Indians of the Mesa Verde

by Don Watson

In order to obtain some of the ancient skeletons the museum sent expeditions to Folsom, New Mexico, and during three summers the men dug the great bones out of the arroyo bank. When the digging was finished, the men had recovered thirty skeletons of the long-extinct bison. But in addition, they had found something far more important. Among the bison bones they had discovered nineteen beautiful dart, or spear points. The points were so closely associated with the bones that there could be no doubt as to their antiquity. And, with equal certainty, there could be no doubt that ancient hunters had killed the great bison.

All evidence indicated that a few thousand years ago this was a swampy, boggy place, a bison wallow. Primitive hunters crept up on the drowsing animals and sometimes made a kill. They skinned the bison, cut off what meat they wanted and left the carcasses to rot in the mud. Sometimes they failed to extract all of their dart points from the bodies of the bison. As the centuries passed the bones became deeply covered with earth and there they remained until that fateful day when Nigger George rode by.

Geologists who studied the Folsom Site felt that the bison bones had been there in the earth at least twelve or fifteen thousand years. The importance of the nineteen dart points was immediately evident. Since they had caused the death of the bison there could be no doubt that men were in the area twelve or fifteen thousand years ago. Before the Folsom discovery archeologists had felt that men had been in America only a short time. Now they were forced to revise their thinking concerning the antiquity of the American Indian.

When the Folsom discovery was announced many archeologists began searching for evidences of Folsom Man and a burning question was always in their minds. Who would have the honor of finding Folsom Man himself? After twenty-five years of searching, the question is still unanswered. Folsom Man still evades his trackers for no skeletons have been found which can be considered, without doubt, to have belonged to him.

Evidences are plentiful for in many parts of the United States the points have been found. But Folsom Man himself still eludes us. The name means little. It is a term that is rather loosely applied to the makers of the beautiful Folsom Points. They are entirely distinctive and are among the highest examples of the flint workers art that have been found in America. Beautifully shaped, delicately chipped points with grooved faces, they can not be confused with any other dart or spear points. They have been found in many places, often associated with the bones of extinct animals.

Up in northern Colorado, near the town of Fort Collins, is the Lindenmeier Site. In it were found the bones of the same bison as those of Folsom. With them were the same Folsom Points. With them, also, were stone knives, scrapers, chopping and rubbing stones, as well as the ashes and charcoal from ancient campfires. They were spread over a large area. It was a campsite where Folsom Man actually had lived. Was Folsom Man in camp? No, he had stepped out!

In Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and other states, similar finds have been made. Folsom Points, and other points equally ancient, have been found in association with the bones of many extinct animals such as the bison, horse, mammoth and camel. Everywhere are found the evidences; nowhere is found Folsom Man himself.

Bones of the extinct animals, being solid and massive, have lasted well. Tools made of stone last indefinitely. Human bones, being thin and delicate, disintegrate more rapidly. There were probably few burials in those days and the human bones were scattered to the four winds. Still the search goes on. Sooner or later the find will be made. In the back of a dry cave somewhere in the Southwest, probably, will be found some human bones. With them will be some Folsom Points. Then we will know that the points and the bones belonged to the same man—Folsom Man.

Or perhaps, when the human bones are found, a Folsom Point will actually be sticking in one of them. Then we will be sure that we have Folsom Man or, at least, someone whom Folsom Man did not like.

Although the actual physical remains of Folsom Man have not been found, a human skeleton, seemingly equally ancient, has recently been discovered. In 1947, scientists began excavating in a dry lake bed near Mexico City because of reports that natives had been finding mammoth bones in the area. Near the point where the mammoth bones had been found was discovered the partial skeleton of a man. The men who made the discovery were very sure the skeleton was as old as the layer of earth in which it was found, and this age was estimated to be 15,000 years.