The 1,100-year-old mystery of Montana’s lost bison hunting site finally solved
Archaeologists have determined that the Bergstrom site in Montana was abandoned 1,100 years ago due to severe, recurring droughts that limited water for processing bison. The study highlights how environmental stressors influenced the social and economic decisions of ancient Indigenous hunters.
Why it matters
Understanding how past societies adapted to climate-driven resource scarcity provides valuable context for modern environmental conservation and human adaptation strategies.
For thousands of years, bison roamed the Great Plains of North America and were an essential resource for Indigenous hunters. Those hunting traditions continued until the late 1800s, when overhunting drove bison populations to the brink of extinction. Long before that collapse, however, hunters relied on a variety of strategies and locations to harvest bison, sometimes shifting from one site to another.
The article reports on archaeological findings using academic sources.
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