Northwest Coast Of North America Research Articles

An Examination of Indigenous Halibut Fishing Technology on the Northwest Coast of North America

An Examination of Indigenous Halibut Fishing Technology on the Northwest Coast of North America

Assessing population dynamics in the Central Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.

Recent developments in radiocarbon dating have enabled archaeologists to re-examine the question of population dynamism in the Salish Sea. This study expands on Taylor and colleagues (2011) using Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and an expanded data set of 538 radiocarbon dates from academic and cultural resource management literature. The expanded sample suggests a pattern of population growth from 3200-2800 cal BP in coastal Northwestern Washington, with population growth in the San Juan islands during 2600-2200 cal BP. A subsequent decrease in radiocarbon frequencies and large sites suggests shifts in use of the San Juan Islands, followed by peak large-scale occupation from 650-300 cal BP. This pattern is robust whether marine or terrestrial dates are considered. However, marine dates are less sensitive to questions at smaller temporal scales. The broad scale radiocarbon frequency patterns observed are also consistent with those observed in southwest coastal British Columbia (Ritchie et al., 2016; Morin et al., 2018).

Disrupting and diversifying the values, voices and governance principles that shape biodiversity science and management.

With climate, biodiversity and inequity crises squarely upon us, never has there been a more pressing time to rethink how we conceptualize, understand and manage our relationship with Earth's biodiversity. Here, we describe governance principles of 17 Indigenous Nations from the Northwest Coast of North America used to understand and steward relationships among all components of nature, including humans. We then chart the colonial origins of biodiversity science and use the complex case of sea otter recovery to illuminate how ancestral governance principles can be mobilized to characterize, manage and restore biodiversity in more inclusive, integrative and equitable ways. To enhance environmental sustainability, resilience and social justice amid today's crises, we need to broaden who benefits from and participates in the sciences of biodiversity by expanding the values and methodologies that shape such initiatives. In practice, biodiversity conservation and natural resource management need to shift from centralized, siloed approaches to those that can accommodate plurality in values, objectives, governance systems, legal traditions and ways of knowing. In doing so, developing solutions to our planetary crises becomes a shared responsibility. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.

Wil Luunda ‘Waada aks (Where the Waters Meet): Deep-time histories of shifting estuarine landscapes and human settlement in Laxgalts’ap watershed, northern British Columbia, Canada

The geomorphological dynamism of estuarine landscapes provides challenges to archaeologists trying to understand the long-term, intertwined histories of people and place in these ecotones. This is especially the case in regions like the Northwest Coast of North America, where the location of the interface between river and coast has shifted in tandem with changing relative sea level (RSL) positions in the late Pleistocene through the Holocene. We explore the deep-time landscape and settlement histories of the estuarine landscapes of Laxgalts’ap, a culturally significant place for the Gitga’at First Nation on the northern coast of British Columbia, Canada, by melding archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and oral historical knowledge. Using geological data and GIS modeling, we document the evolution of the estuary at Laxgalts’ap in the context of a transformation from a marine channel to an inlet and then a river valley over the last 14,500 years. Our archaeological surveys revealed evidence of human occupation that is over 10,600 years old and spans the Holocene, demonstrating the long-term connections to estuarine areas that are also reflected in Gitga’at oral traditions. This study demonstrates how, with careful attention to geomorphological processes and landscape change, we can document deep-time cultural connections to place, even in the most dynamic landscapes.

Can transport costs explain the near absence of marmot bones at shoreline archaeological sites on Vancouver Island? Finding input values for central place modelling with biological scaling

Central place models test economic optimization hypotheses about resource processing and transport in archaeological contexts. These models require input values for the weights of resource portions, values that are typically found through the empirical measurement of one or a few specimens of a taxon of interest. This method is limited by the availability of specimens for measurement and often relies on small sample sizes that cannot account for body size variation due to factors such as age, sex, health, and genetics. As an alternative, biological scaling equations are introduced with which mammalian resource portion weight averages with standard deviations can be estimated across a range of body sizes in a mammalian taxon. A case study from the Northwest Coast of North America operationalizes this approach. The study asks if economic factors can account for a difference in the relative abundance of marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) bones at high-elevation archaeological sites compared with shoreline middens on Vancouver Island. Results indicate that abundant marmot skeletal elements at high-elevation sites are consistent with the economic benefit of processing these small mammals close to capture sites. Transport costs can explain the near absence of marmot bones at shoreline sites in the study area, a conclusion that does not preclude alternative explanations. This study demonstrates that biological scaling equations are useful for estimating mammalian resource portion input values in theoretical modelling.

