Nuu-chah-nulth Archaeology

This dissertation examines multiple scales of Indigenous history on the Northwest Coast from the disciplinary perspective of archaeology. I focus on cultural lifeways archaeologically represented in two key domains of human existence: food and settlement. The dissertation consists of six individual case studies that demonstrate the utility of applying multiple spatial and temporal scales to refine archaeological understanding of cultural and historical variability on the Northwest Coast over the Mid-to-Late Holocene (ca. 5,000-200 BP). The first of three regionally scaled analyses presents a coast-wide examination of fisheries data indicating that Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) exhibit a pervasive and previously under-recognized importance in Northwest Coast Indigenous subsistence practices. Next, I use zooarchaeological data from the southern British Columbia coast to identify a pattern of regional coherence in Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth hunting traditions reflecting the scale of intergenerational cultural practice. The third study re-calibrates the settlement history of a small and historically significant locality in Coast Tsimshian territory (Prince Rupert Harbour) to clarify the temporal resolution of existing radiocarbon datasets and test inferences about social and political change. Following this regional exploration of scale, I document site-specific temporal variability in archaeological fisheries data from a Nuu-chah-nulth ‘big-house’ reflecting climatic and socio-economic change. I examine Indigenous oral histories and archaeological datasets to evaluate these parallel records of settlement in the neighbouring territory of an autonomous Nuu-chah-nulth polity before and during the occupation of a large defensive fortress. Finally, I demonstrate how everyday foodways are archaeologically expressed and reflect ecological differences and active management strategies within several spatially associated sites over millennial timescales. These linked case studies offer new clarity into long-standing debates concerning archaeologically relevant scales of cultural-historical variability on the NWC. They collectively demonstrate an enduring regional and temporal coherence for key aspects of Indigenous resource use and settlement and a historical dynamism at finer scales. I argue this has cultural, historical, and archaeological significance as well as relevance for contemporary understandings of the Northwest Coast environment. I conclude that a focus on the pervasive aspects of the everyday over millennia offers insight into individual actions across broader patterns of history.

Whaling was a central aspect of Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht and Makah culture on the northwest coast of North America. Not only was it economically important, it was vital to chiefly prestige. Art and ceremonial life were dominated by themes related to whaling. Thunderbird, the great supernatural whaler, was the source of hereditary prerogatives held by chiefs, including names, dances, regalia and rights to display images of thunderbird and whale. This paper argues that human observations of predatory behaviour by orcas (or killer whales) led to these animals also being perceived as non-human whalers from which chiefly prerogatives could be obtained. Wolves, the main figures in Nuu-chah-nulth ceremonial life, had the power to transform into orcas, explaining their frequent presence in the art with thunderbirds and whales. This paper presents archaeological evidence for orca in the context of whaling and offers interpretations based on the extensive ethnographic and oral historical records. It also places perceptions of animals, the role of the hunter’s wife and beliefs about orca in a broader context involving hunting societies in northwestern North America.

This study examines the the culture history of the related Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah peoples, whose historic territory encompasses western Vancouver Island and the northwestern Olympic Peninsula. Although archaeological research began relatively late in this area, the greatly expanded pace of recent fieldwork now allows an integrated assessment of their cultural heritage. The West Coast Culture Type, previously proposed for this area on limited archaeological data, is assessed against more recent evidence for diachronic trends and regional differences.
    An historical and multi-faceted approach is employed, integrating data from archaeology, historical linguistics, and aboriginal oral traditions, along with ethnography and ethnohistory for later time periods, in a cultural historical synthesis. Recent research with the Toquaht, a small Nuu-chah-nulth group in western Barkley Sound, provides much of the archaeological data for this study

Huulthin (shawls) play an important role in Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations’ oral histories, social organization, and ceremonial life. Drawing upon archival, material, museum, and ethnographic data, this research explores changes in huulthin as emblematic of broader social, economic, and spiritual transformations.
Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations’ huulthin do not exist in a vacuum—they are intimate possessions, collectively produced and displayed. Huulthin are a material iteration of deep histories, spiritual beliefs, social relationships, and trade networks. In the last 240 years, colonial encounters, capitalist economies (fueling rampant resource extraction and industrialization), settlement, and Canada’s aggressive assimilationist agenda have brought dramatic change to the West Coast of Vancouver Island.
Huulthin are a material, symbolic, spiritual, and embodied interface: between individuals and tribal communities, physical and spiritual worlds, knowledge and display, and perhaps most importantly, between history and a rapidly changing world.

