THE EARLY ARCTIC AND SUBARCTIC
(MODULE 06)
Read: Fagan (2000:158-180).
(Click here to go directly to the Lesson Overview for Module 06)
(Click here to go directly to the Syllabus Daily Topics Schedule for this lesson)
A. The Arctic, the Western Subarctic, and the Eastern Subarctic are to be considered as significant cultural subareas
of North America.
B. Arctic: geographical definition:
1. Circumpolar zone lying north of the tree line
2. Not merely N66 degrees 67 minutes latitude!
3. At isotherm of 50 degress F (10 degress C) for month of July (roughly) (Define isotherm)
4. Yacutat Bay (northern Pacific) north through the Bering Strait, including the Aleutians, Bering Sea Islands,
adjacent Asiatic mainland, and the Alaskan north coast
5. Yukon and Northwest Territories (tundra)
6. Canadian Archipelago (ca. 1,300,000 km sq)
7. Quebec (Ungava Peninsula)
8. Coastal Labrador
9. Greenland (ca. 1,800,000 km sq)
C. Arctic: Biotic definition:
1. Maximum of 50 frost-free days in south
2. Mosses and lichens are the predominant terrestrial plants
3. Dwarf willow, alder and birch in protected areas to the south.
4. Few species of land animals:
a. lemmings
b. grond squirrels
c. weasel
d. wolverine
e. fox
f. arctic wolf
g. arctic hare
h. polar bear (and some grizzly)
i. caribou (most important land animal food source)
j. musk ox
5. Bird life is abundant—both shore birds and migratory fowl
6. Marine and aquatic life most abundant:
a. seals
b. walrus
c. char
d. salmon
e. lake trout
f. whale
D. Arctic: Chronological Picture:
1. By around 8000 B.C.:
a. At site of Onion Portage
b. Akmak Microblade Tools that lead into
2. ca. 3000 B.C.:
a. Small Tool Tradition
b. This apparently is the source for two subsequent lines of cultural developments in the Arctic—
one trending west and the other trending toward the east:
(1) Western line leads toward:
(a) Ocean Bay Culture
i) In south Alaska
ii) Leads into the Kodiak Tradition and ultimately into the—
iii) Aleut Culture
(b) Okvik Culture
i) of Saint Lawrence Island
ii) Development out of Arctic Small Tool Tradition
(c) Old Bering Sea Culture
i) Develops out of Okvik Culture
(d) Punak Culture
i) Develops out of Old Bering Sea Culture
ii) Punak language spoken in west Alaska
(2) Eastern line leads toward two lines—Chloris Culture and Sarqaq Culture:
(a) Chloris Culture—
i) Norton Culture—
ii) Ipiutak Culture (and famous site with the same name)
a) Found in western Alaska on Arctic Ocean
b) Interesting site as it contains up to 500 dwellings in a coastal ribbon settlement
c) Provides evidence of fairly advanced sedentism possible in the far north!
iii) Birnirk Culture
iv) Thule Culture
v) Inupic speakers fill most of the remaining Arctic all the way east to Greenland
(b) Sarqaq Culture—
i) Dorset
E. To the south of the treeless arctic peoples also adapted to the boreal conifer forests of the Subarctic—
the Western and Eastern Subarctic.
F. The Subarctic:
1. The main distinction between the Arctic and the Subarctic is found in the area's location south of the tree line.
2. The tree line is in reality a transitional zone—an ecotone— that includes both the northern arctic tundra and
the boreal taiga to the south.
3. In general, much of what constitutes the Subarctic—both east and west—is the boreal coniferous taiga.
4. If the Northeast Asia/Beringia area was a cultural filter—an area with distinctive environmental factors to adapt
to—then we may also conclude that all groups working their way south and southeast at some time had to
contend with and adapt to a Subarctic, boreal forest-type of environment.
a. Note that such Pleistocene-period boreal forest environments have shifted and initially were
located much further south (vis-à-vis the timing of the original migrations).
b. Interesting question —What do we know of environmental conditions that prevailed in the
"Ice Free Corridor" when it was open? Most probably it was tundra, or at best bare, recently
deglaciated land.
