Native American Sprituality and the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy

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Shadows on the Trail -
the first book of the trilogy.

The seed for the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy sprouted on an early summer morning in 2010 on a northern Colorado ranch where I found a man-made prehistoric tool made from a red and gray striped rock from a prehistoric rock quarry in Texas. As I admired the prehistoric tool that a Paleoindian had made over 10,700 years ago, several questions raced through my mind. How did this tool end up in a prehistoric campsite in northern Colorado, five hundred miles to the north of the prehistoric rock quarry? Who made it? What was he or she like? What happened on its journey from Texas to northern Colorado? Since it was impossible for me to ask the prehistoric person who made the tool, I wrote my own version of the journey in a book called Shadows on the Trail.      

Due to the popularity of the book Shadows on the Trail, it has now grown into a Trilogy that encompasses the life of a Paleoindian hunter named Chayton who belonged to a culture of people who actually existed, the Folsom People. Shadows on the Trail takes place at the end of the last Ice Age on the plains and mountains of Texas and Colorado. The end of the Ice Age was a time of global warming, rising air temperatures and melting ice caps and glaciers. It was a time when several large mammal species went extinct and when small bands of humans roamed the mountains and plains attempting to survive in an unforgiving and violent world. During that time, the Folsom People lived under a cloud of unknowns. The science behind such things as tornadoes, earthquakes, weather and even death, were not yet known or understood. It does not take too much of an imagination to assume that the Folsom People had to associate some or all of these phenomena to a spiritual power that controlled their lives and environment. We know that when the Europeans showed up on the North American continent thousands of years later, historical Indian tribes had well-developed religious and spiritual beliefs.

Ghosts of the Heart -
the second book of the trilogy.

Since prehistoric religion and spirituality in North America was undocumented, I used the religion and spirituality of the historic Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indian tribes in the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy. Of course, using the religion and spirituality from two historic Indian tribes thousands of years after the Folsom People lived, is a stretch. However, there is archaeological evidence that a portion of the religious and spiritual traditions of the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne were around at the time of the Folsom People and Paleoindians, especially the traditions related to mortuary practices.

At an archaeological burial site in Texas called Horn Shelter No. 2, the investigators found two Paleoindians buried and associated with animal effigies, probable evidence that a spiritual connection existed between these people and animals. The male skeleton was found associated with selected portions of a hawk, badger, turtles and coyotes while the adolescent girl skeleton was touching three turtle shells. Investigators believed that this represented some kind of spiritual connection with these specific bird and animal species.

At another Paleoindian burial site in Montana called Anzick, the investigators found beautiful Clovis projectile points and bifaces buried with a small Clovis child. A red powder called red ochre covered both the artifacts and the child. Many cultures in past millennia have used red ochre in burials. There has also been widespread use of red ochre associated with prehistoric open camps, burials and tool caches across North America.


In Oklahoma, archaeologists discovered another piece of evidence of the rituality of Paleoindians. Investigators found a painted bison skull in association with diagnostic Folsom artifacts at a Paleoindian bison kill site named Cooper. The painted bison skull probably had significance to the spirituality associated with the hunt.  



Folsom projectile point - spiritual
connection, art, or overkill?

            I will add another Paleoindian connection to their spirituality, projectile points. Some of the finest projectile points ever made were Folsom projectile points. The craftsmanship and quality of the Folsom projectile points went far beyond any reasonable or functional requirement. Why would the Folsom People exert so much effort and energy in making and maintaining these exquisite fluted projectile points unless they believed these projectile points carried power or spirituality into the hunt? We know that the failure rate in making Folsom points was high and the Folsom People could have gotten by with much more primitive stone projectile points and still been successful in the hunt. Why did they create these beautiful projectile points? Was there something spiritual tied to the weapons they used or was it merely art?    

The belief in spirituality most likely developed from the Paleoindians’ level of understanding of natural phenomena, hunting, animals, belief in ghosts and spirits, and shamanism. Paleoindian traditions passed word-to-mouth from generation to generation until the Europeans helped document the beliefs of the historical Indian tribes. How much the religion and spirituality of the Paleoindians changed over several millennia is anyone’s guess, but we do know what the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne spiritually believed. We know that they believed in a Great Spirit, just like most of us. We know that they had a deep connection to animals and nature. We also know that these historical Indian tribes believed strongly in the circle of life. 

