Precontact Use of Tundra Zones of the Northern Cascades Range of

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ARCHAEOLOGY
IN
WASHINGTON
VOLUME VII
1999
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Association for Washington Archaeology
Archaeology in Washington [Vol. VII 1999]
PRECONTACT USE OF TUNDRA ZONES OF THE NORTHERN CASCADES
RANGE OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA
Robert R. Mierendorf
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i
Abstract
Archaeological site survey and excavation data from the northern Cascade Range of
Washington and British Columbia is used to assert extensiveprecontact exploitation of
a regionally-prominent belt of tundra that spans the subalpine and alpine vegetation
zones. Preliminary data are described from 37 tundra belt archaeological sites in
North Cascades National Park Service Complex (the park) and from three excavated
sites. Adensity of3.7sites/km2 was observed in 10.01 km2 ofpark lands above 1,219 m
<
,
(4,000ft) elevation. Aseries of radiocarbon dates on anthropogenic charcoalfrom one
site indicates more or less continuous use of the subalpine for at least 4,500years. A
high relative site density ispredictedfor tundra zones, with region-wide temporal and
spatial variations in density reflecting the size and distribution of lowland populations
in relation to adjacent mountain physiography. Within the tundra belt, the highest site
density ispredictedfor the subalpineforest-meadow ecotone and the lowest densityfor
the alpine. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric information about postcontact indigenous
use of the tundra belt is scattered and fragmentary, but remains a rich source of
information about those Salish bands strongly oriented to use ofmountainous interior.
Although not used intensively compared to lowland areas, tundra belt archaeological
assemblages reflect regional-scale variations in human demography, climate, mountain
physiography, and subsistence resources.
INTRODUCTION
a large area of the Pacific Northwest that
influenced, and was influenced by, indigenous
*'
t
There are extensive treeless openings in the populations. Generally, there are two sources of
higher elevations of Pacific Northwest forests that information about precontact use of the
form abroad regional zone of meadows and open mountainous interior: the postcontact
terrain. For convenience, these subalpine and
alpine vegetation zones are together termed the
ethnographic and ethnohistoric records of
indigenous people and data recovered from
indigenous people is a topic unexplored in any
North Cascades), a mountain-oriented subsistence
"tundra belt" to recognize the continuity in archeological sites.
Although detailed
meadow communities across this landscape above ethnographic information is lacking for large
the forest. The traditional use of this terrain by areas of the interior northern Cascade Range (the
detail by Northwest Coast anthropologists and pattern for those Coast Salish bands living in the
archeologists. As a result, even rudimentary upper reaches of major valleys has
knowledge is lacking about the precontact use of
Robert R. Mierendorf, Archeologist, North Cascades National Park, National Park Service,
Marblemount, WA
;
been asserted (Collins 1974, 1980; A. Smith
1988). Until recently, no archaeological evidence
temporal variations in the archaeological record of
the tundra belt.
has been available from the tundra belt to address Tundra belt environment and ecology are limiting
the question of its precontact use. Using to aspects ofhuman settlement and subsistence in
preliminary data from the North Cascades (Figure ways that coastal and adjacent riverine
1) my objectives are to 1), briefly characterize environments are not. Perhaps the single most
some aspects of the tundra belt ecology and prominent physical feature is the rugged
prehistory of the North Cascades of Washington topography, which exhibits extreme relief
and southern British Columbia 2), to consider the between local valley bottoms and adjacent
implications of archeological data for summits (relief often exceeds 858 m/km). The
understanding indigenous subsistence in the larger North Cascades sustains the largest number of
region by proposing long-standing use of this active glaciers below the 49th parallel, and due to
distinctive landscape, and 3), to offer several deep glacial incision, the range appears as a
general predictions regarding regional and
Figure 1. Regional plan view map ofthe Pacific Northwest showing North Cascades National Park
Service Complex
jumbled mass of peaks and ridges separated by
deep, narrow valleys. Climate is moist and
maritime, resulting in average annual snowfalls of
ca. 13 m (43 ft); elevation of upper treeline is
generally defined by a shortened growing season
caused by late-persisting snow pack (Arno and
Hammerly 1984). Elevations are moderate, the
highest nonvolcanic peaks attaining ca. 2,900 m
while the highest of two volcanoes is 3,286 m, so
that hypoxia is not an important influence on
human use. The upper timberline, varying from
ca. 1,370 m on west slopes to 1,830 m on the east
(average of 1,600 m), defines the lower boundary
of a broad and regionally prominent belt of tundra
vegetation (Arno and Hammerly 1984:112).
more with the Olympic Mountains and the Coast
Range of British Columbia than with the
Cascades of southern Washington, Oregon, and
California or the Rocky Mountains.
North Cascades climate, flora, and fauna affiliate
treeline, above which trees cannot survive.
At the upper timberline (the end of the closedcanopy, upper montane forest) (Figure 2) begins a
patchwork of tree islands surrounded by alpine
tundra which is comprised of several meadow
communities classified by dominant vegetation
cover as 1) heath shrub or heather-huckleberry, 2)
lush herbaceous, 3) dwarf sedge, 4) rawmark and
low herbaceous, and 5) grass (Franklin and
Dyrness 1988). With increasing elevation, tree
islands are reduced in size and number up to the
/
/
Treeline b=»™^
Z-.
/
—*-•——""
^N.
