Inland Lifeways of Haida Gwaii 400-1700 CE

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2015-02-13 Inland Lifeways of Haida Gwaii 400-1700 CE

Church, Karen

Church, K. (2015). Inland Lifeways of Haida Gwaii 400-1700 CE (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26535 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2107 master thesis

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Inland Lifeways of Haida Gwaii 400-1700 CE

A Landscape Archaeological Study

Karen Church

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACLUTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ARCHAEOLOGY

CALGARY, ALBERTA

JANUARY, 2015

Abstract

The inland lifeways of the northwest Pacific archipelago, Xaadlaa gwaayee (Haida Gwaii, British

Columbia), have not been the subject of intensive archaeological inquiry. The routes of precontact inland trails are no longer known well due to the decimation of the local population in the 18th and 19th centuries. Industrial logging is threatening to destroy archaeological evidence of the inland trail network, and therefore this inquiry is timely. The largest and most topographically diverse island, Graham, has been the subject of many archaeological impact assessments that have documented hundreds of archaeological sites, most of them containing culturally modified trees. In this thesis, I use a landscape archaeology approach in which I access the local gyaahlang

(legendary stories), conduct a brief research into the words and place names associated with inland lifeways, and provide an analysis of historic accounts and maps of the study area. As a mother of xa̱ adaa children and an archaeologist who worked in inland areas and lead an indigenous lifestyle on Graham Island for 22 years, I naturally have a phenomenological perspective of the island and use this experience as the lens through which I interpret the results of this research. The local indigenous language, Xaad Kil, also guides my interpretation. The results are combined within a geographic information system where I use spatial analysis, including a series of least cost path analyses to help define potential archaeological survey corridors along proposed inland pathways. I also compare historic aerial photography with current orthophotos to assess changes to wetlands over the last century and to evaluate the archaeological potential associated with caribou hunting. Finally, three dimensional views of the landscape are used to assess the patterned distribution of culturally modified trees in relation to the least cost paths and ethnographic data, in an effort to refine the archaeological potential model for inland areas of

Graham Island.

Keywords: Graham Island, culturally modified tree, CMT, phenomenology, trail, xa̱ adaa, Haida, language, least cost path, LCP, local knowledge, experience

This thesis should be printed in colour.

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Acknowledgements

Far above all others, thank-you to my daughters, Lovisa Betty Church Thompson and

Norielle Pearl Church Bellis.

Thank-you to Barney Edgars, my colleague, good friend, and mentor to my children, for all of the discussions, field trips, laughs and great photos, it has been to my honour and pleasure to bounce my ideas off you, and receive your input.

Thank-you to Larrie Thompson, for the knowledge of the land contained absolutely within your body and mind.

Thank-you to Morley Eldridge, for your patience with my questions, and your direction on matters of GIS analyses. Over the years it has been a pleasure to learn from your experience and enthusiasm.

Thank-you to Bart Hulshof, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, for your patience and interest in my work, and for helping me get on track with my GIS from time to time.

Thank-you to Clint Tauber for the reference documents.

Thank-you to Chris Butson, GeoBC, for your assistance in acquiring the excellent GIS datasets for this project.

Thank-you to Hillary Stewart, for her labour of love, the book, Cedar.

Thank-you to Marwan Khoury, for your support and understanding, and the idea that using ‘and’ is often better than using ‘but’.

Thank-you to Marianne Boelscher Ignace, for leading me in the correct direction with

Xaad Kil protocols and for your mentorship. My interest and confidence in higher learning was re-awakened by you. haw’aa.

Thank-you to Kerry, Kent, Sue and Kristine Church for the Christmas holiday at home.

Thank-you to Gerald Oetelaar for helping me to understand that a CMT can have more than one cultural meaning, and for his precise edits.

Huych-q’a Evangeline Tate.

Thank-you to the Government of Alberta, for a Graduate Student Grant that helped support my family and I during the completion of this degree.

Thank-you to THEN / HiER, the History Education Network, for assisting me in getting my work into the public sphere.

Thank-you to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for financial assistance via a Joseph Bombardier Graduate Student Award, 2012–2013. The confidence that I received with the awarding of this grant was so valuable to this project.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgements ...... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vi LIST OF TABLES ...... x LIST OF FIGURES ...... xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...... xvi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Significance of Research ...... 1 1.1.1 The Current Situation ...... 3 1.1.2 A Short History of Industrial Logging on the Queen Charlotte Islands ...... 5 1.1.3 Personal experience supporting significance of research ...... 8 1.1.4 Substance and personal abuse ...... 9 1.2 Hiking on, to, Xaadlaa gwaayee ...... 10 1.2.1 Yaahl (Raven Walking) ...... 10 1.2.2 Hiking to Xaadlaa gwaayee, a scientific view ...... 11 1.3 Language Notes ...... 13 CHAPTER 2: THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF ARGUMENT ...... 15 2.1 Landscape Archaeology: Theory and Practice ...... 15 2.1.1 Post Processualism in Archaeology ...... 17 2.1.2 Phenomenology, a Branch of Post Processualist Landscape Archaeology ...... 18 2.1.3 Tilley on the Land ...... 20 2.1.4 My Phenomenology ...... 25 2.1.5 Personal Experience ...... 27 2.1.6 What CMT archaeological sites may mean to contemporary x̱aadaas ...... 36 2.1.7 Conclusion ...... 40 CHAPTER 3: STUDY AREA: ENVIRONMENT ...... 42 3.1 Physical Description ...... 42 3.1.1 Off-Shore North Pacific Archipelago ...... 42 3.1.2 Topography ...... 42 3.1.3 Weather ...... 48 3.1.4 Biogeoclimatic Description ...... 50 3.1.5 Fauna ...... 58 3.2 Physical Description of the Study Area ...... 61 3.3 Demographic Considerations of the Study Area ...... 65 3.3.1 More than Decimation ...... 66 3.3.2 Gathering of the Survivors ...... 68 3.3.3 New Trade Network...... 70 3.4 Conclusion ...... 71 CHAPTER 4: ETHNOGRAPHY OF INLAND LIFEWAYS ...... 73

4.1 Introduction: Summary and Qualification of the Ethnographic Record of x̱aadaagee ...... 73 4.2 Xaadaagee: A Separate, Distinct Society ...... 76 4.3 Settlement and Social Organization ...... 77 4.3.1 Spiritual Beliefs and Cosmology ...... 95 4.2.3 The Seasonal Round of Northern Graham Islanders ...... 106 4.2.4 Ethnographic Accounts of Inland Lifeways ...... 123 CHAPTER 5: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE, PLACE NAMES, AND OTHER MAPS ...... 131 5.1 Mapping Territorial Lines ...... 133 5.2 Indigenous Language and Place Names in the Study area ...... 138 5.3 Graphic Mapping of Graham Island Place Names ...... 147 5.3.1 Off-Shore View by Charles Smith and Ihldiinii (John Marks) circa 1930 ...... 147 5.3.2 Map of British Columbia, Graham Island section, Lands and Works Office, Victoria, BC, 1871 ...... 151 5.3.3 Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Map 176 A, Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, 1916...... 155 5.3.4 British Columbia Department of Lands Pre-Emptor’s Map, with Survey Notes, 1919 ...... 159 CHAPTER 6: VISUALIZATION AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS: GIS AND REMOTE SENSING ...... 166 6.1 GIS Analysis ...... 167 6.1.1 Software and Datasets ...... 167 6.1.2 Traditional LCP Analysis ...... 169 6.1.3 Tobler’s Hiking Function LCP ...... 171 6.1.4 Comparison of the Slope and Travel Time LCPs ...... 177 6.1.5 The random Velocity LCP ...... 179 6.2 Remote Sensing ...... 182 6.2.1 1933 Aerial Photo Analysis ...... 183 CHAPTER 7: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD ...... 187 7.1 Late Precontact to Contact Period habitation sites by the Harbour ...... 188 7.2 The CMT Archaeological Record ...... 194 7.2.1 CMT Identification ...... 196 7.2.2 CMT Classes ...... 201 7.2.3 Assessing the CMT Record and Interpretation ...... 212 7.3 Archaeological Potential along the Naden to Otard Bay Trail ...... 246 7.3.1 Trail Marker and Mnemonic CMTs ...... 249 7.3.2 Bridges? ...... 254 7.4 Middens of Other Periods ...... 256 7.5 Synopsis ...... 259 CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION ...... 261 8.1 The Archaeological Record, Indigenous Place Names and Inland Lifeways ...... 262 8.2 Correlations of LCPs with ethnographic and archaeological information ...... 267 8.2.1 The Traditional Slope LCP ...... 267 8.2.2 The Hiking Travel Time LCP ...... 270 8.2.3 The Velocity LCP ...... 272 vii

