Parental Investments and Childhood Responses on the Frontier: The Relationship Between Children, Parents, and Context

The Western American Frontier during the mid to late nineteenth century is often described as a quintessentially American experience; a period in which an ethos of self-reliance, independence, and resilience developed. Archaeological attempts to understand the processes of social change on the frontier have developed models that evaluate the circumstances around adult modification of culture rather than incorporating the experiences and contributions of children. Research conducted at the sites of Teller (5ML29) and Fort Garland (5CT46) Colorado suggests a relationship between a site’s socioeconomic security and children’s culture. Through the evaluation of childhood assemblages and site-specific factors, we can determine if or how frontier parents and children modified cultural concepts or if socioeconomic conditions determined the pace of social change. Understanding these relationships could change how we understand cultural change in frontier settings, how frontiers evolve, and how frontier identities emerge under different and historically contingent settings.