To summarize, my first book in the trilogy called Shadows on the Trail is loaded with action and adventure with some Paleoindian spiritual undertones. In my second book of the trilogy called Ghosts of the Heart, action and adventure still dominate, but there is much more spirituality than in the first book. In my third and final book of the trilogy called Winds of Eden, there is still action and adventure, but there is an overriding theme of Native American beliefs and spirituality throughout the book. Shadows on the Trail, Ghosts of the Heart, and Winds of Eden  are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and other better booksellers.             

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Pryor Stemmed Points - Just Like Rolling the Dice!

Figure One - Probable Pryor Stemmed dart point/knife form in its original
un-resharpened condition. John Bradford Branney Collection.   



"Medium to large stemmed projectile points with alternately beveled edges. Lateral edges vary from parallel to convex and are alternately beveled with the bevel on the right (tip up). Beveling extends at least from the tip to the shoulder, and on some specimens extends the full length of the stem."  

- Wilfred M. Husted's original Pryor Stemmed description.  

The photograph above is probably a 2.1-inch long Pryor Stemmed projectile point or knife form surface found on a private ranch in southern Wyoming. The maker of that point used what appears to be Spanish Diggings orthoquartzite from the famous prehistoric rock quarries in east-central Wyoming. The point exhibits excellent tip-up, parallel-oblique flaking patterns from the lower right to the upper left. The projectile point or knife form appears to be in its first stage, in other words, its original knapped state. Its maker/user never resharpened and/or beveled its edges. 

I wrote probably about the artifact in Figure one because I am not one-hundred percent positive that it is a Pryor Stemmed projectile point as defined by Husted (1969:51). The Pryor Stemmed projectile point type possessed a few distinguishing features according to Husted's point type description but unfortunately not all suspected Pryor Stemmed points possess those distinguishing features. That makes it nearly impossible to identify a Pryor Stemmed point out of archaeological context if it is missing one or two of those distinguishing features. 

I can surface find a Cody Complex or a Folsom or a Clovis point out on the prairie and I pretty much know what I have in my hand. There is usually no mistaking those projectile point types. But, unless I find a Pryor Stemmed projectile point or knife form that possesses one, two, three, or more of its distinguishing features, I cannot be sure that it is a Pryor Stemmed point. They are easily confused with other projectile point types or with no known projectile point type at all. 

Figure Two - A few of the original Pryor Stemmed
points from Bottleneck Cave (Husted 1969:52) 

Where was the Pryor Stemmed projectile point type first documented?     

In an archaeological salvage operation between the years 1962 and 1964, seven archaeological sites along Big Horn Canyon in Wyoming and Montana were investigated. Under the direction of Wilfred Husted (1969) of the National Park Service, the investigators documented the sites and Husted was responsible for proposing the name Pryor Stemmed for a new projectile point type excavated in Bottleneck Cave. The bi-beveled points were named after Pryor Mountain in Montana to the north of the site. Figure two represents Pryor Stemmed projectile points that Husted and associates found in Bottleneck Cave on those salvage operations. 

Later in 1971, Frison (2014:147) excavated Schiffer Cave along the North Fork of the Powder River in the southeastern Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. The investigators discovered several complete and partial bi-beveled points designated as Pryor Stemmed. The two firepits in the cave dated at around 8,450 RCYBP (uncorrected radiocarbon years).   

George Frison (1991:71) reported that the Pryor Stemmed projectile point or knife form tied to a distinctive archaeological horizon in the Pryor and Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. Radiocarbon dates indicated that Pryor Stemmed projectile points were between 8,300 to 7,800 years old (uncorrected radiocarbon years). 

Originally, archaeologists assumed that the distribution for Pryor Stemmed projectile points or knife forms was limited to the mountains and foothills around the Pryor and Big Horn Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, but surface finds at other High Plains locales, including plains and prairie environments broadened that distribution. I have personally surface found several probable Pryor Stemmed projectile points or knife forms as far south as northern Colorado and as far north as Montana. The true distribution range for Pryor Stemmed projectile points most likely exceeds my artifact-hunting range.

