Early eighteenth century plains Indian adornment at the River Bend Site, Wyoming

Central Wyoming’s River Bend site (48NA202) contains the largest adornment assemblage thus far discovered in the state, including extensive evidence for bead and pendant production from riverine mollusk shell. Other ornaments recovered include bird and canid bone beads, elk ivory pendants, <i>Olivella</i> sp. beads, and a steatite bead. A small number of metal artifacts combined with a newly acquired radiocarbon date indicate an early post-Contact age between AD 1700 and 1725. Thus, the site represents a key transitional moment in Plains Indian adornment practices between the use of Native-produced and traded items. Although the River Bend adornment assemblage has been briefly reported, it has never been fully described. Addressing this, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the River Bend bead and pendant assemblage, describing its physical characteristics and spatial distribution across the extensively excavated site. We argue that at least one metal awl in the assemblage was used as a drill during shell adornment production. The introduction of such implements may have led to large-scale adornment production of the sort documented at River Bend and at least one other northern Plains early post-Contact site.