\
Subalpine Tundra
\
&Tree Islands
^^^500 m(1600 ft)
Timberline
Alpine
Tundra
""
Upper Montane Forest
Valley Bottom
\
Lower Montane Forest
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of mountain vegetation zones in the North Cascades
\
snowshoes and Skagit hunters would haul canoe
Worldwide, most mountain ranges exhibi an loads of dried meat down the Skagit River in
abrupt transition between timberline and treeline, exchange for Puget Sound products (Haeberlin
but in Pacific Northwest ranges, this transition is and Gunther (1930:20). Now as in the past,
unique for being wider than anywhere else tundra constitutes the summer pasture for many
(FraUnandDyrness 1988:248-249;Meberg
forest ungulates, so that the extent and condition
1991-326). Here it spans up to 500 m(1,640 ft) of subalpine meadows must have had some
of elevation and forms a vast mosaic of tree influence on ungulate populations, and thus, on
groupings, tundra, cliffs and buttresses, avalanche indigenous subsistence hunting (beginning in the
slopes and gullies, rock fields, cirque lakes postcontact period, and continuing in the present,
wetlands, and waterfalls, the alpine equivalent of portions of the North Cascades tundra served as
the "muskeg" in arctic tundra of the far north pasturage for sheep, adomesticated ungulate).
(Polar and MacKinnon 1994:19). Excluding
valley bottoms, the low elevation part of the Important subsistence plants include berries
subalpine exhibits the greatest number and edible roots and greens, and pine nuts. Berries ot
diversity of habitats and species, the most the genus Vaccinium, dominant tundra shrubs in
biological productivity, and it i. where> most many North Cascades meadow communities, are
grazing occurs in the mountains (Price 1981.290). high in sugar and are preserved by traditional
Much of subalpine diversity is due to topographic drying technologies (Mack 1992 and 1998).
variability. In contrast, the continuous forest (Human foragers are not the only ones attracted to
below the subalpine and the treeless alpine tundra subalpine Vaccinium, as early each fall, the North
above it are characterized by low ecological Cascades tundra belt is roamed by bears who
diversity (Burtchard 1998).
SUBSISTENCE ECOLOGY
satisfy their pre-denning hyperphagia by
consuming enormous quantities of sugar-rich
huckleberries). Bulbs and corms of wild lilies
dug from meadows, especially Spring Beauty
lanceolata) and glacier lily
An abundance of animal, plant, and mineral (Claytonia
(Erythronium grandiflorium) were sources of
resources in tundra zones were available to dietary starch.
pine (Pinus
indigenous people in the summer and fall. During albicaulis), abundantWhite-bark
in some Subalpine forests,
summer, the subalpine is populated by fauna was valued for its large nuts. Meadows were also
important to subsistence, including deer, a source of medicinal plants (A. Smith 1964 and
mountain goat, elk, marmot, bear, ptarmigan,
1988; Blukis Onat 1988), two important ones
grouse, and raptors. Though important for food, being
members ofthe herbaceous meadow type so
fauna also were a source of utilitarian materials,
common in the western North Cascades (Douglas
1972). Sitka valerian (Valeriana sitchensis) was
highly valued blankets); fur and hide; horn, antler, used
to treat wounds, burns, sores, ulcers, and
tooth, hoof, and sinew; and fat. In the postcontact stomach problems (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994,
period, the North Cascades was known for its Turner et al. 1990). Indian Hellebore (Veratrum
good hunting. Communal hunting was common, viride), an extremely poisonous plant, was used to
with task groups created through alliances among treat colds, arthritis, phlebitis, broken bones, and
separate villages and bands (Anastasio 1975). venereal disease (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994,
The eastern slopes of the North Cascades were Turner etal. 1990). Due to extensive outcrops of
known to produce a surplus of animal products bedrock, many useful rock and mineral resources
including goat wool (which was woven into
traded by local Chelan, Wenatchi, and Methow were procured in the tundra zones, including
bands in the regional exchange system (Anastasio vitrophyre (a variety of obsidian), dacite, chert,
1975). In the western interior of the North and quartz crystals (Mierendorf and Skinner
Cascades, Snoqualmie bands hunted on
am^^nm
1997).
The tundra belt of the North Cascades was likely
first utilized during the early-Holocene, in the
annual round of foraging people who practiced an
economy based on exploitation of a wide range
marine and terrestrial resources, including those
from the mountains. During the early and midHolocene, the Pacific Northwest landscape was
more open compared to today, and it supported
more open forests and large expansive prairies
(Brubaker 1992, Whitlock 1992). Near the end of
the mid-Holocene began a cooler and moister
neoglacial climate that resulted in eventual
closure of the forest canopy, with consequent
reduction of browse for large ungulates. Schalk
(1988) suggested that this change was
accompanied by a decrease in use of the Olympic
Range subalpine by the increasingly sedentary but
more complex cultures of the late-prehistoric
period. Specifically, he suggested that these less
mobile, logistically-organized groups would have
had little incentive to use the high country
join in the alpine summits that form the core of
today's park.
All data were collected after
establishment of the park by Congress in 1968.
The sample consists of 37 prehistoric sites and 15
isolated remains from a measured land area of
10.01 km2 (2,495 acres).
This total area is
comprised of many small tracts surveyed between
1977 and 1998 in the park's tundra zone (all
survey tracts counted in the total are above 1,219
m [4,000 ft] elevation).
A data base of all
recorded tundra belt sites in the North Cascades
ecosystem, regardless of ownership and political
boundaries, would be more meaningful, but
currently does not exist. These data are not a
statistically representative sample and are likely
biased by several factors, including low site
visibility, which is obscured by dense tundra and
forest cover and by volcanic ash deposits (tephra)
from late-Holocene eruptions of Cascade Range
volcanoes.
