Fort Simpson, on the Northwest Coast

The Northwest Coast

The Northwest Coast stretches 1,800 km from Cape Mendocino, California, to Yakutat Bay, Alaska. It is usually divided into three or four subregions (Fig. 1), with the Oregon and northern California coasts the most ambiguous in their assignment to the Northwest Coast. In the nineteenth century, this was linguistically one of the most diverse regions of North America, with eight language families...

Harvesting on the Northwest Coast Using the “Plant Paradigm”

Models accounting for social complexity on the Northwest Coast stress intensification of animal resources, especially salmon. Faunal records from the past 6,500 years on the southern Northwest Coast, however, indicate sustainable use, rather than intensification of salmon. Recent research demonstrating a significant role for, and cultivation of, plant resources, likewise challenges existing mod...

Resource depression on the Northwest Coast of North America

Introduction A variety of evidence is accumulating from various parts of the world that suggests past human foragers greatly affected the animal and plant populations they were exploiting (Botkin 1980; Broughton 1997; Holdaway &. Jacomb 2000; Nagaoka 1998; Steadman 1995; Stiner et a1. 1999). Besides identifying prey response to human harvesting pressure, such studies also track ways human preda...

Raven Imagery in Northwest Coast Indian Art

The Northwest Coast: Complex Hunter-Gatherers, Ecology, and Social Evolution

Northwest Coast cultures have long held a central place in anthropology. Recently, the coast has become important in two major topics of theoretical interest: 1. the existence and socioeconomic evolution of complex hunter-gatherers (74) and 2. the origins and evolution of permanent forms of social inequality (3). The coast’s culture history also has intrinsic value to its native and non-native ...