Histories of the Canoe Journey: Border Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies, and the Decolonization and Unsettling of Coast Salish Territory

ABSTRACT The fields of Border Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies offer much to social scientists seeking to understand the operation of power in the lives of borderlands communities. This article illustrates why critical Indigenous scholarship should be a necessary framework in exploring issues of state and nation-building by examining four possible origin stories for what is now an annual event on the Northwest Coast of North America: The Canoe Journey. I implore border studies scholars to look beyond national boundaries and consider Indigenous epistemologies and historiographies in understanding the impacts that international borders have on shaping how all peoples make meaning of our world. I argue that doing so will allow border studies to contribute toward an analysis of settler colonialism and highlight the role state borders play in upholding it.

Objects from voyages of Exploration: the James Cook Collection in Florence

The Cook collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in Florence includes objects belonging to the cultures of Polynesia, Melanesia and the North-West Coast of North America. The importance of these artifacts is increasingly recognized not only by curators, ethnologists and artists, but also by historians. In this contribution we retrace the history of its rediscovery in the 19th century, and the studies of the 20th century which confirmed its attribution and expanded knowledge. Finally, we reflect on the contents, methods of communication and the future potential of this collection.

Ancestral sea gardens supported human settlements for at least 3,800 years on the Northwest Coast of North America

The relationships between clam gardens and human settlement throughout the millennia reflects the inseparable links among human demographics, marine management systems, and the social-ecological contexts in which they are embedded. However, it can be difficult to assign causation between the initiation and development of eco-cultural innovations like clam gardens and the proliferation of human societies due to the temporal uncertainties associated with both. Here, we bring together data on the shape of the local relative sea level curve, clam garden wall elevation as determined by GIS and drone imagery, radiocarbon dates of clam garden walls, and ecological and archaeological field observations, to assign proxy ages for the clam garden walls of different tidal heights in Kanish and Waiatt Bay on northern Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada. These data, combined with our mapping and dating of settlement sites, demonstrate a temporal relationship between clam garden building effort and the densification of human settlements. In Kanish Bay, where we have high resolution data, clam gardens begin to be constructed in significant numbers at least 3,800 years ago; this corresponds to a time of increased establishment of large human settlements. The corresponding increase in settlements and clam gardens reflects both the need to increase sustainable food production and the larger number of people who could sustain the ecological and social foundations of the production system. The correlation between number and area of clam gardens and the number of new, large settlements continues until ∼2000 years ago. After this time, existing settlements increase in size, but no additional large settlements were established. New clam gardens continue to be built but in seemingly lower numbers. This shift in settlements and clam gardens suggest that a threshold in social-ecological carrying capacity may have been reached in this land- and seascape. In the last few centuries, there is a dramatic decline in the number of clam gardens and evidence of human settlement, corresponding to social and ecological changes associated with European colonization. Taken together, these data demonstrate the strong linkages among Indigenous peoples, their lands and seas, and resilient food systems over the millennia.

Dietary niche separation of three Late Pleistocene bear species from Vancouver Island, on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America

AbstractCompetition between taxa related to climate changes has been proposed as a possible factor in Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, and here we present isotope evidence of the diets of three co‐existing bear species [black bear (Ursus americanus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), and the now extinct short‐faced bear (Arctodus simus)] from a locale in western North America dating to the Late (Terminal) Pleistocene (~14.5–11.7 ka). The three bear species were found at several sites on Vancouver Island, on the western coast of Canada. To examine the chronological overlap and niche partitioning between these species of bear, we used direct radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis and ZooMS proteomic identification methods. Here we present new radiocarbon evidence from Terminal Pleistocene U. americanus, U. arctos and A. simus from several sites on the island, along with both bulk collagen and compound‐specific isotope data for these species. Radiocarbon dates confirm the chronological overlap of Arctodus and both Ursus species in the montane regions of the island at the end of the Pleistocene. Stable isotope data reveal niche differentiation between these species, with U. americanus occupying a distinctly lower trophic position than the other two taxa.