Mean site density is 3.7 sites/km2 (individual
survey tracts exhibit a wide range of density
because high-ranked ungulates, particularly deer values). Although comparable data are few, a
and elk, would have been most efficiently hunted density value of 3.7 is within the range (1.5 to 7.8
in the valley bottoms. This argument makes sites per km2) measured in other western
intuitive sense given the great savings in energy
cordillera tundra zones (Mierendorf 1986:104).
to hunters who let winter snow drive ungulates to
lower elevations, ascompared with the high costs
ofa strategy requiring travel from valley bottoms
The aggregate site sample is described by
vegetation zone (Table 1), landform type (Table
to subalpine meadows of hunters and their gear,
and their return trip loaded with supplies.
material type (Table 4), and attribute means
2), physical site type (Table 3), quarried lithic
from
(Table 5). Attributes of the sample of isolated
cultural artifacts and features are provided also
archeological surveys in the North Cascades
(Table 6). Most sites have been inventoried in
Nevertheless,
as
evidence
accrued
beginning in the 1980s, it began to appear that
there had been extensive use of the subalpine in
the late-prehistoric period. In the following
sections, preliminary survey and excavation data
from North Cascades National Park Service
Complex (the park) is summarized.
ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE SURFACE
DATA
meadow communities of the subalpine (sample
mean elevation is 1,667 m [5,481 ft]), but some
are occasionally found in subalpine forests. The
data show the majority of sites are small scatters
of flaked stone remains found on
landform types of the subalpine. Many are
located above passes and in difficult and exposed
terrain, rendering simple travel across the
mountains an implausible explanation for their
occurrence.
Archeological survey
data are from
three
contiguous watersheds, those of the Skagit,
Fraser, and Columbia Rivers, whose headwaters
.
diverse
Lithic
artifacts
reflect
tool
manufacture and use, the procurement and
reduction of stone materials, and other resource
is represented by blades and cores from a few
TABLE 1. SITES BY VEGETATION TYPE
sites. Artifacts flaked from exotic lithic materials,
Vegetation Zone
always high quality types, appear as finished tool
fragments and as pressure flakes. The locallyprocured lithic types indicate bipolar core and
Number
Percent
4
11
Subalpine
33
89
biface reduction strategies that left large pieces of
Totals
37
100
debitage compared to the exoticstonetypes. This
suggests patterned variation in function and
technology by lithic material type. Pit features
Alpine
are found hollowed out of natural rock fields in
TABLE 2. SITES BY LANDFORM TYPE
talus and on moraines in both the subalpine and
Number
Percent
19
51.4
alpine. Calcined and burned animal bone is
sometimespresent in campfirehearthsexposedon
Glacial moraine/bench
8
21.6
site surfaces. Overall artifact and feature diversity
Pass
4
10.8
Landform Tvoe
Ridge crest
Cirque basin or lake
3
8.1
Steep slope
2
5.4
Avalanche fan/cone
1
2.7
37
100
Totals
is low. A preliminary impression is that the
simple tool assemblages represent repair or
construction of travel gear and clothing, domestic
activities associated with short-term camping, and
the preparation and handling of locally procured
resources.
TABLE 4. QUARRIES BY LITHIC
TABLE 3. SITES BY PHYSICAL TYPE
Site Type
Number
Percent
24
64.9
Quarry
7
18.9
Rockshelter w/lithics
2
5.4
Pit/depression
2
5.4
Rock cairn
2
5.4
37
100
Lithic scatter
Totals
MATERIAL TYPE
Material Type
Number
Percent
Vitrophyre/Obsidian
6
86
Quartz Crystal
1
14
Totals
7
100
The sample of sites from the park covers only a
small part of the total of North Cascades tundra.
Beyond the park, the occurrence of sites
inventoried on adjacent U.S. Forest Service and
provincial lands makes it clear that precontact use
of the tundra zones must have been widespread
processing activities. Some sites lack chipped
stone altogether but reveal features that reflect
cooking, storage, and use as hunting blinds.
Vitrophyre and quartz crystal are two stone
materials that were quarried from the tundra belt
in the park (Mierendorf 1987; Mierendorf and
Skinner 1997). The sample of chronologically
diagnostic artifact types is small.
Several
triangular-bladed, stemmed points match types
are estimated at 4-1,000 years old. The majority
across the North Cascades (see Fulkerson 1988,
Hollenbeck and Carter 1986, Hollenbeck 1987,
Huelsbeck and Ritchie 1994 and 1995, Sto:lo
Nation 1998, Vivian 1989, and Zweifel and Reid
1991). Because a small proportion of the tundra
belt area has been surveyed, the claim for
extensive use of the high country is only
qualitatively supported.
Comparable survey
information from mountains beyond the North
Cascades also support the claim, such as from the
Olympic Range (Bergland 1984, Schalk 1988,
of time sensitive forms are small, side-notched or
stemmed arrow points; these same types are
associated with radiocarbon dates of 300-600 B.P.
from sites in the lower montane forests of the park
(Mierendorfetal. 1998). Microblade technology
Wessen 1993) and the southern Cascades of
8
Washington (Burtchard 1998, Rice 1969, Mack
1998, McClure 1989). I believe these data
prehistoric features.
foreshadow
Pacific
6,600±90 B.P. was recovered from charcoal
Northwest mountains of extensive precontact use
of subalpine and alpine meadows.
below the artifacts and was presumably derived
the
occurrence
across
TABLE 5. SAMPLE ATTRIBUTE MEANS
Attribute
Mean
Elevation m (ft)
1671 (5481)
Sample Size (N)
37
Mean Site Area (m2)
1667
TABLE 6. ATTRIBUTES OF ISOLATED
ARTIFACTS AND FEATURES
Mean elevation m (ft)
1754(5755)
Subalpine % (n)
mean elevation m (ft)
64(10)
1662 (5450)
Alpine % (n)
mean elevation m (ft)
Flaked objects % (n)
Pit/depression % (n)
46(5) 6330
1940(6364)
Total number
87(13)
13(2)
15
ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE EXCAVATION
DATA
In the North Cascades tundra even fundamental
characteristics of archeological site structure and
chronology are unknown because systematic
excavation has not begun. In all of the North
Cascades of Washington, only three subalpine
siteshave been test-excavated . The first of these,
45WH223, is at Damfino Lakes (McClure and
Marcos 1987) on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
National Forest.
