John W. Fisher

A vonlea Phase Winter Fare at Lost Terrace, Upper Missouri River Valley of Montana: The Vertebrate Fauna

Abstract The nearly singular subsistence reliance by Late Prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the northwestern Plains on bison (Bison bison) is well-established. In a significant departure from that subsistence adaptation, a group of Avonlea Phase people occupying a floodplain of the upper Missouri River during late winter ca. 1200 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP) procured a large number of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). The excavated sample contains a minimum of 83 post-natal and 25 fetal pronghorn. Comprehensive breakage and utilization of carcass parts indicates that these people experienced significant nutritional stress. Whether Lost Terrace represents an example of patterned seasonal pronghorn hunting in the river bottom or was forced as a subsistence departure from reliance on river bottom wintering bison has not been determined at this time.

Site structure and zooarchaeology at the Boar's Tusk Site, Wyoming

Abstract The Boar’s Tusk site is a Late Prehistoric or Protohistoric short-term probable campsite in southwestern Wyoming. Pronghorn predominates the bone assemblage. Site structure at Boar’s Tusk is compared to campsites of Efe and Ju/’ hoansi foragers of central and southern Africa. Features at Boar’s Tusk were arranged in an oval configuration like the arrangement of dwellings generally seen at Efe and Ju/’ hoansi campsites, but with much greater distance between features at Boar’s Tusk. This may be the result of differing characteristics of the physical environment, such as density of vegetation, or of differences in the degree to which resources were shared between households.

Leslie B. Davis, December 7, 1935–October 7, 2014

Leslie Beryl Davis was born December 7, 1935 in Cut Bank, Montana and died October 7, 2014 In Jefferson City, Montana. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Bompart, son, Michael Davis, and daughters, Paula Holland and KathyMcChesney. Les grew up between Shelby and Kevin, near the Canadian border, working on his grandfather’s farm. He attended high school in Cut Bank where he was active in the choir and edited the year book. He became the first member of his family to attend college when he matriculated to Montana State University (now University of Montana, Missoula) as an engineering major. He soon changed his major and received his B.A. in cultural anthropology in 1959. He worked in 1960 as an assistant curator at the Museum of the Plains Indians in Browning. This stimulated his interest in public education and the association with museums was to be renewed later in his career. Les landed a job as a counsellor with the Indian Rehabilitation Project at Northern Montana College in Havre, and held this position from 1962 to 1969. At about this time, the Montana Archaeological Society (1959) was founded and there was interest in forming local state chapters. He was one of the founding members and leaders of the Milk River Archaeological Society (MRAS), and this group conducted the first archaeological work in north-central Montana. It was during work with the MRAS that Davis developed his long-term interest in obsidian research. Several of the MRAS sites contained Avonlea components and this led to Davis’ (1966) early summary of Avonlea sites. His background around farmers and ranchers enabled him to talk to non-professionals with ease. One of them said ‘He [Les] treated me with respect.’ He developed long-standing relationships with amateurs and collectors which led to many of his archaeological investigations. During his time in Havre, while starting a family and working, Les completed the requirements for a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Montana. Les subsequently was a doctoral student at the University of Calgary. In 1969, he was hired as Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social and Criminal Justice, and Social Work at the Montana State University in Bozeman, and became a full professor in 1978. He remained at Montana State University until his retirement in 2007. While teaching at MSU and working on his Ph.D. requirements, he taught at the University of plains anthropologist, Vol. 61 No. 238, May, 2016, 195–200