As an archaeologist, Lawrence L. Loendorf spends much of his time trekking through the basins and mountains of Wyoming and Montana.

He digs for the truth, peeling away layers of history in nature's landscape. He and other archaeologists recover material remains so that this and future generations may understand the origins of prehistoric and long-ago societies.

But recently, Loendorf's aim has been to expose layer upon layer of untruths not found in the ground or on rocks, but in literature that dates back to the days of the early Yellowstone National Park and exploration of the American West.

For the last decade, Loendorf has been working on his own book, "Mountain Spirit: The Sheep Eater Indians of Yellowstone," which presents a vivid picture of the vanished way of life of the Sheep Eater Indians, a group whose existence and accomplishments have been largely ignored in histories of Native peoples.

"Mountain Spirit" endeavors to recreate the Sheep Eater way of life before they were scattered on reservations.

The Sheep Eaters were a group of people who lived in the higher altitudes of the Greater Yellowstone region in the pre-park era and are tragically "maligned and misrepresented" in Wyoming's literature and beyond, Loendorf said in a recent interview.

Along with co-author Nancy Medaris Stone, Loendorf reveals how the Sheep Eaters' reputation of being "feebleminded, cowardly, defenseless dwarfs" has been perpetuated by numerous sources, some of which are outright lies, say the authors.

In fact, they were advanced peoples who had a very functional mountain life, posits Loendorf, a professor at New Mexico State University whose research focuses on the Great Plains, U.S. Southwest ethnography and rock art.

"They were healthy mountain people who were at the topside of their culture," Loendorf added. "They were magnificent people."

Changing the image of Indians

In 1994, Loendorf & Associates was granted a contract to do an ethnographic overview of American Indians in Yellowstone. In the course of their work, Loendorf, along with cultural anthropologist Peter Nabokov, "discovered that there was terrible, terrible misinformation about the Indians altogether in Yellowstone."

At the same time, Michael Finley, the new park superintendent at the time, held a three-day park-wide symposium. Yellowstone workers, including rangers, interpreters - and Loendorf - were in the room.

Finley brought in Yellowstone historian and speaker Aubrey Haines, who had written, among other things, a two-volume series of the park. Haines "was a man of considerable character," according to Loendorf, whose own talk focused on how Indians in the pre-park days might have lived.

"And then Aubrey stood up - a man whom I admired; a man who was 'National Park Service' to the core; a man who was 'Mr. Yellowstone.'"

Haines said, "'There were never any Indians in this park except for a few Sheep Eaters, and they were poor for even Indians.'"

It was a shocking statement, one that compelled Loendorf to act: "I said to myself that day, 'I'm going to change the image of Indians in Yellowstone National Park.'"

Unfounded rumors

Haines, though, was simply repeating what he had uncovered in the research - literature filled with untruths, much of which is revealed in "Mountain Spirit."

In large part, early explorers who happened upon the Sheep Eaters in their mountain environment had the impression that they were powerless and even afraid of the geysers. In reality, they used an intelligent approach and pulled back, rather than put women and children in harm's way.

As described in "Mountain Spirit," Western explorers such as Captain Benjamin Bonneville talked of a "hermit race, scanty in number that inhabit the highest and most inaccessible fastnesses. …They have peculiarities of their own, which distinguish them from all other Indians. They are miserably poor; own no horses, and are destitute of every convenience to be derived from an intercourse with the whites. …These forlorn beings, forming a mere link between human nature and the brute, have been looked down upon with pity and contempt…"

In great measure, the mindset still goes on today, says Loendorf.

Think about human beings and especially male interaction. If somebody is considered to be a weakling, they don't measure up, he explains. Take professional football or basketball, for example. Players aren't "worthy warriors" if they don't measure up.

"To some extent, the Sheep Eaters were considered non-worthy warriors, because if people came into the mountains, they'd retreat rather than engage in battle."

On the contrary, these Indians were fierce warriors who had all of the weapons and everything they needed, so that if they were cornered, they were perfectly capable of defending themselves, according to Loendorf.

One cannot fault the U.S. government for its mission to create something in the West as wonderful as Yellowstone National Park. "What I fault," says Loendorf, "is that no one has corrected the idea about what the Indians in the park were like. They've continued, to this day, to use old disparaging remarks."

Reader friendly

Nevertheless, "Mountain Spirit" is much more than a story about falsehoods. Mostly, it illuminates the Sheep Eaters' rich and abundant way of life.

It shows how these robust people constructed the most powerful horn bows in North America, lived in well-constructed shelters and made expertly tailored clothing.

An integral part of Sheep Eater culture was its large dogs, "indispensable hunting and trekking companions," according to the book.

Co-author Stone played a vital role in the manuscript, says Loendorf.

Stone aimed to provide a "reader-friendly context" for Loendorf's research - "one that would help readers appreciate Sheep Eaters as living, breathing people and not simply long-ignored figures from the past."

"Mountain Spirit" includes photographs, lithographs, and a number of color drawings and sketches of Sheep Eater lifeways by artist Davà d Joaquin.

Joaquin used now-yellowed first printed edition of the Lewis and Clark journals to study their clothing and lifestyles.

And, he used his imagination in depicting the Sheep Eaters. His family raises Native dogs, and his father's dog Nasha was used as a model for the book.

"Nasha has the instinct of her ancestors' dogs," says Joaquin. "I take her for a walk, and she's got that herding instinct and a broad back for carrying packs."

Loendorf will be signing books at Blue Heron in Casper today from 3-6 p.m. For information, call the bookstore at (307) 265-3774.

Robin Beaver is a freelance writer in Rock Springs, Wyo.