An Assessment of the Archaeological Potential of the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area, Makah Indian Reservation, Washington
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AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF THE NEAH BAY CHANNEL DEEPENING PROJECT AREA, MAKAH INDIAN RESERVATION, WASHINGTON By GARY C. WESSEN, Ph.D. Prepared for the Port of Neah Bay 1321 Bayview Avenue Neah Bay, WA 98357 Wessen & Associates, Inc. 905 56th Street Port Townsend, Washington 98368 March 2017 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY The Makah Indian Tribe has proposed to undertake a project at the entrance to the Port of Neah Bay in order to improve navigation in this area. The principal focus of the plan is to dredge an approximately 5,200 foot channel, to a depth of -25 MLLW, at the port entrance. The dredge spoil obtained from this effort will then be used for beach nourishment on lower intertidal to shallow subtidal surfaces on the south side of the port entrance. Planning for this project there-fore included an assessment of the archaeological potential of the affected areas. This study has concluded that the archaeological potential of the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area is probably very low. I believe that two fundamentally different types of archaeological resources could be encountered here: (1) potentially intact, inundated, archaeo- logical deposits and (2) re-deposited archaeological objects. Examples of the first are very likely to be significant archaeological resources; examples of the second are much less likely to be. With specific reference to the project area, I believe that potentially intact, inundated, archaeo- logical deposits are very unlikely to be present. The presence of re-deposited archaeological materials is considered to be more likely, but practical experience here suggests that such objects are probably present in only very small quantities. The latter lack clear cultural contexts and are therefore of limited analytical value. In sum, I believe that the proposed dredging of a subtidal channel at the entrance to Neah Bay and depositing the resulting dredge spoil on a nearby shoreline as beach nourishment will have no impact on potentially significant archaeological resources. This judgement is based in the view that such resources are very unlikely to be present in the project area. Further, the planned activities are very unlikely to have any impact on any of the three recorded historic archaeological sites located close to the project area. Given these circumstances, I recommend that the Makah Tribe be allowed to proceed with this project without archaeological restrictions. Neither additional archaeological studies nor construction monitoring appear to be warranted in this case. The cover picture is an aerial view of the mouth of Agency Creek and the Neah Bay shoreline just to the west of Bahaada Point. The lower intertidal and shallow subtidal zones here are a portion of the beach nourishment area for the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project. View is to the south. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Management Summary . ii 1 INTRODUCTION . 1 2 BACKGROUND . 1 2.1 The Project Area . 1 2.2 Environmental Setting . 3 2.3 Cultural Setting . 5 2.3.1 The Traditional Makah Presence . 6 2.3.2 The Euro-American Presence . 8 2.4 Archaeological Setting . 9 2.4.1 Archaeology Research on and near the Makah Indian Reservation . 9 2.4.2 Previous Archaeology near the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area . 11 3 RESEARCH DESIGN . 13 3.1 Research Goals . 13 3.2 Research Methods . 13 4 DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 14 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 15 iii 1 INTRODUCTION The Makah Indian Tribe has proposed to undertake a project at the entrance to the Port of Neah Bay in order to improve navigation in this area. The principal focus of the plan is to dredge an approximately 5,200 foot channel, to a depth of -25 MLLW, at the port entrance. The dredge spoil obtained from this effort will then be used for a beach nourishment project on lower intertidal to shallow subtidal surfaces on the south side of the port entrance. Planning for this project therefore included an assessment of the archaeological potential of the affected areas. To this end, the Port of Neah Bay arranged for Wessen & Associates, Inc. to conduct the required study. This report describes the background, goals, methods, findings, conclusions, and recommendations of our study of the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area. Field notes and photographs taken during the study are on file with Wessen & Associates, Inc. 2 BACKGROUND Appropriate areas of background consideration for this presentation include the basic character of the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area and its environmental, cultural, and archaeological settings. 