ABSTRACT
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Northwestern Plains and Rockies are expected to have lived in groups best described as bands. Pithouses, wooden structures, and stone circles, sometimes clearly evidence of larger multiband villages, are the archaeological records that provide evidence of community organization and living space Living spaces include huge landscapes where rock cairns, sometimes arranged in alignments, are evidence of animal procurement or transportation routes. This chapter presents some information that bears on these aspects of prehistoric communities and their landscapes. Various structural remains that date to the earliest occupation of the region provide evidence of prehistoric communities. The chapter discusses four archaeological types that include semi-subterranean pit features, stone circles, rock-shelters, and log structures. It also talks about few things concerning plains-mountain archaeology that has received the publicity and interest as the so-called Bighorn medicine wheel.
