CZ/ZC Number/Numéro 19 CANADIAN ZOOARCHAEOLOGY / ZOOARCHÉOLOGIE CANADIENNE Table of Contents / Table des matières Editors Note / Note de lÉditeure ................................ 1 Feature Listings /Articles de fond Environmental Archaeology in Gwaii Haanas - by Trevor J. Orchard ........................................... 2 Pacific IDentifications Inc.: A west coast success story - by Kathy Stewart ......................................... 9 Fauna from Prince Rupert Harbour sites, BC: Preliminary findings - by Kathy Stewart ........................................ 12 The fauna from Cohoe Creek: An early shell midden in Haida Gwaii - by Rebecca J. Wigen and Tina Christensen ................. 16 Forthcoming Conferences / Conférences à venir ................. 20 Recent Publications / Publications récentes ...................... 20 Editors Note / Note de LÉditeure Greetings to everyone from the West Coast! I Canadian Zooarchaeology is published twice a year am on sabbatical here for this year, using the at the Canadian Museum of Nature. News, letters, University of Victoria as my base. This allows articles, books or papers for review should be sent me to use the wonderful osteology collection in to: the Dept of Anthropology, with the indulgence Dr Kathlyn Stewart, Zooarchaeology, of the staff at Pacific IDentifications. Canadian Museum of Nature, This issue focuses on BC coastal research, P.O. Box 3443, Station D, with 3 articles on zooarchaeological fieldwork Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6P4 and research that people are working on here. Telephone: (613) 364-4051 Two areas of the coast are highlighted: 2 differ- Fax: (613) 364-4027 ent parts of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and e-mail: [email protected] Prince Rupert Harbour, both in northern Submissions are published in English or French. coastal BC. A fourth article highlights the history and staff at Pacific IDentifications, a Subscription costs (including GST) are: successful private business which identifies bones and also has time for research and some Cdn $8.50 - Individuals Cdn $17.00 - Institutions teaching! My thanks to Becky Wigen and US $8.50 Individuals Trevor Orchard at UVic, Tina Christensen at SFU, and the Pacific ID staff for helping with Please remit by cheque or money order made out to: this issue. Canadian Museum of Nature-Zooarchaeology Many thanks also to Donna Naughton in Ottawa for putting the issue together. Kathlyn Stewart, Editor Cover by Debbie Yee Cannon 1 CZ/ZC Number/Numéro 19 resulted from the introduction of Environmental Archaeology non-indigenous species, such as rats in Gwaii Haanas (Bertram and Nagorsen 1995) and raccoons (Hartman and Eastman 1999), to the is- by Trevor J. Orchard lands. Furthermore, European contact Department of Anthropology introduced diseases and changed settlement University of Victoria patterns, leading to mass human depopula- tion of Gwaii Haanas and the sequential Introduction amalgamation of small villages of 2 or 3 houses into larger villages. By 1890, all the In May and June 2000, I was involved in a surviving Haida had settled in the villages program of archaeological survey, excava- of Skidegate and Masset on Graham Island tion and site management in Gwaii Haanas Na- to the north of Gwaii Haanas (Blackman tional Park Reserve/Haida Heritage Site, Queen 1990), and thus the Gwaii Haanas ecology Charlotte Islands, British Columbia (Figure 1). had been greatly altered. The project, initiated by UVic and Parks Canada, involved two distinct phases of work. Phase I The current environment in Gwaii Haanas consisted of a pilot project designed to explore is largely a result of this human impact in the potential for recovering environmental data the period since the first European contact. from archaeological sites. Phase II of the project Though it is possible to speculate about involved cultural resource management work many of the factors that are likely to have carried out as part of Parks Canadas ongoing caused environmental changes, the work in Gwaii Haanas. This paper summarizes pre-contact environment itself is largely the work that was carried out as Phase I of this unknown. Examination of environmental project. data from archaeological sites dating to the late pre-contact/early contact periods thus Our project was focused on the late provides a unique window into this period pre-contact and early contact periods in of environmental change. Aside from pro- Gwaii Haanas. This was a period of rapid viding a better understanding of the context and dramatic change for the Haida in which the Haida people lived prior to (Acheson 1998), and thus this period and European contact, knowledge of the natu- region provide a particularly interesting ral pre-contact environment is a useful case for the examination of changes in tool for the management of the relatively subsistence strategies and other human recently established Gwaii Haanas National ecological interactions. The European Park Reserve/Haida Heritage Site. Such contact which began in 1774 in the Queen environmental remains can also contribute Charlotte Islands (Blackman 1990), particu- to an understanding of how Haida subsist- larly activities related to the maritime fur ence activities changed during this dynamic trade such as a rapid decline and extirpa- period. tion of sea otter populations, had a dramatic impact on the local environment. The Despite the importance and potential of removal of sea otters, for example, is known environmental data from the late to have allowed the spread of sea urchins, pre-contact/early contact periods in Gwaii which in turn limits the growth of kelp Haanas, relatively little previous work has forests and their associated ecosystems addressed this data or time period. Rather, (Breen et al. 1982; Estes and Palmisano most of the previous archaeological work in 1974). Similar changes are known to have Gwaii Haanas has focused on Early Holocene 2 CZ/ZC Number/Numéro 19 3 CZ/ZC Number/Numéro 19 occupations or on general site inventory work Our field crew for the project consisted of (Fedje et al. 1996; Fedje and Christensen 1999; Tommy Greene of the Haida Nation, Daryl Fedje Hobler 1978). Perhaps the most relevant work and Ian Sumpter of Parks Canada, and Dr. is that carried out by Acheson and colleagues Quentin Mackie, Martina Steffen, Cynthia Lake (Acheson 1998). This work did to some extent and myself from the Department of Anthropology, examine the late precontact/early contact period, University of Victoria. Prior to excavation, each but it was focused on changing settlement pat- site was examined and tested via surface expo- terns. Acheson (1998) looked only secondarily sures, deposits in windfalls, cutbanks and other at environmental data as a means of examining natural exposures, and through probe and auger settlement and culture history, and not as a means testing. Such testing served primarily to verify the of reconstructing the paleoenvironment itself. presence of preserved environmental remains in the form of shell midden deposits. Based on this Methodology testing one site, 1221T on the East coast of Lyell Island, was eliminated from out sample due to As indicated above, much of the previous inadequate shell midden deposits. This site was archaeological work in Gwaii Haanas has replaced with site 740T on East Copper Island, consisted of the location and classification which is another exposed site that had previously of sites through an extensive program of site been considered. Soil probes and augers were survey. I have recently been involved in the also used to aid in the placement of excavation production of a Parks Canada database that units. Such subsurface sampling techniques have brings together the results of these site been shown to provide a reasonably good picture survey projects. This database contains of the distribution of subsurface deposits (Stein information on the locations of all the 1986; Casteel 1970). Auger samples were also known sites in Gwaii Haanas, the types of collected in some cases, and may be used as a deposits found at each site, the dates of the supplemental source of environmental data (for sites when known, and the artifacts found example, see Cannon 2000; Casteel 1970). or recovered at each site. This data pro- vided a basis for the identification of sites Excavation units were placed judgmentally with high potential for containing the infor- based on the results of soil probing and mation that we wished to recover. Specifi- augering. Units were 1m by 1m, excavated cally, we were interested in examining sites in 10 cm arbitrary levels. Whenever possi- that: were occupied during the late ble, these units were excavated until the pre-contact/early contact transition, and underlying sterile deposits were reached. thus had dates and/or artifacts that indi- To facilitate the recovery of environmental cated this period; contained shell midden data, all material was water screened deposits and thus had a high potential for through nested 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch the preservation of environmental remains; screens. All bone and a representative each represented a different set of environ- sample of shell was collected from all mental conditions in the form of exposed, screens, as well as any other environmental protected and intermediate locations. Thus, remains that were found including floral the study sites were selected from the data- remains and fish scales. In addition, col- base prior to the beginning of our field umn samples were collected from one wall season. of each unit following excavation, as column samples have been shown to provide a repre- sentative sample of environmental remains from a unit (Casteel 1970, 1976). All collected material is in the process of being analyzed, though the 4 CZ/ZC Number/Numéro 19 complete results of these analyses are not yet site. Also several non-European artifacts were available. recovered, including pecked and ground stone, flaked stone, and worked bone. These artifacts All artifactual material was also collected and in combination seem to indicate that the site was carbon samples for dating purposes were col- occupied during the targeted time period. Unfor- lected when available.