What is a Pryor Stemmed projectile point? 

As earlier mentioned, figure two is a drawing of projectile points that the investigators at Bottleneck Cave categorized as Pryor Stemmed points. The following description was given by Husted (1969:51) for the fourteen Pryor Stemmed projectile points excavated at Bottleneck Cave: 

"Medium to large stemmed projectile points with alternately beveled edges. Lateral edges vary from parallel to convex and are alternately beveled with the bevel on the right (tip up). Beveling extends at least from the tip to the shoulder, and on some specimens extends the full length of the stem. Serration of lateral edges ranges from fine and even through rough and irregular to nearly nonexistent. Serrations were made on the beveled edge; The amount of beveling and the quality of material used determined the fineness of the serrations." 

Husted mentioned that stem lengths were from one-fifth to one-third of the total length of the point, that shouldering could be prominent to nonexistent, and that chipping ranged from crude parallel oblique to random. He wrote that description with so much variability that the description is difficult to use for identifying Pryor Stemmed projectile points found outside of archaeological and stratigraphical context.  

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The three critical diagnostic features for Pryor Stemmed points in Husted's description were 1). basal stemming, 2). alternate edge beveling, and 3). parallel-oblique flaking. However, not all of the Pryor Stemmed points that Husted found at Bottleneck Cave or other sites possessed the last two diagnostic features. Later in the article, I will explore whether it is even possible to identify Pryor Stemmed projectile points out of archaeological context without those last two distinguishing features. 

Frison (2014:149) further muddied the water with the Pryor Stemmed projectile point type when he noted that the alternate edge beveling was not even present on the archetype (the original point used to define the Pryor Stemmed projectile point type). Frison noted that the alternate edge beveling appeared to be part of an ongoing resharpening process throughout the life of the point. That appears to be the case for the projectile point in Figure one. I believe it was a 'first stage' Pryor Stemmed projectile point that was never resharpened, thus it retained its original form with a lenticular cross-section and parallel-oblique pressure flaking. 

When a prehistoric hunter used a Pryor Stemmed projectile point, it eventually became dull or perhaps broken. The prehistoric hunter would then resharpen the projectile point in a manner that created steep beveled edges on alternate sides of the projectile point. In some cases, the beveling process produced serrated edges depending on the material and the knapping process. With resharpening and beveling, the original lenticular cross-section of the projectile point or knife form became more of a trapezoidal cross-section. There are examples of Pryor Stemmed projectile points and knife forms where the alternate-side beveling was so extensive that the blade edges were much narrower than the stem. 

Figure Three - Probable 2.4-inch long Pryor Stemmed knife form surface
found in northeastern Colorado. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

Figure three is another example from my collection that I believe was a Pryor Stemmed knife form that I surface recovered on private land in northeastern Colorado on July 27th, 2014. Originally, I thought the knife form fell within the realm of the McKean Complex (Middle Archaic) but the more I studied it, the more I convinced myself it was from the Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic time frame and an example of a Pryor Stemmed knife form. The flaking on this knife form was just too fine for McKean and the stem and base were ground and polished smooth. The point was missing parallel oblique flaking but it does have a slight right-hand bevel on one side. The site where I found this point has produced surface finds from Early Paleoindian to Late Prehistoric and everything in between.  

Figure Four - 1.85-inch long Pryor Stemmed
knife form or projectile point, beveled and used 
up. John Bradford Branney Collection.   

Figure four is an example of an exhausted Pryor Stemmed projectile point from my collection, surface recovered on private land in northern Colorado. Note the intense and steep right-hand bevel along the edge of the exhausted point. The other side of the point is beveled as severely as the first side. The prehistoric hunter resharpened that point so many times that the beveled blade edges were narrower than the stem. It is apparent to me that the prehistoric hunter resharpened that point many times while it was still hafted on a knife handle or dart tip. 

Based on archaeological evidence, aggressive beveling was a common practice for the people who used and made Pryor Stemmed projectile points. Deliberate burination appeared on a few Pryor Stemmed points and knives as well. Burination occurred when the knapper used transverse breaks on the point as striking platforms to resolve a hafting issue or to create a chisel-like tip. I personally don't have any Pryor Stemmed projectile points with burins in my collection, but I have a few burinated points from the earlier Cody Complex. 

Where did the Pryor Stemmed projectile point and its technology originate?

Husted (1969:86) hypothesized that Pryor Stemmed technology and form might have evolved from the Scottsbluff point of the Cody Complex. The two projectile point types do share a resemblance. Both point types had basal stemming and the time frame between the two technologies appeared to be reasonable. While the last of the Scottsbluff and other Cody Complex projectile points were transitioning out, Pryor Stemmed projectile points could have stepped in as a new technology. I wrote Pryor Stemmed projectile points could have stepped in as a new technology because the post-Cody Complex period saw a plethora of Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic projectile point types showing up on the plains and in the mountains. Those included Pryor Stemmed, James Allen, Frederick, Lovell Constricted, Lusk, Deception Creek, and several other unnamed point styles. Most of those projectile point types fall within what Frison (1991:67) called the Foothill-Mountain Paleoindian Group or the  Parallel-Oblique Point Complex (Frison 1991:393). The projectile point field became quite crowded with the only common thread between them being the occasional use of parallel oblique flaking.

Brunswig (2007:279) addressed parallel oblique flaking in late Paleoindian artifact assemblages by proclaiming that while early Paleoindians used techniques that created transverse flake scars (blade edge to blade edge), late Paleoindians applied flaking processes that created angled or parallel-oblique flaking scars. Brunswig suggested that although there appeared to be a strong bias toward parallel-oblique flaking in late Paleoindian artifact assemblages, transverse and parallel-oblique flaking patterns were not diagnostic features for either early or late Paleoindians.       

The photograph in Figure five illustrates a possible projectile point evolution from Cody Complex to Pryor Stemmed, and then to the McKean Complex. The High Plains projectile points/knife forms are from my collection and represent three different time periods. The three points in the left row are what I consider Cody Complex points; the three points in the middle row are what I call Pryor Stemmed points, and the three points in the right row are what I cataloged as McKean Complex points from the Middle Archaic. 

Figure Five - Cody Complex, Pryor Stemmed, and McKean Complex projectile points 
and knife forms from the author's collection. 

What happened to the Pryor 

Stemmed projectile point? 

Based on radiocarbon dates, the Pryor Stemmed style appeared in artifact assemblages for a few centuries around 8000 years ago (uncorrected radiocarbon date). After that, Pryor Stemmed disappeared from the archaeological record. Husted (1969:86-87) proposed a possible link between the older Pryor Stemmed projectile point and the younger McKean Complex projectile points. Figure five compares three Pryor Stemmed points and three McKean Shouldered points from my collection. There definitely looks like a connection, but Husted and others could not account for the two to three-thousand-year gap between the end of Pryor Stemmed points and the beginning of McKean Shouldered points. I cannot reconcile that time gap either. 

I emphasized in the article that not all of the Pryor Stemmed projectile points found in the mentioned archaeological sites possessed two of the three distinguishing features defined by Husted for the type: parallel oblique flaking and alternate edge beveling. That makes it a challenge when identifying a surface found stemmed point that does not have those two distinguishing features. Instead of Pryor Stemmed, a point without those distinguishing features could be a McKean Shouldered point or a Cody Complex point! If an archaeologist finds a stemmed point in situ and it has stratigraphic and archaeological control within the right time frame, there is a better than average chance that point is Pryor Stemmed. However, things change out on the wide-open prairie. If I happened to be walking along and stumble upon a stemmed point lying on the ground, it might be a Pryor Stemmed projectile point if it has the parallel oblique flaking or the alternate edge beveling. If it does not have either of those features, identification becomes more difficult, and quite frankly, anyone's guess. Even though I might document that point as Pryor Stemmed, I can never be one hundred percent sure that was what it was. Identifying Pryor Stemmed projectile points is sometimes just like rolling the dice!         

References Cited. 

Brunswig, Robert H., and  Bonnie L. Pitblado. 2007. "Paleoindian Cultural Landscapes and Archaeology of North-Central Colorado's Southern Rockies" in Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology. University Press of Colorado. Boulder.    

