Native American Trails

Kansas, Nebraska, eastern Wyoming, and eastern Colorado are a vast undulating prairie--unbroken to the snowy bulwark of the Rocky Mountains. For thousands of years this country was inhabited by Plains tribes, elk herds, grizzly bears, and millions of buffalo. Archeological findings reveal that people lived on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountain region as far back as 15,000 years ago.

Information about where these early inhabitants traveled, what they used, and why they went where they did comes from a variety of sources: artifacts dug up or traded, markings on rock walls, oral histories from elders, archaeological excavations, diaries and journals from European travelers, paintings, and a few early photographs. Pictographs in southern Colorado record a variety of symbols, carved in the rock wall over many years.

Carl Schwashheim & Barnum Brown authenticating Folsom pointsCourtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Watercolor by Thomas Kennet-Were 1869 Courtesy University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center

Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Trade trails carried raw materials, mica, ocean shells, and copper across the continent. A network of trails that radiated out from a quarry in southwestern Minnesota provided soft red stone for carving peace pipes, a ceremonial essential for Plains tribal groups. This quarry is now Pipestone National Monument, still mined exclusively by Native Americans. Obsidian, a glass-like black stone used for making various tools, was an important material and one major source was present-day Yellowstone Park. Obsidian tools have been found, along with other Native American artifacts, across the country.

E.B. Renaud Collection Courtesy University of Denver Museum of Anthropology

A period of relative peace on the Plains between Native Americans, explorers, and trappers lasted until the middle of the nineteenth century. Glass beads, iron tools, and government issued peace medals were among the coveted trade goods that were exchanged for luxurious furs.

Courtesy Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College Nic-a-cat, the Ute chief on the right, is wearing a "peace medallion."