The West Coast

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The West Coast
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Glacial Environment

• Cordilleran glaciation
• Glacial melt released water into oceans
• Sea level changes

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Environment and Climate

• Major River Systems
• Balsas River
• Colorado
• Columbia
• Fraser
• Fuerte River
• Lerma River
• Sacramento
• San Joaquin
• Suchiate River
• Yukon

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Flora and Fauna

• Forested landscape stretches from Alaska to
  California (spruce, cedar, hemlock, douglas fur)
• Food plants includes several types of seed and
  fruit bearing plants

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Subsistence

• Resources utilized in seasonal rounds

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Fauna/Subsistence

• Saltwater fish available included halibut,
  herring, smelt, cod
• Anadromous fish 5 species of salmon, trout,
  eulachon, sturgeon, lamprey
• Sea mammals seals, sea lions, porpoises,
  dolphins, sea otters, whales
• Invertebrates mussels, scallops, oysters,
  abalone, limpets, cockles, clams, crabs, sea
  urchins
• Terrestrial mammals deer, elk, sheep, mtn. goat,
  bears, lynx, marmots, wolves
• Birds were also exploited including large birds
  of prey and smaller varieties

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Cultural Chronology
-Northwest coast, Southwest coast and the
Interior

• Predating 5500 B.P. (3500 B.C.)
• Early Period 5500 to 3800 B.P. (3500 to 1800
  B.C.)
• Middle Period 3800 to 1500 B.P. (1800 B.C to 500
  A.D.)
• Late Period 1500 B.P. to present (500 to 1700 A.D)

-Northwest coast, Interior, California (North and
South)
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Sites predating 3500 B.C.

• Initial occupation of the North West Coast occurs
  in Alaska
• On the coast heavy subsistence on marine life,
  in the interior foraging and hunting
• Northwest coast culture (micro-blade technology)
• Southwest coast culture (bifacially flaked
  bipointed projectile point)
• Northwest interior
• Sites
• On-your-knees Cave Site Southeast Alaska, 9300
  B.P.
• -human remains
• Namu Site Central British Columbian coast, 9770
  B.P.
• -heavy subsistence on salmon

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Early Period 5500 to 3800 B.P. (3500 to 1800
B.C.)

• (1) Increasing cultural regionalism
• (2) rapid intensification of shellfish collection
  (occurs around 8000 B.P. and intensifies around
  5000 B.P.) with increase in midden size
• (3) large-scale fishing appears with specialized
  technology (e.g., fish weirs)
• (4) much larger populations reflected in
  increasing food production in general
• (5) improving storage technology
• (6) more specialized woodworking tools (chisels
  by 3500 B.P., mauls and pile drivers by 2500
  B.P.)
• (7) villages (seasonal pattern of summer/winter
  settlements)

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Early West Coast regional classifications

• North Coast - Prince Rupert/Skeena River - Prince
  Rupert III/Haqwilget A, Gitaus VI, and Skeena
  Complex
• Queen Charlotte Islands - Transitional complex
  and Graham tradition
• North-Central Coast - Namu II and III, McNaughton
  I, and Cathedral phase
• South-Central Coast - Bear Cove II and O'Conner
  II
• West Coast of Vancouver Island - Early and part
  of Middle Yuquot, Shoemaker Bay I
• Georgian Strait and Lower Fraser - Maurer,
  St.Mungo phase and the early portion of the
  Locarno Beach phase
• Gulf and San Juan Islands - Mayne phase, and the
  early portion of the Locarno Beach phase
• Fraser Canyon - Eayem and early Baldwin phases
  (Carlson 1983 Figure 12).

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The Interior

• wedge-shaped and tabular-shaped cores, burins of
  a number of varieties with the notched transverse
  burin being most distinctive, lanceolate points,
  a range of scraper and biface knife varieties,
  gravers, drills, net-sinkers and some other minor
  items.
• The most common tools were simple expedient flake
  tools.

Early Northwest Interior Points
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North-East Basket Forms
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Northern California Early Archaic (8000-3500
B.P.).
Southern California Early Period 8000-3000
B.P. (6000-1000 BC).

• Ex (Glassow, 8000 -6455 B.P.)
• Ey (Wilcoxin, 6455-435 B.P.)
• Ez (Erlandson, 4350- 3350 B.P.)

• Little contact with neighboring cultural areas
• Shell fish collection
• Hunting and gathering

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Southern California Early Period 8000-3000 B.P.
(6000-1000 BC).

