Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

A collection of 2,185 bird bones recovered from twelve sites was analyzed to determine how the Fremont people made use of birds and their remains. Although bird bones are present at many of the Fremont sites that have been excavated in the last few decades, bird remains are rarely studied by archaeologists. The relative abundance of bird taxa and the contexts of bird bones suggest how some bird families were used by the Fremont people. We combine data from our bird-bone assemblage with data provided by Parmalee (1980) to determine which bird families are most commonly found as dietary remains or as raw materials for manufacturing artifacts. GIS data suggest that waterfowl were hunted primarily at wetland sites, while the Fremont people at open desert sites focused their bird hunting efforts on grouse. We found that the Fremont people used birds for a variety of purposes, including as food sources and as raw materials for tools and artifacts involving bones and feathers. Contextual data for bird bones recovered from Wolf Village and Baker Village suggest that some bird species were used at possible ceremonial and communal structures.