Some histories are written on paper. Others are revealed by landscapes, rocks, bones and human memory.

Now new computer technologies and archaeological investigations in the past decade are revealing data and discoveries that have historians rethinking the early history of the Americas, including that of the Helena Valley.

"The canon (of history) is being rewritten," said historian Nicholas Vrooman, who is also interim director of the Helena Indian Alliance.

"Much of American history can be found by looking at one place on the face of the Earth and watching it transform over time. The Helena Valley is such a place," he said.

"It's an incredible epic story of human community. It's �¿ï¿½ not about Indians, not about Anglos, not about the Spanish."

And this history is much more fluid and changing than originally believed, he said.

In the Helena area, the story begins about 11,000 years ago when a party of hunters entered this valley, perhaps stalking an ancient form of bison that is now extinct.

Some historians, such as Vrooman, believe that the latest historical research reveals an unbroken connection from those prehistoric people to modern-day tribes.

"Many tribal origin stories tell of people always being here," he said.

However, other historians still have questions.

While there is no doubt that Indian peoples were here 13,000 years ago or more, the archaeological evidence cannot be linked to specific ancient Indian bands or cultures, said Carl Davis, forest archaeologist for the Helena National Forest.

"We know from oral tradition that they (tribal ancestors) were here, but it's just dang hard to prove archaeologically," he said.

Part of the problem is that the early hunters traveled fast and light, leaving little trace of their passage.

As a result, the archaeological record is "sparse," said Davis. Items such as culture-specific clothing items have not survived.

However, Davis is also careful to point out that archaeologists and Indians are working together to understand this history, rather than in opposition to each other.

"Most archaeologists would say it's not been proven there's an unbroken connectivity from these prehistoric hunters to modern tribes," said Montana's State Archaeologist Stan Wilmoth.

But, he added, "If you put three to four archaeologists in a room, basically there's not much everyone believes in."

Finding changed views

Up until the 1930s, the prevailing historic view was that American Indians had only been on this continent some 4,000 years, said Vrooman.

But in the 1930s, archaeologists at a site near Clovis, N.M., unearthed stone points, found with bones of animals extinct for 10,000 years.

This finding rewrote history.

What fascinates some historians today is a striking resemblance between the Clovis points and spear points unearthed in numerous European sites from about the same time period, such as a cave at Altamira in the Iberian Peninsula.

Those sophisticated hunter-gathering cave-dwellers had "just about the exact same technology as what's here," said Vrooman.

Such discoveries are raising questions about whether early people in the Americas arrived by both land, such as the Bering Strait land bridge, and sea (see sidebar).

However, other historians such as Davis remain skeptical that prehistoric European people crossed to the Americas by boat.

But one point more and more historians do agree on is that there were multiple human migrations into the American continents.

"There is unparalleled language diversity," said Davis. "It's really difficult to explain that diversity from a single migration. You would have had to have multiple migrations."

Prehistoric hunters

While no one has found Clovis points in the Helena area, several "Folsom" style projectiles from about the same period were found in the North Hills in the last couple of years, Wilmoth said. However, the site has been destroyed by development.

Artifacts �¿ï¿½ projectile points �¿ï¿½ found on sites adjoining the Helena National Forest indicate hunters were here as long as 12,000 years ago, at the close of the last period of the last ice age, said Davis.

The plant life those hunters saw would have resembled that of today, said Wilmoth. But much was different. A large part of the Helena Valley would have been under water, and the climate would have been cooler and wetter.

In other areas of Montana, there is evidence these early hunters may have stalked mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and elephants. There were also camels, a giant short-faced bear and a towering ground sloth as big as today's elephants, Vrooman said.

About 7,500 to 5,000 years ago people adjusted to a warming climate in this area, said Davis. By that time, ice-age mammals were long since extinct.

Small groups of Indians hunted communally, in search of bison, deer and mountain sheep.

The hunters were armed with atlatls and spears, but also made use of snares, nets, traps, jumps and blinds.

These hunter-gatherers also relied on processing plant foods and may have gathered bitterroot, biscuitroot, lamb's quarter-goosefoot and prickly pear cactus, said Davis.

They traveled on foot and left few traces of their passage, except exhausted or discarded stone tools, bits of bone scrap from meals and an occasional cooking hearth, said Davis.

During this time and as long as 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, native people began relying on dogs (domesticated wolves) to move their families, tools and food, said Davis.

It was a major cultural change, said Vrooman.

"Our culture grew because of dog culture. Deep in the psyche of Indians is living with dogs."

A family of three to five needed 15 dogs to carry the weight or to pull travois.

When a band of 200 people gathered there could be 1,000 dogs, he said.

Although many historic images of Indians are of them on horseback, it wasn't until the early 1700s that horses came to the Plains. When Indians first saw them, they called them "elk dogs," Vrooman said. And dogs were featured prominently in tribal oral histories.

Artifacts

Beginning about 4,500 years ago, there begins to be more of an archaeological record as more people may have used the Helena area, said Davis.

"But we still don't have much of an archaeological clue who these people were ethnically," he added.

The similarity of the artifacts, such as dart points, scrapers and knives, makes it difficult to say a particular site is linked to a particular Indian group or tribe, he said.

"One of the lessons (of history) is the fluidity of the human population," said Vrooman. "It's not a static history." He theorizes that the arrival of Europeans made it even more so.

With the Europeans came diseases that swept the Americas after the 1500s. It's likely 80 to 95 percent of the native population died, Vrooman said. Tribal groups were decimated. Human skills and institutional memory of vast civilizations were wiped out.

To survive, small groups came together and formed new bands and tribes.

Linguists and other scholars are shedding new light on the variety of mixed-blood people and hybrid cultures that formed, he said. "This is the dynamic of human change over time and place," said Vrooman.

The Kootenai are believed to be such a hybrid culture, forming from allied groups of Athapascan and Cree tribes, Vrooman said.

New linguistic research suggests migrations came from the southeast and east, not just the north.

This is also reinforced by oral history, said Vrooman. All the oral traditions of the Algonquin tribes, from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains �¿ï¿½ the Cree, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Ojibway, Gros Ventre and Cheyenne �¿ï¿½ speak of coming from the ocean and forests to the east.

Throughout prehistory and into the 1800s, the Helena Valley drew hunter-gatherers, most of them transient. The Nez Perce, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Crow and Assiniboine all hunted here.

All of the passes into the valley �¿ï¿½ MacDonald, Mullan, Rogers, Flesher, Stemple, Lewis and Clark �¿ï¿½ were known collectively as "the road to the buffalo," said Vrooman.

By the time the Four Georgians arrived in 1864 and discovered gold, ancestors of Helena's historic Little Shell Indian community were already settled in the area and had built cabins, Vrooman said.

Following on the heels of the Four Georgians would come the rush of prospectors, the railroad, homesteaders, and cattle drives. These newcomers would forever reshape life and history in Montana and the Helena Valley, eventually pushing Montana's 11 tribal groups onto seven reservations.

These late-arriving settlers adapted to many of the same settlement patterns as the first people, said Vrooman. Human development still follows the Rocky Mountain landscape's watersheds and drainages, which partially explains why Lewis and Clark County is stretched the way it is, he said.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com