Potlatch with speaker Jason LaBelle, PhD

Please join us
Saturday April 28, 2018
at the
Granby Community Center
for our
Annual Potlatch
featuring
Jason LaBelle, PhD.

Doors open at 6 pm and talk begins at 7 pm.

Admission: A delicious homemade dish to share!

The Southern Rocky Mountains are known for their jagged peaks, frigid lakes, and abundant wildlife. While many modern residents view the alpine country as wilderness and untrammeled by humanity, archaeological research provides a different narrative. Over 2000 prehistoric sites are known from Colorado at elevations greater than 10,000 feet. Rather than suggesting the mountains as a barrier, this instead demonstrates that the highlands played a significant role within the lives of ancient Native Americans. For instance, communal hunting of large game such as bighorn sheep and elk was a major pursuit in the fall of the year, reflected in “game drives” containing v-shaped rock walls that funneled prey towards hunters in shooting blinds. In this presentation, Dr. LaBelle provides an overview of the alpine archaeology of Colorado, focusing on hunting sites and other important places, proposing reasons for their construction and use over millennia, and arguing for the importance of these places to the peoples of the past as well as today.