8.3 Archaeological Surveys as Doorways into Inland Lifeways ...... 276 8.3.1 The development of Survey Maps ...... 276 8.3.2 Draft Survey Corridors ...... 277 8.3.3 Field Work ...... 279 CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION ...... 283 References Cited ...... 288 Appendix 1: Xaad Kil Pronunciation Guide by Karen Church ...... 319 Appendix 2: Glossary of Xaad Kil words ...... 320 Appendix 3: Pleistocene and Holocene Environmental Change on Graham Island ...... 321 Appendix 4: Table: Experience in the Study Area ...... 323 Appendix 5: CMT Recording Form ...... 326 APPENDIX 6: Permission to Use Copyrighted Materials ...... 326

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Dedication

This document is dedicated to Hlk’yaan x̱aadaage.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4-1: The Seasonal Round of the Graham Island x̱aadaa. Most Common plants and animals

Table 5-1: Some Inland words in Xaad Kil

Table 5-2: Some Named Places in the study area

Table 6-1: The geodatasets used in this project

Table 7-1: Registered Archaeological Sites in Naden Harbour containing 1-3 masl shell middens

Table 7-2: CMT Class totals within 2.5 km of the shores of Naden Harbour

Table 7-3: CMT class totals in the Daastl watershed

Table 7-4: CMT Class totals in the middle reach of the Naden River watershed

Table 7-5: CMT Class totals in the middle reach of the middle and high reaches of the Sgayn River watershed

Table 7-6: CMT class totals on the west side of the Queen Charlotte Range, from Boussole Rock to Otard Bay

Appendix 4: Table: Experience in the Study Area

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: Xaadlaa gwaayee.

Figure 1-2: Logging history of central northwest Graham Island, Landsat 2007 satellite photo.

Figure 2-1: Example of bark stripping scar approximately 5 to 15 years old.

Figure 2-2: x̱aadaa CMT crewmen with Red Cedar with large RBS scar, Sgayn watershed.

Figure 3-1: Graham Island.

Figure 3-2: Cedars with hemlock understory and Salal mix in the CWHwh1.

Figure 3-3: ‘White wood’ (Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock) within the CWHvh2.

Figure 3-4: Study Area, northwest Graham Island.

Figure 3-5: Excerpt from Gessler1973. Graham Island Petroglyphs.

Figure 4-1: Kose Indian Reserve with GeoBC Double line River Database.

Figure 4-2: Lovisa Thompson with her freshly harvested cedar bark. Central Graham Island.

Figure 4-3: Cedar bark bundles.

Figure 4-4: Cedar bark hat by Lisa White. Old Massett.

Figure 4-6: Example of an Aboriginal logging CMT (AL).

Figure 4-7: Western Red Cedar exhibiting interior cavity.

Figure 5-1: Spruce CMT located at the mouth of K’aas Gandlee, Rennel Sound, southwest

Graham Island.

Figure 5-2: Spruce CMT at Awun River, Masset Inlet, central Graham Island.

LIST OF FIGURES cont’d

Figure 5-3: Spruce CMT, likely seen on the north central or northeast coast of Graham Island. ‘A standing Sitka spruce tree from which the bard has been cut. BC’, Harlan I. Smith, 1919 Canadian Museum of History, 46663 Figure 5-4: Off-shore View from Virago Sound. Charles Smith with Hldiinii. Circa 1930 F/3/Sm5, Image courtesy of the Royal BC Museum.

Figure 5-5: Detail of Figure 5-4.

Figure 5-6: Map of British Columbia, Lands and Works Office, Victoria, 1871. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

Figure 5-7: 1916 Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Map 176 A, Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.

Figures 5-8a, b, c, d and e: The remains of the oil drill and village at Tiiaan.

Figure 5-10: Detail Map accompanying survey notes for Pre-Emption Survey of 1919. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

Figure 5-11: Department of Lands and Forests, Dominion of Canada, British Columbia, SW Section, 1945. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

Figures 6-1: LCP in terms of slope.

Figure 6-2: LCP in terms of travel time.

Figure 6-3: LCP in terms of velocity.

Figure 6-4: All LCP represented on the Digital Elevation Model.

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LIST OF FIGURES cont’d

Figure 6-5: Comparison of Slope and Travel Time LCPs.

Figure 6-6: The Velocity LCP with 20 m contour lines.

Figure 6-7: The Viewshed from the top of Sgayn Mountain.

Figure 6-8: Aerial photo taken during flight through the top of the Otard Bay watershed.

Figure 6-9: 1933 Aerial photo of wetlands near Otard Bay.

Figure 6-10: 2007 orthophoto, compare to Figure 6-9

Figure 7-1: Aboriginal Villages, Settlements and Camps, Historic Era Settlements, and Indian Reserves, and 1-3 m elevation shell middens in Naden Harbour.

Figure 7-2: Two houses at Kung in 1878. Kung Indian Village, BC, George Mercer Dawson, 1878 Canadian Museum of History, S71-3761.

Figure 7-3: Life at Kung circa 1915. Dug-out cedar canoes. Photo: Kermode. RBCM E846, Image Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum.

Figure 7-4: Sample of archaeological survey types and coverage in the study area.

Figure 7-5a: CMT: AL, Test Hole or Under Cut. Sgayn watershed.

Figure 7:5b: Detail of modification in 7-5a.

Figure 7-6: CMT: AL: Stump and Log.

Figure: 7-7: CMT: AL, Canoe blank, Masset Inlet.

Figure 7-8 a, b, c: Examples of RBS CMTs (bark boards).

Figure 7-9: Implements used to climb trees on Graham Island. Collected by Newcombe Circa 1910. RBCM 1440, image courtesy of Royal BC Museum.

Figure 7-10 a, b, c: TBS CMTs. xiii

LIST OF FIGURES cont’d

Figure 7-11 a, b: RBS CMT on Sitka spruce.

Figure 7-12: Archaeological Site Map of Naden Harbour with 2.5 km coastline buffer overlay.

Figure 7-13: The Archaeological Record of the Daastl Creek watershed.

Figure 7-14: Western Red Cedar that was located in the Daastl watershed.

Figure 7-15: The Archaeological Record in the middle reach of the Naden River.

Figure 7-16: Google Earth 3D simulation, data from 2004, showing logging history of the Eden Lake region.

Figure 7-17: The Archaeological Record in the middle reach of the Sgayn watershed.

Figure 7-18: 20 m elevation contour line overlay, middle reach of the Sgayn watershed.

Figure 7-19: Gravel bar and CMT relationship on either side of Sgayn River, middle reach.

Figure 7-20: The Archaeological Record of the West Coast section of the study area.

Figure 7-21: RBS CMT, strip not taken, at ridge top near the north side of Otard Bay.

Figure 7-22: Blow down along predicted precontact trail route between Tiiaan and the sandy beach at the bottom of Otard Bay.

Figure 7-23: RBS Trail Marker CMT. Canyon Creek drainage, Tartu Inlet, west coast Graham Island.

Figure 7-24: Google Earth view of location of Canyon Creek CMT shown in Figure 7-23.

Figure 7-25: Registered Raised Beach Midden Sites in the study area.

Figure 8-1: The Northern Trailhead, T’aay ahl

Figure 8-2: The West coast Trail head at T’aaw Kaahlii.

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LIST OF FIGURES cont’d

Figure 8-3: Archaeological Record, Indigenous Place Names and LCPs Map.

Figure 8-4: Detail of Slope LCP in the Middle Reach of the Naden River.

Figure 8-5: The Travel Time LCP running through a CMT cluster in the lower Sgayn.

Figure 8-6 a and b: Comparing Travelling Time LCP to the historic communication and supplies trail mapped in 1916.

Figure 8-7a, b: Comparison of Hiking Velocity LCP to one of a set of historic trails on Graham Island, as depicted on the 1945 Map of the Dominion.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

alder: Sitka Alder (Alnus viridis spp. sinuata)

AIA: Archaeological Impact Assessment

AL: Aboriginally Logged (CMT)

BP: Before Present. Years before the Calendar year 1950

BS: Bark Strip (CMT)

CBP: Calibrated Before Present. Years before 1950 (Fedje and Mathews 2005:xxi,xxii)

CE: Common, Current or Christian Era. This thesis was completed in 2015 CE. cedar: Western Red Cedar (Thuya plicata)

CHM: Canadian Museum of History

CMT: CMT

CRM: Cultural Resource Management cypress: Nootka Cypress, also known locally as Yellow Cedar

FPC: Forest Practices Code of British Columbia

GIS: Geographic Information System

GPS: Global Positioning System

HCA: Heritage Conservation Act

OM: Other Modification (CMT) pine: Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta)

RAAD: Remote Access Archaeological Database of British Columbia

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS cont’d

RBCM: Royal British Columbia Museum

RBS: Rectangular Bark Strip (CMT)

SFU: Simon Fraser University spruce: Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)

TBS: Triangular Bark Strip (CMT) yew: Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia)

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Significance of Research

The Inland Lifeway of the precontact inhabitants of Xaadlaa gwaayee1 (Haida Gwaii) formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada) has not been the subject of intensive, published research. Archaeological and anthropological studies of the islands have focused on coastal habitations and settlement patterns, generally on the southern third of the island chain and on the more ancient time periods, seeking to better understand the late Pleistocene environment and the effects of isostasy on settlement patterns (Fedje et al. 2005). No such emphasis has been put on inland research, and it is important that a study be done that will help to refine the inland archaeological potential for this region which is threatened by ongoing industrial logging development. Such research also has potential to promote job creation for local people in the tourism sector associated with cultural traditions and the northwest rainforest. Without such research and immediate attention, there is high potential for loss of archaeological and cultural information associated with inland lifeways.