At 1,365 m, the site is in a
saddle between the headwaters of Canyon Creek
(Nooksack River basin) and Damfino Creek
(Chilliwack River basin). A volume of 1.85 m3
was excavatedfrom 12 1X1 m square units (3 mm
[1/8 in] mesh screen). A total of 185 artifacts was
recovered from the site. No formed tools, tool
fragments, or flakes showing evidence of use
were found and neither were faunal remains or
A radiocarbon date of
from a natural forest burn.
Most of the lithic
assemblage was classified as basalt, but there was
one item of chert and one of vitrophyre (this last
type is similar in appearance to a source described
by Mierendorf [1987:24] located 27 km to the
east). The authors concluded that 45WH223
reflects short-term use, possibly from a single
event. The site was assessed as eligible to the
National Register of Historic Places.
The second site is at Silver Lake, ca. two miles
south of the historic mining town of Monte Cristo
(Blukis Onat and Hess 1990) in Mount BakerSnoqualmie National Forest. It is located at 1,311
m elevation on a cirque lake moraine in the North
Fork of the Skykomish River's watershed. Due to
arsenic-bearing deposits near Silver Lake, the
waters are reported to be lifeless and poisonous
(Blukis Onat and Hess 1990).
The site was
recorded after discovery of a cryptocrystalline
quartz scraper and a broken flake. It was later
tested through excavation of four 1X1 m test units
and 5 1" diameter "boreholes" (screened with 3
mm [1/8 in] mesh). No artifacts, faunal remains,
features, or radiocarbon samples were recovered
from
below
assemblage
the
surface.
consists
The
of nine
entire
flakes.
site
The
investigators estimated that the site is younger
than 4,000 years old and represents short-term
use. It was assessed as not eligible to the National
Register of Historic Places.
The third site, 45WH484, is located in the park, in
theChilliwack Riverwatershed, which is tributary
to
the Fraser River of southwestern British
Columbia.
It sits at 1,616 m elevation on the
moraine of a cirque lake above timberline (Figure
3). Test excavations were conducted by park
archeology staff in 1995 and 1998. Three 1X1 m
units, a IX.5 m unit, and a .5X.5 m unit were
excavated, with a total volume of 1.27 nr
Figure 3. Site 45WH481 (1,660 melevation), North Cascades National Park Service Complex
(National Park Service Photo).
screened through 3 mm [1/8 in] mesh. The site
contains a high density of chipped stone remains,
consisting mostly of flakes and shatter, but some
excavated artifacts isca. 1,500 items. In addition,
the site contains an abundance of charcoal from
Tools consist of broken arrow points, a flake
variation in charcoal concentrations marking
prehistoric camp fires.
Complexity in
site
diagnostic and formed tools were recovered. structure was indicated by vertical and horizontal
knife, a quartz crystal, a bifacc, and a few cores. recurrent episodes of campfire use of one
The flakes are predominately varieties of a restricted site area. A few tabular hearth rocks
locally-outcropping vitrophyre, but there are also were recovered from the central campfire area
exotic materials imported from distant sources. along with occasional fire-modified rocks. No
Approximately ten different stone material types bone remains of any kind were found.
are represented by color varieties of vitrophyre,
chert, chalcedony, and metasediment. Debitage, The central campfire area is stratified and mostly
representing procurement from nearby vitrophyre intact, with the upper three strata directly related
sources, is relatively angular and large, reflecting to the site's geochronology. The uppermost of
primary and secondary reduction activities. these is a thin, compacted and disturbed soil ABased on chemical analysis of trace elements, a horizon containing modern objects mixed with
sample of vitrophyre artifacts from the site has prehistoric artifacts. The stratum below this is a
been correlated with samples from a nearby mostly intact, black, anthropogenic. A-horizon
source outcrop and associated quarry (Mierendorf containing prehistoric artifacts and charcoal
and Skinner 1997). Artifacts made of the exotic,
layered between two light-gray volcanic ashes.
The upper ash is a primary deposit of Mt. Saint
non-vitrophyre materials consist of broken tools
and small pressure flakes removed during tool Helens W from an eruption dated 505 B.P.
sharpening and repair. The total number of (Mullineaux 1986) while the lower one remains
10
^JT#^'r :
unidentified (there is some evidence of secondary
deposition of portions of the tephras). Lithic
artifacts were excavated from above, between,
and below the two gray tephras, without
noticeable vertical changes in artifact types or
other assemblage characteristics. This stratum is
ca. 12 cm thick. Based on five radiocarbon dates
on anthropogenic charcoal and the position of the
St. Helen's W tephra,the intact campfire deposits
are between 500 and 4,500 years old (Table 7).
Immediately under the campfire deposits is the
third stratum, a culturally-sterile, brown sandy
tephra. Field properties of this tephra resemble
those described for one erupted from Mount
Baker between 6,000 and 500 years ago (Hyde
and Crandell 1978). A sample of this tephra
collected from near Heather Meadows (southeast
of Mount Baker in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
National Forest) was kindly provided to me by
Dr. Wes Hildreth of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Analysis of this sample and of one from beneath
the campfire deposits, by Dr. Franklin J. Foit, Jr.
at Washington State University, revealed a strong
similarity in the glass chemistry of the samples,
suggesting that they are both derived from the
same eruptive event. Based on charcoal found
encased within the tephra at thesite, this eruptive
event is radiocarbon-dated at 6,060 years ago
(Table 7). The co-occurrence here of stratified
cultural deposits, identifiable tephra, anddateable
anthropogenic charcoal provide a mid to-late
Holocene cultural and geochronologic record of
tundra use. The site has been determined eligible
to the National Register of Historic Places.
