A Mystery Exposed

A Mystery Exposed. . , In 1989, inspection of the Lake Ilo dam found that critical maintenance was needed. A notch cut into the spillway lowered the water about 7 feet so the work could be completed. The exposed lake bed revealed remarkable discoveries and mysteries of Plains Indian life in western North Dakota. , The stone circle before you was discovered on the lake bed the Refuge manager contacted the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office, and the University of North Dakota archaeological team arrived. They recorded 13 prehistoric sites, including stone tools, waste flakes, hearth stones, and pottery shards, some representing campsites that were undisturbed for over 10,000 years! , Native American Tipi , The original stone circle is thought to be the remains of a Native American home, perhaps a bison-hide tent. Tents, or tipis, provided vital shelter to the highly mobile Native American hunters and gatherers that lived in this area. Stones are often used to anchor the hides the covered the poles. , A Large Lodge , A hide tent requiring a stone circle of this size would have been a proximately 22 feet tall. It would have had 25 poles and a covering made of 37 bison hides. The weight of the structure without the stones would have been almost 800 pounds. , If Stones Could Speak , Lodges this large were not practical until horses were available to move them, sometime in the early 1700s. Yet, a 500-year-old roasting pit was discovered inside the stone circle , dating back to the early 1500s. This leaves us with unanswered questions. Is this large stone circle pre-horse in age? If so, what was it used for? Or was the roasting pit left from an earlier occupation and stones added later? What do you think? , Many smaller stone circles, created prior to the use of horses, have been discovered on the Plains. Dogs were used as pack animals to transport these smaller tipis.