Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-187). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-187). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

xvi, 187 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT E99.N97 B74 2003 / The culture history of the northeastern Great Basin, as currently written by the archaeological profession, is silent as to the view of Gosiute and Shoshone natives about their own ancestors. The goal of this dissertation is the infusion of Punown (interrelated Numic speaking peoples) epistemology into mainstream anthropological interpretation, as provided through North American Desert West prehistory. The hypothesized Numic expansion into the Northeast Great Basin, according to which the Punown natives now resident throughout the region are very recent immigrants, is problematic on several grounds. In the dissertation I show that late population movement into this region by Numic ancestors has not been demonstrated. After a hundred years of research no consensus yet exists as to the origins of the Northern Uto-Aztecan speaking Numic peoples (Punown). In spite of that, and in spite of the fact that it takes no account of the natives' own view of their origins, the Numic Expansion Hypothesis is being used in a way by some archaeologists and cultural resource managers that denies to the Punown their cultural heritage. The archaeological record of the region, extending back into deep time, is rich in the similarities it shows with the native Punown cultures of the contact-historic period. The epistemology and spiritual beliefs of the Punown also assert their cultural continuity with the ancient traditions documented in that archaeological recoret;It is not acceptable that a scientific hypothesis impedes native people's role in the care and stewardship of sites and places throughout the region that their own spiritual traditions tell them they are responsible for. The mainstream anthropological concept of science and the epistemology of the Punown are opposed diametrically. Punown view the world and its people as interconnected through the Sacred Earth Matrix, while anthropologists see the human world as bifurcated from nature. Punown understand archaeology and relatedness spiritually, while archaeologists see dead objects in an "objectified" way. Conformity to the existing paradigm, with its persistent building and rebuilding of earlier untenable Euroamerican views of Numic origins, makes the Punown outsiders to the region in which they live. This goes on even though many scholars, reviewing the case for a Numic Expansion, find it seriously lacking. Infusion of Punown epistemology into current archaeological practice offers a basis for pooling Punown and mainstream anthropological approaches to the prehistory of the Desert West. A mutually enhancing research partnership based on beneficial objectives is advocated; this will go far to repair a strained relationship that now exists between Punown and archaeological researchers, and result in a fuller and richer history for all to contemplate. / Committee in Charge: Dr. C. Melvin Aikens, Chair; Dr. Jon Erlandson; Dr. Lawrence Sugiyama; Dr. Scott DeLancey

As a scientific field, phonetics systematically analyzes human speech sounds using segmental distinctions and state of the art technology. Ideally, these analyses are based on cross-linguistic data from a wide variety of language families. This dissertation provides the first phonetic analysis of Southern Ute, a severely endangered Uto-Aztecan language and presents the only published discussion of language policies and revitalization efforts on the Southern Ute reservation, located in Southwestern Colorado. This research is important because although there are 1,419 enrolled members of the Southern Ute tribe, according to a 2002 informal language survey, there are only forty remaining speakers, who are all over the age of sixty. It is important to note that the previous work on Southern Ute, three dictionaries (Goss 1961, Givon 1979, Charney 1996), one grammar (Givon 1980), one dissertation (Goss 1972) and a collection of traditional narratives (Givon 1985), does not include phonetic analysis or discussion of language policy or revitalization efforts on the Southern Ute reservation. This research benefits the Southern Ute community, the linguistic community and other indigenous communities in two ways. First, it provides a model for phonetic analysis of an endangered language utilizing fluent speaker intuition about stress. Second, the language policies and revitalization discussion adds to revitalization resources especially in the area of curriculum development. In the theoretical domain, Southern Ute offers rich data. It is imperative that Southern Ute phonetic properties are analyzed, documented and archived before the small number of fluent speakers die, leaving no digital audio recordings behind for future generations.

In the archaeological literature, mountains are often portrayed as the boundaries between inhabited spaces. Yet occupying high elevations may have been an adaptive choice for ancient peoples, as rapidly changing elevations also offer variation in climate and resources over a relatively small area. So what happens, instead, if we put mountain landscapes at the center of our analyses of prehistoric seasonal rounds and ecological adaptation? This Ph.D. argues that, in order to understand any landscape that includes mountains, from the Alps to the Andes, one must include the ecology and archaeology of the highest elevations. Specifically, I base my findings on new fieldwork and lithic collections from the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) of the Rocky Mountains, which was a vital crossroads of prehistoric cultures for more than 11,000 years. I include five interlocking analyses. First, I consider the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on high elevation cultural resources, focusing on the diminishing resiliency of ancient high elevation ice patches and the loss of the organic artifacts and paleobiological materials they contain. Second, I create a dichotomous key for chronologically typing projectile points, suggesting a methodological improvement for typological dating in the GYE and for surface archaeology more broadly. Third, I use obsidian source data to consider whether mountain people were a single, unified group or were represented by a variety of peoples with different zones of land tenure. Fourth, I consider high elevation occupation in both mountain ranges as part of the seasonal round, using indices of diversity in tool types and raw material to study how the duration of those occupations changed through time. And, finally, I test the common contention that ancient people primarily used mountains as refugia from extreme climatic pressure at lower elevations. Ultimately, I find that, in both mountain ranges, increased high elevation activity is most highly correlated with increased population, not with hot, dry climatic conditions. In other words, the mountains were more than simply refugia for plains or basin people to occupy when pressured by climatic hardship. In addition, between the Absarokas and the Beartooths the evidence suggests two different patterns of occupation, not a monolithic pan-mountain adaptation. These results demonstrate the potential contributions of surface archaeology to our understanding of prehistory, and have important implications for the way we think about mountain landscapes as peopled spaces in relation to adjacent lower-elevation areas.