Cultural Resources in the Bighorn Basin
Native Americans
There are six major language families for Native Americans encountered by early explorers. This is a testimony to the cultural richness of the area. Table 1 lists those groups believed present within or near the lands administered by the Cody Field Office.
Table 1. Ethnic Groups Believed Present
In or Near the Bighorn Basin Between 1400 and 1800 |
Language Family | Plains Indian Tribe |
| Siouan | Yankton Yanktonai / Santee / Crow / Teton |
| Caddoan | Pawnee |
| Algonquian | Arapaho / Atsina / Blackfoot / Cheyenne |
| Uto-Aztecan | Comanche / Eastern Shoshone |
Athabascan | Kiowa Apache |
| Kiowa Tanoan | Kiowa |
The Shoshone came from the Great Basin over the Bighorns and Laramie Range and into the Powder River Basin. During the first centuries of the Little Ice Age, the Shoshone were probably restricted to an initial expansion along the southern and eastern parts of the Powder River Basin. Later, with the acquisition of horses and firearms in historic times, they expanded farther east.
The Bighorn Mountains are usually regarded as a Crow stronghold. Ceramic evidence from the Piney Creek Sites, on Black Thunder Creek, and at the Wagonson Site indicate that the Crow may have been in or near the Bighorn Basin since about 1500. During the 17th century, the Crow ranged across the Powder River Basin, along the Laramie Range, and as far west as the southern Bighorn Basin.
Between 1650-1690, Shoshone and Comanche acquired horses and greatly expanded their spheres of influence. There is some evidence for direct contact with the Spanish between 1650-1690. This is based mostly upon the acquisition of the horse, as evidenced by horse culture materials in some locations and collections, and on Spanish journals. Spanish documents also show that the Kiowa Apache were in the Powder River Basin by 1700. The Comanche pushed the Kiowa Apache south and out of eastern Wyoming.
The first well documented historical mention of the Kiowa Apache or Gattacka was by LaSalle in 1681, who placed them west of the Pawnee in southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Thus it is possible that they ranged farther north and occupied the Big Horn Basin at least briefly during the seventeenth century.
The Dismal River materials have been interpreted as evidence for the Plains Apache in southeastern Wyoming as long ago as 1650 and some suggest that lithics in the Vore Site may indicate a continued extension of Plains Apache from southeastern Wyoming up into the Eastern Powder River Basin and possibly the Bighorn Basin at that time.
Shoshone groups continued to extend their territory north and northeast and by 1740, the Comanche controlled the area from the Platte River to New Mexico, forcing the Dismal River Apache farther south and east. The Crow, by this time, had firm control of the northern Powder River Basin, and the Big Horn Basin, as far as the North Platte. The Kiowa and Kiowa Apache were forced south by the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho.
From the early to mid 1700s, the Cheyenne, probably preceded by a related tribe, the Suti entered the Powder River Basin. The Arapaho, who were closely allied with the Cheyenne, followed them into the Basin. By the 1750s, the Arapaho were centered in the Black Hills region and forced the Cheyenne to move south.
By the late 1700s the Blackfoot, Jutenai, Flathead and Salish had acquired horses and firearms. Their raids pushed the Shoshone west across Wyoming and north into Montana.
During the latter decades of the 18th century and the early decades of the 19th century, the Bighorn Basin hosted a number of equestrian hunters who sought bison and plant resources seasonally. The availability of lodge poles, berries, medicinal plants, game animals, and relief from heat made the mountains a favored summer habitat. However, fall hunts saw the tribes in conflict or cooperation on the open Plains.
The Shoshone, or Snake, continued their expansion to the north and northeast. They may have been the "Horse Indians" met by the La Verendrye brothers in 1742 west of the Black Hills.
While the Crow moved south, their allies (the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache) moved back north, through the Comanche, while loosely accompanied by the Cheyenne. The Cheyenne ranged from the northern end of the Powder River Basin, along the Little Missouri into North Dakota, and as far south as the Arkansas River, which they called the Swift Fox River.
The Sioux were the last to arrive in the Bighorn Basin and did not cross the Missouri River en masse until around 1750. With horses and firearms they easily pushed into the Black Hills and beyond, through the Powder River Basin and along the Laramie Range.
Even though the headwaters of the Tongue, Powder, and Belle Fourche might be considered the heart of the northern Cheyenne territory during the nineteenth century, the Arapaho were present along the Laramie Range between the North and South Platte Rivers and ranged across the Laramie Basin to the Medicine Bow Range during the same period. As the Crow and Hidatsa had split, the Arapaho and Gros Ventres (or Atsina) had separated around 1700 and eventually became separate northern and southern nomadic hunters.
Table 2. Tribal Territories in 1851 |
| Sioux | Eastern Powder River Basins along line from Casper to the Black Hills |
| Crow | All country west of the Powder River Basin |
| Cheyenne-Arapaho | All country from the North Platte River to the Arkansas River |
>