The bison hunting complex in the northern Rocky Mountain foothills

At the turn of the 20th century untold metric tons of bison bone littered the northern Plains. Fifty years later, most of this surface debris had been collected to manufacture fertiliser and to support the weapons industry during World War II (Davis 1978). Yet, numerous bone beds buried below cliffs and high bluffs, or in box canyons and sinkholes, awaited discovery and study by archaeologists. George Frison (1991, 2004), Charles Reher (Reher and Frison 1980), and Jack Brink (2008, this volume) are among the many Plains archaeologists who can attest to the arduous task of identifying single hunting episodes out