South American Archaeology: The Coming Invasion

The Coming Invasion

The Proto-historic Period in Washington
1. Before written accounts but after Euro-American influences
  1. Leonhardy and Rice's Numipu Phase, A.D. 1700-A.D. 1900
  2. Different people use different dates according to when they think different influences came into effect
    1. Various ideas of beginning of period: A.D. 1520, A.D. 1600, A.D. 1700, A.D. 1730
    2. Various ideas of end of period: A.D. 1804, A.D. 1850, A.D. 1900
  3. Major influences
    1. Disease
    2. Horses
    3. Euro-American material culture
    4. Euro-American ideology—Christianity?
2. Disease most important pre-contact influence
  1. 40-50% minimum population loss
    1. Often whole communities
  2. First population estimates of Plateau made by Lewis and Clark, written during winter at Ft. Clatsop, 1805-1806, modified on return east (did not make population estimates for the coast)
    1. Their counts were influenced by:
      1. Season of visit, sometimes people were at winter villages or in uplands
      2. Based on observations as well as informants
    2. Their group names not necessarily the same as historic group names, so easy to be confused
    3. They observed people with smallpox scars and heard stories about epidemics
      1. Estimated a "current" population for the Plateau of about 68,000
      2. Estimated a population loss of about 40%
  3. People in new world did not have much resistance to many European diseases, genetic or acquired
    1. Diseases included smallpox, measles, influenza, malaria, whooping cough
  4. Also did not have experience/knowledge in treatment
  5. Date of first epidemic in the northwest is unknown
    1. Formerly assumed Rocky Mountains were barrier to epidemics, but cross mountain trade and travel greater than previously thought
  6. Remembered epidemics
    1. First in the 1770s
      1. Smallpox, among Colville, Nez Perce, Flathead and Kootenai
      2. Believed to have been brought back from Plains by bison hunters
      3. There may have been a slightly earlier epidemic that came up the Columbia from the NWC
      4. Very deadly form of the disease, people died within hours of exposure
    2. Second remembered smallpox epidemic 1801-1802
      1. Stories collected by John Work, trader at Fort Colville
      2. Also by Asa Smith, missionary to Nez Perce
      3. Second epidemic less destructive than first epidemic
        
        Milder form?
        
        Some acquired resistance in place?
  7. Archaeological study of proto-historic disease
    1. Sarah Campbell UW dissertation with data from Chief Joseph Dam CRM project
    2. Contends that ethnographic model may not have much time depth
    3. Reduced population sizes may have affected many aspects of the cultures
      1. Economy and subsistence
      2. Social/political organization
    4. Describes two "schools" of thought about estimating pre-Columbian populations
      1. American Historical School (Kroeber)
        
        Believe population declines happened mostly during the historic period
        
        Used observations of early explorers for data
        
        Estimated 900,000 for all of pre-Columbian North America
      2. Systematic/Biological School
        
        Believe population decline occurred will in advance of actual contact in many parts of the New World
        
        Employees archaeological data
        
        Estimates 18 million for pre-Columbian North America
        
        Approach (usually used for agricultural societies)looks at several different factors
        
        Extrinsic
        
        Environmental conditions, eg. climatic conditions that might favor or suppress pathogen
        
        Nature of organisms, eg. ability of pathogens to survive if groups of people widely separate/how long can a carrier be infectious?
        
        Intrinsic
        
        Density and distribution of population effected by disease
        
        Degree of inter-settlement contact
        
        Nature of subsistence practices and vulnerability to disruption of subsistence work
        
        Nature of health care system
    5. Things about the Plateau the might affect disease transmission that aren't true for all of North America
      1. Distance from coast
      2. Position between two mountain ranges
      3. Lower population density than agricultural societies
      4. Relatively late direct contact
    6. Boyd puts epidemic baseline at about 1770, his arguments against earlier epidemics
      1. First contact about 1740 NWC
      2. Pre-horse Rocky Mountain barrier
    7. Campbell argues:
      1. Boyd down plays the potential for native to native transmission before 1740
      2. First small pox epidemic in North America 1520
      3. Eastern regions recorded major losses
      4. So, if archaeological record for Plateau suggests drastic population decline around 1520, a smallpox epidemic is a good candidate for cause
      5. Proto-historic period often overlooked by archaeologists
      6. Not easily recognized outside burial contexts
      7. Many late prehistoric sites appear to have been abandoned just after introduction of trade goods
      8. Usually interpreted as result in mobility associated with horses
    8. Campbell's strategy
      1. Look for drastic decline in archaeological population estimates between AD1500 and 1750
      2. Requires regional focus in order to assure that change is in total population not just population distribution
      3. Used proxy variables to measure population
        
        Absolute versus relative population estimates, ie. actual numeric values versus 'more' or 'less'
        