The ethnographic studies of Edward Sapir and Philip Drucker have provided the major written sources on Nuu-chah-nulth culture. This paper integrates the ethnographic and oral history information with recent archaeological data from Barkley Sound. The ethnographic sources, particularly as recorded by Sapir, contain considerable information on political, social and economic changes over time. Archaeology augments or challenges the ethnographic details and provides chronological controls. The integration of different data sources allows detailed insights into the cultural heritage of the Barkley Sound Nuu-chah-nulth.

This article presents evidence for the antiquity and development of Nuu-chah-nulth whaling, drawing on recent archaeological work in Barkley Sound. DNA identifications of whale species reveal past whaling practices. The evidence is interpreted in terms of the actions of past whaling chiefs.

This article examines Nuu-chah-nulth oral histories in an archipelago on the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, as well as the place names embedded within them, to evaluate Indigenous timelines of sequential and overlapping historical events alongside archaeological sequences of settlement. I specifically compare these distinct datasets in order to evaluate the ages of occupation in settlements in close proximity to each other as well as temporal trends within these large settlements. I observe oral historical sequences and the archaeological settlement chronology to show overlapping and complementary patterns that document the growth, expansion, and dynamically shifting residence patterns at multiple village sites over the past twenty-five hundred years. I argue that this comparison adds historical detail and an Indigenous perspective to an archaeological settlement history at an intergenerational scale and enriches interpretations of the relationships between spatially associated archaeological sites within a contact-era Nuu-chah-nulth local group territory along the outer coast of British Columbia.

This paper describes how fish overwhelmingly dominates the animal bone assemblage from the examined column sample deposits at the Huu7ii village site, the named ancestral village of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. Fish represent 99.9% of all identified bone specimens and are present in every examined litre of sediment indicating the importance of fish in the everyday life of site occupants. The bone assemblage is numerically dominated by Pacific herring, which vastly outnumbers the next most abundant fish: anchovy, salmon, hake, greenling, dogfish, and rockfish as well as two-dozen other fish taxa. I conduct a series of descriptive, quantitative, and graphical analyses that seek to interpret resource harvesting practices at the two examined portions of the site: a very large house (17x35m) dating to the late-Holocene (ca. 1,500-400 yr BP) and mid-Holocene midden deposits recovered on a raised beach terrace (ca. 5,000-3,000 yr BP).

Full Citation:
McKechnie, Iain (2012) Zooarchaeological Analysis of the Indigenous Fishery at the Huu7ii Big House and Back Terrace, Huu-ay-aht Territory, Southwestern Vancouver Island. In Huu7ii: Household Archaeology at a Nuu-chah-nulth Village Site in Barkley Sound, by Alan D. McMillan & Denis E. St. Claire. pp. 154–186. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.

Coastal shell midden deposits are a quintessential component of the archaeological record on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Despite their importance in informing the cultural and environmental histories of Indigenous peoples, research on shell middens has largely not sought to address the physical extent of these cultural deposits, which requires estimating shape, depth, and volume. Here, we present a new scalable geospatial model, designed to work with legacy survey data, for estimating midden volumes based on applying a regular geometric solid to sites with known extent and depth. We evaluate the accuracy of this technique using percussion core, total station, and lidar data from eight sites in Tseshaht territory on western Vancouver Island and three sites on the north coast of British Columbia (Canada). As part of the evaluation process of our results, we calculate uncertainty using subsurface core depth data and then compare generalized and modeled midden volume estimates. We demonstrate an accurate general model applied at the regional scale across a systematically surveyed landscape. This work presents the first landscape-scale measure of midden extents and volume within our study area, with relevance to historical ecology and settlement patterns.