• Channel Islands and the Santa Barbara Channel
  coast
• Semi-terranian pithouses (offshore islands)
• Metates and manos (importance of plant foods)
• Some red ochre sprinkled graves
• Mortars and pestles (Ey and Ez)
• -Acorn and nuts
• Land and sea mammal hunting increases
• Settlement patterns depended on seasonal hunting
  and foraging
• Intensification of maze exploitation (around 3500
  B.C.)

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Middle Period 3800 to 1500 B.P. (1800 B.C to 500
A.D.)

• Traits and trends include
• (1) after AD 450) large plank houses and fine
  woodworking
• (2) highly sophisticated baskets
• (3) greater cultural homogeneity throughout the
  Northwest Coast
• (4) widespread trade (e.g., obsidian)
• (5) 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.
• (6) heightened ceremonialism

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Middle West Coast regional
classifications

• The southern coast, and specifically the Strait
  of Georgia Locarno Beach and Marpole complexes
  (sculpture in hard stone, ear spools, brow bands,
  large water crafts, large communal plank houses,
  head deformation and burial mounds )
• The outer coasts of Vancouver Island and the
  Olympic Peninsula of adjacent Washington State
  the Yuquot Zone II complex
• The central coast Namu III and IV
• The northern coast Prince Rupert II
• The Queen Charlotte Islands the Graham tradition
• The Baldwin and Kleanza complexes of the lower
  Fraser and Skeena rivers, respectively, represent
  interior but still coastally related developments
• The Interior Taye Lake and Taltheilei complexes
  (Caribou and fresh water fish)

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Middle Period 3800 to 1500 B.P. (1800 B.C to 500
A.D.)

• Salmon was the most important single food
• Broadly based subsistence pattern that would have
  been supplemented by trade in various food stuffs
  
• Large coastal shell midden sites (winter)
• Evidence of warfare appears in the form of clubs,
  daggers, trophy skulls, and skeletal trauma
• Personal guardian spirit and shamanic belief
  system
• -elaborated mortuary traits (large numbers of
  shell and stone beads, cairn burial and mounds)
• -wealth objects obsidian, marine shell beads
  and pendants, nephrite adzes, and native copper
• -infant burials (wealthy lineages and families)

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Potlaches

• The processes involved in the formation of a
  class structure composed of powerful family
  lineages, commoners, and slaves, with status
  confirmation ceremonies, such as the potlatch
• A ritual means of enhancing and reinforcing
  rights and privileges

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Late Period1500 B.P. to 16th century (500 to
1700 A.D)

• Complex hunters and gatherers
• Semi to fully sedentary (ownership to land)
• Complex social organization
• House-hold based societies (up to 100
  individuals)
• Broadly based subsistence pattern that would have
  been supplemented by trade in various food stuffs
• Specialists (canoe makers, woodworkers, shamans,
  basket makers..)
• Leadership by shamans, kins and those with
  exceptional abilities
• Social stratification (chiefly elite, commoners
  and slaves)
• Whaling becomes very important

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North

• Large sedentary villages with planked houses of
  20 to 60 individuals
• Fortified settlements
• Large populations led to exploitation of most
  abundant resources (competition for resources
  leads to control by elite)
• Stable till European arrival

Trench from Victoria area
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South

• Vancouver Island to California
• High population density leads to reliance on food
  storage
• Intense manipulation of environment
• Rectangular plank houses replaces
  semi-subterranean houses (3100 B.P.)
• Social networks connected groups (trade in food
  stuffs and exotic goods)

• Hoko River Site (Washington)
• Fishing Camp site
• Makah culture
• The wet site dates between 3000 and 2600 B.P.
  while the dry site had two components, one dating
  2900-2600 B.P., and a second, poorly understood
  one, dating to c. 1700 B.P.
• http//www.spscc.ctc.edu/anthropology/WELCOME.HTM

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Historical groups

• 19th century ethnographers describe great
  diversity among North West coastal groups after
  European arrival
• Poor preservation of coastal sites
• Northern Coast Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian
• Central and Southern Coast Locarno, Marpole and
  Salish
• Nuu-chah-nuth (Nootka) culture related to the
  Makah at Ozette and Hoko River

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Totem Poles

• House beams
• House frontal poles
• Memorial poles
• Mortuary poles
• Potlach figures
• Welcome figures

