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From this lookout near a natural stone arch, they could keep an eye on any neighbors or intruders moving through the canyon.
More than 1,000 years later, archaeologists discovered the spot while exploring Indian sites scattered throughout hundreds of acres in and around eastern Utah's Range Creek Canyon. They called it the Deluxe Apartment in the Sky, borrowed from the theme song of the 1970s and '80s sitcom "The Jeffersons."
"There is not another region in the state of Utah that has the sheer number and density of essentially untouched archaeological sites - in fact, the archaeology of Range Creek Canyon may be unique in the United States," archaeologists wrote in a research proposal for the Book Cliffs site.
Hiding beneath the surface of this pristine site - and thousands of others believed to be in the area - are artifacts and clues that could tell new stories about the people archaeologists refer to as the Fremont Indians. Such details could explain more about the Fremonts, who archaeologists believe lived in Utah and the surrounding territory from 500 to 1300.
How their culture came into existence, and whether they suddenly vanished eight centuries ago, has been a matter of fierce debate for decades. Some experts wonder whether the Fremont were a cohesive culture or simply an unrelated group of people who just happened to live in the same general area at the same time.
"People have argued for 50 years over what is the definition of Fremont," said Renee Barlow, a Salt Lake Community College archaeologist who is investigating Range Creek.
Members of the region's American Indian tribes contend their people have always lived in the region.
"The area was probably never totally abandoned," said archaeologist Melvin Brewster, a Northern Paiute and tribal historic preservation officer for the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians.
Several tribes believe they descended from the Fremont - known to some as Newenucyou or Mookweetch- and should be involved in deciding the future of Range Creek.
Of particular importance is the discovery of human remains on federal land in the area. If modern tribes claim cultural affiliation to reclaim those remains, they will have to navigate through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The process is already under way for several dozen Fremont remains found in the 1980s at Willard Bay Reservoir, near the Great Salt Lake, and at Steinaker Reservoir near Vernal. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages land near these sites, is reviewing a series of reports ranging from archaeology to oral tradition to determine cultural affiliation.
While these reports do not directly relate to the Range Creek remains, found on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property near the old Wilcox ranch, they provide a snapshot of the state of research regarding the Fremont as a whole.
One culture or many? Experts generally agree the Fremont farmed their own type of corn, adapted to a shorter growing season, and supplemented their crops with hunting and gathering, Barlow said during a recent archaeology conference held in Bluff.
The Fremont used metates, large stones with indentations, for grinding corn and seeds. They created grayware pottery and crafted basketry using a single rod to support the structure and weaving the plant material around the rod. They wore leather moccasins and built homes of stone and wood that were partly underground. They also created unfired clay figurines.
But if this were a checklist to be Fremont, not all ancient Utah inhabitants of that era would qualify, Barlow said. Not all Fremont sites, for example, contain clay figurines.
To deal with these differences, archaeologists have created five different Fremont variants based on where each group lived.
For a time, the Fremont were considered to be a part of the better-known Anasazi culture, found in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and southern Utah. In the 1950s, University of Utah archaeologist Jesse Jennings began chipping the Fremont into their own culture.
James Adavasio, a professor at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., is convinced that the Fremont should be considered a cohesive culture based on one tie: baskets.
"Some people say, well, if they make a Fremont basket, then are they a Fremont? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," Adavasio said.
It may seem like a simple connection, but the level of intricacy and skill required makes basketry a key signal of shared culture, he said.
"It's a fact that no two populations manufacture the same baskets and aren't related," Adavasio said.
In addition to the culture debate, several schools of thought about the Fremont's origin have emerged over the decades.
Seeds of village life: Some archaeologists say indigenous hunters and gatherers at some point were introduced to maize from the south and quickly saw the benefit of growing their own food supply.
Another possibility is that maize-growing male farmers from the south began colonizing Utah, said Steve Simms, an anthropologist at Utah State University, at the Bluff meeting. Along the way, they could have taken wives from the indigenous hunter-gatherer population.
Experts contend that with a more or less reliable source of food, constant roaming becomes a thing of the past; a serious time investment is needed to grow crops.
"Maize is key for sedentary village life," Claudia Berry, a researcher with Alpine Archaeological Consultants, of Montrose, Colo., said at the Bluff meeting.
Berry said a study of remains from Willard Bay and Steinaker reservoirs reveals a heavy dependence on a corn-based diet.
With the need to be in one place for extended periods of time, the Fremont built semipermanent pithouses.
Moving villages: Richard Talbot, a Brigham Young University archaeologist, said that on the Colorado Plateau, an area that includes Range Creek, most Fremont lived in small clusters. In parts of the Great Basin, other Fremont lived in big villages.
Even after investing the time and energy to build stone structures, the Fremont seemed to have remained somewhat mobile.
"It's clear that these people were comfortable with periodic abandonment and relocating settlements," Talbot said at the Bluff conference, adding that people might live in one area for a few years at a time.
There is also evidence of pithouses in areas where the Fremont might have lived seasonally to take advantage of certain natural resources, he said.
At Range Creek, Barlow and company still are investigating details of Fremont life, but early surveys reveal a mix of smaller farmsteads and a few villages. Information still to be analyzed could answer questions about environmental changes toward the end of the Fremont occupation.
Many researchers say that after about 1300, archaeological records show few if any signs of the Fremont. Some have said this coincides with a widespread drought that could have driven them away.
No mystery: Brewster, the tribal historic preservation officer, criticized many archaeologists for seeing the past through a filter of white history. He argues that too often, archaeologists ignore spiritual beliefs and native perspectives.
"They're seeing themselves," Brewster said. "They're not really seeing prehistoric Native Americans."
For example, there are some theories that new Indian groups swept into the area and perhaps displaced the Fremont. Brewster said this seems like archaeologists forcing the idea of Manifest Destiny onto Indian history.
In any event, questions surrounding the Fremont will become fundamental as tribes and archaeologists strive to determine which, if any, modern Indian groups are culturally linked with the Fremont under NAGPRA standards - and all the while balancing scientific evidence with tribal history and folklore.
As archaeologists tease out the history of Range Creek - from the cliff-top Deluxe Apartment in the Sky down to the canyon-bottom corn fields - perhaps the findings will help put some long-standing debates to rest.