Travois Transport and Field Processing: the Role of Dogs in Intermountain and Plains Food Transport

Domesticated animals have been widely used for transport labor in many societies throughout the Holocene. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) used in transporting goods with packs or simple drag-sleds called travois feature prominently in ethnographic and historic accounts of Native American communities in the Intermountain West and Great Plains. Dogs were used to transport shelter and household belongings, firewood, trade goods, and bison meat by Intermountain and Plains foragers. Forager mobility and investment in technology are strongly correlated with environmental unpredictability. The Field Processing Model reveals that travois transport was tenable for food only when processing costs were relatively low and many trips were necessary. These data indicate that dogs were not adapted for use as draft animals in the daily acquisition of food, but rather to facilitate the transport of shelter, equipment, and food reserves that could be used to offset the risk of resource shortfall.