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Interior Plateau

• From coast Mtns to Rocky Mtns, Fraser River to
  south of the Columbia and Snake Rivers
• More arid than coast, with greater temperature
  extremes from winter to summer

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Interior Plateau

• Clovis points found near Snake River, Ft. John
  B.C. and Wenatchee Washington
• Windust Phase Lower Snake Indian River, 12,600
  to 9100 B.P.
• -small scale foragers
• -highly mobile
• -large number of milling stones at Windust site
• -Hatenai site
• -Leaf shaped projectile points
• Cascade Phase Snake River, 9100 to 6300 B.P.
• -Pit houses appear 6300 B.P.
• -Small nomadic groups foraging over large areas
  in major drainages
• -Semi-subterranean houses appear and fishing
  increases after 5000 B.P.
• -Salmon runs important after 3500 B.P.
• Harder Phase 2500 to 1000 B.P.
• -People lived in earthlodge villages

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Interior Plateau

• Narrows on Rivers that was a very productive
  salmon fishery for thousands of years (Keatley
  Creek Site, Fraser River)
• Fraser River Sites also show an abundance of
  Salmon
• Number of pit houses increase dramatically over
  time
• Salmon dried and stored in bark-lined pits
• Vast amounts of wild onions, balsam root and
  tubers in roasting pits
• Bow and arrow technology by 2500 B.P.
• Complex trade networks
• Wooden masks show rank and status
• Trade sites (Dalles Site , Columbia River)

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The California Coast

• Biophysical and cultural diversity
• Later cultures had intensive and specialized
  hunting, gathering and fishing activities
• Dried fish and acorn stores vitally important
• Shellfish played major role in San Francisco Bay
  area
• Santa Barbra Channel area exploited mollusks, sea
  mammals and shallow water sea fish
• Elaborate technology, art and social organization
• Trade and resource distribution networks

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Northern California

• Reconstruction of culture history based on
  language distributions
• Before 6000 B.P. almost all of California
  Hokan-speaking
• Shell middens
• Dense settlements in Bay area
• North coast isolated and mountainous
• Local chiefdoms and territories, often within a
  local river drainage area
• -each with a principle settlement, ceremonial
  center and sever outlying seasonal camps
• Gunther Pattern (2150 B.P. to historic period)
• -Gunther Island in Humboldt Bay area
• -Strong influences from Northwest Coast
• -Gunther barbed point
• -heavy reliance on seasonal salmon runs and
  marine resources
• -Seasonal acorn harvesting
• Augustine Pattern (1700 B.P.)
• -Central California
• -Intensification of hunting, fishing and
  foraging

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San Francisco Bay and the Central Coast

• Widespread, but scattered, populations of
  hunter-gatherers
• Coastal resources less important
• Windmiller Pattern (around 4500 B.P.)
• -Sacramento Delta region
• -Economy focused on hunting of deer, pronghorn,
• rabbits and waterfowl
• -Some fishing and gathering
• -Burials covered on red Ochre and facing west
• Berkeley Pattern (4000 to 1700 B.P.)
• -Adapted to estuaries, bays and marshes
• -Hunted fish, shellfish, waterfowl and some
  large game
• -Large sites with dense populations
• -Kin leaders and non-egalitarian political
  systems
• Augustine Pattern (1700 B.P. to historical
  period)
• -New technologies and customs (bow and arrow,
  harpoons, tubular tobacco pipes and burning
  artifacts before placing within burials)
• -Subsistence of small prey and acorn harvests

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Southern California Coast

• Hunter-gatherer societies
• Long-distant exchange networks
• Distinctive shell bead forms used to reconstruct
  cultural chronology
• Early Period (8000 to 3000 B.P.)
• -Santa Barbara Channel and other parts of
  California coast
• Middle Period (3000 to 700 B.P.)
• -Beads and ornamental artifacts serve as status
  markers in society
• -Seals, porpoises, dolphins, whales, swordfish
  and shark bones now appear in coastal middens.
  Along with shellfish
• -More sophisticated deepwater crafts (planked
  canoes)
• Late Period (700 B.P. to 1804)
• -Hokan-speaking Chumash people
• -Intense marine life exploitation
• -Expert fishermen
• -Double-ended long paddles for planked canoes
• -Dome-shaped dwellings on a pole frame
• -Settlements contained sweat lodges and
  cemeteries
• -each village ruled by hereditary chief
• -Intricate petroglyphs and pictographs
• -Intricate trade with other regions

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The West Coast