Kelly Creek Speaks In a lush wilderness, U-Idaho archaeology team discovers some of the oldest evidence of human activity in the state
By Paula M. Davenport
Artifact descriptions: Lee Sappington and Laura Longstaff
At an archaeological dig site in the Clearwater National Forest, a tribal elder gathers around a campfire to tell coyote stories to University of Idaho researchers, who are weaving their own narrative of a sort. Against the backdrop of emerald Kelly Creek, a renowned fly-fishing destination in Idaho’s north-central wilderness near the Montana border, the researchers are piecing together the story of the region’s earliest indigenous tribes, told through artifacts that represent some of the state’s oldest evidence of human activity. Excavation has stretched over the past two summers, with U-Idaho archaeologists and their field school students finding and cataloging about 11,000 items, including prized hunting tools – some of them 12,000 or more years old. Among the most notable finds are 354 implements. They include anvil and hammer stones, projectile and spear points, blades and knives, an abrader used to smooth wooden and bone tools, and two stone sinkers from ancient fishing nets.
The additional discovery of spear points shaped from non-native lava rocks – obsidian and green vitrophyre – points to the tribes’ high mobility and their trades with Native American tribes living in southern Idaho, Oregon and Montana. “This is really important. It’s not the biggest dig in the state – but it is among the very oldest,” says University of Idaho archaeologist Lee Sappington, a foremost authority on human history on the Columbia Plateau. An associate professor of anthropology in the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, he’s ultimately responsible for the project. Recently, carbon dating of some of the uncovered relics show that aboriginal people first frequented the place some 2,000 years earlier then previously known. Archaeologists refer to the time period as the region’s Windust phase, the first on a timeline that runs up to the present. “It’s really significant to find anything this old. It’s places like this where we can make the most contributions to the 17