The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast

R. G. Matson, Gary Coupland

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315417394
• Print ISBN:
  9781598744590
• Subtopic: Archaeology

This volume provides a descriptive overview of the cultural complexity on the northwest coast that stretches from northern California to Alaska. Topics covered range from the earliest settlements to the subsequent cultural diversities in Native American populations. Maps, charts, and illustrations further enhance the book's interest and appeal.

1

The Evolution of Cultural Complexity on the Northwest Coast

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM

The development of the Northwest Coast ethnographic pattern—those uniquely complex ethnographic hunting-and-gathering societies—has been the focus of many archaeological investigations on the Northwest Coast of North America. We believe that the evolution of complex societies based on hunting and gathering and the concomitant origin of human inequity are the outstanding issues that unite Northwest Coast archaeology and transcend the boundaries of the Northwest Coast culture area. What we mean by these terms, and how the ethnographic Northwest Coast cultures contrast with most other nonagricultural people are delineated below.

The Northwest Coast culture area has been variously defined over the last 100 years and is usually thought to extend from the northern California coast to Yakutat Bay at the north end of the Alaskan Panhandle, as is discussed in Chapter 2. This coastal strip is known for its wet but relatively mild climate, thick forests, numerous coastal resources, and abundant salmon. The aboriginal way of life associated with the coast extends well inland along the major salmon streams, the Columbia, the Fraser, the Skeena, and the Nass rivers.

The major cultural groups usually included in the Northwest Coast culture area (Figure 1-1) and their traditional anthropological names are, beginning from the south: the Tolowa from Northern California; the lesser known Pacific Athapaskan groups along the Oregon coast; the Chinook along the lower Columbia River area; the Coast Salish of the inland Puget Sound–Gulf of Georgia areas, as well as the lower Fraser River; the Nootka, most of whom now call themselves Nuu-chah-nulth, on the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island; the well-known Kwakiutl immediately to the north; the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands; and Tsimshian groups on the mainland coast opposite and extending inland up the Skeena and Nass rivers; and finally, furthest north, the Tlingit, occupying the Panhandle in southeastern Alaska. Many of the current members of these groups, such as the Nootka, are choosing to refer to themselves by names other than those given to them by anthropologists. This is, though, an evolving situation, and we have chosen for clarity to use the traditional anthropological names.

The archaeology of this area encompasses remains from 10,000 years ago to historic dwellings. Given our focus on the development of cultural complexity, we have chosen to subdivide this broad topic first by economic adaptation, and each adaptive stage, by geographical section of the coast. Most adaptations or evolutionary stages occur at approximately the same time up and down the coast, resulting in broad temporal periods.

Our orientation toward the prehistory of the Northwest Coast is justified by the distinctiveness of the cultural inhabitants at contact times and the clear dependency of this distinctiveness on their economic adaptation. What follows is our introduction to the important aspects of Northwest Coast cultures at the time of the first European visits.

THE NORTHWEST COAST AT CONTACT

It is clear from all accounts that the Northwest Coast peoples made their living by hunting, fishing, and gathering the natural resources found along the shore, in the ocean, in the streams and rivers that emptied into the ocean, and to a lesser extent, on the plants and animals found on the adjacent land. The shores produced a wide variety of shellfish, fish, seaweed, shore birds, waterfowl, and some sea mammals. The sea yielded many varieties of fish, with flatfish and rockfish second only to the preeminent salmon, which in six species and numerous varieties occurred in the many streams and rivers as well as in the adjacent sea. More deep sea-dwelling or pelagic sea mammals were also available, and a few groups even sought out and captured whales. In contrast with the abundance of these resources, the deer, elk (wapiti), bear, and other land animals were minor constituents, although they were also exploited. Berries and fern roots were the most widespread of the utilized plants, but were of only minor caloric importance to most groups.

FIGURE 1-1 The Northwest Coast culture area. Approximate location of selected Northwest Coast groups.

All these resources were not everywhere available, nor were many of them available long, or on a regular basis. In some cases they occurred regularly on a seasonal basis in certain locations, but in others neither the temporal occurrence nor the location could be predicted, making their use an uncertain proposition. In this respect the peoples of the Northwest Coast were like most other hunters and gatherers, in that they had to plan their lives in accord with the varying availability of resources. Besides tobacco, no other plant was regularly grown, and, except for the dog, no domesticated animal was kept. Thus, although abundant coastal resources were available, the Northwest Coast peoples were hunters and gatherers, sharing with other hunters and gatherers a way of life dependent on the vagaries of natural resources unaided by any significant amounts of domesticated plants and animals.

