Late Prehistoric Settlement Patterns and Population Dynamics along the Mid-Fraser

Abstract

This article provides an overview of current knowledge of late prehistoric (~500 bc – ad 1800) settlement patterns in the Mid-Fraser region from just south of Lillooet in the south to Kelly Lake in the north (Figure 1). We survey current understandings of indigenous subsistence and settlement patterns, and then discuss the radiocarbon dating of these settlements. Our purpose is to provide context for the major archaeological debates in the region, which hinge primarily on interpretations of changes in subsistence and on radiocarbon evidence. Several of our maps of large village sites are original, as is our summary of all radiocarbon evidence and our use of such evidence to interpret regional population dynamics. Along the middle reaches of the Fraser River, prehistoric habitation sites are well preserved and relatively intact. Most Late Prehistoric habitation sites in this region are identified by the presence of housepits, the collapsed remains of pithouses, the semi-subterranean winter habitations used by most Interior Salish peoples at contact. Housepits are crater-like depressions 5- m in diameter (from rim crest to rim crest) and from 10 cm to  m in depth. Archaeologists use the presence of housepits to define the Late Prehistoric Period and the Plateau Pithouse Tradition (ppt) in the Mid-Fraser region. After about 1500 bc, the ppt is characterized by winter aggregation in sedentary seasonal villages and by the intensive use and storage of salmon, deer, roots (geophytes), and berries (Pokotylo and Mitchell 1998; Rousseau 004). In the Canadian or Northern Plateau, a culture area encompassing most of the Fraser River watershed and much of