Embedded Household Specialization: The Bifaces from YāçkEtEl on the Northwest Coast

ABSTRACT A biface workspace dating to ca. cal a.d. 100–400 was identified during recent excavation at the Sts’ailes-Coast Salish village of YāçkEtEl, on the Harrison River on the Northwest Coast of North America. Based on a range of analyses, we suggest that a specialist crafted large bifaces produced as prestigious objects for exchange within a ceremonial interaction sphere and smaller, more functional bifaces for household and local purposes. The workspace was a shed-like structure adjacent to their house, and the toolstone was acquired nearby from previously undocumented quarries within the territory. This is the only documented evidence for the manufacture of large prestigious bifaces in the region and consequently provides insights into the social relations of lithic acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption. In particular, we examine the social and economic roles and contributions of lithic specialists embedded within households.

The Moore Islands Project: deep-time Indigenous history and landscape change on the outer Northwest Coast of North America

We explore the long-term environmental and human history of a small outer coast archipelago on the Northwest Coast in western Canada. Using relative sea-level change, we reconstruct ancient landscapes to design archaeological surveys that document a rich archaeological record spanning at least 11 000 years and demonstrate the cultural centrality of this geographically marginal landscape.

Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments and a possible glacial refugium on northern Vancouver Island, Canada: Evidence for the viability of early human settlement on the northwest coast of North America

Multi-proxy palaeoecological analyses of lake cores from two sites on northern Vancouver Island reveal previously undocumented non-arboreal environments in the region during the late Pleistocene. Radiocarbon, pollen, sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA), diatom, and grain size analyses indicate that Topknot Lake on the west coast of northern Vancouver Island was not glaciated in the last 18,500 years, extending into the hypothesized regional glacial maximum. A cold herb-shrub coastal tundra existed at the site from ca. 17,500–16,000 cal BP with species including willows (Salix), grasses (Poaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), heathers (Ericaceae), and sagebrush (Artemisia). SedaDNA analysis also supports the presence of rare non-arboreal taxa at Topknot Lake during this interval including Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium), bistort (Bistorta), and wild berries (Rubus). After ca. 16,000 cal BP and through the terminal Pleistocene, pine (Pinus), alder (Alnus), and ferns formed open forests under cool and dry conditions. At Little Woss Lake in the mountains of north-central Vancouver Island, fir (Abies) stands dominated from ca. 14,200–14,100 cal BP, then were replaced by open pine woodland with alder and ferns from ca. 14,100–12,000 cal BP. SedaDNA corroborates these plant taxa as well as indicating grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) and Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in and around the basin by ca. 14,100 cal BP. Mixed conifer forests of pine, western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), and alder spread into the island's interior ca. 12,000–11,100 cal BP during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The records from these two lakes demonstrate the diachronous development of postglacial ecosystems on northern Vancouver Island. Furthermore, these data provide key evidence for environments that could have supported human populations on the northwest coast of North America for several millennia during the terminal Pleistocene.

Об эволюции индейских сообществ Северо-Западного побережья (советско-американская дискуссия и ее продолжение)

The article is devoted to the discussion among Soviet and U.S. scholars about the social organization of the Indians of the Northwest Coast of North America. In the classic textbooks on “primitive history”, the Indians of this region—the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl)—are mentioned as examples of a high degree of social differentiation based on a (fishing and maritime) foraging economy and even as instances of pre-state structures. The proposed concepts were, to varying degrees, determined by external factors: personal political views, high-profile events, or government pressure. In 1897, Franz Boas recognized the potlatch ceremony—demonstrative exchanges of gifts and destructions of surplus, a practice exotic to Europeans—as an analogue of a credit operation. This interpretation, not empirically substantiated, originated from a public campaign to legalize potlatch. In the 1930s, Julia Averkieva, a Soviet intern of Boas, interpreted some fragments of her mentor’s teaching through the Marxist class theory framework, shifting the emphasis from potlatch to slavery: the Northwest Indians allegedly began the transition to slavery from a classless system in which the potlatch was an instrument for preserving property equality. Averkieva’s interpretation became canonical in the USSR, whilst also finding some reception outside the socialist camp. In the United States, relativistic cultural interpretations dominated; domestic evolutionary Marxist models were marginal and were not rooted in the Soviet tradition. However, after the collapse of the USSR, they also became part of the research mainstream, being criticized not only from the right, but also from the left—from anarchist viewpoints.

