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Brush Fences And Basket Traps: The Archaeology And Ethnohistory Of Tidewater Weir Fishing On The Oregon Coast, Scott Byram

R. Scott Byram, Ph.D.

Anthropologists recognize the economic importance of fishing weirs in the harvest of marine resources by Northwest Coast peoples. Yet very little research has focused on the range of variability in weir technology and its cultural and environmental context. I examine intertidal fishing technologies on the Oregon Coast, a southerly portion of the Northwest Coast. On the Oregon Coast, the estuary ecotone held a great abundance and diversity of fishes. The largest and most numerous Native residential centers were located along the shores of estuaries, and tidewater fishing appears to have been central to the region’s economy.

I examine extensive unpublished …