Ontario Archaeology
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Ontario Archaeology Journal of The Ontario Archaeological Society Number 92 2012 © 2012 The Ontario Archaeological Society, Inc. ISSN 0078-4672 The Ontario Archaeological Society 2012 Board of Directors President: Neal Ferris Vice-President: Sheryl Smith Past President: Jean-Luc Pilon Secretary/Treasurer: Jim Keron Treasurer Elect: Jim Montgomery Director of Chapter Services: Chris Dalton Director of Heritage Advocacy: Morgan Tamplin Director of Membership: John Sleath Director of Membership Services: Alistair Jolly Director of Education: Ryan Primrose Director of Publications: Grant Karcich Director of Public Outreach: Megan Brooks Director of Student Services: John Moody Executive Director: Lorie Harris Ontario Archaeology Editor: Christopher Ellis, University of Western Ontario Book Reviews and Profile Editor: Andrew Stewart, Strata Consulting Technical Editor: Suzanne Needs-Howarth, Perca Zooarchaeological Research Editorial Advisory Board Matt Boyd, Lakehead University Alicia Hawkins, Laurentian University Susan Jamieson, Trent University Suzanne Needs-Howarth, Perca Zooarchaeological Research Shari Prowse, Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport Ronald Williamson, Archaeological Services Inc. Production and Design Louis Taylor Ontario Archaeology Number 92 2012 Contents Introduction 1-12 Dip Nets and Jacklights: Paul Kane’s Views of Fishing the Great Lakes Region Kenneth R. Lister 13-26 The Grand River Sturgeon Fishery Paul General and Gary Warrick 27-37 The Pre-contact Upper Niagara River Fishery: Shadows of a Changed Enviornment David A. Ingleman, Stephen C. Thomas and Douglas J. Perrelli 38-73 The Walleye Fishery at the Peace Bridge Site, Fort Erie, Ontario Suzanne Needs-Howarth and Robert I. MacDonald 74-94 Seasonality, Mass Capture, and Exploitation of Fish at the Steven Patrick Site, a Uren Period Village near Kempenfelt Bay Alicia L. Hawkins and Erin Caley 95-122 Book Reviews Ta’n Wetapeksi’k: Understanding From Where We Come: Proceedings of the 2005 Debert Research Workshop, Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada (edited by Tim Bernard, Leah Morine Rosenmeier, and Sharon L. Farrell) 123-125 The Huron-Wendat Feast of the Dead: Indian-European Encounters in Early North America Erik R. Seeman 126-130 Subscriptions Subscription to Ontario Archaeology is through membership in The Ontario Archaeological Society. Address requests for further information, membership applications, and back issues to: The Ontario Archaeological Society P.O. Box 62066 Victoria Terrace Post Office Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4A 2W1 Telephone: 416-406-5959 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca Articles appearing in Ontario Archaeology are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life . Electronic full text available by subscription from Ebsco Online. Information for Authors Ontario Archaeology publishes articles on all aspects of archaeology in the Province of Ontario and adjacent regions. Both substantive descriptions and theoretical contributions will be considered. Authors must ensure that the manuscripts are prepared according to the Style Guide (Ontario Archaeology 68) before they are submitted. Electronic submission to the editor is possible and preferred via: [email protected] However, paper copy submission is also allowed. In this case, one original and two paper copies of manuscripts including copies of all figures and tables should be addressed to: Christopher J. Ellis, Editor Ontario Archaeology Department of Anthropology Social Science Centre The University of Western Ontario 1151 Richmond Street North London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2 Prowse, Needs-Howarth Introduction 3 Introduction Shari Prowse and Suzanne Needs-Howarth This volume is the result of a session organized by In the first paper, Ken Lister reveals the rele - the two of us at the 36th Annual Symposium of vance and importance of fishing to Ontario the Ontario Archaeological Society, held in Water - Aboriginal communities in the Great Lakes region loo, Ontario, on October 17, 2009. The volume during the mid-nineteenth century through the presents three papers that resulted from the session work of the talented artist Paul Kane, pinpointing (General and Warrick; Hawkins and Caley; which species are being described in various eth - Needs-Howarth and MacDonald) and two others nohistorical sources. (Ingleman, Perrelli, and Thomas; Lister) that are Paul General and Gary Warrick trace changes relevant to the topic at hand. We provide here a in the lake sturgeon fishery within the Grand summary of the papers in this volume and have River drainage through archaeological and histor - added a list of references on Great Lakes Aborigi - ical documentation and oral history. It seems nal fisheries that we believe we will be of use to rather fitting that, in a session of seven papers, we future researchers. had two on sturgeon (Terrance Martin also pre - The point of the session was to provide a sented on the sturgeon fishery, in southwestern forum for research on Aboriginal fisheries within Michigan; see Martin 2009, 2013). Together with the Great Lakes region, with the ambitious goal of those of eel and Atlantic salmon, archaeological showcasing what fisheries research can contribute remains of sturgeon have aroused the interest of to our understanding of past lifeways. Thankfully, fisheries scientists because the current distribu - gone is the perception of pre-contact fishery tions of these fish are so reduced from their past researchers as nothing more than fish faunal ana - distributions. lysts whose primary task is to generate lists of David Ingleman, Douglas Perrelli, and taxonomic identifications accompanied by counts Stephen Cox Thomas provide a synopsis of recent of bone fragments. Like other archaeological dis - research into the Middle Woodland period fishery ciplines, archaeological fisheries research has on the upper Niagara River, relating fish bone and matured to include the inquiry of all the imagina - netsinker data to modern environmental impacts. ble environmental, social, and cultural They make use of osteometry; incremental struc - phenomena around fishing and human interac - tures on fish vertebrae; as well as archaeological, tions with fish. Also like other areas of study, it is historical, and environmental evidence to recon - multidisciplinary, with many of its practitioners struct past fish populations and to attribute causes working collaboratively with others and being to their decline. jacks of all trades. Zooarchaeology, archaeology, Suzanne Needs-Howarth and Robert Mac - fisheries science, ethnohistory, ethnology, zoology, Donald examine the choices made around fish biology, chemistry, genetics, geology, geography, resources by the past inhabitants of the Peace hydrology, history, and statistics all have a role to Bridge site, also situated along the Niagara River, play in generating a better understanding of fish - in Fort Erie, Ontario, using osteometry and ing and its influence on—and interplay with—the cumulative frequency distributions. They also people of the past. examine taphonomic history through element dis - 4 Ontario Archaeology No. 92, 2012 tribution, by means of minimal animal units. riginal fisheries of the Great Lakes. We hope that Comparisons with such distributions at other sites this, in addition to the references provided in the allow them to put the data into context. papers in this volume (some of which are also Alicia Hawkins and Erin Caley infer the nature included here), will be helpful for those doing of the Uren-period fishery in Simcoe County research in this area of study. through osteometry and intra- and inter-site dis - tribution. They examine the relationship between Allen, W.A. bone and body dimensions in yellow perch to 2010 Archaeology Comes to the Rescue of Species determine the size of fish caught and, by exten - at Risk. ArchNotes 15(6):5-14. Andersen, C.J. sion, the fishing strategies employed at the Steven 1994 Faunal Resource Utilization among the St. Patrick site. Because yellow perch is commonly Lawrence Iroquoians: The Zooarchaeology of found on Great Lakes sites and beyond, the regres - the Steward (BfFt-2) Site, Morrisburg, sion equations they have generated will be of great Ontario . Unpublished MA thesis, utility to the zooarchaeological community in Department of Anthropology, University of eastern North America. Toronto. We thank the peer reviewers for their indis - 1988 The Eel Fisheries of the St. Lawrence pensable part in getting these papers into print. Iroquoians. North American Archaeologist When polled, our contributors listed a variety of 9(2):97-121. influences and sources of inspiration. Many men - Andersen, C.J., and J.Casselman tioned the zooarchaeological guidance and 2007 American Eels of the Upper St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario: A Long-Valued and teachings of the late Howard Savage, who was the Reliable Resource in Serious Decline . Paper first to systematically conduct and teach the study presented at the Annual Symposium of the of animal bones in Ontario; Max Friesen (Uni - Ontario Archaeological Society, Kingston, versity of Toronto); and Aubrey Cannon Ontario. (McMaster University). Other influences include Artz, J.A. fellow researchers, in particular, Stephen Cox 1980 Inferring Season of Occupation from Fish Thomas; the ethnographic work of the ROM’s Scales: An Archaeological Approach. Plains late Edward S. Rogers; and the anecdotal and oral Anthropologist 25:47-61. histories of Aboriginal