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A GIS Approach to Ancestral Wabanaki Canoe Routes and Travel Times by Christopher E. Shaw Bachelor of Arts, Bates College, 2016 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Academic Unit of Anthropology Supervisors: Gabriel Hrynick, PhD in Archaeology, University of Connecticut Susan Blair, PhD in Archaeology, University of Toronto Examining Board: David Black, PhD, Anthropology/Archaeology Lucy Wilson, PhD, Geology This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK May, 2018 © Christopher E. Shaw 2018 ABSTRACT A GIS-based approach to modeling ancestral Wabanaki canoe routes and travel times during the Maritime Woodland period (3150–550 BP) of prehistory is developed in this thesis using least-cost analysis (LCA). These results are integrated into regional discussions of hunter-gatherer mobility, seasonal transhumance, and pre-contact territoriality, with an emphasis on how seasonal and annual variability in riverine paddling conditions may have impacted route selection and travel times between Maritime Woodland period archaeological sites. This thesis concludes that regional models of hunter-gatherer travel practices should account for the ways Indigenous peoples reacted dynamically to contingency in environmental conditions, as well as the ways riverine paddling conditions impacted the social landscape on short time scales. ii DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to the people of New Brunswick. Thank you for welcoming me to your province. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has been supported by the UNB Department of Anthropology, the UNB School of Graduate Studies, the Queen’s University, Belfast, School of the Natural and Built Environment, the Fredrik and Catherine Eaton Graduate Studies Fellowship Program, and the Maecenas Graduate Scholarships Program. Summer 2017 fieldwork was supported by a Harrison McCain Foundation Young Scholars grant and Grand Lake Meadows Endowment Fund grant obtained by Gabriel Hrynick. Additionally, I would like to extend thanks to Andrew Martindale for providing me researcher access to the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. I would also like to thank the entire Department of Anthropology for your invaluable feedback throughout the course of my studies. Additionally, I would like to extend special thanks to my advisors, Gabriel Hrynick, Susan Blair, and William Megarry. Thank you for your guidance and for encouraging my experimental tendencies. Also, thank you to my family and friends for supporting me throughout this endeavor. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x List of Symbols, Nomenclature or Abbreviations ............................................................ xv 1 Chapter 1: Maritime Woodland Period Archaeology in the Maritimes ...................... 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 5 1.3 The Quoddy Region and Study Area ................................................................... 6 1.3.1 Archaeological Research History ................................................................. 8 1.3.2 Temporal Focus ............................................................................................ 9 1.3.3 The Fur Trade and Birchbark Canoes ......................................................... 12 1.4 Seasonality, Mobility, and Territoriality ............................................................ 14 1.4.1 Seasonal Transhumance .............................................................................. 15 1.4.2 Mobility Strategies ...................................................................................... 20 1.5 Territoriality and Canoe Travel .......................................................................... 23 1.5.1 Long-Distance Trade .................................................................................. 26 1.5.2 Maintaining Boundaries .............................................................................. 29 1.5.3 Summary of Evidence for Maritime Woodland Territory Maintenance .... 31 2 Chapter 2: Birchbark Canoe Travel .......................................................................... 33 2.1 The Birchbark Canoe ......................................................................................... 33 2.1.1 The Antiquity of Birchbark Canoes ............................................................ 34 2.1.2 Birchbark Canoe Building Processes .......................................................... 39 2.2 Portaging and Historic Trails ............................................................................. 42 2.2.1 Paddling and Poling .................................................................................... 45 v 2.2.2 Seasonal Paddling Conditions..................................................................... 49 2.3 Isostatic Rebound, Sea-Level Rise, and Long-Term Landscape Change .......... 52 3 Chapter 3: GIS Based Approaches to Trail Modeling and Travel Times ................. 55 3.1 GIS-Based Approaches to Trail Modeling ......................................................... 55 3.2 Cost Surfaces ...................................................................................................... 57 3.3 Riverine and Maritime Traversal ....................................................................... 59 3.4 Integrating Riverine Variability into a Cost Surface Model .............................. 62 3.5 Modeling Travel Times ...................................................................................... 65 4 Chapter 4: Methodology ........................................................................................... 69 4.1 Circuitscape ........................................................................................................ 69 4.1.1 Circuitscape Input Parameters .................................................................... 72 4.1.2 Validation with Historic Maps .................................................................... 74 4.2 National Park Service Travel Time Cost Surface Model (TTCSM) .................. 78 4.2.1 Travel Between Sites .................................................................................. 80 4.2.2 Travel Time Comparison Chart for Single Destinations ............................ 80 4.3 River Gauge Station Analysis ............................................................................ 83 5 Chapter 5: Results and Discussion ............................................................................ 86 5.1 Circuitscape ........................................................................................................ 86 5.1.1 Freshet Conditions (Stream Order 3-8 Navigable) ..................................... 87 5.1.2 Low Headwater Stream Conditions (Stream Order 4-8 Navigable) ........... 95 5.1.3 Low Waters (Stream Orders 6-8 Navigable) .............................................. 97 5.1.4 Ganong’s Historic Map ............................................................................... 99 5.2 Travel Time Cost Surface Mapper (TTCSM) Results ..................................... 101 5.2.1 Travel times to Destinations ..................................................................... 107 5.2.2 Implications for Territoriality ................................................................... 111 5.3 Gauge Station Analysis .................................................................................... 117 5.3.1 Seasonal Settlement Patterns and Variability ........................................... 119 vi 5.4 Socially- and Cosmologically-Mediated Traversal .......................................... 127 6 Chapter 6: Conclusions and Future Directions ....................................................... 131 6.1 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................. 131 6.2 Future Directions .............................................................................................. 132 6.2.1 Ground Truthing ....................................................................................... 132 6.2.2 Public and Indigenous Archaeology ......................................................... 134 7 References Cited ..................................................................................................... 136 8 Appendix I: Passamaquoddy Maliseet Words Describing Water Flow.................. 158 9 Appendix II: Distances Between Sites During Varying Hydrological Conditions . 160 Curriculum Vitae vii List of Tables Table 1.1: Comparison of regional culture-history