Insect Herbivores of Ferns along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America

Fifteen species of insect herbivores were discovered on ferns growing along the Pacific northwest coast of North America. These included insects from the orders: Diptera in the families Anthomyiidae, Cecidiomyiidae and Syrphidae: Lepidoptera in the families Erebidae, Tortricidae and Noctuidae: Hymenoptera in the family Tenthredinidae: Hemiptera in the family Aphididae and Coleoptera in the family Curculionidae. The present study illustrates these associations that provides new world and North American host records of fern herbivores. The fossil record of these families is used to determine if the most ancient of these insects (dating from the Mesozoic) are now mostly restricted to ferns and the most recent ones (dating from the Cenozoic) are mostly polyphagous, feeding on ferns as well as various angiosperms. Results indicate that the insect clades belonging to the most ancient families, such as Aneugmenuss and Strongylogaster in the Tenthredinidae and Dasineura and Mycodiplosis in the Cecidiomyiidae, appear to be monophagous on ferns.

A post-glacial relative sea level curve for the central Douglas Channel area, British Columbia, Canada

We present a post-glacial relative sea level (RSL) curve for the Central Douglas Channel region on the northern Northwest Coast of North America spanning the last 14,500 years, constrained by 68 radiocarbon dated index and limiting points derived from multiple RSL proxies. We evaluate each proxy based on the reliability and specificity of the inference for indicating RSL position, allowing us to weight different methods of data collection. We determine that central Douglas Channel was ice-free following the Last Glacial Maximum by ∼14,500 BP and RSL was at least 90 m higher than today. Isostatic rebound caused RSL to fall to 21 m asl by 11,500 BP, though there may have been a glacial re-advance that would have paused RSL fall around the beginning of the Younger Dryas. RSL fell to 10–15 m asl by 10,000 BP, and continued to drop at a slower rate towards its current position, which it reached by ∼1800 years ago. This is the first well-constrained RSL reconstruction for a nearly 400 km stretch between the northern and central coasts of British Columbia, Canada. This reconstruction provides information about the timing and rate of deglaciation of western North America and exemplifies variability among sea level trends across the region. Long-term RSL reconstructions are integral to explorations of coastal change and archaeological inquiries into early coastal occupations.

Early Warning of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation Phase Transition Using Complex Network Analysis

AbstractObtaining an efficient prediction of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phase transition is a worldwide challenge. Here, we employed the climate network analysis to uncover early warning signals prior to a PDO phase transition. This way an examination of cooperative behavior in the PDO region revealed an enhanced signal that propagated from the western Pacific to the northwest coast of North America. The detection of this signal corresponds very well to the time when the upper ocean heat content in the off‐equatorial northwestern tropical Pacific reaches a threshold, in which case a PDO phase transition may be expected with the arising of the next El Ni o/La Ni a event. The objectively detected early warning signal successfully forewarned all the six PDO phase transitions from the 1890–2000, and also underpinned the possible PDO phase transition around 2015, which may be triggered by the strong El Nio event in 2015–2016.

