If stemmed points in the West were contemporary with or predated Clovis fluted points, then the picture of the peopling of the Americas was more complex than a single founding wave of Clovis hunters.

The Buhl burial, with its dated stemmed biface, was potential evidence in this debate.

If the burial dated to the terminal Pleistocene — as the radiocarbon date suggested — and if the technology of the stemmed point buried with the woman was genuinely Western Stemmed Tradition, then the Buhl date was a data point supporting the argument that the Western Stemmed Tradition was contemporary with Clovis.

This was important.