Archaic Native Americans, Fremont, and Ancestral Puebloans
The Archaic Native Americans, the Fremont, and the Ancestral Puebloans were people that lived in (what is now) Utah thousands of years ago. There are remnants of these people here in Utah that can still be seen today.
The first thing we need to do is understand some vocabulary, to best help us learn about these ancient people.
The first word is archaic. Archaic means that something is really old. So in this situation, the archaic people that lived in Utah, lived here a very long time ago.
Next, scarcity means that something is in short supply. If something is scarce, there is not enough of it. Like at the beginning of 2020, due to the pandemic there was a scarcity of hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, masks, and (for some reason) toilet paper. There wasn't enough of, and people had a hard time finding it.
Next, pueblos are flat-roofed homes made out of stone or clay. Pueblos were/are common in what is now the regions surrounding the 4-corners area of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. People who made Pueblos their main source of shelter are known as Puebloans.
Next, being nomadic means to move around a lot. People who are nomadic typically move with the seasons (go somewhere warm in the winter, cool in the summer) and survive off of hunting and gathering naturally occurring food. They don't plant too much food, because they don't have very much time before they move on to a different location.
Next, wickiups are small dwellings made out naturally occurring resources, such as sticks and brush. Wickiups were often used by nomadic people because they were easy to build, and were easy to leave behind when they moved on.
Lastly, an atlatl was/is a spear thrower. It was used to give extra leverage and speed to spears being thrown.
The first group of people we are going to discuss are the Archaic Native Americans.
These people are categorized based on a certain culture that lasted from about 7,500 years ago to 2,500 years ago.
They lived in desert areas and, as a result, resources were scarce, causing them to adapt in order to survive. They relied on gathering food, as well as some hunting.
They were often nomadic and would sometimes spend colder months in caves (like Danger Cave). In spring and early summer they would live by lakes and marshes because it was easier to find food there, due to animal populations and plant growth. Then in the late summer they would move to the mountains, where it would stay cooler during the daytimes.
Wherever they went they built wickiups (see picture below), and just build new ones wherever they went.
They used a variety of different tools and weapons, and a wide variety of material to make those tools and weapons, such as using plant fibers to make sandals, mats, ropes, string, and thread.
When it came to hunting, they used all sorts of different tools to catch their food, such as nets, snares, traps, and spears.
Once they caught an animal, they wouldn't waste much of the animal, they would eat anything they could, then weave the animal hides together to make clothing.
The main weapon they used in Utah was the atlatl because it made hunting more effective.
Watch the video below to see a demonstration of what an atlatl looked like, and how it was used.
The next group of people we're going to discuss are the Fremont
(From ilovehistory.utah.gov)
Utah (and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Idaho) can lay claim to a very unique culture that began to develop about 2,500 years ago.
The people called Fremont Indians by archaeologists lived across much of northern Utah (as far south as Cedar City)—often in rugged places. But they knew how to make the most of where they lived. Depending on the situation, they hunted and gathered or they farmed, or they did both.
What was life like?
The “Fremont” culture was diverse, made up of lots of different groups. Sometimes the people lived in small scatted groups, and sometimes they built large villages. They used both pit houses and houses built of rock and mud.
Many of the Fremont grew corn and beans. When they hunted, it was often with a bow and arrow, a technology that helped them efficiently kill antelope, mountain sheep, deer, and other animals.
Around 1,000 years ago, the unique Fremont culture began to disappear. People stopped farming in the Utah area, for instance.
Why?
Life may have become tough because of climate change, so they may have had to change their way of life and become hunters and gatherers.
But also, new people—the ancestors of the Utes, Paiutes, and Shoshones—had moved in to Fremont territory. The Fremont may have been killed or forced to leave, or they may have become absorbed into these new groups.
Or maybe parts of all these three things happened!
What did they leave behind?
Fremont people left distinct rock art on cliff walls. They also made a unique kind of basket, and they made gray coiled pottery. Like other groups, they left behind grinding stones, arrow points, and other stone tools. Some special Fremont artifacts are little clay people figurines.
For more information on the Fremont, see https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/f/FREMONT_THE.shtml
There is a documentary about the Fremont people in Range Creek Canyon, you can find it, and a viewing guide, here: Fremont Documentary
The last group are the Ancestral Puebloans
(From ilovehistory.utah.gov)
People have lived in Utah for thousands of years. For 5/6 of that time, they have lived a hunting and gathering life.
However, around 2,500 years ago, the hunting and gathering life of the earliest people began to slowly change--and in big ways.
People began to grow food. The people we now call Ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi began to farm in the dry, warm climate of the Four Corners area. They figured out how to irrigate their crops.
Corn, beans, and squash (which probably came into Utah from Mexico) became a mainstay of meals. So did turkey, which the people had domesticated.
Settling down to farm was a big change, and it had a lot of consequences.
How do you think life would change when people stopped roaming and settled down to farm?
Life changed in other ways. For one thing, people began using a new technology for hunting: the bow and arrow.
What was life like?
Because they had switched from hunting-gathering to agriculture, the early Ancestral Puebloans built pithouses, sometimes in good-sized villages. Later, they built houses and granaries from stone (for storing their crops), and they gathered in small or large communities.
The pit house structure evolved in use--from a living space into a kiva, a sacred room where religious ceremonies took place.
Agriculture also meant that people were eating foods with a lot of starches that stuck to their teeth. They were grinding corn with rock that left little bits of stone mixed into the flour. So they began to have cavities and other tooth problems!
Making and trading things
Because the people didn’t have to carry everything they owned on long journeys, they could make and acquire more stuff.
They created beautiful and useful baskets and sandals, then later learned to make and decorate pottery and jewelry. They learned to grow and weave cotton and to use the bow and arrow.
They probably traded goods with other people, acquiring stuff that came from as far away as Mexico and California. How do we know this? Archaeologists have found macaw feathers and seashells (not from Utah!) in Pueblo villages. These people also built roads and could send signals to faraway places by using fires on tops of mesas or mountains.
Starting about 1250 A.D., the Ancestral Pueblo people abandoned their villages. They seem to have just walked away. They probably migrated south into New Mexico and Arizona, where they became the modern Pueblo tribes.
Why did they leave? Maybe drought or over-population made life here too hard. Or maybe new peoples moving in (the ancestors of Utes and Paiutes) forced them out.
What did they leave behind?
Stunning cliff houses, rock art, pottery, and even systems of roads capture our imagination today. These artifacts, along with less-spectacular artifacts such as plant pollen, turkey bones, and coprolites (human poop) help us learn about the Ancestral Pueblo culture.
For more information on the Ancestral Puebloans (aka the Anasazi), please visit https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/a/Anasazi.shtml