ETHNOGRAPHIC HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

Hunters and gatherers, as exemplified by such treatments as Man the Hunter (Lee and DeVore, 1968), are associated by anthropologists with a variety of expectations. These include demographic parameters, such as sparse density, usually less than 1 person per square mile (1 person per 3 sq. km), and small community sizes, which usually range from 25 to 50 people in the largest face-to-face group that regularly exists for more than a few weeks at a time (Martin, 1973). These small groups or bands are also seen to be highly mobile, not regularly staying in any place for any substantial length of time, and to consist of flexible groups that change from year to year. The mobile way of life meant that material possessions were usually either lightweight or easily produced. Except for hunters and gatherers in the high latitudes, gathering appears to usually provide most of the calories that, unlike stereotypes of old, are usually sufficient and obtained with relatively little labor. The archetypes of this way of life are the Australian Aborigines and the !Kung San as described by Lee (1979)—or the Great Basin Shoshone of Nevada and Utah described by Steward (1938). Although these may be extreme examples of this way of life, their characteristics are shared to some degree by most hunters and gatherers.

Along with these aspects of material life, we find many other shared social and economic characteristics. Each nuclear family is typically a self-sufficient economic unit, making most, or all, of their material possessions, and producing their food by themselves from natural resources. Exceptions, such as Great Basin rabbit and antelope hunts (Steward, 1938) occur, but contribute only minor amounts of food, as did trade. The self-sufficiency of each family unit, where all families carry out the same activities, was paralleled by the division of labor, which must be limited to those categories existing in the typical family, those of age and sex. Thus, typically all adult men perform the same activities, as do all adult females. This precludes any but the most limited part-time specialists, although these did exist, such as shamans. Such individuals, though, do not make their living through their specialized activities.

Corresponding to the organization of economic life, status is almost exclusively achieved and usually related to productive activities. This kind of society, where status is achieved, and status positions not circumscribed in number—there are no necessary limits to the number of “good hunters” or “good basketmakers” in a society—is often referred to as an egalitarian society (Fried, 1967). Such status as one obtains in such a society is not constrained by the status one is born with, as all are born relatively equal. Clearly, though, someone born to a “good basketmaker” has a headstart towards achieving a similar status.

Without specialists or large communities, the amount of social complexity is necessarily low. Organized warfare is uncommon (Lenski and Lenski, 1985), self-reliance high, slavery absent or rare, as well as lack of significant permanent artistic and architectural achievements, and so forth.

Not all ethnographically described hunters and gatherers share in all these characteristics, but most do, to a high degree. Recently, archaeologists have found evidence that not all prehistoric hunters and gatherers fit this simple pattern (e.g., Price and Brown, 1985). The same data, though, indicates that all did until the last few thousand years. Just as our biological evolution has taken place in a hunting-and-gathering context, for at least tens of thousands of years—and more likely hundreds of thousands of years—our social and cultural evolution has also. This “hunting-and-gathering pattern” contrasts with our twentieth century way of life and with the Northwest Coast at contact times.

THE DEVELOPED NORTHWEST COAST PATTERN

From the first European contact to the advent of professional anthropological interest with Franz Boas, the Northwest Coast peoples have been recognized as unique among ethnographically described hunters and gatherers. The large, planked houses, grouped into what were often populous villages, attest to a degree of sedentariness and community size not usually seen outside of agricultural societies. Estimates of the total Northwest Coast population have ranged from slightly more than 100,000 (Mooney, 1928) to about 200,000 (Boyd, 1990), very large numbers, given the relatively small land area occupied. The villages, repeatedly occupied by the same group for a number of months during the winter, would frequently include several hundred people, an order of magnitude larger than usually seen in hunting-and-gathering societies.

Differences in social scale and demography from other hunters and gatherers are also found in other social and technological realms. The standard household is not the nuclear family but an extended, multifamily household that usually numbers between 20 and 25 individuals, although there are exceptions, both on the larger and smaller ends of the scale. This household is the basic economic unit and usually occupies a single house, but is sometimes found within a single compartment or section within a yet larger house. Northwest Coast houses, always constructed of large split planks, and usually attached to a large timber frame, contain items of wealth and artistic complexity, from carved rattles to large, ornately decorated dance screens, carved wooden boxes and often, the house frames themselves. Large amounts of stored food are usually present, hanging from the house frame, in the wooden boxes, and in baskets.

The status and political system, likewise, differs radically from the common hunting-and-gathering pattern, where ownership of resources and ascribed statuses are unusual. The senior member of each household kin group usually controls most of the resources of his group, and most important resources in an area might well be “owned” by someone or some kin group. As discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, the individuals within a household could usually be classified into three groups; those closely related to the “chief” and who also had rights to resources and ceremonies, known as the “nobles”; those who were freeborn but had no such rights, known as the “commoners”; and slaves, owned by leading nobles or the household. According to Suttles and Jonaitis (1990) until the 1930s the Northwest Coast cultures were usually conceived of as consisting of these three “classes”: nobles, commoners, and slaves.