Until more data are available, it is impossible to
know if the initial occupation of 45WH484 4,500
years ago has regional significance. Is it simply
of Pacific Northwest tundra zones by the midHolocene.
MODELING TUNDRA ZONE USE
Several recently developed models of precontact
land use in the subalpine of the Cascade and
Olympic Ranges of Washington have utilized the
regional paleoenvironmental record of the
Holocene as a basis for examining forager
subsistence ecology. These models consider the
mid-Holocene shift from open, more xeric forests,
to more mesic closed-canopy forests of the lateHolocene to trigger changes in high-ranked
terrestrial resource, particularly ungulates. With
increasing forest closure, grazing and browsing
habitat was reduced. It is believed that one of the
cultural consequences of this ecosystem shift was
the eventual appearance of a collector typeof land
use organization (in the sense of Binford 1980).
In his model of prehistoric use of the Olympic
Mountains, Schalk(1988:150) suggested:
The models of land use set forth in the
research design postulate that there
would be little incentive for travel into
subalpine settings for Late Prehistoric
peoplewho practicedlanduse systems of
the collector variety. It was reasoned
that in terms of the structure of regional
food resource distributions, Zone IV
coincidence that resource intensification and the
[subalpine] offered little or nothing to
onset oftheethnographic Northwest Coast pattern
begin to appear in lowland archaeological
collectors that could not be obtained
more effectively in other zones.
Efficiency and scheduling considerations
in collector land use systems would
restrict predation on migratory ungulates
to their winter ranges.
assemblages at about this time (Matson and
Coupland 1995)?
glaciers (Denton and Porter 1970, Denton and
Karlen 1973)? The earliest radiometric dates on
tundra zone archaeological sites in Washington
are 6,250±110 years old from the Goat Rocks
Wilderness of the southern Washington Cascades
(McClure 1989) and a date of 4,990±60 from
Olympic National Park
(Bergland 1984).
Cumulatively, these data support a claim for use
Why also the temporal
correspondence withthe onsetof theneoglacial, a
world-wide return to a cooler and moister climate
characterized by expansion of local mountain
11
TABLE 7. NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE COMPLEX,
RADIOCARBON AGE ESTIMATES, 45WH484
Beta Analytic
NOCA
Uncorrected
Sample No.
Sample No.
Radiocarbon Age
Association & Context
97235
484-SS-4
2300±100B.P.
High density of chipped stone artifacts; below sidenotched arrow point; campfire charcoal
High density of chipped stone artifacts; below St.
4350±50 B.P.
484-SS-3
96057
Helens W tephra; campfire charcoal
484-SS-5
96058
High density of chipped stone artifacts; quartz crystal
4470±70 B.P.
artifact; from below St. Helens Wn and other gray
tephra; charcoal collected from in situ, lower central
campfire deposit
96059
Below campfire deposit; no associated cultural
materials; encased in a brown sandy tephra from Mt.
Baker; sample collected from in situ, beneath
6040±90 B.P.
484-SS-6
anthropogenic deposits
1460±110B.P.
484-SS-7
96060
Low density of chipped stone artifacts in this level;
charcoal collected from in situ, outer edge of campfire
area
96061
484-SS-8
3400±90 B.P.
Low density of chipped stone artifacts in this level;
from outer edge of campfire area; charcoal collected
from tight, in situ concentration
Based on my experiences in the North Cascades,
woody debris, 3) unpredictable and abrupt
weather changes, often limiting to high elevation
travel in all seasons, and 4) long travel times
between procurement sites and winter residences.
The total cost, in caloric terms, to prepare and
I agree that efficiency and scheduling
considerations would favor ungulate hunting at
lower elevations in the winter, as is true of other
similar montane coniferous forests (Schalk and
Mierendorf 1983 and 1984). From an optimal
foraging perspective, I would even extend
transport bulk resources down from the tundra
was prohibitive under most circumstances.
(Perhaps an alternative measure of resource value,
one that included social and exchange values, in
addition to calories, would serve as a more
Schalk's argument (with reference to collectors
only and at a regional scale) and assert that use of
tundra zones for any number and combination of
key resources or food staples could not be
meaningful currency).
justified in terms of the energy expended relative
to the energy captured. Why might this be so?
prehistoric collector use of the tundra belt? I
suggest we reconsider a key assumption that
underlies how we think about precontact use of
the land: that procurement of food or other
subsistence resources was the primary motivation
for tundra belt use. Examples of this assumption
might include optimal foraging approaches to
quantifying energy of resources procured versus
energy expended in their capture, or attempts to
determine which procurement strategies are
"embedded" in more primary pursuits. Certainly,
the subalpine summer is productive and rich in
One of the hallmarks of a collector strategy is the
bulk processing of staples and their transport and
storage near or in a permanent or semipermanent
winter
village.
