Denver: An Archaeological History

4: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence

c h a p t e r 4 contact, conflict, and coexistence Greater Denver as a frontier is particularly evident during the contact period, when groups of Native Americans intermingled with mountain men, gold seekers, and settlers . Native American peoples were on the move along with other peoples; several groups of Native Americans occupied or passed through the Greater Denver area either successively or simultaneously. The distribution of language groups of Native Americans demonstrates that peoples have migrated sometimes quite far from their relatives. Population movement was not new to North America with the explorations and settlement of Europeans.What was new was wholesale replacement: as Europeans arrived in North America from all directions, the previous inhabitants of the continent were squeezed into less and less space. Since most of the pressure was from the east, some eastern Native American groups moved westward, sometimes dislocating other groups who moved yet farther west. But for those arriving from the east the mountains made a barrier, especially in Colorado. Not an impassable barrier to be sure, but one that required different skills and adaptations. Humans had at least to pause when faced with the mountains rising abruptly above the plains. Although various groups of Native Americans who had been agricultural became nomadic on the plains, large agricultural village sites still existed, especially in the northern plains. Some of them were visited by the Lewis and Clark expedition.The first Euro-Americans to arrive in Greater Denver were explorers, followed by exploiters . This chapter outlines what we will call a “contact” period between the Native American populations who called this region home and the various Euro-American groups who entered the area and decided it suited them, too (Fig. 4.1).We include the history of interaction among the groups—which, although mutually helpful at first, became discordant, disruptive, and at times deadly. The period is not easily defined; there are variations in the preferred terminology , and terms are sometimes used interchangeably. It is known elsewhere as “Protohistoric ,” “Late Ceramic,” or “Late Prehistoric.” Since our focus is on archaeological sites, we would like to be able, with the aid of ethnography and ethnohistory, to associate sites with particular known groups such as Apache or Ute. Unfortunately, sites in this time frame are difficult to differentiate. It was a time of great change and conflict, and many new categories of material culture were shared among the Euro-Americans Figure 4.1. Distribution of Contact period sites by subregion. Francine Patterson. c o n t a c t , c o n f l i c t , a n d c o e x i s t e n c e | 113 and the local tribes. In a Native American contact period site we might expect to find metal projectile points, European weapons or bullets (the acquisition of the gun was a significant turning point in Native American history), glass beads, or other items of trade.We might find evidence of the use of horses (another important change) along with evidence of continued hunter/gatherer/horticulturalist patterns, or stone circles that once held down hides or brush structures. Of the many lithic scatters, stone circle locations, and campsites located in this area, few contain material remains that can be associated definitively with this time period.Virtually none can be affiliated with a specific group of people, even if the time period is known.Archaeologists in Colorado have widely acknowledged the difficulty of compiling information about this period, because in Greater Denver it is documented only minimally with archaeological evidence. In 1980 Bill Butler asked,“What happens in Colorado from about a.d. 1300 to a.d. 1800? Where in the archaeological record are the Cheyenne,Arapaho, Ute and Comanche?”The questions, unfortunately, are still valid. For the most part, we have to rely on ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of the Native Americans who were in the Denver area at the time of European contact. Furthermore, sometimes these accounts are from regions outside Greater Denver, such as southeastern Colorado near the Purgatoire River and even as far south as what is now New Mexico. Direct observations in the immediate area are less common. Nevertheless,the outlines of the events and patterns that occurred in the larger geographic region can be used to make generalizations that are applicable to Greater Denver. The discussion that follows will have a broad base in the region surrounding Denver. It...