We will refer to this Northwest Coast social and economic system as the Developed Northwest Coast Pattern. It differs radically from the egalitarian model common among ethnographic hunter and gatherers. There are at least three ascribed classes, with little possibility for mobility between classes. The ownership or control of many—if not most—important resources, the existence of the multifamily household unit, and large, permanent, although not necessarily continuously occupied, villages based on large-scale storage, are essential components of the Developed Northwest Coast Pattern.

These status differences within a community were not trivial, nor did they occur only in unusual situations on the Northwest Coast. Mitchell and Donald (1985) and Donald (1983, 1990) present evidence that up to 25%—and more—of some Northwest Coast societies were slaves in early historic times. In some societies, such as the Kwakiutl, the “nobles” within a village were also “ranked” from most to least important according to a combination of their ascribed status and lifetime achievements. In the sidebar we see how an important Nootka “chief” and his house appeared to a European at the end of the eighteenth century.

An officer of the Chatham, one of Vancouver’s ships wrote:

About this time a party was made, of which I was one, to pay a visit to Maquinna the King of the Sound at his Village at Tashees, about 15 miles up the sound. … Maquinna received us with all the welcome and Hospitality of a Prince and seem’d much pleased with the honor done him. On entering his house we were conducted up to the end of it where there were seats placed in a long range covered with clean matts. His wives (for he had no less than four) & his children all clean dressed were seated near this end of the house ready to receive us and along the sides within the house were ranged crowds of his subjects. Maquinna had prepared an entertainment for us which was to be exhibited after Dinner, in the meantime the two Captains made the Royal family some handsome presents consisting of Copper, Blue Cloth, Blankets &c.

The frame of Maquinna’s house was amazingly large but only the habitable part of it was roof’d, this part was thirty yards long and eighteen broad. The roof was about 10 or 12 feet distant from the ground, and composed of large planks of Fir the ends of which were laid on Beams and moveable at pleasure. But the size of the Beams and their supporters was what raised in us more surprise and astonishment from the labour they must have cost in placing them in their present situation than any thing else we saw among them. In his house were three of these Beams that run along the whole house, one along each side and the other in the middle. They were of an equal length and thickness. We measur’d one of them and the dimensions were, in length, sixteenth fathoms (or 32 feet) [32 yards?] and in circumference twelve feet. They were supported at each extremity by Trees of much the same size on which were carved figures resembling (from the formation of the features) human figures but so large and so horribly preposterous that they were frightful to appearance. The Beams were solid Tree without a Knot in them and varied very little in thickness at either end. At one end of this house were piles of Boxes and Chests containing their Property and about a foot from the ground was a kind of Platform raised for the purpose of sleeping on & sitting on. It ran along one side of the house and across the ends and was about a yard wide. (Meany, 1915:20–21)

Maquinna is the chief who later captured the ship Boston, and kept two sailors as slaves. This event resulted in one of the first detailed, if somewhat garbled, accounts of Northwest Coast ethnography (Jewitt, 1975).

Clearly, such a society is a complex one, with far more specialization than the age and sex division of labor typical of hunters and gatherers. In fact, we know that historically individuals were famous as artists and hired by “chiefs” to produce high-status items such as carved wooden objects. These specialists, however, did not engage in such activities on a full-time basis. The extreme case of economic complexity and specialization on the Northwest Coast may be the reef-net fishery of the Coast Salish (Suttles, 1951), which could have involved several dozen adults, a number of specialists, but not necessarily the reef-net location owner! This “fishery” is briefly described in Chapter 2.

Although the Northwest Coast divergence from the standard ethnographic hunting-and-gathering pattern is not complete—most Northwest Coast people in fact did move around in a seasonal pattern, and true full-time specialists do appear to be lacking—it does differ in most aspects. Furthermore, there are many other aspects not discussed above, such as warfare, that also vary from the usual hunting-and-gathering pattern. There is no doubt that the Northwest Coast had definite ascribed social inequality, in distinct contrast to the egalitarian pattern expected of hunters and gatherers.

Yet this pattern clearly did not originate with the first inhabitants. The Clovis hunters of 11,500 years ago, evidence of whom is found within 100 miles of the coast (Mehringer and Foit, 1990), and who gave rise to later Northwest Coast peoples, do fit the usual hunting-and-gathering pattern. For at least 8000 years, the Clovis descendant cultures on the Northwest Coast also lacked the large houses, elaborate art, and dense populati...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Evolution of Cultural Complexity on the Northwest Coast
• 2 The Northwest Coast Cultural Area
• 3 History of Archaeological Research
• 4 The Initial Colonization of the Northwest Coast
• 5 The Emergence of Distinctive Coastal Cultures
• 6 The Development of Cultural Complexity
• 7 The Achievement of Cultural Complexity
• 8 Continuation of the Developed Northwest Coast Pattern
• 9 Review of Developments
• References
• Index