Sandbox:North West Coast Salish

Archaeological perspective

Development laurengreen@shaw.ca

beliefs Jessica Plumpton. j_plumpton@hotmail.com

SubsistenceApril hung. Aprilweihung@gmail.com

Settlement Kymberlee Stogan kymberleestogan@hotmail.com

Social structure goneesaini@hotmail.com

Warfare Abby- aettelman@gmail.com

Problems of knowledge Juliette Funck FunckJU@gmail.com

The items listed under the topics are only suggested starting points.

Development

Lauren

Map

[1] [2]

Beliefs

Jessica Plumpton

Ceremonial

Straight of Georgia

Old Cordilleran

Archaeological evidence is mostly of tools

Lack of other kinds of evidence (like burials, houses, etc) makes it difficult to say what the culture was like

Charles/St. Mungo

Appearance of art/sculpture objects - status symbols?

Elaborate artistic/ritual life

• Various artefacts may have been associated with ritual, such as knives
• Red ochre, used in ceremonial life of Sto:lo today, becomes common

Locarno Beach

Art objects: carved antler spoon and knife handles representing small humanoid figures and whales

Marpole

Ritual items: eg. Seated human figurine bowls

• Stone sculptures depicting human figure with lap forming bowl
• Face slightly upraised, mouth smiling/grimacing, ribs showing
• Often a snake/bird/lizard added
• Little is known about them by modern first nations – bowls may never have been of common use, function was not a matter of common knowledge
• No direct evidence linking with shamanic practice, but there is a suggestion that this was their function (Wilson Duff, anthropologist)

Elaborate grave inclusions

Intentional deformation of crania

Mortuary ritual was very elaborate, represents status differences among individuals

Art pieces may have connection with spirit world, but it is difficult to interpret direct meaning

Late Period

Labrets cease to be used

Mortuary

Straight of Georgia

Old Cordilleran

General lack of burial sites

Charles/St. Mungo

First reported burials

Few burials reported

• Extended and cairn burials

Deceased buried below ground in shallow pit, body flexed in fetal position

Occasional evidence of objects buried with individuals (tools/ornaments which may have marked status in life)

Skeletal remains

• Labret wear
• Cranial deformation
  • Emerging social complexity/differentiation

Locarno Beach

Burials show no indication of ascribed status

Marpole

Midden burials Differential treatment of dead

• Burials with elaborate grave inclusions
  • Stratified society
  • Ascription
• Intentional deformation of crania, objects of personal ornamentation/ritual - status symbols?

Largest burial:

• 12 meters square at base, 3 meters high
• One adult male buried in shallow pit at centre of mound
• 7000 dentalium shell beads
• Four copper disks
• Copper ring
• Four abalone shell pendants

Late Period

Shift in mortuary practice

• Bodies located away from villages
  • Exposure, burial mounds
  • Demonstation of power/importance  ascribed status
• Labrets cease to be used

Bella Coola

Villages more recent that 450 AD devoid of burial remains

Early historic burial depressions outside of villages

Deceased placed in wooden boxes in trees and rock shelters

World view

Offerings left with the dead suggest belief in afterlife. Art pieces may have connections with the spirit world, but it is difficult to determine specific meaning.

Problems

Because the Coast Salish were not a literate people, it is difficult to determine worldview from a solely archaeological perspective. In order to interpret what burial remains might indicate about ancient Coast Salish worldview, ethnography may be employed.

Subsistence

April

Old condilleran/Pebble tool tradition(9000-4500 BP)

first known occupation of strait of georgia+lower fraser river region

Glenrose Cannery site(delta) -land mammal(elk,deer) -samll quantities of salmon, shellfish,eulachon,birds

Milliken site(fraser river canyon/inland) -salmon

-coastal+inland lithic assemblages are similar(shared technology)

-leaf-shaped points+cobble tools
-bone+antler tools
-abrading stones

-intersite faunal remain diversity

-groups visited various sites for many years to gather local resources.

Settlement

Kymberlee

Warfare

Abby

Defensive structures

(Increase in defensive structures means increase in warfare!)

WHEN?

The Middle Period (specifically Locarno/Marpole Period) to Late Period (900 CE to contact)

The first evidence of defensive structures are found in the far north- Examples: 1. traditional Tlingit areas

• began in from 400-700
• became common from 900-1400

2. Aleutian Islands

• became common from 300-1100

(Miller 264)

WHAT?