An expansion of Wakashan-speakers from an initial homeland has been suggested by a number of researchers as providing the best explanation for the distribution of Aboriginal languages on the central and southern coast of British Columbia as well as accounting for a perceived discontinuity in the archaeological record at several locations in this area. The importance accorded migration in archaeological explanations, however, has varied considerably over the past decades. This chapter examines the fluctuating fortunes of migrationism in archaeological theory, places the Wakashan migration hypothesis in its historic context, and extends the argument to the southern Wakashans.

Most reconstructions of Nuu-chah-nulth culture history, including the generalized West Coast culture type, are based primarily on the lengthy cultural sequence known from Yuquot, at the entrance to Nootka Sound. More recent work further to the south has raised questions about past interpretations. Excavations at Ch'uumat'a, in western Barkley Sound, revealed an occupational history spanning much the same time period as Yuquot. Materials from the earlier levels at this site most closely resemble those known from the Strait of Georgia, particularly in the Locarno Beach stage, suggesting a long period of occupation prior to Nuu-chah-nulth arrival.

This thesis examines the comparative abundance of shellfish from archaeological assemblages on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Nuu-chah-nulth territories. Eighteen sites spanning the Nuu-chah-nulth region emphasize the diversity in invertebrate foods that have been consumed 5000-150 years ago: Yaksis Cave, Loon Cave, and Hesquiat Village at Hesquiat Harbour; Chesterman Beach; Spring Cove; Ts’ishaa, Ch’ituukwachisht (North and South), Tl’ihuuw’a, Shiwitis, Huumuuwaa, Maktl7ii, Huts’atswilh, Kakmakimilh, Kiix7iin, and Huu7ii. Invertebrate zooarchaeology is an understudied field that has the potential to impact ecological restoration and conservation efforts. Ubiquity, or frequency of occurrence, provides a measure of abundance for a target taxa or species through a percent presence/absence approach. Regionally conventional methods of invertebrate analysis, including weight-based quantification, primarily favour heavy and robust bivalves, such as clams and mussels, and diminish the presence of other frequently occurring invertebrates. Ubiquity-based quantification shows how frequently ‘other’ shellfish have been utilized over time and across archaeological deposits. Gooseneck barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus) are often considered rare, an unimportant intertidal resource, but ubiquity-based analyses show that they are far more abundant than previously appreciated. A methodological combination of these two approaches shows vastly different perspectives on shellfish abundance, and this has implications for how the dietary role of shellfish is understood and discussed in archaeological discourse.

In 2016 the UVic Archaeology field school will be offered in Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation territories on western Vancouver Island in coastal British Columbia as part of two 1.5 credit courses (Anthropology 343 & 344). The first week of the field school will be based at UVic which will be followed by two weeks of remote camp-based fieldwork in the Broken Group Islands in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The final 3-weeks of the course will be spent at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (a UVic supported teaching and research facility in Barkley Sound) where students will conduct laboratory analyses and prepare written research reports on recovered archaeological material. This course will be immersive 6-week field experience (including hiking, camping, and boat travel) and require full days and dedicated teamwork.
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This paper examines the archaeological evidence for art production, applied decoration and personal ornamentation recovered from pre-contact and early historic Nuu-chah-nulth contexts. Although the archaeological record of early Nuu-chah-nulth art is limited, some glimpses are examined related to persistent themes and the evolution of the well-known later Nuu-chah-nulth style.

The department of Anthropology at UVic will be running an archaeology field school in Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation territories on western Vancouver Island as part of two 1.5-credit courses (ANTH 343 & 344). The first four days of the field school will be based in Victoria followed by two and a half weeks of remote camp-based fieldwork in the Broken Group Islands in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The final 3-weeks of the course will be spent at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (a UVic supported teaching and research facility in Barkley Sound) where students will conduct laboratory analyses and prepare written research reports on recovered archaeological material. This course will be an immersive 6-week field experience (including hiking, camping, and boat travel) and require full days and dedicated teamwork.

This paper reports results of excavation at a raised landform immediately behind and predating the large outer-coast ancestral Nuu-chah-nulth village of Ts'ishaa. It appears in a volume in honour of Philip Hobler, recognizing his early interest in the relationship between archaeological sites and sea levels.