PREHISTORIC AND k or at least 10,000years before the first Anglo explorers reached Piute County, humans had hunted, fished, made camps, and built homes along the Sevier River and the creeks and streams that feed it. When the Mormon pioneers arrived to build farms and homes in the Sevier River Valley in the 1850s,they settled in the same natural locations that the native peoples had used for thousands of years. Modern archaeologists and anthropologists have identified more than 500 prehistoric Native American sites in Piute County. Their careful scientific analyses of fill dirt, artifacts, pollen, and other materials found at these and additional locations helps enable us to piece together the larger picture of the lifeways these ancient peoples.'
Paleo-Indian Cultures: 12000-7000
B. P.'
The first human inhabitants to enter the southwestern region of North America, possibly as early as 12,000 years ago, were big- game hunters.' These people were part of a group known as the late Pleistocene Native Americans, or Paleo-Indians, and are believed to
