The creation of such stone figures on the landscape by a nomadic hunting and gathering people so long ago should not be a surprise, Brink said. After all, 40,000 years ago ancient people had time to paint elaborate animal figures in French caves. The people roaming ancient Montana had about 13,000 years to learn about this landscape and its wildlife.

“Evidence supports that they had a successful lifestyle and manipulated the environment to meet their needs,” he said.

Brink said the Henry Smith site in Montana, named after the one-time landowner, is a “good example of people who successfully mastered the physical environment they lived in.”

The property, now owned by BLM and protected from disturbance because it isn’t publicly accessible, is riddled with buffalo drive lines, cairns, discarded rock tools, teepee rings, vision quest sites and the two human effigies.

The human rock outlines are very similar to some of those found in other parts of Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan and a few outliers that have been recorded as far away as North Dakota and Kansas.