Frison, George C. 1991. Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Second Edition. Academic Press, Inc. New York. 

Frison, George C. 2014. Rancher Archaeologist. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake.  

Husted, Wilfred M. 1969. Bighorn Canyon Archeology. Publications in Salvage Archeology, Number 12. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington D.C.         

About the Author. 

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In his latest blockbuster novel Beyond the Campfire, Branney catapults his readers back into Prehistoric America where they reunite with some familiar faces from Branney’s best-selling prehistoric adventure series the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy.

John Bradford Branney earned a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Colorado. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa. Beyond the Campfire is the eleventh published book by Branney.

GHOSTS OF THE HEART by John Bradford Branney - A Book Review

Click TO ORDER GHOSTS OF THE HEART 

GHOSTS OF THE HEART, the second book in the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL QUADRILOGY, is available from Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other better booksellers in paperback and e book.


I hope you enjoy reading the book review for GHOSTS OF THE HEART and I hope you give the QUADRILOGY a try!
  


The 10,000 Year Camp-Out



Shadows on the Trail available at Amazon.com,
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     I have attached an interesting article by Will Dunham of timesofmalta.com about the current thinking that several thousand people may have waited out the last Ice Age at Beringia, the submerged land under the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea between Siberia and Alaska.

     The article goes onto to discuss how these people could have survived for over 10,000 years from 25,000 to 15,000 years ago in what appears to have been a  tundra environment with woody plants and trees like birch, alder, and willow.

     The article also discusses how previous DNA research indicated that Native Americans have their own distinctive genetic blueprint, different from the Asian DNA we thought they came from. For this distinctive genetic blueprint to develop, the ancestors of Native Americans would have had to have been isolated from the rest of the human race for a long period of time. What better place to be completely isolated, between two impassable ice sheets, one in Siberia and the other in Alaska.

     Life in Beringia would have been harsh, but based on current thinking, there would have been trees for burning in campfires and animals for food.

   This theory does not account for the human activity that was occurring south of the ice sheets in southern North America during that same time frame. 

     In my book, Shadows on the Trail, I accommodated at least three different peoples with separate languages and customs. I still believe there were multiple sources for the peopling of North America.          


THE 10000 YEAR CAMP-OUT




Ghosts of the Heart available at Amazon.com,
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Shadows on the Trail Trilogy - Healing Practices for Paleoindians

Figure 1 - A depiction of a prehistoric hunter using an atlatl or spear thrower.

      As I sit and write my latest posting for the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy blog, I am fighting a severe cold. My head is congested and my throat is scratchy. My nose is running like a faucet and I am coughing constantly, trying to clear my lungs. In the bathroom, I have my over-the-counter medications lined up, everything from vitamins to severe cold medicine to cough drops. If my over-the-counter medications do not work on this cold, I can always be at my doctor’s office at a drop of a hat.   

     In our society, we are accustomed to going to the drugstore when we are sick or going to the doctor if our illness or ailment is serious. But, what did prehistoric people do some 10,700 years ago when the Shadows of the Trail Trilogy took place? What illnesses and injuries were common at the end of the Ice Age and how did they treat them?     

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    While writing all three prehistoric novels in the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy - Shadows on the Trail, Ghosts of the Heart, and Winds of Eden I researched Native American healing practices and medicines because I knew that several of my characters in the books would require healing practices and medicines. I had to make the assumption that the documented healing practices and medicines of the historical Native American Indian tribes were handed down to them by their prehistoric ancestors over thousands of years earlier. What surprised me the most during my research was the lack of medicines and herbs for treating serious ailments and sicknesses, even during historical Native American Indian times.         

     Below is a short segment from my prehistoric novel Ghosts of the Heart where our hero Chayton survived a serious shoulder wound and made it back to his tribe, the Folsom People. His wound was highly infected and the only healer the tribe happened to be Tarca Sapa’s granddaughter, Tonkala.       

