Northwest Coast
Introduction
Natural Environment
Northwest Coast Culture History
The Natural Environment

The North West Coast one of richest marine
environments on earth.
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Northwest Coast a damp, lush forest belt bordered
by coastal mountains.
These patterns of resource availability strongly
influenced population density, settlement size,
food-getting strategies, and group interaction.
Environment and Settlement


At contact, a great diversity of societies, from
highly mobile bands to chiefdoms with large,
permanent communities.
Sea mammal hunting and ocean fishing
especially important along the Northwest Coast
and in central and southern California, where
some of most complex hunter-gatherer societies
in the world developed.
Environment and Settlement

In Northwest Coast, most settlement on river
banks and on islands and shores of the coast,
especially north of the mouth of the Columbia
River.
Northwest Coast Geographic definitions

Area Definitions
Southern Alaska
 Coastal British Columbia
 Coastal Washington
 Coastal Oregon
 North coastal California

NW Coast Geophysical

Geophysical definitions:
 Coast
and rivers
 Eastern boundaries are:
 Coastal
mountains of British Columbia and
southern Alaska
 Cascades of Washington and Oregon
Alpine Lake and Forest
http://www.egwald.com/ubcstudent/pro
se/sustainablerainforests.php
North Cascades
http://www.biodiversity.wa.gov/ecoregions/okanogan/okanoganbiodiversity.html
Mountain Forests
http://www.egwald.com/ubcstudent/prose/sustainablerainforests.php
Coast Forest
http://www.egwald.com/ubcstudent/prose/sustainablerainforests.php
Kelp Forest
http://www.biodiversity.wa.gov/ecoregions/okanogan/okanoganbiodiversity.html
Introduction

Far West prehistory can be divided
into four general periods:
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Prior to 8000 BC.
Transition period 8000-5000 BC.
5000 BC-1000BC
After AD 500.
Prior to 8000 BC.

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Glaciers existed in the mountains and large lakes
filled the valleys of the Great Basin and southern
California deserts.
Mammoth and other Ice Age animals roamed a
cooler, more lush, and greener landscape than
now exists.
People mainly hunters/gatherers.
Transition period 8000-5000 BC.
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Post-glacial warming and drying were
eliminating glaciers and pluvial lakes.
Arid and semi arid desert vegetation beginning
to dominate.
A period of rapid and extensive environmental
change.
Increasing trend toward broad spectrum hunting
and gathering.
5000 BC-1000 BC.


Arid and semiarid vegetation dominate most of
California, the Great Basin, and the Plateau; the
Northwest coast and the higher areas of
California were covered with forests.
Broad spectrum hunter-gatherers, with ocean
fishing and sea mammal hunting now important.
Later West Coast/AD500


1000 BC in California, 500 BC in the Plateau
and western Great Basin, and AD 500 in eastern
Great Basin.
Trends developed toward increasing
populations, intensified subsistence activity, and
growing societal complexity and interaction.
First Settlement of the West Coast
(c.9000-5000 BC)


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Poorly understood; many sites under water and
material culture perishable. But clear trend toward
intensive foraging and coastal fishing and sea
mammal hunting. A rapidly changing
environment.
Northwest Coast. Paleomarine period (e.g.,
Ground Hog and Namu sites).
Fishing economies (salmon, herring fisheries) at
least by 5000 BC; semisedentary winter
settlements; result of environmental changes
(warmer water).
The Namu Site, British Columbia
Stone Fishtrap at the Mouth of
the River
Excavations
Artifacts
Northwest Coast Middle Period
(3500 BC-AD 500)


Clear emergence of Northwest Coast cultural
tradition. Tempo of change increases
significantly after 3000 BC.
Traits and trends include:
rapid intensification of shellfish collection with
increase in midden size
 large-scale fishing appears with specialized
technology (e.g., fish weirs)
 much larger populations reflected in increasing food
production in general

Traits and Trends con’d

Traits and Trends
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improving storage technology
more specialized woodworking tools (finely made polished
chisels and adze blades after AD 450); large plank houses and
fine woodworking
highly sophisticated baskets
greater cultural homogeneity throughout the Northwest
Coast
widespread trade (e.g., obsidian)
signs of social ranking and societal complexity by 1000 BC
(e.g., stone labrets, cranial deformation; costly and exotic
grave goods after 500 BC); slavery; increased conflict with
neighboring groups; large surpluses accumulated and
redistributed by chiefs; beginnings of potlatches.
Scowlitz site, British Columbia
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
Scowlitz site, beginning about 3000 years ago
and extending into the historic period.
The Scowlitz wet site has provided much
information about organic artifacts such as
cordage, basketry, clothing, hafting for knives
etc.
Site Excavations
Features
Artifacts from
Scowlitz
Lepofsky et al.
(Journal of Field
Archaeology 27:4
2000).
Reconstruction of House
"Interior of Habitation at Nootka Sound"
John Webber (British), April 1778
PMAE # 41-72-10/499
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/potlatch/page2.html
The Northwest Coast Archaeological
Traditions


It is with the prehistoric cultures of the Northwest
Coast that we see the emergence of one of North
America's most prolific and artistically creative cultures.
As indicated in discussions of the early technologies of
the Arctic and Subarctic, the verdict is still out about
the exact origins of some of the characteristic
technologies—especially those wood-working
technologies involving ground-slate tools.
Strait of Georgia Tradition


Considered characteristic of the cultural
developments of the prehistoric Northwest
Coast.
Argument over origins of technologies of the
tradition.
Straight of Georgia vs. Northern Groups