• fortifications around village (~stockades)
• house depressions (Moss 75)
• trench embankments

**unique to Coast Salish areas

A raised area; one side trenched, the opposing side facing water and blocked by palisade (cedar planks and trench soil)

A flat area; three sides trenched in a semicircle, the fourth side a steep cliff face

(Hitchcock 169)

PROBLEM:

There is more war-focused archaeological investigation in Northern NWC than the Southern NWC! Thus, there is a slant to our evidence and thus our theorizing.

“A dominant colonial perspective suggesting the passivity of Northwest Coast-Coast Salish peoples and alluding to a failure to protect lands in combat erodes the concept of Aboriginal land title and promotes the Aboriginal concession of land to colonial occupancy. I suggest that the archaeological data-gap of the Coast Salish area, apart from the North Coast, reflects lingering colonial and anthropological misrepresentation of Coast Salish peoples as passively “fighting with food” rather than weapons (Suttles 1989:253; see a related discussion of the Interior Salish in Suttles 1987a). (Schaepe 2006)

Burial Analyses

Again, we find a North v. South dichotomy!

While both show evidence of violence leading to death, (such as skull fractures and parry fractures (on radial/ulnar remains)...

Cybulski (1992) found 20% more indications of violence in burials in the northern NWC (Nass River, Greenville, BC) than in the southern (Gulf of Georgia region)

However:

94% of analyzed southern burials were from Locarno/Marpole period!

We already discussed how the Middle Period saw less southern warfare.

Only 19 burials were from Late Period due to change in mortuary practices, but when Cybulski analyzed the southern Late Period burials alone, 27.6% were violent, (a comparative province high).

Summary

General Themes:

There was gradual increase in warfare in both north and south as seen through burial and site analyses, seemingly starting earlier in the north than the south.

General Problems:

We do not get the entire picture!

• Did warfare truly increase in/nearing the Late Period or do we just lack earlier evidence?
• If we had as many later southern burials as northern, what picture would form? Is sample sizes (or the lack of equal such) influencing the findings?
• How much do earlier interpretations (the stereotype of the violent north and the passive south) inform later interpretations?

As usual with archaeology, we are left with many questions left to investigate.

Problems of knowledge

Juliette

Preservation

The central challenge to archeology in the NW coast according to Chazan is the rotting and destruction of the material culture which is primarily made from wood and bark. (Chazan 13) The Coast Salish among the other nations of the NW coast used wood and bark to make the majority of their possessions ranging from houses to nets. Ozette Site of the Makah people located in the northern Olympic peninsula in Washington is evocative of this problem. Three houses were buried beneath a mud slide in the 1700s creating anaerobic conditions that allowed for the preservation of organic materials. As a result there were a thousand of wooden artifacts that were excavated from this site (Chazan 313). Basketry for example can only be found in waterlogged contexts due to the anaerobic conditions favorable to preserving organic material. In these conditions the shape is often distorted or flattened and colors do not endure. (Bernick 140)

The sites in the Northwest Coast are large and complex making them hard to excavate. Due to the rarity of artifacts that contain pertinent information and relative frequency of small organic remains that require sampling and analysis Coast Salish sites require large tedious excavation. In the past this has discouraged archeologists and so not many sites have been excavated (Stein 14).

In addition to the natural destruction of perishable good Western development of the Pacific North West had disturbed and destroyed archeological sites and ancestral burial grounds. Development occurred regardless of archeological remains in the past but remains a problem despite the Island Trust Act of 1974 and the Heritage Conservation Act 1996 which are meant to protect and preserve archeological sites. One grave infringement of this was the construction of Poet’s Cove Spa and resort on South Pender Island which occurred despite having been recognizing as an archeological preserve. During construction of their swimming pool an archaic burial ground was dug to the bedrock and then spread over the tennis courts and parking lot (Mclay 2). Since then they have found dozens of individuals In the salvage dig.

Coast Salish Perspective on Archeology

Based on a variety of different perspectives it has been demonstrated that the Coast Salish people in both the past and present had close ties to their dead. Bones were treated with respect and great effort would be put into getting them back to the village cemetery. In some cases they were buried and retrieved later (Duff). The dead play a continual role in the world of the living (McKay). This is why the treatment of their ancestors as mere artifacts is disrespectful and sometimes resisted. Recently there have been efforts made to return the ancestral remains in which case they are reburied according to tradition

Resources

Google Books

1. Archaeology of San Juan Island: [link[3]]

2. Regarding basketry: [link[4]]

Chazan, Michael. 2009. World Prehistory and Archeology: Pathways Though Time. Pearson: Toronto.

Mclay, Eric 2004. To Preserve and Protect the Archeological Heritage of the Southern Gulf Islands. The Midden: