Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Aboriginal Fisheries Of The Lower Columbia River, Virginia L. Butler, Michael A. Martin

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores the aboriginal fisheries of the Lower Columbia River. The authors reviewed ethnohistorical accounts and studies of archaeological sites to create a complex picture of Columbia River fisheries that challenges the prevailing view among anthropologists that salmon was the primary and predominant fishery among Chinookan peoples. The authors show that 19th century Native fishers targeted virtually all native fish species in the Lower Columbia River, and employed a wide range of strategies and tactics to acquire and process fish.

Environment And Archaeology Of The Lower Columbia, Elizabeth A. Sobel, Kenneth M. Ames, Robert J. Losey

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores the environment and archaeology of the Lower Columbia. The Columbia is the great river of the American West. The interplay of river, ocean, mountains, and climate produced a rich and productive but dynamic environment, and people have lived in and adjusted to this environment for at least 12,000 years. The Lower Columbia generally refers to the river's final 196-mile (315-kilometer) run from the western edge of the Columbia Plateau to the Pacific Ocean.

Houses And Households, Kenneth M. Ames, Elizabeth A. Sobel

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores Lower Columbia Chinookan houses and households.

Households are central to understanding what anthropologists and others term complex societies-that is, societies that feature social stratification, high population densities, monumental architecture, and an emphasis on wealth. Most premodern complex societies practiced agriculture, which enabled the high levels of food production that most researchers thought were needed to support complexity. Northwest Coast peoples, however, including those along the Lower Columbia and a few other known human populations, had complex societies based on …

Lower Columbia Chinookan Ceremonialism, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores Lower Columbia Chinookan Ceremonialism.

Traditional Chinookan ceremonies or religious rituals were particularly vulnerable to the rapid changes that came with Euro-American contact. Change and loss occurred after the epidemics of the 1830s removed many specialists and broke apart the critical mass of people needed for group performances; and in the early 1840s, when missionaries at the surviving settlements at Willamette Falls, The Cascades, and the mouth of the Columbia discouraged traditional life rites. After such experiences, the details on …

Back To The Clam Gardens, Nancy J. Turner, Kim Recalma‐Clutesi, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the following story, Kwakwaka’wakw Clan Chief Adam Dick, known by his traditional name Kwaxsistalla, travels back to the clam gardens off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, where his grandparents raised food and passed down a huge body of traditional ecological knowledge.

The story also documents the first of a series of trips to be undertaken over the next two years to document waxsistalla’s unique and detailed knowledge and experiences of the food harvesting and other resource‐based activities of his Qawadiliqallalan of the Tsawataineuk people of Kingcome Inlet.

Collaborative Research To Assess Visitor Impacts On Alaska Native Practices Along Alagnak Wild River, Douglas Deur, Karen Evanoff, Adelheid Hermann, Alexanna Salmon

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As one of the region’s famously productive salmon rivers, the Alagnak’s banks historically were lined with villages of both Yup’ik and Alutiiq residents, and archaeological data document millennia of human occupation.

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Tourism On Traditional Activities: An Ethnographic Study For The Alagnak Wild River Area, Douglas Deur, Karen Evanoff

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report represents a summary of findings from the study, “An Evaluation of the Effects of Tourism on Traditional Activities: An Ethnographic Study for the Alagnak Wild River Area.” The National Park Service (NPS) administers 56 miles of Wild River along the Alagnak as a unit of the National Park Service, administered through the offices of Katmai National Park and Preserve. The NPS is charged with managing the river’s natural and cultural resources, as well as preserving the river’s lands and resources for current and future generations. Alagnak Wild River was created under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act …

Hawaiian Presence At Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fort Vancouver, as the colonial "Capital" of the Pacific Northwest in the 1820s-1840s, supported a multiethnic village of 600-1,000 occupants. A number of the villagers were Hawaiian men who worked in the agricultural fields and sawmills of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) operations. Identification of Hawaiian residences and activities has been an important element of studies of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington, since the 1960s.

Kauanui calls for a "broad research agenda that accounts for Hawaiian movements in their respective contexts of conditions, periods, reasons, and desires, to allow us to better account for Hawaiian presence on the …

Material Culture Notes: Dating Colorless Glass Bottles, Douglas C. Wilson, Bob Cromwell

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article discusses the many ways to date a colorless glass bottle, focusing on artifacts found at Fort Vancouver, Washington.

Comments On Anarchism And The Archaeology Of Anarchic Societies: Resistance To Centralization In The Coast Salish Region Of The Pacific Northwest Coast, Kenneth Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The author discusses how the paper contributes to several important trends in our understanding of Northwest Coast social evolution.