Two competing arguments exist comparing and
contrasting the technologies of the Strait of Georgia
peoples and with those of northern—probably Eskimospeaking—peoples:
Don Dumand:


Sees the Kodiak (south Alaska and Eskimo-speaking) and the
Strait of Georgia Tradition having a common cultural origin,
because, speaking of the artifacts, they are, . . . so reminiscent . .
. that it suggests communication, once established with the
North, continued along the coastline. (p. 89)
Dean Snow:

Says "no," that the Eskimo (i.e. Alaska) ground-slate technology
(especially that involving toggle harpoons) developed
independently of a distinct Northwest Coast evolution. (Snow,
p. 181)
The Strait of Georgia Tradition
Chronology
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Charles Phase:
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Locarno Beach Phase:
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ca. 3000-1500 B.C.
Technology: chipped- and partially ground-slate points & knives
ca. 2000/1500-200 B.C.
Basic continuation of the above Charles Phase
Marpole Phase:
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ca. 400 B.C.-A.D. 200
Woodworking tools become abundant
Carved-stone sculptures show beginnings of NW Coast styles
Settlement data indicates large villages
Burial mounds present
Northwest Coast
Social Stratification
 Social
stratification further indicated by
differential access to wealth as seen by:
 Large
villages indicate increasing social
complexity
 Increased number and type of objects and
Cranial deformation in burial mounds
 Potlatch was probably present
 Economy was coastal- and riverineoriented.
Ethnographic to the Present

ca. A.D. 500-Present
A
shift from stone carving to exclusive carving
of wood (as indicated in tool inventory)
 Probably the people observed by the first
whites were living a lifestyle not very different
from those living around A.D. 500.
 Ozette site, Makah Culture
 At
Ozette a mudslide in the Spring A.D. 1750
destroyed a section of homes along the beach. This
created an environment that preserved organic
remains.
Ozette Site
Cedar dug-out canoe from the Ozette site
Rock Art at Ozette
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/viewer.exe?CISOROOT=/loc&CISOPTR=1605&CISORESTMP=&CISOVIEWTMP=
Artifacts
Cedar box
http://daphne.palomar.edu/ais130/site_2.htm
Artifacts
Club
Artifacts con’d
Bowl
Feast Dish; Haida
PMAE # 31-63-10/K92
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/potlatch/page3.html
Artifacts
Wood whale
dorsal w/ 700
otter's teeth
Potlatch
Items lined up for a potlatch near Victoria,
British Columbia, 1865
PMAE # 2004.1.806
This map shows the
approximate tribal
boundaries of the
Northwest Coast
Indians.
(Handbook of North
American Indians,
Volume 7 Northwest
Coast 1990: ix)
http://www.peabody.ha
rvard.edu/potlatch/pag
e6.html
Ethnohistoric Information
Achomawi basket-maker (The North American Indian; v.13)
Edward Curtis photos, LOC
Cowichan canoes (The North American
Indian; v.09) Edward Curtis photos, LOC
Whale ceremonial Clayoquot (The
North American
Indian; v.11)
Edward Curtis
photos, LOC
“Before daring to practise his dangerous art, the
whaler subjects himself to a long and rigorous
course of ceremonial purification in order to
render himself pleasing to the spirit whale. He
bathes frequently, rubs his body vigorously with
hemlock sprigs, dives, and imitates the
movements of a whale.”
Cultural contact between Siberia and the
Northwest Coast
 There
are a number of points that
indicate cultural contact between
Siberia and the Northwest Coast
 Metallurgy
 Mythology
 Physical
anthropology
Northwest Coast-Precolumbian
metallurgy?

At contact, there existed essentially two types of
metallurgical traditions— copper and iron:
Copper (native cold-beaten into large "Coppers" for
heraldic and potlatch occasions)
 Iron:

Often used in vicious double-ended hand-to-hand fighting
knives
 Iron has been sourced to eastern Siberia!.
 Thus with iron we have a clear example of Precolumbian
exchange between the Old and the New Worlds

Precolumbian mythological
connections?
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The founder of American Anthropology, Franz Boas,
initiated and took part in the Jessup North Pacific
Expedition for the American Museum of Natural
History in New York.
The expedition went to eastern Siberia, Alaska, and the
Northwest Coast collecting both artifactual and
ethnographic information.
Noted that the Raven Myths found in the Northwest
Coast and in distant Kamchatka (Siberia) are
remarkably similar.
Physical anthropological commonalities?
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It is physically, culturally, and linguistically evident that
the Eskimos are relative late comers and are really
linked with their Siberian relatives.
At the time of the early Spanish, English, and Russian
explorers of the Northwest Coast detailed drawings of
"natives" were made.
Men of the early contact period Northwest Coast were
often depicted with extensive body hair—a physical
trait undoubtedly genetically attributable to ancient ties
with the ancestors of the Ainu and other mainland
peoples of the Amur Basin in Siberia.
Summary
The much greater focus on acorn harvesting,
fishing, sea mammal hunting, and shellfish
collecting that appears in these early cultures set
the stage for the appearance of some of the
most sophisticated and densely packed huntergatherer societies.
Sources
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http://www.farwestern.com/morrobay/morro.htm
http://itrs.scu.edu/anthroweb2/034/EelPoint.html
http://www.californiaprehistory.com/index.html
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/anthropology/SeaGrant
Web/oregonsites.html
http://www2.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/peb/scow1
.html
http://www.ohwy.com/wa/m/makahcrc.htm