1 The language of the islands, Xaad Kil, is used throughout this thesis will always be written in italics. The current orthography of the Old Massett dialect of Xaad Kil is used. See Appendix 1: ‘Key To Pronunciation of Old Massett Xaad Kil’ and Appendix 2: ‘Glossary of Xaad Kil words’

Since the earliest ethnographers visited the northwest coast it was generally assumed that the aboriginal inhabitants did not venture far inland. Northwest coastal aboriginal groups are thought to have lived on the beach, travelled by canoe, and left the impenetrable forests human-free (Oliver 2007:2-4) except for minimal forays into the fringe of the forest. On Xaadlaa gwaayee and other parts of the coast, culturally modified tree (CMT) surveys, conducted as required by the Heritage Conservation Act of British Columbia have proven this wrong, but only in so far as they indicate the human use of trees farther inland than previously thought. CMTs are trees that have been accessed by humans in the enactment of their cultural practices and show marks of this activity. They may be living or dead, and are usually found in clusters and most commonly within one to two and a half km of the ocean shoreline. A few CMT outliers, discovered far inland on the larger islands of Xaadlaa gwaayee, appear to indicate that bark harvests were not the only reason for the removal of bark strips and slabs from cedar trees.

The Old Massett dialect and orthography of Xaad Kil (the language of the x̱aadaa2) is underrepresented in published works with certain exceptions (e.g. Boelscher 1989), and has been used in this thesis as an opportunity to express developments in orthographic conventions, and with respect to my Elders, who taught me this language. The orthography used for northern Xaad Kil words is current to 2010.

2 x̱aadaa: refers to the indigenous people of Graham Island

1.1.1 The Current Situation

The Queen Charlotte Islands, whose name was changed officially to Haida Gwaii as part of reconciliation talks between the Council of the Haida Nation and the Provincial

Government of British Columbia in 2010, currently has nine communities and a total population of approximately 4500, roughly half of whom hold Indian Status. (Figure 1-1).

The largest towns are Queen Charlotte, Masset, Hlgaagilda (Skidegate) and Gáwaa Tlagee

(the Old Massett area consisting of three indigenous villages, G̱ád G̱aywáas, Iits’aaw and and land management plans, precontact inland trails are mentioned but methods of determining where these trails were are not detailed (Province of British Columbia

2012:37,38). These social developments are important to the rationale for this study because with so much industrial logging proposed, the potential for archaeological site destruction is high if a better understanding of the precontact inland lifeways of Graham

Island is not completed at this time.

Figure 1-1: Xaadlaa gwaayee. Length of archipelago = 300 km

1.1.2 A Short History of Industrial Logging on the Queen Charlotte Islands

Industrial logging developments have been impacting the archaeological record for well over 100 years. The earliest cut blocks on Moresby Island, for example, date from 1896.

The quality of the timber is extremely high, considering the fact that logging has taken place in this remote and often difficult to access place for so long. Log barges navigating the Hecate Straits, the body of water that separates the Queen Charlotte Islands from mainland British Columbia lose their loads occasionally, sending hundreds of logs into the ocean to be salvaged from the waters and beaches, creating additional costs above the already high cost of transporting the logs. Nineteenth century geologist, explorer and amateur ethnographer, Francis Poole, who witnessed the entirety of Canada in his travels, commented thus on the timber of the Queen Charlotte Islands,

In other countries where trees have to struggle to maturity in the midst of storms and adverse winds...they seldom attain to great altitude, and are not to be mentioned in respect of real straightness. But here, on this outlandish sea-girt holm, every tree is marvellously high, besides being thick in proportion, and as straight as an arrow to the very top. [Poole 1872:92,93]

Poole goes on in this section to explain his excitement at the immensity of the local Cedar trees, ‘One of my first amusements was to take the measurement of a fine cedar. I found it to measure, at a spot I could touch with my arm, four feet ten inches (1.5 m) in diameter, which gave fifteen feet four inches in circumference. Its height was two hundred and fifty feet (75 m)…’ (Poole 1872:93)

The immensity of the forests of these islands has been precipitated in part by unusually deep rich soils. When I took a forest soils course from a non-local instructor with the

Northwest Community College, the instructor was routinely, profoundly, struck by the depth and richness of the soils, which always surmounted, and sometimes by degrees, any place he had ever been before! I have participated in surveys in areas where logging occurred decades ago, during the war years, and I have witnessed the stumps of Sitka spruce trees that were logged to build the Mosquito bombers for WWII. In one river bottom at Chadsey Creek, Moresby Island, the stumps remaining were all immense, evenly spaced, and averaged a diameter of 3 m. These trees must have been more than

100 m tall.

Since the beginning of industrial logging on the islands many thousands of hectares of ancient temperate rainforest, along with the associated human cultural history, has been removed from the land. Figure 1-2 shows the areas in northwest Graham Island that were logged prior to archaeological survey requirements as well as those areas logged since then. The Remote Access Archaeological Database of the Province of British Columbia

(RAAD) appears to indicate that the majority of archaeological sites are found near the coast, and this is where all early industrial logging took place. Much of the west coast of

Graham Island however has not been logged, due in large part to the difficulties of accessing this windward side of the island, the first point of land encountered by north pacific weather systems rolling in from the west.

Figure 1-2: Logging history of central northwest Graham Island, as shown by the Landsat 2007 satellite photo. The lightest green areas were logged prior to the legal requirement for pre-development archaeological assessments, and the pink areas have been logged since these surveys became a requirement in 1995.

1.1.3 Personal experience supporting significance of research

With the ratification of the Forest Practices Code (FPC) in 1995, archaeological assessment prior to development became a standard operating procedure (Osberge and Murphy

1995). CMTs by the hundreds and eventually thousands became registered features within archaeological sites, and the local Forest District and First Nation policy of not removing them from the landscape created many small standing tree oases over the operable lands, though many such sites have also been tucked in to the edges of cut blocks. I began my archaeological career as a field worker, recording CMTs on Xaadlaa gwaayee two years before FPC came into effect. I was a crew member on a survey that was designed to better understand the overall presence of CMTs within 1200 m of the shoreline on all of the operable lands of the islands (Stryd 1994). This position included much travel by truck, skiff and helicopter on occasion, and was a thorough introduction to the study area and the forest archaeology of these islands. Then, when the FPC came into effect, I was one of the few trained local specialists in this particular field of archaeology, working from 1995 to 2005 as a crewperson, field coordinator, and manager for the CMT and Heritage

Program of the Secretariat of the Haida Nation3. This work provided much of the rationale for the choice of the topic of this thesis as well as the choice of research methods.

In 2004 I began to learn Xaad Kil4 within the community of Old Massett via outreach courses from Simon Fraser University (SFU). Elders of the community worked with the students, along with linguist and anthropologist Dr. Marianne Boelscher Ignace of SFU and occasionally Dr. Jordan Lachler, then of the University of Ketchikan. One course at a time, by 2010 I had completed the 10 course program and received the Certificate of Proficiency in First Nations Languages from SFU. My learning of the language thus informs some of this thesis.

1.1.4 Substance and personal abuse

There are missing pieces in our contemporary Graham Island culture that lead some of our people to substance and personal abuse. I contend that some of these social problems stem from a loss that goes back many generations, much farther back than the advent of residential schools. While lifeways associated with coastal activities and villages have been studied rather extensively, at least in the southern part of the archipelago, this region,

3 Formerly known as the CMT Inventory Program of the Haida Tribal Society 4 A Glossary of Xaad Kil (words in the Haida language), and a Pronunciation Guide are provided as Appendixes 1 and 2.

virtually no research, and no published research, has been done on the lifeways of the people in inland areas. To bring back some of the knowledge of these lifeways is the most significant aspect of this research. This project is meant to help my community and my family to heal.

1.2 Hiking on, to, Xaadlaa gwaayee

1.2.1 Yaahl (Raven Walking)

One of the gyaahlang (legendary stories of the x̱aadaa), refers to a time when Xaadlaa gwaayee did not exist. The story Yaahl, recorded by John Swanton at Old Massett in 1901

(Swanton 1908:293-346) is the longest gyaahlang to have been recorded ethnographically, and there is more than one version of it, though the theme is the same.

In this and other gyaahlang (Nang Kiing.aay7uuans (James Young) 2005) the catalyst for the emergence of the islands was a bird, in this case a raven, who flew over the place and saw something. From there, various actors; yaahl (raven), gúud (eagle), stl’akam

(butterfly), dakdakdiiya (hummingbird), sk’aa (a needle from a spruce tree), tadl (loon) and others play a part in the formation of the landscape through their engagement with each other, various objects, and human beings. After the creation or rather, the emergence of the land, Raven walks from place to place creating, meeting other actors, having fun, and being funny along the way. We may understand that to walk from one

place to another is a form of movement, change, perhaps evolution, and raven walking is a metaphor for the life experience, which is called wayfaring in other contexts (Ingold

2011:141-165). At the end of this long story, Raven has changed himself into a woman and has been kicked out of a town for always having to eat too much. She has to eat so much that she must lie to everyone about it, and that is why they eventually kick her out of the town. At this point Raven continues walking without a direction, and that is the end of the story. The ultimate wayfarer, raven must move on to something else, we know not what, at the end of the story.

Throughout the story Raven moves and moves and continues to experience one event after another, and often during these times he creates parts of the landscape of the islands, or cultural traditions like marriage. Hiking, movement, is thus associated directly with creation. At one place there is even a group or tribe that likes how he walks, and he is flattered. He never stays in one place for too long. Raven is creator and yet has many human qualities that endear him but also make people shun him, especially at the end of the story. He (sometimes she) is a hero, a comedian, and a hiker. He does not use boats very much, nor does he fly much. Raven prefers to walk.

1.2.2 Hiking to Xaadlaa gwaayee, a scientific view

The time of people walking to the Xaadlaa gwaayee is described by archaeologists, and it

takes place after the last major glaciation. The earliest known human presence on the islands is indicated by the discovery of a fragment of a projectile point that appears to have been used for bear hunting, and has been dated to approximately 11,000 CBP

(Mackie et al. 2011:65-67). Though research into ‘drowned’ shorelines continues in this region, at this time according to scientific theory, humans may not have been living on

Xaadlaa gwaayee before the recession of the last glacier.

How did humans arrive at Xaadlaa gwaayee? As Raven did, they also walked. As the cordilleran ice sheet, which covered, at minimum, the central and eastern portions of these islands during the last ice age melted, the islands bulged up because they were so light compared to the mainland as the glacier melted off of the islands first. During this time, in the late Pleistocene, Xaadlaa gwaayee was connected to the mainland of North

America for an estimated 1500 years5, and this is the time when people walked to the islands. Perhaps some of them followed game to the area. Dawson’s caribou, a species that lived on Xaadlaa gwaayee up until about 1940 (Gold 2004:4) and then became extinct, may have been followed to this region of the northwest coast, as the area between the mainland and the archipelago would have been a vast grassland, similar to the landscape of the north beach of Graham Island today.

5 See Appendix 3: Pleistocene and Holocene environmental change on Graham Island

1.3 Language Notes

When Xaad Kil is used in this document it will always be written in italics and in the Old

Massett orthography. Xaad Kil contains approximately twice as many sounds as modern

English, and therefore the orthography is complex, with an alphabet of approximately 48 characters. Appendix 1 is a Pronunciation Guide prepared for English speakers, and

Appendix 2 is a Glossary of the Xaad Kil words used in this thesis. However, the glossary does not include place names, for which I provide translations in the text where these are reliably mentioned in the ethnographic and linguistic literature (e.g. Swanton 1905, 1908,

Enrico 1995, 2005). All place names will be capitalized to conform to English writing standards. A few place names that are commonly known in their anglicised spellings and pronunciations, like Skidegate and Massett, are rendered in these anglicised spellings.

The most comprehensive dictionary of Xaad Kil is John Enrico’s Haida Dictionary (2005), which is contained within two volumes with 2126 pages. This dictionary is the base line reference for Xaad Kil within this document, while the Alaskan Haida Dictionary by Jordan

Lachler (2010) is also an important source. In all of my translations, several documents have been checked for etymologies, so as to have the richest version of translation possible. Another important background source that informs all of the dictionaries previously noted is Haida Dictionary by Leer and Lawrence (1977).

Xaad Kil is an endangered language with only about a dozen fluent speakers remaining.

According to Elders, the meanings of some Haida place names and personal names are not known anymore. For example, as a parent of git x̱aadaa (x̱aadaa children), my daughters received their first xaadas ki’ii (x̱aadaa names), which are Gúud giidii xang laas and Daa nang jaad. Gúud giidii xang laas is a newly created name, created especially for my daughter Norielle, and it means “Baby Eagle Good Spirit.” However, Daa nang jaad is a borrowed ancestral name from her father’s lineage, and there is no solid translation of the name, and even people who knew the previous bearer of the name could not provide a translation. Thus, place names and personal names may not always have a translation, and may indeed be based on older words in X̱aad Kil.

The argument that I now present is provided in a series of chapters that build upon each other, towards the discussion of total findings, and a method for conducting archaeological survey that could shed light on the way people lived in the interior of

Graham Island in the late precontact.

CHAPTER 2: THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF ARGUMENT

Since the beginning of archaeological studies we have constantly developed methods of investigation and interpretation, and in this chapter I shall describe how my research methods and associated interpretations fit into the history of archaeological studies. I begin by describing what archaeologists mean when they use the term post processual landscape archaeology, which is the branch of archaeology that I work within.

2.1 Landscape Archaeology: Theory and Practice

The landscape is known as the palimpsest6 upon which cultures have written their lives through patterns of movement (Ingold 2011:11-13). Landscape archaeology first became a term used in the discipline of archaeology in England in the 1800s. In North America, landscape archaeology has become meaningful particularly when we consider how much information was lost at times of epidemics, and as we consider why our societies continue to struggle with environmental and cultural concerns that divide people, nations and landscapes themselves.

6 palimpsest: Old English word with Latin origins, referring to the erasing of writing from a physical document, such as an old parchment manuscript, in order to write something else in its place. The palimpsest is the entire work, including the traces left behind that have not been fully erased, and which show through beneath the overwritten text or drawing.

Theoretical approaches to understanding an archaeology of the landscape have been applied in a variety of contexts over the world. The birthplace of landscape theory and landscape archaeology was Great Britain, as seen in the archaeology of Pitt Rivers at

Cranborne Chase. This work focused on a 'sustained interrogation of a defined area' (Pitt

Rivers 1887, as cited in Thomas 2001:165), taking emphasis away from individual sites and artefacts and placing it instead on the relationship of sites within a defined area. This is a key aspect of the research I present, that is the relationship of archaeological and cultural sites to each other across the landscape of northwestern Graham Island and their relationship to social practices and patterns of movement.

Later, the palimpsest description of the English landscape takes archaeological methods in a more aware and multi-layered direction, by describing the history of what has been done to the land, but not yet considering significantly how the people who were the users of the artefacts lived – what their daily lives were like and how they thought. What we find in an archaeology of landscape is as much about those we study as about our own reflections on how much we can truly know about their lifeways from here (Thomas

2001:181).

2.1.1 Post Processualism in Archaeology

My framework for conducting archaeology is post processualist and is a departure from the New Archaeology (also referred to as processualism) of the 1960s and 70s. Essentially, the New Archaeologists sought to better quantify archaeological studies and interpretations; to take archaeology in a more scientific direction. While processualism was a reaction to a dearth of scientific inquiry and method in archaeology, post processualism is about awareness of faults in the scientific method and interpretive strategies used by processualists to understand prehistoric cultures (Shanks

2008:133,134). Post processualists are reflexive in their attempt to represent a past society but more importantly, they choose, or perhaps identify, the lens or lenses through which this reflection is done. The lenses may include such foci as women or gender issues, current politics such as aboriginal land claims, or the social issues of descendant populations. Regardless of the context, post processualists are aware of the particular lenses through which they are creating their methods and interpretations. Importantly, they are aware that there is more to archaeology than the view from here, a time far removed from the one that they study.

Reflexivity and recognition of one’s limitations in certain aspects of interpretation are of the highest importance to a post processual archaeology. This archaeology is a reflection of the fact that we live in ‘the post colonial world of global interconnection’ (Shanks

2008:144). Archaeologists of the global culture work to interpret prehistoric cultures that were not global and had different ways of looking at the world. Researchers who adopt the post colonial perspective in Canada are aware of the colonial mindset employed by those who created many of the historical and ethnographic documents during the contact period and they recognize the need to acknowledge the biases inherent in such materials when using these data as the bases for their interpretations of archaeological sites. An important tenet of post processualism is critique, especially constructive criticism which encourages an improvement in research methods (Tilley 2004). This is the nature of the terrain of post processualism in the academic world, which is the main environment for the production of post processualist thought and theory (Shanks 2008:134).

Archaeologists do not discover the past but rather produce accounts of it from their various perspectives, interests, education and experience (Shanks 2008). Landscapes are never viewed in conditions of absolute objectivity but are always seen in a certain way

(Johnson 2012:271). Awareness of my understanding of the context of my study and associated interpretations is key.

2.1.2 Phenomenology, a Branch of Post Processualist Landscape Archaeology

Phenomenologists seek to enter ‘…into the same set of material relationships in which people found themselves in the past, in order to produce their own interpretation’

(Thomas 2001:180). ‘Using our own bodies as analogs for those of the past, we are seeking to “reanimate” a past world, and in the process to identify the ways in which it differed from our own’ (Thomas 2001:181). The basic phenomenological approach is to physically go into a particular landscape as often as possible and walk through and view it from as many angles as possible, to see if one can better understand how prehistoric people understood and lived within that landscape (Tilley 1994, 2004). Eventually, through thoughtful analysis of this experience, the phenomenologist hopes to determine where people walked in a landscape and provide her/his interpretation as to why they followed particular paths through settlements or from one place to another. For the phenomenologist, the landscape is the place of movement and dwelling, and traces of previous lifeways may be inferred from the landscape. The problem with this approach is that the physical landscape (context) has changed and so has the culture of the original inhabitants and their descendants. More importantly, the researcher who seeks to understand the people who dwelled in this landscape sometime in the distant past often does not share the same cultural values as either the original inhabitants or their living descendants. Therefore, the phenomenologist must engage as fully as possible the context and the culture of the people under study in her/his interpretations of the data.

2.1.3 Tilley on the Land

The main exponent of phenomenology since the mid-1990s is Christopher Tilley, a British archaeologist. Tilley sought to understand the lifeways of prehistoric people in Britain by physically being in, moving through and experiencing his study region as much as possible before writing about his observations. His perspective on prehistoric landscapes has come in part from his ethnographic studies of aboriginal groups in Australia, whose mythical predecessors laid down multiple tracts along rivers that lead from one economic or spiritually significant place to another (Tilley 1994:40). In this culture, knowledge of the landscape equals a sense of stewardship because if you ‘know’ the land (i.e., if you have significant experience in navigating through a landscape and know where important resources are, and how to obtain them), then it is yours and you can then determine who may access it. Tilley extends this line of inquiry to his study region and argues that to know the landscape is to establish your identity through interaction with the environment. In this way, the landscape has a quality of agency in that it will interact with you, even as you spend time within it. The placement of archaeological sites in relationship to each other and to the topography provides important clues about the thought processes of the people who created the earthworks and monuments. Metaphorically speaking, the places in Tilley’s study region are strategically situated where the sky continues the forms of the

coombes and dykes; where the funerary mounds (barrows) are the apexes that define a line of sight that flows into the sky as it passes over them (Tilley 2004:196,197).

In his earlier work, Tilley provides long descriptions of what place, space, path and dwelling should mean to the landscape archaeologist. ‘Places are always “read” or understood in relation to each other’ (Tilley 1994:27). The path represents movement but also the associated narrative and journey. Narratives about places on the land give cultural meaning to the places and define them. The landscape with all of her named places influences how local people think about the landscape and how they act while dwelling on the landscape. At the same time, the landscape holds space in the mind. In our dreams and our imaginations, we remember a place and immediately we are brought back to how we felt on earlier visits to that place. We feel a sense of knowing, which in a landscape that we visit in our day-to-day lives is also a sense of belonging. To some extent then, the landscape defines our identity. To dwell in the landscape is to have the closest of connections to it and to be that which has been produced by it. Landscapes ‘have a profound effect on our thoughts and interpretations because of the manner in which they are perceived and sensed through our carnal bodies’ (Tilley 2008:271).

For Tilley, the land is so full of spirits with agency that, ‘Writing about an economic base in relation to resource utilization or landscape use seems quite irrelevant here’ (Tilley

1994:67). In his rejection of settlement patterns and the seasonal round, he goes so far as to say that ‘…using terms such as hunter-gatherers or subsistence cultivators detracts

from rather than clarifies the relationship between peoples and landscapes’ (Tilley

1994:67). However, it is the economic, subsistence and social needs that are the main impetus for getting onto the land, into the forest or out to sea. Therefore, ecological knowledge is very important. If you do not know, for example, that pink pitch is not the right kind to eat, you might have a problem. This knowledge of the environment is held within the story-telling tradition, and therefore, to know your stories is also important. A knowledgeable hunter relies both on ecological knowledge and knowledge of how to do things in the way that will appease the spirits. We must marry these approaches in our work so that we are providing interpretations that are as faithful to the mindset of the people we study as possible.

Tilley’s approach is to embody the place (Tilley 2008). His method is to literally use the body to fully experience a landscape, and this is accomplished by hiking through, around, and over a landscape, taking it in from various perspectives, and doing so at different times of the year and in different weather conditions. In the process of conducting such research, Tilley also develops a close emotional connection the land.

Several problems have been identified with Tilley’s approach, one of which is that viewing the place alone will not provide the feeling that one had when viewing a place or walking a pathway as part of a group with a very different purpose, as may have been the case for the people under study (Edmonds 2006). Indeed, with any phenomenological study, it is impossible to feel exactly what the ancient person felt, as there are many factors of a life

so long ago that are impossible for us to understand fully today. For example, we may not be able to know if there were dangerous people or spirits on the pathways that would require the creation of places to hide or to make offerings. We may not be able to know this from a strictly phenomenological interpretation of a landscape, but we can improve the quality of our interpretation by employing multiple lines of evidence. These additional sources of information include environmental data, ethnographic accounts, historic maps, aboriginal place names and geospatial analyses. The different types of information provide a groundwork from which the phenomenologist can evaluate the embodied understanding of the landscape.

A second issue that has been identified in Tilley’s phenomenological methods and interpretations is that he does not sufficiently identify the difference in contexts between the modern landscape and the one experienced by the people living a thousand years ago.

While Tilley describes the earthworks of Neolithic and Iron Age people in terms of spatial connections as we see them today on a rolling landscape with few trees (mainly cultivated pastureland), he does not mention the kind of vegetation that may have existed at the time of occupation. Trees, for example, could obscure the lines of sight he identifies as being significant in his interpretation of the spatial relationships among the funerary mounds, coombs and dykes. He therefore presumes that the people who were farming here 6000 years ago would have removed all of the trees rather than managing them, for firewood, for example.

Tilley, and phenomenology in general, has also been criticized for creating metaphors out of landscape features when these metaphors are not warranted by the data, because the data are not quantifiable for this kind of interpretation (Fleming 2006:275). In post processual landscape archaeology, as with Fleming’s conventional landscape archaeology, we should not throw out the logistical and broadly informative frameworks provided by supplementary sources of information such as maps, aerial photos, ethnographic studies, historical data and indigenous place names. The phenomenologist, like any modern researcher, must integrate these independent lines of evidence and clearly illustrate how, using these data, the metaphors relate to empirical evidence on the landscape. To evaluate these relationships, however, critics must be willing to adopt alternative ways of knowing the world and to use such worldviews in their interpretations of the evidence.

The phenomenological approach does have empirical measuring sticks and evaluative criteria but these are not normally based on our western worldview. It is this failure to accept and understand alternative ways of knowing that leads to mis-trust of the method and interpretations, as well as the inability to critique the work in an objective fashion.

2.1.4 My Phenomenology

My approach is a particular hybrid of phenomenology that incorporates the lifeway of descendant x̱aadaas, field work and dialogue with professional archaeologists and foresters, immersion in aboriginal land claims issues, reviews of ethnographic and paleo- ethnobotanical research, and a personal love and understanding of the islands. To begin, I lived within the x̱aadaa culture, and had two children who were taught about the forest and maritime environments on the islands in their daily lives. With my good friend and colleague, Barney Edgars of the stl’ang ‘llaanaas clan of Yáan, I not only worked and played in this landscape but also learned from the Elders when possible. This experience is not unlike that of other anthropologists, linguists and aboriginal researchers who lived on

Xaadlaa gwaayee for several years and interacted with community members (Blackman

1982, Boelscher 1989, Enrico 2005, Swanton 1905a, 1905b, 1908). Although these researchers had an expressed academic interest, they, like I, lived and became close with and, in at least one case, were adopted by a x̱aadaa family. I have relied on the works produced by these researchers to supplement my personal experiences in an attempt to construct a more holistic account of the precontact and contact period x̱aadaa lifeways and language.