2.1 The Project Area The Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area is located at the eastern end of Neah Bay (see Figure 1). Most of the area is located in the eastern half of Section 11, Township 33 North, Range 15 West, but a small portion of it extends into the western half of Section 12. In fact, the project area consists of two distinct locations: the dredged channel and the beach nourishment area (see Figure 2). The proposed channel is the principal feature of the project. It will be a dredged corridor beginning at the entrance to Neah Bay. The feature will begin at about the middle of the existing channel between Bahaada1 Point and the southern end of Waadah Island and extend approximate- ly 5,200 feet to the west. All but the westernmost 600 feet of this dredged corridor will be approximately 400 feet wide. The western end will be 600 feet wide in order to provide a turning basin. The entire feature will be dredged to a depth of -25 feet MLLW. The large volume of marine sediments to be removed from the channel will be deposited on a section of the nearby southeastern shoreline of Neah Bay as a beach nourishment effort. The beach nourishment area is located directly south of the eastern half of the dredged corridor. It is an approximately 3,000 by 300 foot area extending westward from the west side of Bahaada Point. The dredge spoils will be deposited on the existing lower intertidal to shallow subtidal surfaces, beginning at elevations between +5 and +3 feet MLLW. In some places, the filling will 1 The locally prominent rocky point on the south side of the entrance to Neah Bay is identified as “Baada” Point on most modern maps. The place name is a word in the Makah Language and the Makah Cultural and Research Center prefers to render it as: “Bahaada”. This spelling is used here. Figure 1 The location of the Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area, Makah Indian Reservation, Washington. Figure 2 The Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area, Makah Indian Reservation, Washington. 2 extend out to subtidal surfaces as deep as -10 feet MLLW. Presumably, this material will be deposited with only very limited or no impact to the underlying beach surface. When completed, the nourished beach surface will have an elevation of +10 feet MLLW. There are currently no built features in the channel, but the beach nourishment area is marked by a shoreline dominated by a large boulder bulkhead approximately 20 feet tall and two large docks (see Figures 3 and 4). The base of the bulkhead is at +5 feet MLLW. 2.2 Environmental Setting The Neah Bay Channel Deepening Project Area, as just described, consists of two linear zones located at the entrance to Neah Bay. The bottom of the channel to be dredged is com- pletely subtidal and currently ranges from approximately -19 to -23 feet MLLW. Most of the sediment to be effected by the dredging is expected to be sand and gravel, although a large boulder just beyond the northern edge of the alignment may also be addressed (Michalsen 2012). The beach nourishment area begins in the lower part of the intertidal zone, but most of it is also subtidal. While most of the shoreline here is dominated by a large rock bulkhead, the eastern end of the nourishment area abuts extensive bedrock exposures at Bahaada Point. This point, and the southern end of Waadah Island, are parts of the Makah Formation; a sequence of folded sedimentary rocks that range from Late Eocene to Oligocene in age (Parke et al. 1980 and Muller et al. 1983). The mouth of Agency Creek is located immediately to the west of Bahaada Point and then the bulkhead begins at the west side of the creek. Given these locations, there is no developed Holocene soil anywhere in the project area. All portions of it are expected to contain only marine sediments. Thus, while various species of marine plants are probably present at both locations, no terrestrial plant communities exist here. No wildlife observations were made during the study, but it is assumed that the area hosts, or formerly hosted, most animals common to nearshore areas on the northwestern Olympic Peninsula of Washington. While this discussion of the project area’s environmental setting has focused on its current conditions, it is also worthwhile to briefly consider the character of past environments here in two different respects. First, it is useful to address how long term environmental change has affected the project area and then consider recent historical changes here as well. All of Makah Indian Reservation was covered by the Juan de Fuca Lobe of the Cordill- eran Ice Sheet in the Late Pleistocene, but the Neah Bay area was probably ice free by ca. 13,000 to 14,000 years ago (Armstrong et al. 1965 and Booth 1987). While there have been significant changes in the vegetation of this region during the Holocene, pollen data suggests that forest communities much like those of the early historic period have probably been present on Makah Indian Reservation for the last ca.