Summary of the Proposal

4.13: Archaeological and historical 4.13.1: Existing conditions Archaic – 10,500-4,400 BC consisting of highly Archaeological and historical resources may be mobile small groups subsisting on marine, categorized into 3 major types: shoreline, and terrestrial resources with stone, bone, antler, and perishable technological Archaeological - resources that represent materials illustrated by Olcott points. important evidence of past human behavior, including portable artifacts such as arrowheads Early Pacific – 4,400-1,800 BC consisting of or tin cans; non-portable features such as increased sedentism in seasonal villages cooking hearths, foundations, and privies; or subsisting on shoreline resources, expanded residues such as food remains and charcoal. marine resources harvesting camas and Archaeological remains can be virtually any age, shellfish with an increase in ground stone, bone, from yesterday's trash to prehistoric deposits antler, and perishable technological materials thousands of years old. illustrated by Cascade points. Ethnographic - sites, areas, and materials Middle Pacific – 1,800 BC - 500 AD consisting of important to Native Americans for religious, winter villages of plank houses and seasonal spiritual, or traditional uses that can encompass camps subsisting on marine and riverine the sacred character of physical locations (e.g., resources with food storage technologies with a mountain peaks, springs, and burial sites) or decrease in stone tools, diversification of tools particular native plants, animals, or minerals of bone, antler, perishable technological that are gathered for use in traditional ritual materials and canoes. activities. Also included are villages, burials, rock art, rock features, and traditional hunting, Late Pacific – 500 – 1775 AD consisting of large gathering, and fishing sites. In some cases, permanent villages and special use camps ethnographic resources may overlap prehistoric subsisting on specialized marine, riverine, and or historic archaeological resources or they may terrestrial resources with extensive food storage be embedded within each other. with very little stone tools . Historic - resources of the historic built Archaeological sites environment that can include people, places, or There are more than 5,000 Native American uses including houses, barns, stores, post sites on record in the state, of which few have offices, bridges, and community structures that been professionally evaluated. Generally, sites are more than 50 years old. are located at river conjunctions within valleys and along the shoreline of Puget Sound and the Prehistoric setting Columbia River. Tacoma is located within the The arrival of Indian groups in the Pacific Puget Sound or Salish culture defined by: Northwest cannot be dated with great precision. However, archaeological investigations at Riverine (linear) settlement patterns, Paisley Caves in east Oregon indicate man may Reliance on a diverse subsistence base of have been in the area at least 13,000 and anadromous fish and extensive game and possibly 15,000 years ago. Investigations at the root resources, Manis mastodon site near Sequim on the Complex fishing technology similar to that Olympic Peninsula indicate man was in the area seen on the Northwest Coast, as early as 12,000 years ago. Sea level rises Mutual cross-utilization of subsistence approximately 5,000 years ago, however, may resources among the various groups have inundated even older sites. comprising the populations of the area, Extension of kinship ties through extensive Known sites have been grouped into the intermarriage throughout the area, following rather broad time periods and cultural Extension of trade links throughout the area sequences: through institutionalized trading partnerships and regional trade fairs, Paleoindian - approximately 15,000+ BC Limited political integration, primarily at consisting of highly mobile, small groups that the village and band levels, until adoption subsisted on marine, shoreline, and terrestrial of the horse, and resources with stone, bone, antler, and Relatively uniform mythology, art staples, perishable technological materials illustrated by and religious beliefs and practices focused Clovis points and Western Stemmed projectiles. on the vision quest, shamanism, life-cycle Draft Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) MLK Subarea Plan Page 248 observances, and seasonal celebrations of are presently South 15th Street and Pacific the annual subsistence cycle. Avenue, and another near South 24th Street and Pacific Avenue where a creek entered the bay. Archaeologists and historians have verified tribal village sites throughout Puget Sound and At the time of non-native settlement of the area, within the Commencement Bay and Puyallup dense forests covered the area which became River basin. the Hilltop. The forests and inland areas played an important role in the life of the Puyallup, Indian tribes providing food, raw materials, and likely housing important religious and ceremonial The Indian population before the Europeans sites, such as burial grounds. first came into the Pacific Northwest is estimated to have numbered 75,000 or possibly However, the land clearing and grading twice that number, divided into about 125 tribal associated with the Hilltop's initial development groups. Small pox, tuberculosis epidemics, and eliminated the traces in the Hilltop of any other diseases reduced tribal numbers traditional resource use patterns or sites significantly by the 1850s. associated with the Puyallup before non-native settlement. If MLK subarea improvements may A large number of different Indian tribes and impact any of these resources, the resources bands inhabited Washington State with varied will need to be formally evaluated. life-styles and different languages, dress, ceremonies, and adornments. Tribal Status - the original 1,280 acre Puyallup characteristics are generally distinguished Reservation was established by the Medicine between the coastal tribes of western Creek Treaty of 1854, and later enlarged to Washington and those of the interior. In general, 18,062 acres by executive orders in 1857 and the coastal tribes depended on the rivers and 1873. The Puyallup Tribe currently owns 66.9 tidal waters for staple foods whereas the acres of the original reservation as the lands interior tribes relied more heavily upon plants were subsequently sold and allotted for non- and berries, as well as game and other animals. tribal uses and ownerships. The Puyallup (S’Puyalupubsh) - a coastal In 1984, the Puyallup Tribe won a major Salishan tribe, lived in villages extending for decision for the loss of their reservation lands about 15 miles east from Commencement Bay and received a $162,000,000 settlement for along the Puyallup River. At certain seasons, the usurpation of an area that extended southeast Puyallup resided at Carr Inlet and southern from Commencement Bay to the limits of the Vashon Island. City of Puyallup. The MLK subarea is not within the land claims settlement area. Settlements in the Tacoma area by the Puyallup peoples historically concentrated along the The Puyallup Tribal Council is the designated shoreline of Commencement Bay, where governing body for a tribe that had 3,800 residents of a village would have convenient members in 2008. The Tribe currently owns and access to the water which was both an operates a diversified business portfolio important source of food and the principal including a commercial marina, health center, means of transportation. Puyallup villages were school, casinos and gaming facilities, and retail typically located near river outlets, or at points stores which is located in the tideflats outside where creeks merged into the river systems. of the MLK subarea. The Puyallup, a piscatory people, supplemented Tacoma’s early European settlements their diet with berries and, after contact with fur trades, with potatoes. Salmon provided the The earliest European settler in the Tacoma area primary economic basis for these societies who was Nicolas Delin, who constructed a saw mill in were semi-sedentary, moving between different 1852 where the Puyallup River enters the bay. settlements depending upon the season. However, Delin and several other early settlers Archeological resources associated with Native abandoned the area during a conflict with local American settlement include shell middens, tribes in the mid-1850s. camp sites, burial sites, tools, implements or other artifacts or features. European settlers did not return until the mid- 1860s when Job Carr claimed 168 acres in the Known settlements - in the vicinity of the area now referred to as Old Town. Once the present downtown Tacoma and Hilltop settlement had been platted, it was given the neighborhood included a community near what Draft Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) MLK Subarea Plan Page 249 name Tacoma City, after the original Salish name for Mount Rainier (Tahoma). Draft Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) MLK Subarea Plan Page 250 Railroads - an 1873 decision to terminate the Hilltop (and MLK subarea) development Northern Pacific Railroad’s transcontinental line at Tacoma caused a development boom that The following account of Hilltop development turned the village into a city almost overnight. and nomination of historic resources in The terminus was located away from the Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood is based on a original Old Town, causing the center of the city 1993 Cultural

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