An Examination of Tip Rings in the Bighorn Canyon-Pryor Mountain Area

From 1968 through 1974, approximately 500 archaeological sites were recorded in the Pryor MountainBighorn Canyon area of south-central Montana. One hundred and twenty-two of these exhibited from one to 230 tipi rings. The tipi ring sites were examined to determine the relationships between sites, number of rings, density of artifactual debris, and site settings. It is possible to make two important statements on the basis of the analysis: (1) tipi ring sites in unprotected settings along trails or travel routes do not exhibit large amounts of artifactual debris on the surface nor do they produce material by subsurface excavation; and (2) tipi ring sites in protected settings, both along trails and in other areas, often contain abundant artifactual debris on the surface and in subsurface excavations. The data suggest that those tipi ring sites in sheltered locations and associated with the greater amounts of accumulated debris were occupied for a longer period of time.