Working with descendant x̱aadaa community members provided opportunities to discuss personal histories on the land. The most common stories I heard were not of traditional

ways on the land but about the previous generation, their fathers, who were working as loggers. The modern culture of the islands has been a resource based economy for decades, and the jobs that supported the families have been mainly in the logging and commercial fishing industries. One of my colleagues was older and had logged in several parts of the coast. His perspective, after having logged for so long and in so many areas of the coast, was that he wanted to see the remaining forested lands protected from industrial logging. We all discussed archaeology, the sites we were finding, and had debates from time to time about what a CMT had been used for or represented. I had the pleasure of working with one individual who had been taught how to harvest medicines in the traditional way of his family. At certain times of the year, he would take the opportunity to harvest medicines or cedar bark after work, if appropriate gathering sites were seen. I also studied Xaad Kil as a student of Simon Fraser University outreach classes in Old Massett as a part-time student for four years. The language classes were attended by aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, and Elders whose first language was Xaad Kil were our main teachers of pronunciation. Drs. Marianne Boelscher Ignace and Jordan

Lachler taught us using contemporary methods. Working with local people is now a typical aspect of archaeologies that seek to understand temporality in First Nations cultural and archaeological sites, and each landscape and aboriginal group has different realities that can be incorporated.

2.1.5 Personal Experience

The aboriginal way of knowing the landscape is through experience and this is how I learned to live on Graham Island. Although I have only spent six months within the specific study area, I have been a resident of Graham Island for 22 years and have raised two daughters in the traditions of the islands. More importantly, I experienced and interacted with the land and sea as a gatherer and hunter. In accordance with the seasons, I would make forays to berry patches to harvest food for my family and, when possible, I would preserve some of the harvest for the winter months. I would also harvest other resources such as sG̱giiw (edible seaweed), spruce buds, Pacific crab apples and glasswort. The harvest would take place as soon as the food was ripe and the activity normally involved family members and friends, including children who love berries but generally eat more than they gather. Some berry picking, as in the case of seaside wild strawberries, took place near our homes and these berry patches were accessible by walking while others, especially those at higher elevations, required planned journeys. Picking berries is a light activity, and quite productive. The sense of accomplishment is significant as you fill your bucket with wild strawberries. These berries are quite small, averaging about a cm in diameter and to fill your bucket takes two to four hours. As mothers, we feel very good about putting away berries for our children to eat during the winter because they provide so many nutrients. Moreover, the berry patches on the island have not yet been

contaminated and therefore are a perfect food. Even before I moved to the islands, I was a berry picker but once I moved there this activity took on a larger dimension in life. In this activity, my good friend Barney Edgars, a x̱aadaa man who learned both in the regular schools and from his Grandmother with whom he spent a lot of time as a child, sometimes served as guide.

Most berries are collected near the coast or along the banks of rivers because they are most abundant in habitats that receive more sunshine. An exception is hldáan (Alaskan blueberry) which is found in abundance only at high elevations inland. The forests at these elevations are relatively shorter than lower down the hill and the open canopies provide excellent habitats for the berries. While harvesting hldáan in September, my family and I would also pick red huckleberries growing along the roadside at these higher elevations.

As we drove along the logging roads to the harvest location we would keep an eye out for chanterelle mushrooms and would stop to gather them. Neither cedar nor cypress bark is ready for harvest at this time, but certain medicines and tonics are ready to be and were harvested. Without a vehicle, the hike in to berry patches at this elevation would have taken hours or longer, depending on our point of origin at the coast. As a result, the harvesters would have needed packs to transport the berries out and may have opted to stay overnight to gather as much as they could after having made the long journey to the hldáan patches. When picking berries, many are eaten fresh, so there is no need to bring a lunch. Once the trip was completed, the berries and other foods would be cleaned and

processed at home and persevered through canning or freezing. Unfortunately, we did not dry the berries as was common practice in the awaahl agwii (the long ago times).

Barney, my children and I would also go out to the beach during the lowest tides to harvest clams and octopus between September and April. Since the season of harvest is concurrent with the reduction of daylight hours, we would go out on the beach after dark because the clam and octopus beds were only accessible at this time of day. To harvest at night you need to take a ‘torch’, which in the modern times is a kerosene lamp. While clams were quite abundant, nuu (octopi) were harder to find. Armed with our nuu sticks which were fashioned from a long, thin yew tree or hemlock branch, we would go out to the larger rocks and carefully poke underneath them to see if an octopus was ‘home’.

When prodded in the right way, the octopus would eventually start to come out from under the rock, allowing us to capture the animal, sometimes with difficulty. Once captured and killed, we skinned the octopus and ground up the meat, then divided it into appropriate sizes for meals and froze them. The feeling of accomplishment is significant when you have obtained that amount of food, which you know will be an important part of your sustenance for the coming months. The events leading to the capture of one especially large octopus have been recounted numerous times within the family and at larger social gatherings, and this story is always a source of pride and fond memories.

Barney, my children, and I also harvested bark from cedar trees for some of the weavers in Old Massett. One of the challenges in harvesting cedar bark is the careful selection of a

suitable tree. For bark to be used in weaving hats and clothing, the tree should be of an appropriate size which is determined by extending and interlocking one’s arms around the trunk. One then examines the distribution of the branches to locate the side with the least amount of obstructions. Usually, there is one side that is perfect with few or no branches.

Using a sharp axe, you then make a horizontal cut line at about waist height or at the top of the root flare. To help the tree heal as quickly as possible, the cut is made at a slight angle and goes directly across the trunk of the tree. My children and I learned the method from Barney who had been taught by his aunties.

Once or twice, we went to harvest bark from places where his aunties had collected bark many years ago. In these places, Barney showed us trees that had been stripped by his aunties and he indicated how well they had healed around the bark strip scar (Figure 2-1).

Although bark was sometimes harvested more than once from a single tree in the past , we never collected bark from a tree that had a visible scar from having been stripped before. Most of the time, we would go to the 150 year old forest of the Skidegate

Figure 2-1: Example of bark stripping scar approximately 5 to 15 years old. This shows the technique where the correct method for the bottom cut line has resulted in a healing growth around the cut line.

lowlands, which is a huge area on the east side of Graham Island that experienced a forest fire around 1860. Because this stand of trees grew up since the fire, many of the cedar are the same age, and frequently the right size for bark harvest. Excursions to harvest bark were always an opportunity to spend time in the forest with family and friends, looking at

the trees, examining the scars of past harvests and deciding which ones to strip. My children and I miss these outings very much since we left the islands.

Although vehicles were often used to access resource patches, short hikes were required to reach the actual berry patches. However, recreational hiking was also common and often included the children and was therefore done at a slower pace. In particular, we would take the children on the 10 km trail inland from the Hiellen River mouth on the north coast of Graham Island to Cape Fife on the east coast. Long stretches of this trail were built up by settlers in the early 1900s to access their inland properties near the east coast. These sections of the trail were broad and travel along such pathways was normally easy. Since this is the part of the Skidegate plateau region of Graham Island, there is not much elevation change but the land is interspersed with boggy wetlands. When walking this trail you traverse several different ecological communities, including mature riverside rainforest, stunted and old cedar groves, second growth forest since the 1860 fire, boggy wetlands, and the seagrass-scape as you approach the beach on the east side. Along the way, we would eat cranberries from the low growing plants adjacent to the wetlands if they were in season. As you move from the open wetlands into the forest, your eyes adjust quickly to the low light and you enjoy the calm of this sheltered setting before venturing into the open, usually bright, often windy, east coast. It is possible if not probable that a version of this trail was used in the late precontact, especially if people wanted to communicate between Hl’yaalan (Hiellen River) and the east coast during

seasons when travel by land was less treacherous than attempting to navigate around Nee kún (Rose Spit). This sand spit is roughly 8 km long at low tide and the changing tide, ocean swells, and the omni-present southeast wind can make navigation around this point dangerous.

In addition to this experience on the ground, I researched and authored a study regarding recreational trails of the islands. For this study entitled the Haida Gwaii Trails Strategy

(Church 2011), I conducted reconnaissance of local trails for maintenance levels and difficulty, interviewed local trail users and managers, and mapped early 20th century trails that are still being used along with newer ones. The experienced hiker is the knowledgeable hiker (Ingold 1993) and I have used this experience extensively in this thesis.

My modern day experience of hiking through forests inland on Graham Island also includes many journeys on trails leading to work sites for archaeological surveys being conducted a few kilometres from the nearest road. At lower elevations, we might park the truck and then walk in on a trail along the river bank. Once near the survey area, we would leave the trail and head up or down hill. The trails were used by deer hunters, fishermen, bears, deer, and recreational hikers. Maintenance of the pathways was minimal with people removing fallen branches or re-routing the trail around larger obstructions such blown down trees. The hikes in and out along the lower reaches of the rivers could be done at a brisk pace after having done the journey a couple of times. With

some surveys, we would have very large areas to look at, and would therefore spend up to three weeks going in and out on these trails every day to access our survey areas. The walk in and out was often the most enjoyable hiking of the day because movement along the trail was often easier than following transects across the survey areas and because walking at a brisk pace generated heat to keep you warm. Since the surveys were normally conducted from fall to spring or during the rainiest seasons, keeping warm was a challenge especially while standing still writing notes.