An Ethnohistorical Overview Of Groups With Ties To Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document summarizes the outcomes of an effort to identify the diverse human populations associated with Fort Vancouver. Through a review of ethnographic, historical, and ethnohistorical information found in various research libraries and archives, this research has sought to illuminate the many reasons that Native Americans converged at the fort and to reconstruct the paths taken by these people after their departure. In the process, we are able to identify those modern communities that are significantly linked to the history of Fort Vancouver – in turn, this will allow the NPS to better engage these contemporary groups in the protection …

A New Perspective On Late Holocene Social Interaction In Northwest Alaska: Results Of A Preliminary Ceramic Sourcing Study, Shelby L. Anderson, Matthew T. Boulanger, Michael D. Glascock

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research examines the evidence for prehistoric ceramic exchange networks over the last 2000 years in northwest Alaska through the use of neutron activation analysis of ceramic artifacts. Results from ceramic analysis on eight coastal and inland archaeological sites identified three source macrogroups and three associated subgroups. Clay source diversity and shared source macrogroups between geographically distant sites suggest the use of multiple sources and/or the movement of pots between production locales, mirroring related patterns in pottery stylistic data. Although additional analytical work is needed to fully understand the changing character of clay procurement and ceramic distribution across this time …

Historical Archaeology’S "Trip" To Crater Lake, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article is an overview of the archaeological survey of the 1865 wagon road that ran from Jacksonville in southern Oregon to Fort Klamath, just south of Crater Lake National Park.

Musket Balls, Lewis & Clark, And The Fur Trade: Isotopic, Elemental, And Historical Analysis, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Overview of a study on the chemical analysis of lead objects has been used in archaeology and forensics to tie a particular ore or manufacturer to a particular artifact.

Results of the study were presented at the 62nd Annual Northwest Anthropology Conference, April 9, 2009 at Newport, Oregon.

Cultural Vulnerability And Resilience In The Arctic: Preliminary Report On Archeological Fieldwork At Cape Krusenstern, Northwest Alaska, Shelby L. Anderson, Adam Freeburg, Ben Fitzhugh

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

While natural scientists track environmental change in response to global warming, less attention has been directed towards human interface with long term Arctic environmental dynamics. Current research at Cape Krusenstern, Alaska, seeks to address this deficit through investigation of human-environmental interactions recorded in archeological and paleoenvironmental data spanning the last 4,000-5,000 years at the Cape, building on the pioneering work conducted at Krusenstern by J. Louis Giddings and Douglas D. Anderson. Systematic survey and use of new mapping technology to record cultural and natural features are methods central to addressing these research questions. Discovery of new archeological features indicates occupation …

Finding And Dating Cathlapotle, Kenneth M. Ames, Elizabeth A. Sobel

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The people of the Cathlapotle town played a significant role in the fur trade era history of the Lower Columbia River, including Lewis and Clark’s visit on March 29th, 1806. Archaeologists and others have sought the town’s location for years. Long-term research has established that archaeological site 45CL1 on the US Fish and Wildlife Refuge near Ridgefield, Washington is Cathlapotle. This determination is based on the close match between site details with various ethnohistoric accounts of Cathlapotle. The site was occupied by ca. AD 1450 and probably moved there from another nearby location. It was abandoned sometime in the 1830s …

Luther S. Cressman, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Known as the father of Oregon archaeology and anthropology, Luther Cressman conducted pioneering archaeological work in the 1930s through the 1960s and established the broad outlines of Oregon’s ancient human history and occupation by Native peoples. This article provides an overview of his life and work.

Towards The Identification Of Lampreys (Lampetra Spp.) In Archaeological Contexts, Ross E. Smith, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lampreys were and continue to be an important resource for Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Lampreys possess several skeletal structures that are regularly identified in marine mammal and bird stomach contents and fecal samples, suggesting that lamprey elements may preserve in archaeological contexts. However, their remains have not been identified in archaeological faunal samples in the Pacific Northwest. This may be due to the lack of an adequate "search image" for lamprey remains among faunal analysts and limited use of line screen sampling. Descriptions and photographs of lamprey remains that are most likely to survive in archaeological contexts are …

Exploring The Chinook Culture Contact At Station Camp At The Mouth Of The Columbia River, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Station Camp/McGowan site, at the mouth of the Columbia River, contains the remains of a contact-period Chinook Indian village characterized by abundant fur-trade era goods and well-preserved architectural features associated with at least three plank structures. The Chinookan fur-trade site (identified as the "Middle Village" by Chinook people) contains an abundance of wealth items and a dearth of productive tools and debris within traditional activity spaces. These data suggest the intensity and context of interaction between Native American groups at the coast and Euro- American traders.

Relic Hunting, Archaeology, And Loss Of Native American Heritage At The Dalles, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Assesses the damage done to Native American sites and heritage by relic hunters and archaeologists digging in the mid-Columbia River region that was inundated by completion of The Dalles Dam in 1957. Long before the dam was built,relic hunters disturbed grave sites and mounds in their search for artifacts. The artifacts went into private collections or were sold, without concern for their context or for the rights and concerns of native people. The article also discusses the development of the profession of archaeology and the ways professional archaeologists were complicit in the desecration of native sites. Sites along the river …

Where Have All The Native Fish Gone? The Fate Of Fish That Lewis And Clark Encountered On The Lower Columbia River, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As part of a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly,' discusses the native species of fish in the lower Columbia River described by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805-06. They identified red charr, salmon trout, sturgeon, anchovy, skeet, and other fish that Indians caught and used as trade items with the Corps of Discovery. However, editors of the Lewis and Clark journals have often erred in identifying the fish Lewis and Clark described; the challenge in identifying anadromous fish lies in changing coloration, markings, and examination of habitat. There has been a drastic decline of native fish since …