Were the Ancient Coast Salish Farmers? A Story of Origins

Were the ancient Coast Salish farmers? Conventional anthropological wisdom asserts that the ethnographically known communities of the Northwest Coast of North America were “complex hunter-fisher-gatherers” who lacked any form of concerted plant food cultivation and production. Despite decades of extensive ethnobotanical and paleoethnobotanical study throughout the Pacific Northwest demonstrating the contrary, this “classic anomaly” is still a cornerstone of anthropological and archaeological canons. The recent discovery of a spectacularly preserved wetland wapato (Indian potato,Sagittaria latifolia) garden, built 3,800 years ago in Katzie traditional territory near Vancouver, British Columbia, has helped recast this picture, alongside evidence for other forms of resource management practiced by Northwest Coast peoples. This article examines “origins of agriculture” stories from three distinctive perspectives: Coast Salish Katzie people who cultivated wapato for millennia; settlers who colonized the Fraser River Delta historically, bringing with them their own ideas about what constitutes farming; and archaeologists, who are challenged by these data to reevaluate their own understandings of these cultural constructs. These perspectives have critical bearing on the historical appropriation of lands and waterways by settler communities in British Columbia as well as contemporary questions of sovereignty and stewardship in this region and well beyond.

Quantifying marine reservoir effect variability along the Northwest Coast of North America

AbstractRecognition of marine reservoir effect (MRE) spatial and temporal variability must be accounted for in any radiocarbon-based paleoclimate, geomorphological, or archaeological reconstruction in a coastal setting. ΔR values from 37 shell-wood pairs across southern Southeast Alaska provide a robust local evaluation of the MRE, reporting a local Early Holocene weighted ΔR average of 265 ± 205, with a significantly higher ΔR average of 410 ± 60 for samples near limestone karst. Integration with our synthesis of extant MRE calibrations for the Northwest Coast of North America suggests that despite local variability, regional ΔR averages echo proxies for coastal upwelling: regional weighted averages were at their highest in the Bølling-Allerød interstade (575 ± 165) and their lowest in the Younger Dryas stade (−55 ± 110). Weighted ΔR averages across the Northwest Coast rose to a Holocene high during the Early Holocene warm period (245 ± 200) before settling into a stable Holocene average ΔR of 145 ± 165, which persisted until the late Holocene. Our quantification of local and regional shifts in the MRE shines a light on present methodological issues involved in MRE corrections in mixed-feeder, diet-based calibrations of archaeological and paleontological specimens.

Green or white? Morphology, ancient DNA, and the identification of archaeological North American Pacific Coast sturgeon

Sturgeon (Acipenser spp.) have long been an important resource for people living in several parts of the world, including the Northwest Coast of North America. Two sturgeon species occur on the Oregon Coast, white (A. transmontanus) and green (A. medirostris), but morphological similarities between the species have generally prevented osteological identification beyond genus. This lack of species identification hinders evaluation of potential changes in sturgeon range or distribution through time, human food preference or encounter rates, and possible size changes in archaeological sturgeon. We analyzed 1770 sturgeon remains from the Par-Tee site (35CLT20) on the northern Oregon Coast and performed ancient DNA species identification on 30 elements to test morphological distinguishability between species. Ancient DNA analysis indicated that both green and white sturgeon were harvested at the site, but identification to species based on morphology is problematic. Sturgeon were an important fish at several sites in the Northwest Coast and at Par-Tee were a component of a broad-based fishery focused on a range of large and small species. Our study emphasizes the importance of ancient DNA analysis of zooarchaeological assemblages to help address important questions about species composition and abundance.

Ancient dog diets on the Pacific Northwest Coast: zooarchaeological and stable isotope modelling evidence from Tseshaht territory and beyond

Domestic dogs are frequently encountered in Indigenous archaeological sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. Although dogs depended on human communities for care and provisioning, archaeologists lack information about the specific foods dogs consumed. Previous research has used stable isotope analysis of dog diets for insight into human subsistence (‘canine surrogacy’ model) and identified considerable use of marine resources. Here, we use zooarchaeological data to develop and apply a Bayesian mixing model (MixSIAR) to estimate dietary composition from 14 domestic dogs and 13 potential prey taxa from four archaeological sites (2,900–300 BP) in Tseshaht First Nation territory on western Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Two candidate models that best match zooarchaeological data indicate dogs predominantly consumed salmon and forage fish (35–65%), followed by nearshore fish (4–40%), and marine mammals (2–30%). We compared these isotopic data to dogs across the Northwest Coast, which indicated a pronounced marine diet for Tseshaht dogs and, presumably, their human providers. These results are broadly consistent with the canine surrogacy model as well as help illuminate human participation in pre-industrial marine food webs and the long-term role of fisheries in Indigenous economies and lifeways.