Through my varied experiences, I have also become expert in reading maps and in field navigation. Between 1993 and 2012, I worked as an independent researcher and as an archaeologist on various cultural resource management (CRM) surveys on the operable lands of Xaadlaa gwaayee. As an employee of the Secretariat of the Haida Nation, I documented CMTs and assigned cultural values to the land. I also oversaw the work as the

Field Coordinator and Manager of the CMT Inventory Program beginning in 1995. In this capacity, I soon learned to integrate the field experience and its cartographic representation but also experienced certain feelings in common with our ancient human counterparts such as the smell of water as we approached a rainforest stream, the sting of the sharp Sitka spruce needles as we walked by, the voice of raven, and the sight of the characteristic light green cedar stand. During these archaeological surveys, our senses constantly provided important directional clues and these inputs to our carnal bodies can be thought of as sensuous landmarks (Tilley 2008:272-273). While I never thought of

myself as a phenomenologist while living and working on the island, these experiences today inform my interpretation of the inland lifeways of precontact occupants of Graham

Island.

Since my residence is located within an old growth forest edge by a north coast river on

Graham Island, I have developed a deep family-like connection to the trees and the forests. At the same time, I recognize that inland areas have been largely ignored for at least 150 to 300 years due to dramatic population loss and culture change after contact.

Furthermore, large tracts of the inland forest have been subjected to clear cut logging which has changed the nature of the landscape. Fortunately, foresters have prepared detailed maps depicting forest cover information such as species composition of the original forest and in areas proposed for logging. These maps have been incorporated into this study to reconstruct the forest and to delineate areas that have been logged. Tourist maps depicting modern trails and important place names have also been consulted

(BackRoad Mapbooks 2012, International Travel Maps 2007 and earlier versions) to derive and more holistic perspective of the environmental context for this study.

In addition to the landscape changes resulting from clear-cut logging, the introduction of non-indigenous species in the mid-1900s has impacted the landscape of the island.

Introduced species include deer, elk, racoon, beaver and rat. Deer appear to have caused the most devastating changes to the forests of inland regions, as they have reproduced at a very high rate and their forage consists of most plants in the understory of all forest

types. Deer have made some, if not most, of the forests on the islands easier to navigate than in the past but they have also been responsible for the eradication of culturally significant plants such as high bush cranberry and devil’s club in some areas. Other species have also been impacted significantly by deer browsing including tree seedlings which deer apparently love (Golumbia 2001). To understand the context of the late precontact occupants of the island, we have a lot of qualifications to keep in mind when conducting field work in this region. The natural landscape has been altered by the natural succession of plants and trees following logging, by processes such as landslides, and by introduced species. We must acknowledge the impacts of these processes on the nature of our experiences on the landscape today.

2.1.6 What CMT archaeological sites may mean to contemporary x̱aadaas

Archaeological sites should be considered part of the contemporary lifeway but they serve a different purpose today than they did when they were made. Searching for and finding

CMTs with aboriginal colleagues presents new opportunities to connect with ancestors in the present. In his discourse on counter-mapping, Byrne (2008:611) argues that archaeological sites are an integrated part of the world people dwell in where places and objects from the past are regrown in the lived environment of each new generation.

(Figure 2-2).

Figure 2-2: x̱aadaa CMT crewmen with Red Cedar with large RBS scar, Sgayn watershed, 1998.

The fact that CMT surveys on Graham and North Moresby Islands employed mainly local xaadaas allows for this regrowth of interest and connection with these archaeological sites in the local population. Also, contemporary weavers and others may find personal connection to the landscape when visiting CMT sites and perhaps gathering bark in the same area. When returning to the forest to harvest bark, weavers may, once again, embody a past lifeway and continue the ancient tradition of transmitting the knowledge to future generations (Churchill-Davis 1996:52). A goal of this research is to provide opportunities for descendants and all people to enjoy these remnants of a former inland life.

The perspective of the investigator is too often overlooked when reporting on archaeological studies, leaving the reader skeptical, because something seems to be missing. I may not have grown up on these islands, but I did experience the totality of contemporary life here. I lived a lifestyle that included the seasonal round; the harvesting from the land and sea to feed my family. I worked extensively in the forests as well, and I had fun hiking through the forest, because hiking and exploring on Graham Island may be recreational as well as operational, and I think that ancient people enjoyed it in this way as well. When the background of the investigator is quantified, though this in itself is a subjective process, the reader has the opportunity to know something about his/her perspective in the entirety of what has led them to make this or that inference, and in this

way there is less skepticism and hopefully more positive discourse possible (Thompson

1956, especially p. 331, Stewart 1955, Shanks 2008). ‘For one cannot treat landscape as an object if it is to be understood. It is a living process; it makes men; it is made by them. It is the ground and condition of their action.’ (Inglis 1977:489). Most importantly, ‘…we have to discover, in order to understand our own or any landscape, the nature and conditions of a network of social practices. (Inglis 1977:490). I contend that it is the social practices that regulate the entire inland trail system. Part of the work is to understand in the moment how decisions may have been made, what attracted attention and therefore indicates places that people may have returned to. ‘In each case, that is, one can see the relations of a collective mode and an individual project and, as we experience both, we come to understand active composition, and the matrix of creative relationships which it expresses.’ (Inglis 1977:490). It is through a landscape approach that I create a potential model for understanding inland lifeways and the web of life of the late precontact, through additional survey (see the Discussion) that is based in the empirical; forest cover mapping, known archaeological site patterning, ethnographic notes from the contact period, historic maps, fisheries data, place names research, extensive training in the local aboriginal language, experience conducting archaeological assessments in the study area, and the not-so-empirical; my life as an indigenous contemporary of Graham Island with x̱aadaa children.

2.1.7 Conclusion

Humans are part of nature, just as a tree growing in a remote rainforest is part of nature.

Speaking about island archaeology and evaluating the importance of ecosystem analysis,

Terrell (2008:145) says that, “…it won’t do to see Homo sapiens as an external disturbing force. Instead, we are a keystone species within ecosystems.” By living in Xaadlaa gwaayee and learning about its particular and unique ecosystem through hiking, surveying, hunting and gathering within that system, my awareness of it grew constantly.

Once we remove a 1200 year old tree and all its neighbors, we cannot have that symbiotic system again for a long time, and for me this is very sad. I developed closeness (Tilley

2008) with the forests through the CMTs, which are artefacts from a time when trees with potential to be part of the lives of several generations of people were managed for that purpose. A phenomenological approach requires that attention be given to the landscape that is uncommon. It requires a focused consideration of all of what that landscape could mean to someone who lived within it during the period under study, and it requires consideration and enactment of measures to gain an understanding of that lifeway. Over the two decades that I have lived on the islands, my attention to the landscape, both through my work and my contemporary indigenous lifestyle, was acute, because I lived off the land and sea - whether that was as a gatherer and hunter, or as a pre-development surveyor. What we find the most precious on our islands is our local food and our family,

and sometimes that is all we have, because this place is isolated, and if the ferry does not come for two weeks in the winter, due to weather, you have to make do with what you have. For us of course, this was never a problem. We want our children to have that too, and it has been hard to leave the islands in order to complete this project. My phenomenology is a deep understanding of the landscape that has come from a familial engagement with it. The connections with those living in the late precontact are that we lead a sustainable lifestyle, for example practicing bark stripping in the way taught to us by the ancestors, taking just a portion of the bark, so that the tree may continue to thrive.

They may not have thought exactly that same way about that, but it is clear that they did consider it important to only strip trees in a way that would allow them to continue to grow in a healthy way after the stripping event. I lived in the landscape that I studied on a day-to-day basis, unlike most researchers, so my phenomenology is not based on going to visit and experience a landscape, but instead, on living within a landscape, and then later, reflecting on that life and how it was like our ancestors, on Graham Island.

CHAPTER 3: STUDY AREA: ENVIRONMENT

3.1 Physical Description

3.1.1 Off-Shore North Pacific Archipelago

The study area is on Graham Island, the largest land mass of the Queen Charlotte archipelago on the northwest coast of Canada. The archipelago is located 80 km west of mainland British Columbia and 70 km south of the Alaskan Islands, separated from the latter by Dixon Entrance. There are 150 islands in the group, five of which are relatively larger than the rest. The five largest, in order of size, are Graham Island, Moresby Island,

Louise Island, Lyle Island, and Kunghit Island.

