Unearthed in Montana

[Buckeye]

Relics of a Tribe’s Eviction Are Unearthed in Montana

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/11tribe.html?_r=1

[DesertWalker]

Interesting, thanks!

[highsierra]

It's highly likely that the items found were the belongings of tribal members, including the tunic button and 1860 Colt percussion cylinder.

[mbrown1833]

highsierra, i think there's documents stating where issues were taking place, although its possible these pieces were native-possessed.

[highsierra]

Beginning in the mid-1870s the standard issue revolver for the cavalry was the Colt Single Action .45. Percussion revolvers were passé by then and few were carried by anyone who knew firearms. Junker guns were traded to Indians by unscrupulous dealers and prized by many of them as the only weapons they could buy. Likewise for surplus military jackets, shirts and tunics. I have found military belt buckles in Indian camps, as well as bullets and buttons. One local was even buried wearing a Army jacket and surrounded by other paraphernalia, including a percussion rifle and a pile of chicken eggs. His skeleton was wrapped in a deer hide. He had to have been buried circa 1860s or 70s to have all that associated with his burial. Often times Native burials can be thousands of years apart in the same mound, proof that many were occupied long term.

[touchnova]

Great read, thanks much for the share!

[DesertWalker]

Just to add, the military was in the west as early as the 1840s - 1850s. I dug a point out of an 1850s military trash pit once, still wondering about that.

[joshuaream]

Very good observations of the type of hardware being used at different times by different groups. Those items very well could have been used by the natives.

I've always found that time period to be fascinating, and although it is relatively recent, the information we have is often skewed or biased by historical attitudes at the time and of the next generation historians who recorded it first hand from people who lived it.

As the article points out: "many families with mixed Crow and white heritage also trace their ancestry to marriages that began as contact grew between the tribe and federal administrators, making memories complicated."

I went to undergrad in Montana and there was a lot of work being done about these evictions, relations in the post Bighorn period, etc. (Side note, I actually went there for flyfishing and skiing, the education was just the excuse to be there...) While most of the time it was easy to identify White and Indian remains, there were still many examples where was that it wasn't always easy to identify who was Native American, who was white, who was black, and who (a significant number) was mixed, you even had Chinese workers who occasionally strayed into the gene pool. Beyond the who/what, was the "when" they became mixed. There were a lot of people who were the product of much earlier relations between traders and natives who became a distinct social group. A good number of the Black soldiers stationed around Ft. Missoula had Native American family they picked up when they were stationed in Kansas and Oklahoma, and a significant of their own ancestors before they entered the Calvary could have been a mix of African American and Cherokee or other southern tribes.

They don't get a lot of press, but the Buffalo Soldiers had a pretty significant impact in the area from settling down and intermarrying locals. I remember one set of remains that were handed over to a local tribe for reburial. From the skull it seemed pretty clear that he was someone with significant African American ancestry but who was found with thousands of small white beads and leather pants and moccasins. He had buttons from a Mexican calvary coat, as well as a couple of early US Calvary buttons. He was probably too young to have been a soldier himself, but the general thought was his father was a soldier who buried him with his coat, and the mother was a native american of mixed or direct tribal affiliation and the beads came from his everyday clothing/footwear.

[highsierra]

Not of much consequence, but my maternal great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee. So much blood has mixed since that time in the 19th C that I probably have no NA cells remaining.