In
the
North
So what explains late-
Cascades,
transportation costs to pedestrians are exceedingly
high, due mostly to environmental constraints, in
particular, 1) steep slopes, 2) densely forested
transportation routes around and across rock
precipices, river gorges, and massive old-growth
12
migratory fauna and local flora and doubtless
much of human activity here did involve
procurement of food and other resources, but I
believe it was not profitable to do so in terms of
the cost-benefit ratio measured in caloric energy
(at the most local scale, however, there may have
Anastasio's reference to the importance of
interband task groupings and councils as a way to
"regulate ecological adjustment to the natural
environment and resources, economic exchange,
and warfare." (Anastasio 1975:183-184).
been exceptional cases). I think it useful here to
In most instances, chance encounters with other
distinguish between what people do, and the
reasons why they do it. I propose that tundra belt
use served a long-range subsistence-related need,
one that was not directly tied to food or other
bands were infrequent due to the very low
population densities at high elevations, yet each
band's claim was asserted, all the same, through
oral tradition and recurring visitation. While in
the tundra belt, any number of activities occurred,
whether they served for subsistence, exchange,
spiritualism or ceremonialism, intergroup
alliances, or other purposes. While traveling the
North Cascades interior, for example, Upper
Skagit people expected to meet Nooksack,
Stillaguamish, Thompson, Methow, or Okanogan
relatives in divides between drainages (Collins
resources needed for any one year or season.
Precontact subsistence use of the tundra belt is
likely to reflect regional demographic conditions.
With increasing population and cultural
complexity, a concern with definition of territory
or home range boundaries may have characterized
the interactions among bands occupying separate
river drainages that head in high mountain
massifs. I am suggesting the operation in such
highlands of a cultural expression of competitive
exclusion in the interaction of populous
indigenous societies in the late-prehistoric period.
In this view, use of the tundra belt by widelyseparated bands living in residential villages
served to establish a claimand regular presence in
an accustomed territory or to maintain rights to
the use of an area, regardless of the actual scope
1974:80); Lane and Lane (1977:163) quote
Wilson Duffs Tait Indian informant that they
would meet both Thompson and Skagit hunting
parties east of the Fraser River.
Cultural
alterations of the landscape marking such activity,
intentional or otherwise, remain in the form of
lithic scatters and quarries; campfire loci and
cooking hearths; butchered and cooked animal
remains; temporary structures, rock cairns,
contribution to material wealth. Social interaction
hunting blinds, and trails; storage features, and
root, nut, and berry-processing features,
culturally-modified trees, fire-maintained
likely involved any number of bands, with
separate identities and linguistic affiliations, who
(for details on pre- and postcontact cultural
or seasonal frequency of such usage, or its
sometimes traveled long distances to exercise co-
use of the highlands (in his ecological analysis of
group relations in the interior Plateau, which
includes the eastern slopes of the park in the
North Cascades, Anastasio [1975:122-125]
emphasized co-utilization of hunting areas in
mountains). In the postcontact period, some
meadows, rock shelters, and other modifications
remains or influences in the tundra belt, see
Berglund 1984; Blukis Onat 1988; Blukis Onat
and Hess 1990; Burtchard 1998; Bruseth 1950;
Fulkerson 1988; Hollenbeck 1987; Hollenbeck
and Carter 1987; Huelsbeck and Ritchie 1994 and
1995; Lepofsky et al. 1999; Mack 1992, 1994,
1998; Mierendorf 1986, 1987, 1997; Mierendorf
encounters between bands were hostile (Teit
and Skinner 1997; Nagorsen et al. 1996; Pokotylo
1900:268-271), such asbetween Upper Skagit and
and Froese 1983; Schalk 1988; Sto:lo Nation
1998; Turner 1991; Uebelacker n.d.; Vivian
Lower Thompson bands (Collins 1974:14-15).
On other occasions, social competition in tundra
zones is likely to have included symbolic and
ritualistic intergroup behavior.
exclusion
as
a
social
1989;Wesson 1993; Zweifel and Reid 1988).
Competitive
The precontact cultural expression of territorial
boundaries probably developed from the
mechanism underlies
13
centers, such as the west side ofthe Cascade
interaction between the geography of population
centers and the regional resource configuration.
Range, in proximity to the Puget Lowlands,
and especially the lower Fraser River valley,
as compared with relatively low site densities
At aregional scale, exclusionary tendencies, such
as the concept of land tenure (Brush 1976),
in the subalpine of the eastern North
probably arose following population increases
Cascades.
accompanied by more intensive use ofsubsistence
resources beginning in the mid to late-Holocene 2. A temporal correspondence is predicted in
and served to monitor territory boundaries and to
supply valued mountain resources to lowland
population centers. In a sense, competition was
tundra belt site density and inferred lowland
for access to tundra belt resources to meet the
population density: time periods characterized
by high population densities in the lowlands
demand for products sought in the regional
exchange system. Yet, at a local scale, co-use
allowed precontact bands to maintain arepertoire
should correspond with periods of higher site
density in the subalpine; periods of low
population density in the lowlands should
of subsistence, kinship, and residential options,
correspond to periods of low site density in
There are four conditions that together favor the
exercise of "co-use rights" in the tundra belt.
These are, 1) a collector type of subsistence-
density is predicted to show an inverse
relationship to increasing elevation, with the
highest densities in the forest-meadow
the subalpine.
thus gaining the security that comes from
maximizing land use options and subsistence
niches in the catchment of interior mountain 3. Subalpine and alpine archaeological
assemblages are predicted to differ in site
villages.
density and function. Specifically, site
ecotone of the low subalpine and the lowest
densities in the alpine; assemblages
settlement organization (low residential mobility,
bulk processing of key resources, food storage for
representing short-term camping, and other
winter consumption), 2) a relatively high
population density in the lowlands, 3) resource
domestic activities, should occur in the
subalpine, while ephemeral and day-length
stress, resulting in the need to broaden a resource
base or the range of resource procurement
activities, such as traveling, hunting, and
collecting, should occur in both zones.
options, and 4) high elevation and interior
portions of mountain massifs form prominent
DISCUSSION
divides separating major population aggregates.