     Tonkala walked over to the [bison] paunch and threw a small piece of deer hide into the boiling water. She stirred the deer hide around in the boiling water with a stick and then plucked it out of the water. She grabbed the deer hide and walked over to Chayton where she washed and scrubbed the wound with the deer hide. Chayton grimaced in pain, but did not utter a word. Kangi rotated more broiling rocks into the paunch, keeping the water steamy hot. Tonkala took the hide back to the paunch and dropped it into the boiling water.

     Chayton glanced up and met the eyes of Tonkala’s young daughter, Lupan. She smiled at Chayton and he gave her a combination grimace-smile back. Tonkala returned with the deer hide and vigorously scrubbed the wound, turning Chayton’s entire shoulder a bright red.

     “Wa nee yea due ne doe na hey, Lupan? – How many winters are you, Lupan?” Chayton asked the small girl, attempting to take his mind elsewhere.

     “Tópa, – Four,” Lupan answered and then instantly looked at her mother who returned a frown to her daughter.

     “Hee ya, yámni, – No, three,” Lupan corrected herself.

     “She is always trying to be older than she actually is,” Tonkala noted to Chayton.

     Tonkala then turned to the hunters and said, “Bring him water to drink.”

     Tonkala then began assembling the herbs and special tree bark she required for making a healing poultice. Out of a large satchel, Tonkala retrieved witch hazel, white poplar bark, and juniper berries. Tonkala laid the mixture onto a sandstone grinding stone and added a small amount of the boiling water. She then pulverized the ingredients with a round rock until the mixture became a paste. She then spread the paste over the wound and then sealed the wound with a clean piece of deer hide. She held the deer hide to the wound with her fingers until the paste congealed and glued the deer hide to Chayton’s skin. A hunter finally returned with drinking water and handed it to Tonkala.

 Figure 3 - We know how large and dangerous modern

bison are (to the left). Bison antiquus was the bison species that

the Folsom People hunted in the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy. 

Bison antiquus was much larger and more dangerous than

even the modern bison species. Note the size comparison.

     There is no way for any of us to know what sicknesses and diseases the Folsom People had to face during the Pleistocene. However, evidence from prehistoric human skeletons demonstrates that prehistoric people suffered from bad teeth, broken bones, osteoporosis, arthritis, wounds from various causes, and many other maladies. Prehistoric people lived extremely harsh lives where their subsistence strategy consisted of hunting large and dangerous mammals. If prehistoric people became severely hurt or sick, they could not just go to a doctor or dentist. They had to rely on natural medicines and endure the pain.

     Read Shadows on the Trail, Ghosts of the Heart, and Winds of Eden. Take a trip back to the Pleistocene! You will appreciate the modern conveniences we have even more!!  

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Paleoindian Wounds in Ghosts of the Heart!

Second Edition 

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One thing I wanted to convey and dramatise in the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy and in the second book in the series, GHOSTS of the HEART, was what happened when Paleoindians were wounded or injured 12,000 years ago. While researching GHOSTS of the HEART, I sought archaeological evidence and information on how wounds and injuries were treated in the prehistoric world. Since that type of perishable evidence was not usually found in archaeological sites, I assumed that a few Native American treatments and cures had been passed down from generation to generation, perhaps from Archaic and Paleoindian times.

Modern experimentation demonstrated that a well-thrown spear from
an atlatl can be propelled at a speed of around 70 miles per hour. 
  

After my research in concert with my own good old common sense, I concluded that during Paleoindian times, serious wounds and injuries oftentimes led to death or at least a debilitating life, and a debilitating life led to a low life expectancy. Based on the age and condition of the few Paleoindian / Early Archaic human skeletons that scientists have found and studied, this was a reasonable conclusion.  

Below is a short scene I took from GHOSTS of the HEART. In this particular scene, my main character, named Chayton, was seriously wounded by a stone-tipped spear. Chayton and his companion Wiyaka found themselves in a life-or-death situation. They were far away from their tribe, so the only thing they could do was escape their enemies and find their tribe so that Chayton's serious wound could be treated by the healer.        

                                             Folsom dart point used by the Folsom People and an
                                              Agate Basin dart point used by the Mountain People.  

