The Tschetter site : a study of a late prehistoric bison kill

The location of the Tschetter site in the Aspen Parkland of Saskatchewan makes it unique among excavated bison drive sites on the Northern Plains. This Late Prehistoric kill site was determined to have been occupied during the winter, a time when bison foraged on the nutritive grasses of the Fescue prairie and sheltered in the aspen groves of the Aspen Parkland. The features of the site include a partial pound structure, a heavy bone bed, charcoal concentrations and refuse pits. It was determined that bison were impounded, killed and butchered at the site and that some food processing also took place. Tool types and distributions confirmed these activities. A use-wear analysis of a sample of the tools was useful in aiding the determination of the activities which took place at the site, although the sample was seen to have been skewed toward a predominance of scraping tools. The Tschetter site is seen to conform to the established pattern of Late Prehistoric bison driving on the Northern Plains when compared to three other sites in Saskatchewan, which were occupied during the same time period