EXPECTED PATTERNS IN SUBALPINE
LAND USE
Given the premise that fuller understanding of
Northwest Coast subsistence and settlement is
achieved by considering the entire landscape used
Afinal objective is to predict, at a regional scale, by indigenous populations, the focus here on
the spatial and temporal patterning in tundra belt tundra zones is heuristic. Native Northwest
archeological sites during the last 4,500 or so people, like indigenous inhabitants of mountains
years. The expectations are framed as general worldwide, subsisted by exploiting vertically
By
statements of relationship between temporal, compact biotic zones (Brush 1976).
geographic, and assemblage variables, and they considering the portion ofthe montane landscape
assume such factors as sampling and taphonomy
are held more or less constant.
that was most limiting to Native subsistence, I
have sought a preliminary reconciliation of its
archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric
1. Ahigher site density is predicted in subalpine data. In theNorth Cascades, at least, theproposal
areas close to major lowland population for widespread tundra belt use contradicts a view
14
WA-«r. if.---htfti»'ttiitigl?g
often espoused in authoritative and popular European perception of the landscape as
literature from history, anthropology (including "wilderness" untouched by human influences
archaeology), and mountaineering.
This view
(Nash 1982; White and Cronon 1988) and the
would have Pacific Northwest Indian cultures so
notion that there is something "irrational" about
dispersed land use and tenure (Rhoades and
Thompson 1975:549).
In the contemporary
marine and riverine-oriented that little if any use
was made of the mountainous interior other than
for purposes of trade, which reinforces the
mistaken impression of mountains as barriers,
rather than as resource use areas or tenured land,
however remote from permanent settlements.
Consequently, bands of Salish-speaking people
have not generally been credited with the skills,
technologies, and geographic knowledge to travel
and subsist within the regional tundra belt. The
abundance of marine resources of the Northwest
Pacific
Northwest
view
there
is
little
acknowledgment of an indigenous tradition of
high elevation use.
Is there evidence supporting the view that some
Northwest Coast bands were strongly oriented to
the mountainous
interior?
I believe
that a
meaningful body of evidence exits; but within
Coast has led some to conclude, erroneously I
think, that although hunting was important for
groups like the Nooksack and Upper Skagit, "The
lands traditionally occupied by Coast and Interior
Salish-speaking people, I am unaware of any
study that directly addresses this topic. The
evidence is embedded in a variety of ethnohistoric
great variety of game upriver, however, does not
balance the year-round supply of shellfish and
sea-mammals in the salt-water areas. Hunting,
and ethnographic documents and in the
recollections of living Native elders. In the North
Cascades, Nels Bruseth should receive credit for
therefore, was of less importance than fishing
throughout the Coast Salish area, including these
observations beginning early in this century of
inland groups." (Reid 1987:67). The absence of
archaeological sites in high meadows (Bruseth
ethnographic
1950:13).
interest
in
mountain-oriented
his detailed knowledge of the mountains and his
A. Smith, in his compilation of
subsistence is not surprising given the disruption
ethnographic and ethnohistoric data for Native use
and breakdown of Native cultures from disease
of the park, found the evidence "remarkably
and forced assimilation in the contact period, with
scanty and deficient in detail." and he asked "Why
in their field research ethnographers in the Pacific
Northwesthave been remiss in inquiring into how
the ensuing
loss of traditional subsistence
knowledge. Commenting on anthropologists'
efforts to record what traditional knowledge was
high-altitude land masses have contributed to the
not lost, Suttles noted that it is difficult to
traditional material, social, and religiousexistence
of native American groups ..." (A. Smith
understand subsistence if the investigator is
"unfamiliar with the natural history of the area"
and has limited research time (Suttles 1987:53).
Considered from a human geography perspective,
of
though, indigenous populations have inhabited
ethnographies,
nearly every major cordillera in the world. Do the
unpublished records). This he attempted through
useof ethnobotanicalstudies of mountain-adapted
1988:307).
He suggested that information
relevant to tundra zone use could be "teased" out
North Cascades somehow deviate from this
pattern, or is there evidence relating to mountainoriented subsistence?
These questions are
appropriate considering the anthropological
ethnohistoric
groups
such
documents
archival
as
the
(including
documents,
Nlakapamux
and
(Lower
Thompson) of British Columbia but he was only
partly successful (A. Smith 1988). Blukis Onat
(1988:36) suggested that more references to
Native use of the high country are found in
interest in human use of tundra zones in Europe
(Brush 1976, Rhoades and Thompson 1975:535).
But in the North Cascades, as elsewhere in North
explorers' journals than in ethnographies and that
some living elders retain ancestral knowledge of
such areas. In a recent review of ethnographic
America, current ideas about precontact use of
mountains are undoubtedly biased by the
15
bands (M. Smith 1941:205), hunting was just as
resources of Olympic National Park, Wray important as fishing and cross-country travel by
fl997-54) determined from interviews with land was commonplace, more than for the
Klallam tribal members and from anthropological saltwater, river, and prairie types. Smith believed
field notes that use of the Olympic Mountain that these inland groups defined a separate
interior was common. In astudy in progress in
province, centered in the Cascades of
the North Cascades of British Columbia, the Washington, that deviated in significant ways
knowledge of Sto.lo Nation elders and from the rigid characterizations embodied in the
paleoecological data are being combined to culture-area concepts of Northwest Coast and
document the history of burning in subalpine Plateau (M. Smith 1956). The influence of
meadows, atraditional management practice to Smith's foothills concept can be seen in
enhance production of Vacinnium (Lepoftky et al. Swanson's (1962) later attempt to synthesize
1999) However fragmentary or dispersed, archeological data from the Columbia Plateau, in
ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts are arich which he proposed a Northern Forest Culture
source of information regarding Salish use of the based on hunting on both slopes of the Cascade
mountainous interior.