                                                        

Before the sun set in the west, Chayton and Wiyaka made it out of the mountains and onto the foothills. Wiyaka found a safe place for them to camp near a small spring-fed pond. Chayton collapsed on the ground, sick and exhausted. Wiyaka went to the pond and filled up their water pouches. When he returned, Wiyaka woke Chayton up, telling him, “Sit up! I want to look at your shoulder.”

Wiyaka knelt down behind Chayton and said, “It is getting dark, turn your back to the sun.”

“Where is Namid?” Chayton asked.

“Slol wa yea shnee, – I do not know.”

“Avonaco?”

“Slol wa yea shnee, – I do not know.”

Chayton slowly twisted his body, letting the rays of the setting sun reach his wounded shoulder. Chayton’s hide shirt was stuck to the wound with dried blood. When Wiyaka peeled the shirt away, the air exploded with hundreds of flies escaping from the festering wound. Wiyaka swatted at the dense cloud of flies, but they were not going to give up their feast easily. Wiyaka leaned closer, attempting to block the flight of the flies while he examined the wound. Wiyaka took a whiff and quickly turned his nose away. The smell of rotting flesh overcame his senses. Holding his breath, Wiyaka steadied his stomach and inspected the wound. Blood was still trickling down Chayton’s back and a whitish-yellow mass covered the wound. When Wiyaka stuck his face even closer to inspect the whitish-yellow mass, he caught another whiff of the rancid smell and turned his head away. Wiyaka’s eyes watered from the strong stench and his stomach began to heave. He held his breath once again and inspected the wound. This was too much for Wiyaka and he turned his head to the side, vomiting the contents of his almost empty stomach on the ground. When he had purged his stomach of everything in it and more, Wiyaka again tried to inspect the whitish-yellow glob that completely enveloped the wound and the surrounding area. He found that it consisted of fly eggs and when he looked closer, he saw that many of the eggs had already hatched and white maggots had taken over.

“Waglulas, – Maggots,” Wiyaka declared. “Ayabeya. – Everywhere.”

Without antibiotics, infection would be a deadly killer for Paleoindians, just as it is today. Chayton was fortunate that they extracted the stone spear point out of his shoulder quickly. Stone spear points were attached to the spear foreshaft with animal sinew or tendon. When sinew comes into contact with blood and bodily fluids, it stretches and swells. Waiting too long to extract the spear point could result in separating the spear point from the sinew and shaft, leaving the stone projectile point in the shoulder muscle. The shoulder muscles would then contract around the spear point making it difficult or impossible to remove it.

Deadly two-inch plus 
Colorado Folsom.

Chayton was lucky that the spear penetrated his shoulder and not somewhere more lethal, such as his chest or abdomen. The seriousness of a chest wound is self-explanatory. A wound to the abdomen or stomach can be just as serious. Vital organs and blood vessels are concentrated in the abdomen of a human. If an intestine is pierced, a fatal infection is almost ensured. As an analogy from historical times, Mexican soldiers wrapped heavy blankets around their midsections when fighting the Apache Indians. The Mexican soldiers were protecting their midsections from deadly arrow wounds to the abdomen. We also know that some historical Native American tribes draped thick animal hides around their torsos to protect themselves from arrow and bullet wounds to the abdomen. 

Paleoindians had other wounds they had to contend with besides those inflicted by other humans. Paleoindians had to deal with nature and its ruggedness. They had to deal with hiking injuries and campfire burns, and predator attacks. In all of those cases, Paleoindians treated their injuries, mild to serious, with what was available at the time, which was probably not much. Think about that the next time you have a sunburn, a pulled muscle or a contusion. You could always go to the medical clinic or doctor. Paleoindians never had that option!           

Well...

Does Chayton survive his wound or not? You will just have to read my book series to find out. 

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Ghosts of the Heart by John Bradford Branney - Relive the Pleistocene!

Add cRelive the Pleistocene in the pages of  Ghosts of the Heart by John Bradford Branney.
Available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and better booksellers.

 If you enjoy reading about fossils and our prehistory in North America, check out this article on the fossil finds at the Gray Fossil Site!

Pleistocene Fossils at the Gray Site

Ghost of the Heart and Extinct Pleistocene Mammals!!!