The Scale Of Pottery Manufacture During The Old Kingdom, Sarah L. Sterling

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The existence of specialized craftsmen — including stonemasons, coppersmiths, carpenters, jewelers and potters — in ancient Egypt arises in part from the general industries spawned from the elaborate monumental constructions that characterize the Old Kingdom (ca. 2600-2100 BCE). Pottery vessels in particular are one of the most abundant kinds of artifacts known from ancient Egypt, with functions ranging from formal presentation to baking bread, to grains and olive oil storage. While not all pottery is associated with monumental architecture, the emergence of specialized or semi-specialized potters is likely due to the same socioeconomic factors that gave rise to such famous …

Book Review Of, Plants Of Haida Gwaii, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Plants of Haida Gwaii" by Nancy J. Turner.

Rethinking Precolonial Plant Cultivation On The Northwest Coast Of North America, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America are widely believed to have been true “hunter-fisher-gatherers,” lacking plant cultivation of any kind. This depiction of the region's indigenous inhabitants emerged within early colonial accounts and was perpetuated within the literatures of geography, anthropology, and archaeology. Still, there is ample evidence of plant cultivation available from archival, archaeological, and ethnographic sources. In particular, the peoples of coastal British Columbia created large gardens of edible estuarine plants, using sophisticated indigenous technologies. The oversight of these practices in written representations of the region reveals consistent patterns of bias, emanating from the …

Contested Lands, Contested Identities: Revisiting The Historical Geographies Of North America's Indigenous Peoples, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In my work with the tribes and First Nations of western North America, I am told the same stories again and again. In intricate and sometimes gruesome detail, I am told how the white world, in its efforts to occupy and claim the western half of the continent over the last two centuries, employed myriad strategies—strategies of conquest—to separate indigenous peoples from their lands. And in these stories, tribal members, no matter their levels of education or backgrounds, recognize that the military conflicts, genocide, territorial dispossession and displacement, and enforced marginalization that has characterized Indian-white relations over this period cannot …

Kennewick Man: Cultural Affiliation Report, Chapter 2: Review Of The Archaeological Data, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University Professor Kenneth M. Ames was one of 18 distinguished scholars chosen to investigate and report on the cultural affiliation of the Kennewick human remains. This report reviews the extant archaeological record for the Southern Columbia Plateau.

The Experimental Reduction Of Rock In A Camas Oven: Towards An Understanding Of The Behavioral Significance Of Fire-Cracked Rock, Douglas C. Wilson, David V. Delyria

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The selection and management of rock for roasting ovens, hearths, and sweat lodges were not trivial concerns for prehistoric households. The results of replicating a camas roasting oven are used to address the use-life and use-stages of fire-cracked rock. We concluded that the industry associated with the procurement and management of fire-cracked rock in the Pacific Northwest required significant quantities of labor and expertise to manage the raw materials and camas roasting byproducts. Recording the technological performance characteristics of fire-cracked rocks, including composition, size, and durability, is a necessary step to interpret and compare fire-cracked rock features at archaeological sites.

Archaeological Investigations At 45cl1 Cathlapotle (1991-1996) , Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Clark County, Washington: A Preliminary Report, Kenneth M. Ames, Cameron M. Smith, William L. Cornett, Elizabeth A. Sobel, Stephen C. Hamilton, John Wolf, Doria Raetz, United States. Department Of The Interior, U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service, Region 1, Portland State University. Department Of Anthropology

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is the preliminary report, one in a series on the archaeology of the Wapato Valley region of the Lower Columbia River. Most of the reports discuss aspects of the excavations and archaeology of two sites, the Meier site (35CO5) and Cathlapotle site (45CL1). Other related topics are also treated.

Archaeological investigations at site 45CL1, Clark County, Washington, demonstrate that the locality is a very large (c 1.5ha), deeply stratified (2-4m) town site with an occupation spanning at least 1000 years (c. AD 1000 to 1840). Six large, complex depressions have been mapped. Test excavations show that these depressions represent …

Strategies Of Indian Burning In The Willamette Valley, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Indians, Fire and the Land in the Pacific Northwest, published by the Oregon State University Press in 1999, explores fires set by the aboriginal inhabitants of the Willamette valley.

In 1971, geographer Carl Johannessen and colleagues at the University of Oregon published an article, "The Vegetation of the Willamette Valley," which proposed that, prior to European contact, the Willamette Valley, though surrounded by dense forests of Douglas-fir, was an open oak.savanna grassland. They also presented historical evidence to show that these prairie grasslands were maintained by annual fires set by the aboriginal inhabitants of the …

Early Holocene Occupation At The West Lost River Site, Klamath County, Oregon, Douglas C. Wilson, John L. Fagan, Dorothy E. Freidel, Susan M. Colby

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Excavations at the West Lost River Site (35KL972) provide new insights on early Holocene occupation of southwestern Oregon. The article focuses on the artifacts and specimens recovered from the site.