Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples

How long have people lived in the place we now know as Montana? When did they arrive? Where did they come from? Archaeologists have spent the last century working with Montana’s Indigenous peoples to try to answer these questions. While researchers have learned a great deal about the origins of the first people to call this region home, questions remain about which route or routes they took and when they made this journey.

Douglas H. MacDonald delves into the deep history of Montana in Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples. MacDonald introduces some of the state’s most important sites and details the methods archaeologists use to determine the age and origin of many of the artifacts they have uncovered. This accessible and illuminating work explains how archaeologists have approached the major questions related to the peopling of Big Sky Country.