THE GORDON BISON SITE: A NATIVE-AMERICAN BUTCHERING SITE OF EARLY HISTORIC AGE IN THE CARSON VALLEY OF NORTHERN NEVADA

We report the recovery and preliminary analysis of an assemblage of Bison bones, along with a smaller number of probable Antilocapra bones, from a recently discovered fossil site, located a few km east of Carson City, Nevada. The site, herein named the Gordon Bison Site, lies on private land, within the floodplain of the Carson River, approximately 1 km from the modern channel of the river.

We have recovered bones representing at least four individual bison and one pronghorn from multiple excavation pits up to about 50 m apart. A subadult bison from Pit #1 was almost completely articulated, while the others are represented by isolated bone elements. A metatarsal from Pit #5 contains abundant, conspicuous cut marks that we interpret to be the result of butchering. All of the bones were found within approximately 60 cm of the ground surface. Radiocarbon dating places the death of these animals in early historic time, in the 18^th or 19^thcenturies.

The animal whose skeleton was articulated was lying in a peculiar orientation, with its ventral side down. Its left foreleg projected forward from the shoulder, and its right foreleg projected downward into the floodplain sediment. Hundreds of fly puparia were scattered around the ribcage. We recovered nearly all of this animal’s skeleton, however we found no caudal vertebrae.

Our tentative interpretation for the articulated skeleton is that the animal was skinned and probably partially butchered, but it was not dismembered. When skinning a bison, Native Americans would typically orient the animal on its stomach and slit the skin down the midline of the back, in part to recover the highly desirable hump meat. The tail was often removed with the skin, which, in our interpretation, explains the absence of caudal vertebrae in our specimen. The abundant fly puparia record the exposure of the skinned, partially butchered carcass to flies.

There is no previous record of Bison of any age in the Carson Valley region, so this occurrence extends the historic range of Bison into this region.