        Campbell couldn't get at actual numbers so used relative population estimates
        
        Kinds of proxies that might be used
        
        Burial populations
        
        Food residue
        
        Site size and number
        
        House/room size and number
        
        Frequency of different kinds of artifacts
        
        Fourteenth century dates
      4. Campbell had data from 300 sites dating to last 1000 years, grouped into 50 year intervals
        
        Population estimation proxies she used were
        
        Frequency of components
        
        Size of components
        
        Frequency of features (hearths, storage pits, etc. did not use houses)
        
        Quantities of food refuse
    9. Looked at frequency of components and found
      1. Significant drop in frequency between 1425/1475 group and 1475/1525 group
      2. Increase in frequency between 1675/1725 group and 1725/1775 group
      3. Marked drop after 1775
      4. Roughly similar pattern in other proxies
    10. Campbell's conclusions
      1. Infectious diseases hit Plateau before 1700s
      2. Especially 1475-1525
      3. Later drop, circa AD 1775 related to contact (traders on coast)
3. Horses
  1. Modern horses
    1. Evolved in the new world
    2. Migrated to Asia and Europe across the land bridge
    3. Became extinct in the new world during the last ice age
    4. Were domesticated in central Asia about 5000 years ago
    5. Spread across north Africa to Spain
    6. Spanish brought horses back to the New World
  2. Spanish conquistadors very protective of horses, military advantage
    1. 1680 Pueblo revolt
    2. Indians drove out Spanish priests (missionaries) and settlers
    3. Captured large herds of sheep, cattle, and horses
      1. Horses not particularly valuable to SW people
      2. Limited good grazing for horses
      3. Were largely sedentary communities or farmers
      4. Grazing of sheep was much preferred
    4. Traded (and were stolen) horses away to more nomadic cultures to the north and east
  3. Francis Haines
    1. Used ethnohistory to retrace northward movement of horses
    2. Concluded horses reached southern Idaho Shoshoni about 1690
    3. Southern Plateau between 1710 and 1730
      1. Southern Plateau lifeways most effected by horses esp. Cayuse, Nez Perce, Yakama, Umatilla, and Walla Walla
  4. Plateau Great country for horses
    1. Open
    2. Good grazing
    3. Deep river valleys with good winter range
    4. Few predators
  5. 1855 Isacc Stevens estimated about 20,000 Horses among
    1. Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla (remember Lewis and Clark estimated only 40,000 people circa 1805)
    2. Influential families had as many as 1000 head of horses
      1. Ken Reid worked with Indian Agent records for between 1860 and 1890 and found correlation between bad winters and herd sizes, no hay, no barns
      2. So horse numbers up and down not constant
  6. Southern Plateau Indians very accomplished horse people
    1. Selective breeding
    2. Gelding
    3. Culling (sold off undesirable stock)
    4. Selected for coloring
      1. Appaloosa
      2. Sturdier and faster than many old world breeds
  7. Horses and Plateau culture
    1. Economic system/subsistence
      1. Increased mobility
        
        Larger seasonal round
        
        Greater distance in less time
        
        Increased load capability
      2. Increased role of Plains bison hunting
      3. Increased knowledge of, and interaction with other groups
        
        Both in trade and conflict
    2. Social system
      1. Contributed to large social gatherings
      2. Increased opportunities for wealth
      3. Increased status and wealth differences
      4. Increased warfare
        
        Ability
        
        Incentive
    3. Angelo Anastasio say horse led to "tribalization" of south eastern Plateau
      1. One time autonomous bands joined forces
      2. Protection against "outsiders"
      3. Also some small scale inter-group raiding on Plateau
      4. Political leadership
        
        War chiefs
        
        War societies
4. Material culture changes during the Proto-historic period
  1. Trade items brought in the NW
    1. From Plains people
      1. Buffalo robes, tipi covers
      2. Pipe stone
      3. Down-the-line Euro-American goods from east
    2. Trade items from the west coast
      1. Dentalia
      2. Sea based Euro-American trade items
      3. Probably major source of Euro-American items
        
        Beads
        
        Copper and brass
    3. Trade items from Basin people
      1. Down-the-line from Spanish in California
  2. Trade items from the NW
    1. Horses
    2. Processed fish
    3. Processed roots
    4. Baskets
  3. House form changed
    1. Hide covered tipi replaced mat covered lodge
  4. Equestrian gear
    1. Ropes of raw hide and braided horse hair
    2. Bridles, without bits, made of raw hide and braided horse hair
      1. Later traded for processed leather bridles with bits and halters
    3. Saddles, wood and/or horn frame, covered with hide
      1. Women's pommel higher than men's, could carry more stuff
    4. Saddle bags and parfleches
    5. Quirts
      1. Warriors, counting coup?
    6. Horse gear often elaborately decorated
      1. Quill work
      2. Beads
      3. Mirrors
      4. Coins
      5. Brass tacks
  5. Often, new materials used to make traditional type of tools and ornaments
    1. Sheet metal and kettles cut to make ornaments, projectile points, knives
    2. Glass beads used like porcupine quills and shells