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The hunters stopped to rest, gazing at the beautiful sight of the meadow. Several hunters started pointing across the meadow at what appeared to be a large brown rock. It was an unusual rock since it appeared to be moving. The hunters jabbered amongst themselves, watching and pointing at this strange sight. Chayton wanted a closer look and found a place where the hunters could jump from boulder to boulder across the roaring river. The other hunters followed Chayton, sneaking across the soggy meadow and hiding behind trees and willow bushes where they could find them. Chayton quietly stalked this odd-looking rock, keeping the wind in his face and moving in harmony with the blowing tree limbs and bushes.

Chayton hoped that this rock-like thing did not hear the sound of his moccasins sinking in the muddy soil. The other hunters mimicked Chayton’s movements, only taking a step when he did. When the hunters reached this strange rock, they stared in amazement. They had heard the stories around the
campfire about such an animal. None of the hunters had ever seen anything that compared to the size of this animal. The magnificence of the animal stunned Chayton. He took a step forward and his moccasin disappeared into the smelly mire of the boggy meadow. The other hunters crouched down
behind anything they could find while gazing up at the humongous animal in front of them.

“This is the animal Tarca Sapa spoke about,” Keya whispered to Chayton.

“Ai, – Yes,” Chayton murmured, never taking his eyes off the beast.

Crouching low to the ground, Chayton waited for another wind gust and synchronizing his movement with it, he took a step forward. The other hunters moved when he moved, their moccasins sinking in the organic rich mud. Behind a stand of willow bushes, Chayton craned his neck upward...

Above is a short outtake from my new prehistoric thriller Ghosts of the Heart. In this particular scene, a prehistoric hunting party discovered a large animal that none of the hunters had ever seen before. The hunters had all heard the campfire stories and legends about this animal, but meeting one face-to-face was a lot more intimidating than any of the hunters had expected.   

When I wrote Ghosts of the Heart, I took some liberty with what we currently know about the prehistory of North America. My only defense to this liberty is in the name of fiction. I am sure that some readers may criticize me for doing this, but here is what I did and a tiny bit of justification. In Ghosts of the Heart, I added an extinct Pleistocene animal that may not have still existed at the time this adventure took place. The remains of this extinct animal have not yet been found with associated artifacts from the time of the Folsom People. That is not to say that this evidence won't turn up sometime in the future, but as of right now, the evidence is not there. Let's look at this closer in the next few paragraphs.   

At archaeological sites, investigators do everything possible to determine the dates of the site occupation  and for any human or animals that they may have found. How likely is it that any given investigator finds the last member of an extinct animal species in their archaeological site? For that matter, how likely is it that they have found one of the last ten or twenty members of an extinct animal species? Not likely and here is why.

First of all, the conditions have to be just right for any animal to be preserved in the fossil record. Most prehistoric human or animal remains have simply decayed away, not leaving any evidence of their existence in the fossil record. Now, let's say, the animal actually becomes fossilized. How likely is it that someone actual discovers the fossil remains where it has been buried? Not very likely is my answer. Finding the remains of an extinct animal is about as random as throwing darts at a map of North America and hoping that your dart hits a possible location for a fossilized extinct animal. 

Now, let's assume that extinct animal remains somehow became fossilized and then by chance, were found by archaeological investigators. How likely is it that this particular fossilized animal is the last member of its extinct species?  My answer is not likely at all and secondly, how would the investigator ever know if it was one of the last members of that species?        

There is a very low probability of finding the fossilized remains for an extinct animal species and an even lower probability that the fossilized animal remains represent the last member of an extinct animal species. Now, we add another low probability that we find the fossilized animal remains associated with human artifacts. Even if we do,, how do we know if these fossilized animal remains were the last member of an extinct species? Perhaps, the species went on to live another thousands years, who knows? The archaeologist won't know if those fossilized animal remains were the last member of that extinct animal species. So, as far as using an extinct species in Ghosts of the Heart, who knows, maybe someday the archaeological evidence will back up the story.         

 You might be asking what extinct Pleistocene species did I use in Ghosts of the Heart? Well, for that answer, you are going to have to read Ghosts of the Heart.

Shadows on the Trail and Ghosts of the Heart by John Bradford Branney are available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and better booksellers around the globe. 

 

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