G. The Western Subarctic:
1. The Western Subarctic has been distinguished from the Eastern Subarctic on the basis of cultural—
in particular, linguistic—distinctions.
a. Athabascan languages predominate in the Canadian western provinces and territories
(i.e., south of areas occupied by Inuit, of course).
b. Athabascan language family includes groups from beyond the Subarctic area, such as:
(1) Northwest Coast peoples:
(a) Haida
(b) Tlingit
(2) Desert Southwest peoples:
(a) Navajo
(b) Apache
(3) Plains:
(a) Blackfoot
2. Maybe it would be better to speak of "Athabascan Prehistory" rather than merely the prehistory of the
Western Subarctic
a. Dean Snow suggests that long-headed (dolichocephalic) populations at the site of Chaluka
(near the site of Anangula in the Aleutians) were Indian (i.e., not Eskimo or Aleut) and represented
ancestral stock to the Athabascans
b. This population may have been the one that later had descendants that were at Onion Portage
(1) A caribou herd migration river fording place
(2) ca. 6-5000 B.C.
3. Following the idea of "Athabascan Prehistory," R. "Scotty" MacNeish (the same one who worked up the
Tehuac?n Valley sequence and the earliest maize in Mesoamerica!) developed a cultural tradition called the
Denetasiro Tradition:
a. Believed to have arisen out of the Northwest Microblade Tradition
b. The Historic Athabascans of southwest Yukon are regarded as representative of the late phase
of this tradition.
c. Denetasiro Tradition — location:
(1) Southwest Yukon
(2) Forested interior of the Northwest Territories
(3) Possibly once interior Alaska
(4) May have once spread eastward into:
(a) Northern Alberta
(b) Saskatchewan
(c) Manitoba
(5) May have covered the entire extent of the Athabascan language area!
d. Denetasiro Tradition — time span:
(1) Some of the Old Crow Flats archaeological inventory appears consistent with a
Pre-Denetasiro Tradition
(2) Some dated sites appear ca. 1-2000 B.C.
(3) Earliest clear-cut evidence dates to A.D. 300 in Southwest Yukon
(4) Latest dates ca. A.D. 1900 (whew! that's pretty recent for an archaeological sequence!)
e. Denetasiro Tradition — archaeological inventory:
(1) Microblades and burins wane at the beginning of this tradition (ending the Small-Tool
Tradition?)
(2) Appearance of wood-cutting polished stone tools marks transition
(a) Earliest appearance of these kinds of tools is ± 1-2000 B.C. to about A.D. 300
(3) Aishihik Phase:
(a) Begins after A.D. 300
(b) Polished stone adzes common
(c) Side-notched and corner-notched projectile points
(d) Small triangular points
(4) Bennett Lake Phase:
(a) Follows Aishihik Phase
(b) ca. 1100 A.D.
(c) Seasonal round includes:
i) Trapping
ii) Hunting
iii) Fishing
(d) Most Bennett Lake tools were of bone and antler:
i) Antler:
a) Antler arrow points
b) Antler gorges for fishing
ii) Bone:
a) Fleshers
b) Awls
c) Barbed, or side-barbed harpoon heads
d) Pins
iii) Some copper was used for:
a) Pins
b) Awls
c) Gorges
(5) Ethnographic Horizon:
(a) Material culture:
i) May give us a hint at the kinds of material culture that have not survived
into the archaeological record:
ii) Birch bark:
a) Containers
b) Tipis
c) Canoes (interior red faced outward and was decorated in
a "negative" fashion with geometric decorations)
iii) Wooden paddles
iv) Leather moccasins
v) Pigment-dyed porcupine-quill decorations on skins and birch bark
(later with trade came beads)
vi) Portability was a priority and most probably has contributed to
problems for archaeological interpretation:
a) Shallow sites—camping or fishing
b) Lack of material durability over time for most traditional
Athabascan material culture
(b) Subsistence:
i) Boreal hunters, fishers, and gatherers
ii) Hunted:
a) Caribou (extensively)
b) Moose
c) Beaver
iii) Food preservation—pemmican (Historic accounts indicate that
generally stores were short term)
(iv) Thus, population density and sedentism was difficult.
(d) Social considerations:
i) Composed of hundreds of autonomous bands
ii) Groups would occasionally unite to form 200 people
iii) Groups were highly mobile
iv) Languages were mutually intelligible between adjacent bands,
but not so over larger distances.
H. If the Western Subarctic is linguistically characterized by the distribution of Athabascan speakers, the Eastern Subarctic
was characterized by Algonquin speakers.
