Geoecology of the Marias River Canyon, Montana, USA

Book excerpt: The Marias River canyon in north-central Montana served during late Holocene time as a locus of human activity in an ecologically and geologically dynamic landscape. This volume presents the results of interdisciplinary research, synergistically combining geologic, ecologic, and archaeologic approaches focused on examining the ways that Late Precontact peoples depended upon the animal (bison) and plant resources of a changing landscape subject to erosion and sediment transport as dominant surficial processes. Connections between erosion and deposition, plant community distribution, large mammal niches, and native peoples' place in the Marias River canyon geoecosystem, as well as the role of tributary-junction alluvial fans as repositories of archaeological materials and vertebrate faunal remains are emphasized.