The Olsen-Chubbock bison kill site was utilized by Paleo-Indians of
the Great Plains. The late Paleo-Indian cultures resided in this area from
9000-6000 B. C. The Olsen-Chubbock kill occurred in Colorado. The Paleo-Indians
were a hunter-gatherer society that mainly focused on the hunting of bison and
caribou. They used a number of projectile points when hunting. The earliest
types were Folsom, Cumberland, and Gainey points. Those points were all fluted
in style.
Paleo-Indians most likely lived in small family groups that moved annually to sites that were most abundant with animals to hunt. The Olsen-Chubbock kill site is one of the more famous kill sites of the Paleo-Indian culture. The Paleo-Indians were forced to think of clever ways of trapping and hunting these enormous bison. Because they had no horses to ride at that period in time, they would find ways to encompass the bison and come at them with their points or drive them off a cliff. In this way, they were highly successful and this tactic produced an abundance of food, shelter, and clothing because they used all parts of the animal. The technique of driving a heard of bison off a cliff or arroyo as they did at the Olsen-Chubbock site was labor intensive and required a large group of people to make it a success. The rewards, however, were plentiful. This also suggest that large numbers of Paleo-Indian people gathered for these types of mass slaughter. 200 bison were killed at this particular kill site. The bison were of all ages and there are many projectile points found at this site. Hunting in this way was also a factor in bison overkill.
Sources:
“Later Paleo-Indian Cultures.” Anth 3511 Professor Gibbon www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2596/paleo.html
“Homo sapiens in the Americas.” Homo sapiens in the Americas:http://www.radiocarbondating.com/origins/america.html
“The Anasazi’s Ancestor’s from 10,00 to 8,000 B. C.” Sipapu--Anasazi in 10,000 BC http://sipapu.ucsb.edu/timeline/timeline10000.html
Written by Beth Larson