Miguel...

Sopris Phase

Added by yongli on 11/03/2015 - 10:35, last changed on 04/17/2020 - 08:55
Archaeologists use the term Sopris phase to refer to unique Native American sites found only on the Purgatoire River west of Trinidad, Colorado, and on the upper tributaries of the Canadian River west of Raton and Cimarron, New Mexico (Fig. 1). Sopris people were the only indigenous farmers who...

The Formative Period in Prehistory

Added by yongli on 11/03/2015 - 10:09, last changed on 10/23/2019 - 11:23
The Formative is the last of several periods in a sequence of cultural development that traces the overall progression from stone-tool-using, hunter- gatherer societies to fully developed agricultural societies. The process that occurred is analogous to the Old World’s “Neolithic Revolution.” It is...

Upper Republican and Itskari Cultures

Added by yongli on 10/22/2015 - 15:03, last changed on 10/23/2019 - 11:12
Upper Republican is a name archaeologists use for a prehistoric cultural group that occupied the upper Republican River area in northeast Colorado, western Nebraska, northern Kansas, and southeast Wyoming from AD 1100–1300. As a phase of a larger cultural tradition, the Central Plains tradition,...

Richard Wetherill

Added by yongli on 10/22/2015 - 10:53, last changed on 04/11/2021 - 07:44
Richard Wetherill (1858–1910) was a nineteenth-century rancher and explorer who lived in southwest Colorado. Although he is often credited with "discovering" some of the most significant Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites in the Four Corners area, the sites had already been known to various...

Samuel Gerish Colley

Added by yongli on 10/21/2015 - 15:28, last changed on 09/07/2020 - 01:07
Holding political offices in Wisconsin and Colorado throughout his life, Samuel G. Colley (1807–90) is best known for serving as Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency from 1860 to 1865. He was responsible for managing the Cheyenne and Arapaho prior to and during the Colorado War (1863–...

Estella Bergere Leopold

Added by yongli on 09/16/2015 - 14:59, last changed on 10/31/2019 - 11:41
Dr. Estella Leopold is a world-renowned paleobotanist who helped spearhead the 1969 fight to save Florissant Fossil Beds in Florissant, Colorado. She was the recipient of several awards during her career, including Conservationist of the Year (1969) from the Colorado Wildlife Federation, the Keep...

Ellis Meredith

Added by yongli on 09/11/2015 - 15:43, last changed on 04/08/2020 - 10:55
Standing less than five feet tall and weighing around 100 pounds, Ellis Meredith was a tiny woman, but she took large strides to improve life for the women of Colorado. The daughter of a well-known suffragette and pioneer resident of Montana, Emily R. Meredith, Ellis understood the importance of...

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