1. Algonquin is a language of considerable antiquity and variety in eastern North America
2. This linguistic evidence, coupled with artifact similarities, appears to indicate that colonization patterns of the
Subarctic in the east came primarily from the northern Eastern Woodlands.
3. Note that the environmental history of the Eastern Subarctic is tied to the patterns of ice recession
that have occurred since the Pleistocene — the period of the largest of the ice sheets in North America!
a. Thus, northeastern North America is a relatively recent land surface—the last to emerge since the
Wisconsin Glaciation!
(1) ca. 9000 B.C.—Great Lakes emerge
(2) ca. 5000 B.C.—James Bay and south central Quebec emerges
(3) ca. 3800 B.C.—Mainland ice sheet is free
(4) ca. 3000 B.C.—Present conditions do not exist until as recent as this!
4. The cultural heritage of the Eastern Subarctic begins with the Archaic descendants of the original Paleoindian peoples.
5. Eastern Subarctic Archaic:
a. Archaic culture here, as elsewhere, remains primarily a hunting one (although deprived of the big game
of their ancestors).
b. Subsistence resources were much the same as for the Western Subarctic, although in the east there
were instances of specialization in both aquatic (lakes and rivers) and marine (coastal) resources.
c. The following were hunted/fished/gathered:
(1) Caribou (northern fringes of the boreal forest)
(2) Elk
(3) Moose
(4) Deer
(5) Fish
(6) Shellfish
(7) Sea mammals (seasonal on the Atlantic coast)
(8) Wild plants
d. We can speak of three types or branches of the Eastern Subarctic Archaic:
Shield Archaic, Boreal Archaic, and Maritime Archaic:
e. Shield Archaic:
(1) Found around Hudson Bay west of Quebec
(2) Sites situated to take advantage of Caribou migrations (similar to the Onion Portage type
of location)
(3) Migratory lifeway is indicated, with people following the caribou north in the summer months
(4) Tools:
(a) Lance-size points
(b) Butchering tools
f. Boreal Archaic:
(1) Most sites found on coastal periphery of Quebec and Labrador
(2) Settlement patterning indicates seasonal migration with periodic settlement at certain
productive fishing camps
(3) Inland subsistence concentrated on small, fur-bearing species:
(a) Hare
(b) Muskrat
(c) Otter
(d) Beaver
(e) Wolf
(f) Only large game were caribou
(4) Chipped-stone artifacts:
(a) Earlier forms are points ranging from large to small lanceolate forms
(b) Later forms tend toward side-notched and triangular forms
(c) Think about — The implications of this kind of projectile point shift?
(5) Pecked, ground, and polished tools:
(a) Predominantly silicified slate
(b) Bayonet-like points
(6) Heavy woodworking tools
(a) Chisels
(b) Adzes
(c) Gouges
(d) Tools for woodworking, dugouts, etc.—things that have not survived in the
archaeological record
(e) This emphasis upon woodworking seems to have arisen in the woodlands to
the south and worked its way north
(f) Think about — The implications of such an elaborate kind of tool kit (?)
(especially when we talk about analogueous tool kits when we discuss the
ancient Northwest Coast!)
g. Maritime Archaic:
(1) Sites along shores of St. Lawrence and Belle Isle Straits
(2) Soils there generally acidic, thus only lithics survive (bones disappear)
(3) One large Archaic cemetery was found in the late 1960s—Port aux Chois
(4) Port aux Chois Site:
(a) Northwest Coast of Newfoundland
(b) Rich inventory of Maritime Archaic culture
(c) Date: late 3rd to 2nd millennium B.C. (dovetailing the Postglacial Climatic
Optimum of 5000-3000 B.C.?)
(d) 100-plus individual burials
i) Red ochre
ii) Elaborate graves with furnishings
(e) Suggestions of supernatural and afterlife
(f) Primary subsistence activities were oriented toward the sea—mammal hunting
(g) Stone tools primarily made of ground and polished slate
(h) Numerous examples of non-lithic tools:
i) Harpoon complexes:
a) Barbed bone points
b) Open-socketed toggling harpoon heads (of bone)
c) Whalebone foreshafts
ii) Daggers of walrus ivory, antler, caribou leg bone
iii) Bone eyed needles
iv) Bone scrapers
v) Bone combs
vi) Shell beads
vii) Parts of animals and birds (as decoration?)
viii) Stone sculptures of killer whales
(i) Note, where preservation was good—as at Port aux Chois—we have a view of a
rich lifeway—varied, artistic, etc.
i) Thus the elements may have been unfair in not providing us with
similar materials for other groups who inhabited the interior.
ii) Note also that the Eskimo Inuit, to the north, often tended to move
south and occupy Subarctic Archaic sites and areas during colder
times (removing and disturbing sites as they lived on them?).
