Projectile points -- Great Plains, Projectile points -- Classification, Great Plains -- Antiquities, Antiquities, Projectile points, Great Plains, Indigenous peoples -- Implements -- Great Plains, Indigenous peoples -- Implements, Indigenous peoples -- Great Plains -- Antiquities, Indigenous peoples -- Great Plains, Indigenous peoples -- Antiquities 

"This thesis tests the hypothesis that ethnic affiliation is a source of metric variability in Late Plains Side Notched projectile points. Twenty-four discrete variables were recorded on 348 projectile points from 12 sites, previously identified by some archaeologists as Blackfoot, Crow, Shoshoni or Kutenai. Multivariate statistical techniques were applied to the data in order to discover whether quantifiable variability existed both between groups and between sites. Factor analysts demonstrated that the number of variables contributing the major portion of variance is significantly fewer than the number recorded. Results from the discriminant function analysis support the hypothesis tested. It is possible to discriminate between groups with all sources of recorded variance controlled for with the exception of ethnicity. Cluster analysis confirms the author's belief that the construction of a typology is not necessarily the most productive method for examining variability in lithic tools. It is concluded that ethnic affiliation produced quantifiable variability which can be utilized, within certain spatial and chronological limits, to discriminate between assemblages from sites of either known or unknown ethnic affiliation."--page v. 

xiii, 119 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm.