VI. Far West Traditions

The Far West includes the Pacific Coast of North America with the Northwest Coast and California; and the Intermountain Region (between Sierra/Cascades and Rocky Mountains) that includes the Plateau and Basin. Some consider the American Southwest as part of what is called the West, but we will consider it separate in these notes and the course outline. The four areas of the Far West have their own particular differences that American Indians adapted in different ways, which resulted in sometimes quite different cultures. The common aspect is that these people were almost exclusively H&G. Also, the general environmental pattern is that the Northern areas are forested and in some cases are temperate rain forests with precipitation levels reaching 200+" rainfall per annum. As you travel into the Southern areas and east the environment becomes arid and semi-arid with precipitation dwindling down to < 15" rainfall per annum. Coastal environs, rivers, lakes, altitude, soil and relative orientation to the sun (North facing slopes vs. South facing slopes) further account for differences in weather and biological variations/diversity. The archaeological record and data tell a story of increasingly complex Archaic H&G adaptations by the people, in conjunction with climatic changes referred to as:

 In actually there various small anathermals and altithermals, even as late as the 1940's and even today (with the resultant controversy of causes). So as people in the Far West improved their Archaic adaptations they were sometimes met with climatic changes and resultant socio-political crises, including the migration of new peoples.

We have simplified these changes into three basic phases Early (9,000-4500 B.C), Middle (4,500-1,000 B.C) and Late (1000 B.C. - A.D. 1500). Such simplification has its drawback and distortions, but is useful in the beginning.

A. The Northwest Coast was inhabited by Paleo-Indian people and later groups from the Arctic, Subarctic, and Plateau. Recent genetic evidence indicates the people of the Northwest today have a much greater diversity than was ever imagined for such a narrow geographic region. The Cascades and the Rockies come together in British Columbia that forms a weather barrier very close to the Pacific Ocean, eventually running into the ocean at Glacier Bay, Alaska. With the warm Japanese Current coming from the northwest the Northwest Coast of America is a virtual temperate rain forest rich in resources, especially cedar. The Pacific Ocean was rich in fish and sea mammal and in addition  7+ andronomous salmon species ran up the rivers to the Rocky Mountains.

 The archaeological record and artifacts ion sites indicate that people initially exploited the forest and riverine environment with sites moving closer to the mouths of the rivers. Artifacts indicate lithics for H&G of game animals, barred fish spearheads, and net/fish basket trap weights. By about 1000B.C people move to the coast at the mouths of rivers and begin to develop maritime lifestyles including whaling. Recently, a whaling village, Ozette, along the Olympic Peninsula, Washington was excavated. The site is unique in that a mudslide partially buried houses and preserved entire house artifacts including cordage, textile, baskets and wood.

SITES: Site #2:Ozette, WA; Hoko River, WA; Friendly Cove, Vancouver Is., Can.

B. Plateau people were located in an interesting intermountain region of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia between the High Cascades and Rocky Mountains. This environment was considerably drier than the coast, but it had two great river systems, the Frazer R. running from the Canadians Rockies, through the Cascades and into the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, B.C. and the Columbia R. system running from the Canadian Rockies and U.S. Rockies, through the Cascades between the states of Washington  and Oregon. Further, many species of salmon migrated up these rivers through the Cascades into the Rockies to spawn. Such a resource provide a great deal of added food to the land base resources. On land deer, sheep and elk were abundant as well as many lake and river plants . In the mountain meadows the camus bulb was an added staple. Early on the people were hunting and gathering in this environment from 10,600 B.C, living initially in rock shelters and later in semi-subterranean pit houses. Fish were part of the diet early on (7,000 B.C. +/-) but as the area became more arid so too fishing became more important; with summer and fall runs depending on the species. Many fish techniques were used, including nets and traps with weirs and platforms along narrow rapids. One of the most important places was on the Columbia River was the Celio Falls and Five Mile Rapids near the Dallas, OR. This was one of the great rendezvous points on the continent and up to 10,000 Indians came to trade at this point in the Fall, partially because of the salmon that were available. The Dalles dam has since flooded the area. The Plateau riverine culture was most developed 2,500 B.C. to A.D. 1700. After, A.D. 1750 some of the Plateau people, like the Yakima and Nez Perce had acquired horses and added summer buffalo hunts into the Plains to their seasonal patterns. However, they never left for good like some of the other cultures that migrated to the Plains and the Plateau people returned for the Fall salmon runs and spent the winters on the rivers.

C. California  is an area that begins in the north with cedar and redwood forest,  but ends in the south with increasingly arid deserts. In fact California is one of the most diverse areas of the Far West. The boundaries of the culture area of California do not match the current state and most scholars extend the culture area into Baja (Lower) California to Ensenada. The U.S. state was designated Alta (Upper) California by the Spanish. For the original American Indian cultures California, west of the Sierra and Peninsular Ranges, was a relatively rich environment with temperate rainforests in the north and coastal lagoons in the south. Throughout most of the valleys and foothills was Riparian Oaks forest/scrub. As the text author notes it was not a Garden of Eden (which only referred to cerebral metaphors anyway), but it was richer in wildlife and milder in climate. The other problem is that like all of these environments California was not a wilderness, but a managed park-like environment modified by burning and careful H&G strategies. At times the combination of climatic or catastrophic events caused difficult times. California certainly has altithermals that made conditions difficult even in California. Yet, the attraction to the relatively mild climate was for American Indians as it is today...everyone wants to come to California and worse they stay. Alfred Kroeber likened the phenomena to a fish-trap...it draws you in but you can not go back. The result is that all the major language groups, except Eskimo-Aleut found their way to California in the last 10,000 years. The Hokan language is the original language with the others coming in from the north and the east 7,000-1,000 years ago.

The  Early Tradition sites indicated a rather general hunting and gathering strategies with a preponderance of lithics; including cores, core tools, bifacial blades, domed scrapers, and side scrappers. During the Middle Tradition specializations fitted to coastal, riverine, lake, valley and foothill  environments emerge with fishing implements and pecked grinding tools, especially mano/metate. The grinding tools are free standing in some cases and bedrock if available. The Late Tradition reveals a highly developed exploitation of acorns with the increase of portable and bedrock pestle/mortars. California has more species of oak (perennial and deciduous) than anywhere else in the world. Many species had large acorns (nuts) that were protein and fat rich. These nuts had to be leeched of tannin or tannic acid (like cassava, cashews, olives). It is likely that the intensification of acorn use was in part due to increasing aridity and new people coming into the area from even harsher areas like the Great Basin. The Late Tradition began in California about 2000 -3,000 years ago (different from text) and including a much greater focus on seeds,  nuts and less game in the valleys, as well as increased coastal use of shellfish, fish, sea mammals and birds along the coast. The Southern California Channel Islands were used due to maritime adaptations, including a unique planked canoe (tomol in Chumash) to be able to travel from the mainland and between the islands. Some of these adaptations began to produce increased social hierarchies that were represented in the archaeological record by special art objects and shells (dentalium, clam and olivella). Thus the Northwest Coast and California developed relatively dense H&G populations.

SITES: Gunther Is., Humboldt Bay; Molpa, Tomkav; Site #3-PC-3

D. The Great Basin is as it's name implies a high altitude desert basin. The Great Basin is the northern part of the Western Deserts extending into the Southwest, California and Northern Mexico, but is an intermountain region (Sierra Mts. and Rocky Mts.) which has alkaline soil and drainage only into alkaline sinks like the Great Salt Lake and Mono Lake. These conditions render the Great Basin as a harsh environment that became increasingly arid into the present.

The American Indians were sparsely populated and all from the Aztec-Tanoan language. During the summer, in some areas of the Great Basin 15 sq. miles is required to support one human being. Some people left and went to California, others experimented with CBS agriculture (Fremont Tradition), but those that persisted fine tuned their ability to hunt and gather in seasonally exploited econiches in this high desert environment. By the Late Tradition the people would seasonal move from lower elevations, 2500' above sea level, in the spring to higher elevations,  9,000 ' above sea level, in the fall.

The hunting and gathering during the late tradition focused on Pinyon Pine, jackrabbit, antelope, and bighorn sheep. Desert Cave sites like Lovelock Cave, Danger Cave, and Hogup Cave provided dry environments that preserved the perishable artifacts like cordage and baskets that add to the lithic inventories during the Early through the Late Traditions of the Great Basin. Furthermore, plant remains preserved in these caves gives an even greater window into the kind and quantity of food used by these people. in the southern regions of the Great Basin in Utah and Nevada maize (CBS) and pottery are added to the H&G inventory. This may represent a Southwest expansion of people and or ideas into the Great Basin and is referred to as the Fremont Tradition. However, around  A.D. 1300, the Fremont experiment was abandoned and will be discussed as part of the Southwest.

SITES: Lovelock Cave & Hidden Cave, NV; Danger Cave & Hogup Cave, UT

These patterns and changes were similar throughout the Far West environments and the Archaic cultures that flourished at times and struggled. Certain environments, such as lakes, allowed for very specific adaptations. As mentioned some archaeological sites allowed for out of the ordinary preservation of artifacts, one of these were the duck decoys found in the cave sites of the Great Basin. They were made of  tule reeds but covered with a duck's skin to make them even more 'real'.

Copyright © by S. J. Crouthamel