(j) Port aux Chois occupation was during a warmer postglacial period
(the Postglacial Climatic Optimum)—cooler conditions were to follow
(the so-called "Iron Age Climatic Epoch" of 950-350 B.C.).
i. Archaic traditions appear to have been carried on by the immediate ancestors to historic/
ethnographic Algonquin-speaking Indian peoples:
(1) Beothuk (Newfoundland)
(2) Montagnais/Naskapi (Quebec and Labrador)
(3) Cree and Ojibwa (of Hudson Bay lowlands)
(4) All but the Beothuk have survived to the present day (Discuss the implications of a
statement like this — especially, what might be understood as "survival" by various
stakeholders!).
I. Terms related to discussion of THE EARLY ARCTIC AND SUBARCTIC:
1. The Arctic: geographically and ecologically defined
2. The Arctic: potentially exploitable resources (for early humans)
3. The Arctic: early cultural traditions:
4. The Arctic: Paleoarctic tradition
5. The Arctic: Microblade or Small Tool Tradition: characteristic artifacts
6. The Arctic: Onion Portage Site: significance
7. The Arctic: Chloris stays west; Sarqaq goes east
8. The Arctic: Western cultural tree: (after the Small Tool or Microblade Tradition):
9. Chloris (1000 B.C.) to:
10. Norton (500 B.C.) to:
11. Ipiutak (A.D. 300) to:
12. Birnirk (A.D. 500) to:
13. Thule (A.D. 1000) to now
14. The Arctic: Ipiutak Site: characteristics
15. The Arctic: Thule Culture or Tradition: characteristics and impact (growth of and movements) of them
16. The Arctic: Eastern Cultural tree: (after the Small Tool or Microblade Tradition):
17. Sarqaq (1000 B.C.) to:
18. Dorset (800 B.C.) to now
19. Thule came in too
20. Don't forget the Norse in Greenland!
21. The Arctic: Bering Sea area cultural tree (after the Small Tool or Microblade Tradition):
22. Okvik (of Saint Lawrence Island) (A.D. 0) to:
23. Old Bering Sea (A.D. 200) (May be western version of Ipiutak) to:
24. Punak Eskimos (A.D. 500) to now
25. The Arctic: artistic crafts and creativity of: Ipiutak; Old Bering Sea
26. The Subarctic: geographically and ecologically defined
27. The Subarctic: potentially exploitable resources (for humans):
28. The Subarctic: early cultural traditions for the east versus the west:
29. The Subarctic: Athabascan versus Algonquin
30. The Western Subarctic: "Athabascan Prehistory": is it appropriate? why?
31. The Western Subarctic: Eskimo, Indian, and issues raised by dolichocephalic versus brachycephalic skulls?
32. The Western Subarctic: the Denetasiro Tradition: (A.D. 100 or maybe earlier at about 1000 B.C.): What is it?
Possible cultural significance?
33. The Western Subarctic: basic cultural (technological) developmental sequence: Microblades to: polished stone to:
ethnographic record
34. The Western Subarctic: general boreal adaptive pattern and culture (subsistence, social organization, material
culture, etc.)
35. The Eastern Subarctic: some characteristics of the distribution patterns of Athabascan versus Algonquin: implications?
36. The Eastern Subarctic: instances of regional specializations: The Eastern Subarctic: three branches or traditions that
emerged out of the Paleoindian peoples (earliest ones):
37. Shield Archaic:
38. Boreal Archaic:
39. Maritime Archaic:
40. The Eastern Subarctic: Port aux Chois Site: inventory and cultural implications
41. The Eastern Subarctic: cultural tree (general):
42. Paleoindian to:
43. Archaic (with subsequent regional specializations) to:
44. Ethnographic Algonquin Indians (Beothuk, Cree, Ojibwa, etc.)
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