Range beginning ca. 3,500 years ago (Swanson
1962-83)
Without attempting a tun
Fundamental to understanding the mountain characterization here of what constitutes a
orientation of Salish-speaking peoples is a mountain-oriented land use system, some key
detailed knowledge of the environmental and
ecological complexity of the mountainous
interior. This complexity is seldom
acknowledged in precontact models, so that
elements would include, 1) a detailed and
constantly-updatedknowledge oflocal conditions
in specific mountain valleys and across altitudinal
zones, 2) adependence on terrestrial and riverine
unqualified use of the term "uplands" masks the subsistence resources (the latter with and without
montane habitat diversity and subsistence
salmon), 3) winter travel and hunting on
potential that indigenous populations exploited. snowshoes, 4) much caching of tools, gear
Lack of familiarity with cultural strategies resources, and canoes at strategic locations, 5
adapted to montane habitats, I suspect, biases maintenance of a variety of intergroup soc.al
current interpretations about how chmatic (kinship, exchange, warfare) and subsistence
variables influenced precontact settlement relationships with other bands sharing use of the
patterns, such as the assertion that excessive same areas, 6) dispersed village locations
rainfall in the mountains (in this case, 100 cm reflecting the importance of solar exposure, cold
annually) discouraged winter habitation of the
air drainage, flooding, and avalanche history in
Wenatchee Lake pithouses (Galm et al. 1992:3). addition to resource considerations in selecting
Mean annual precipitation has little relevance to winter settlement location, 7) frequent summer
the settlement decisions ofindigenous people, it subsistence use of the tundra zones (and other
the high density of Native populations in the vast biotic zones), and 8) awide range of settlement
coastal rain forests ofthe western Cascades is any types, from permanent residential villages at
measure (Kroeber 1939:142 noted that early strategic physiographic and resource-controlled
postcontact population densities in areas ot locations to short-term, bivouac camps in difficult
western Washington exceeded those ofthe eastern
terrain.
Plateaus by two to nine times).
The strongest evidence in the North Cascades for
precontact use of the mountainous interior comes
adaptation comes closest to recognizing the from the upper Skagit River Valley in the park.
interaction of interior mountain-adapted bands Here, extensive use of local resources (salmon
M Smith's proposal of a"foothills" or "inland
with their environments (M. Smith 1941). For cannot reach this upper segment of the Skagit
groups typed as "inland", particularly the Skagit
16
.•.-M~...i!;.*a.'*af'
alBHSH*'
River) spans the last 7,600 radiocarbon years, and
although the valley bottom is only ca. 427 m
ecology is strong.
A large number of
archaeological sites, some containing the burned
remains of mountaingoats in cooking hearths and
others chipped stone debris reflecting
subalpine soils, yet artifact-rich, stratified cultural
deposits and anthropogenic features characterize
some sites. A sequence of five radiocarbon dates
on anthropogenic campfire charcoal at one site
demonstrates at least 4,500 years of recurrent use.
Though preliminary, the data meaningfully
address questions regarding indigenous use of
high elevation Pacific Northwest Coast mountain
procurement and reduction of localized stone
zones.
(1,400 ft) elevation, the influence of the
surrounding alpine summits on local subsistence
sources, indicate a hunting tradition spanning at
least two millennia and a close familiarity with
interior resources (Mierendorf 1993, Mierendorf
et al. 1998).
No evidence for season of
occupation was found, but Lower Thompson
informants a hundred yearagotold of winter-long
hunting trips to the valley (Teit 1900). At
Desolation chert quarry, the largest of many
quarries in the valley, the most intensive use
occurred between 5,000 and 3,500 radiocarbon
years ago (Mierendorf 1993).
Other
From a regional perspective, precontact use of
tundra zones cannot be understood solely on the
basis of the structure (temporal and spatial) of
subsistence resources and their potential
productivity. This is because tundra belt use is
also sensitive to the broader geographic
relationships between mountain physiography,
human demography, climate change, and sociocultural factors. Employing the assumption that
use of the mountainous interior is likely to reflect
region-wide cultural processes, testable
predictions are offered regarding regional-scale,
investigations demonstrate precontact use of the
upper Skagit River Valley immediately to the
north in British Columbia (Rousseau 1988, Bush
spatial and temporal variation in archaeological
1997).
assemblages.
Spatially, tundra zones in close
proximity to large lowland population aggregates
are predicted to have a higher site density
compared with those located distant from large
Archaeological site survey and excavation data populations.
Temporally, tundra zones are
from the North Cascades is used to assert predicted to have a high relative site density
extensive precontact exploitation of the tundra during periods of high population density in the
belt. Only a fraction of this regionally prominent, lowlands, and conversely, a low density during
treeless landscape has been sampled by periods of low population. Finally, tundra belt
archaeologists, yet the data permit preliminary site density is inversely related to elevation, with
consideration of aspects of precontact settlement the low elevation, subalpine predicted to have the
and subsistence that are largely unrecorded in highest density, and the alpine the lowest. I
postcontact ethnographies and ethnohistories. believe that regardless of the small population
Generally, archaeological assemblages from the size of precontact interior mountain bands
tundra zones are small and simple, reflecting compared with their coastal, river, and prairieconstruction and repair of tools, travel gear and oriented peers, the near-absence of a postcontact
clothing, food preparation associated with short- indigenous history of settlement and use in the
term camping, and local resource procurement North Cascades renders regional significance to
and utilization. The location of many sites above archeological assemblages of the tundra belt. The
passes, in difficult terrain, suggests that travel information embodied in precontact
through the mountains cannot solely explain the archaeological sites is likely to extend our
distribution of sites. The limited excavation knowledge of Salish-speaking peoples'
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
results show that assemblages are generally
shallowly buried in the thin, easily-eroded
interaction with Pacific Northwest mountain
ecosystems of the mid and late-Holocene.
17
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