THE EARLY PACIFIC NORTHWEST
(MODULE 07)
Read: Fagan (2000:204-220).
(Click here to go to the Lesson Overview for Module 07)
(Click here to go directly to the syllabus daily topics schedule for this lesson)
A. Northwest Coast Geographic definitions:
1. Areal definitions:
a. Southern Alaska
b. Coastal British Columbia
c. Coastal Washington
d. Coastal Oregon
e. North coastal California
2. Geophysical definitions:
a. Coast and rivers
b. Eastern boundaries are:
(1) Coastal mountains of British Columbia and southern Alaska
(2) Cascades of Washington and Oregon
B. The Northwest Coast Archaeological Traditions:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. One archaeological tradition—the Strait of Georgia Tradition—is considered characteristic of the cultural
developments of the prehistoric Northwest Coast.
4. Two competing arguments exist comparing and contrasting the technologies of the Strait of Georgia peoples and
with those of northern—probably Eskimo-speaking—peoples:
a. Don Dumond:
(1) 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. (1978:89).
b. Dean Snow:
(1) 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)
5. Whatever the case, we can summarize the archaeological development using the Strait of Georgia Tradition
chronology (below).
6. The Strait of Georgia Tradition Chronology (consisting of the Charles, Locarno Beach, Marpole, and Ethnographic phases):
a. Charles Phase:
(1) ca. 3000-1500 B.C.
(2) Technology involves chipped- and partially ground-slate points and knives
b. Locarno Beach Phase:
(1) ca. 2000/1500-200 B.C.
(2) Basic continuation of the above Charles Phase
c. Marpole Phase:
(1) ca. 400 B.C.-A.D. 200
(2) Woodworking tools become abundant
(a) Ground stone
(b) Antler
(3) Carved-stone sculptures show beginnings of Northwest Coast styles
(4) Settlement data indicates large villages
(5) Burial mounds present
(6) Social indicators:
(a) Large villages indicate increasing social complexity
(b) Social stratification further indicated by differential access to wealth as seen by:
i) Increased number and type of objects and
ii) Cranial deformation in burial mounds
(c) Potlatch was probably present
(7) Economy was coastal- and riverine-oriented.
d. Ethnographic to the Present:
(1) ca. A.D. 500-Present
(2) A shift from stone carving to exclusive carving of wood (as indicated in tool inventory)
(3) Probably the people observed by the first whites were living a lifestyle not very different from
those living around A.D. 500.
7. There are a number of points that indicate cultural contact between Siberia and the Northwest Coast
(metallurgy, mythology, and physical anthropology):
a. Northwest Coast pre-Columbian metallurgy?:
(1) At white contact, there existed essentially two types of metallurgical traditions—
copper and iron:
(a) Copper (native cold-beaten into large "Coppers" for heraldic and potlatch occasions)
(b) Iron:
i) Often used in vicious double-ended hand-to-hand fighting knives
ii) Iron has been sourced to eastern Siberia!
iii) Thus with iron we have a clear example of pre-Columbian exchange
between the Old and the New Worlds
b. pre-olumbian mythological connections?:
(1) 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:
(2) The expedition went to eastern Siberia, Alaska, and the Northwest Coast, collecting both
artifactual and ethnographic information
(3) Note—the Raven Myths found in the Northwest Coast and in distant Kamchatka are
remarkably similar!
c. Physical anthropological commonalities?:
(1) It is physically, culturally, and linguistically evident that the Eskimos are relative latecomers
and are really linked with their Siberian relatives.
(2) At the time of the early Spanish, English, and Russian explorers of the Northwest Coast
detailed drawings of "natives" were made.
(3) 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!
d. The point of this is to indicate that we can find a precedent and evidence for some sense of a northern
Pacific cultural "community"—something recently strived for in
(1) Dogsledding from Siberia to Alaska—and,
(2) Publications and exhibits in both the the former USSR and the United States
C. Terms related to discussion of THE EARLY PACIFIC NORTHWEST
1. Northwest Coast: geographically and ecologically defined:
2. The Strait of Georgia Tradition chronology
3. Characterization of Marpole Phase lifestyle and artifact inventory
4. Northwest Coast: characteristic subsistence patterns and resource bases
5. Northwest Coast: the Ozette Site: description? significance?
6. Northwest Coast: the Ozette Site: what is unique about the kinds of excavations there?
7. Northwest Coast: characteristic artifacts and general material culture:
8. Northwest Coast: ethnohistorical considerations
9. Northwest Coast: metals in prehistory and possible ways of accounting for their presence?
10. Northwest Coast: possible cultural "debt" to adjacent Alaskan and Plateau cultures?
11. Commonalities of ground-stone slate technologies: Don Dumond versus Dean Snow—the argument?
12. Kodiak Island, Salish, and ground-stone technological transfer in ancient times—elaborate on
13. Be able to discuss why it makes sense to discuss both the Inland Plateau and the Northwest Coast as a related unit
14. Be able to provide a comparative cultural description of lifestyles of: the Harder Phase (Inland Plateau),
Congden II (the Columbia River Dalles), and Marpole Phase (Strait of Georgia)
15. A prehistoric Northern Pacific "Community"? evidence? pros and cons?
16. Film: Northwest Coast Indians
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