Larry Lahren. 2006. Homeland: An archaeologist's view of Yellowstone Country's Past. Cayuse Press, Livingston, Montana. ISBN 978-0-9789251-0-9.
The Life of a Cowboy Archaeologist
Larry Lahren is a cowboy archaeologist - a rugged individual from and of the Plains and Great Basin of North America, who spent his career investigating Archaic and Paleoindian hunter-gatherers, clothed in blue jeans, boots and a stetson. His semi-autobiographical book, Homeland: An Archaeologist's View of Yellowstone Country's Past, is a direct expression of that set of passions that was once a huge hunk of American archaeology and now is a dying breed.
Homeland is a strange mix for a book, making it hard to categorize. It is, like Lahren, rangy, beginning with a chapter describing his childhood in Livingston, Montana, how he became interested in archaeology and chose to pursue an MS at Montana State and a PhD at Calgary, and his early days as an archaeologist. Lahren's personal history is tied up with the growth of the cultural resource management movement of the seventies, as we see him open an independent CRM firm and after some tribulations, make it successful.
Cultural History and Some Site Reports
The subsequent chapters include a cultural history of Montana and the Yellowstone Park area beginning with Clovis and ending with the historic period. Chapters on stone tools, flintknapping, and hunting strategies are all well-illustrated and interlaced with information gained from Lahren's personal knowledge of experimental archaeology and those of his friends and acquaintances. A chapter on the archaeological and political aspects of the Anzick Clovis site and Lahren's involvement with it is followed by straight site reports on the Myers-Hindman and Dozer Rock sites, including artifact drawings and graphs of raw material types. The final chapters are on the historic Native Americans Shoshoni and Crow, detailing tipi rings, buffalo jumps, trails, horses and vision quests.
A Strange, Rangy Book
Homeland is a strange, rangy book, and at the same time a perfect expression of the cowboy archaeologist. Written in an accessible off-hand vernacular style (except for the site reports, which are, you know, site reports) and liberally illustrated with photographs and line drawings, Homeland is suitable for anyone who loves the Yellowstone Country or anyone who wants to see the inner workings of the rugged individual archaeologist.