3.1.2 Topography

Graham Island is at the north end of the archipelago and is roughly 80 km across east to west and north to south. It is shaped like an inverted triangle with the bottom point cut off and with a significant section removed in the middle by the existence of Masset and

Juskatla Inlets (Figure 3-1).

In fact, the entire coastline of Graham Island is dissected by inlets and bays which vary in size and shape from the relatively shallow and rounded Otard and Gudal Bays, to the

Figure 3-1: Graham Island.

fjord-like Dawson and Seal Inlets. Masset Inlet accesses the heart of Graham Island via

Masset Sound. It is the largest inlet of the archipelago and it feeds the second largest inlet,

Juskatla Inlet, through the Juskatla Narrows, where the tide lag time is three hours from that of the coast. Within the main body of Masset Inlet are several smaller inlets and bays, including McLinton Bay, Dinan Bay and Buckley Bay. Then, heading north, back up Masset

Sound, Dal Kaahlii7 (Delkatla), is a small but significant inlet on the east side of the sound that is the location of the modern village of Masset. As we come out of Masset Sound,

Sturgess Bay, named for the merchant ship the Susan Sturgis that visited the area in the

1852, occurs on the west side of the sound. Travelling west past a couple of small named bays, one enters Virago Sound, which turns into Needan Kaahlii (Naden Harbour), the third largest inlet on the islands. Continuing northwest along the coast, we pass Hanna and Yahta Bays where we turn west along the coastline and encounter Pillar Bay and Bruin

Bay. Boats often stop in these bays for shelter. Another island named Kiis Gwaii (Langara

Island), renown for its famous Cloak Bay, is located at the northwest tip of Graham Island.

This is the first historic meeting place of Europeans with x̱aadaas; ‘cloak’ referring to the sea otter fur cloaks that were traded during that encounter. Proceeding down the west coast, we pass by T’aalan Stl’ang (Lepas Bay), the next significant bay known as the first safe harbour after the turbulent turn around the northwest tip of the Graham, where

7 kaahlii means mouth, opening, or inlet

tides and deep ocean swells create unpredictable, and often choppy, high seas. There are several bays found along the west coast of Graham, the names of which include, from north to south, Sialun, Beresford, Peril, Ingraham, T’aaw Kaahlii (Otard), Port Louis, Ahluu

(Port Chanel), Skelu, Seal, Tartu and the larger Rennel Sound. Coming out of Rennel and continuing south, we pass by Carew Bay, Kano, Van and Gudal Inlets, and then turning east in the vicinity of Dawson Inlet we access Skidegate Inlet through the Skidegate narrows. Bays and inlets within Skidegate Inlet include Long Arm, Kagan Bay, and Bear

Skin Bay, where the modern town of Queen Charlotte is located. Continuing up the east coast past the modern town of Skidegate Reserve, we pass by the Tl’íi’aal (Tlell), Cape Ball, and Xuuyaa G̱andlee (Oeanda) River mouths. To finish our coastline tour, we round Nee kún (Rose Spit) on the far northeast tip of the island and then sail past the mouths of the

Hl’yaalan (Hiellen) and Sganggan (Sangan) Rivers, finally reaching Masset Sound, our point of origin, thus completing our circumnavigation of the coastline of Graham Island

(Backroad Mapbooks, 2011).

Regardless of shape, most inlets, bays, harbours and river mouths have beaches with a sand and cobble mix. The inlets create unique systems that affect human habitation in the region. The strong tidal action of the north coast creates important habitats for shoreline resources such as butter and razor clams, mussels and barnacles. Tides flowing in and out of the larger inlets may create standing waves and tidal bores, the long and narrow

Masset Sound being especially susceptible to strong tidal responses. Furthermore, underwater reefs affect surface waters and add to navigational concerns.

Inland, the Queen Charlotte Mountains, which extend parallel to the western shoreline, constitute the dominant topographic feature on the island. The taller peaks within this range average 900 m in elevation with the highest peak at 1040 m being an unnamed mountain in the southwest corner at the head of Dawson Inlet. Several named peaks within the mountain range include, from north to south, Sk’aats Gaawee (Middle Hill)

(390 m), Sgayn Mountain (715m), Pivot Mountain (590 m), Old Baldy (740 m), and Mt.

Pérouse (1030 m).

East of the Queen Charlotte Mountains, the Skidegate Plateau is best described as low- lying terrain interspersed with boggy wetlands and forested small plateaus and hills. The wetlands, the preferred habitat of the now extinct Dawson’s caribou, sometimes dry up in the summer but remain saturated in the winter and may freeze for short periods of time, particularly at higher elevations. The hills and ridges on the Skidegate Plateau attain elevations between 30 m and 180 m above sea level and include prominent features such as Tow Hill, which is the remains of an extinct volcano on the Northern coastline;

Argonaut Hill and Eagle Hill along the East coast, and the Sangan Ridge, along the inland side of the Sangan River. Other interesting features of this region are the smaller, sequential, roughly east-west oriented ridges along the north beach that were created over thousands of years as ancient sand dunes. In some cases, the ridges have interrupted

the flow of water and created intermittent lakes near the coastline, some of which are tidal.

The interior of the island also includes several long and thin lakes and rivers of various sizes. From north to south the largest lakes are Marian Lake, Needan Suuwee (Eden Lake),

Ian Lake, Aayan Suuwee (Ain Lake), and Aawan Suw.ee (Awun Lake). The largest river on the island, Yakan (Yakoun River), originates at Yaagan Suuwee (Yakoun Lake) and drains into the southern end of Masset Inlet. The Yakoun is the home of returning Sockeye,

Coho, Chum, and Spring salmon; this river also supports the resident, non-anadromous species of trout named Cut Throat and Rainbow trout. Seals sometimes come up the

Yakoun with the rising tide to feed on fish within the intertidal zone. Larger streams with lakes as part of the watershed tend to support a sockeye salmon population, whereas lake-less watersheds tend to sustain other anadromous species such as Coho salmon.

Other large streams on Graham Island from northwest to southeast are Jaalan (Jalun

River), SG̱aayn (Davidson Creek), Needan (Naden River), Maaman (Maman River),

Hl’yaalan (Hiellen River) and Xuuyaa G̱andlee (Oeanda River). Not surprisingly, a native fishery takes place each year in the intertidal zones of several Sockeye bearing streams, including the Yakoun, Naden, Awun and Jalun, and their estuaries. There are many more named streams as well as many named and unnamed tributary streams in inland areas, draining the rain forest. At various times of the year, sticklebacks live in larger streams and juvenile salmon are found in almost all reaches of these streams, even far inland. Many

rivers and streams were also navigable by canoe in their lower reaches prior to industrial logging, which exposed these areas to extensive blowdown and increased the build-up of logs along their courses.

Beaches throughout the islands vary from cobble to sand to bedrock, and are often a combination of these. The frequently encountered beaches with a cobble and sand mix underlain by a bedrock component provide habitat for clams and cockles. An important landscape feature encountered throughout the island chain is the ancient beach ridge.

The raised beach is a landform that represents the high ocean still stand of the early

Holocene, ca. 9000 BP (Fedje and Christensen 1999). Depending on where you are on the archipelago, this feature rises from 13 to 18 m above sea level. In some regions, the ridge is more pronounced than in others. The inclusive gravel and even elevation of this plateau feature has been used to build economic roadways for timber harvest.

3.1.3 Weather

The climate of Xaadlaa gwaayee is moderated by the surrounding Pacific Ocean, so that the range of temperature is relatively narrow throughout the year. Summer temperatures average 13 degrees, and in winter the average is five degrees (Pridoehl 2010). At elevations below 600 m, snow, while it may fall from time to time, rarely stays for more than a few days, while at higher elevations a snow pack will stay for three to five months.

Pacific storms roll in throughout the winter months, providing the high amounts of rain and hurricane force winds that often preclude boating. Summers have less rain, and wind storms are less frequent. The El Niño and La Niña currents that affect all areas in and around the Pacific Ocean appear to affect these islands in terms of the water temperature, which in turn can affect marine species composition. For example, schools of mackerel, a fish that typically lives in more southern waters, were seen in Skidegate

Inlet during two summers in the 1990’s and their presence in northern waters was attributed to the effects of an El Niño current. However, the effect of these currents on island climate is unpredictable, as the cycles of El Niño and La Niña vary between six months to seven years. A more predictable influence on the weather of these islands is the moon, because kungee (the moon) controls the tides and, by extension, the weather.

Tidal currents bring colder deep ocean water near the land and create winds that can change local weather conditions. The wise ocean traveller will keep a tide chart handy at all times because, even though tides are predictable, they change by approximately one hour each day. During the full and new moons, when the tides are most extreme, sea level can change by up to six m within a six-hour period, and that change is magnified if there is a storm surge event.

Weather is different depending on where you are on Graham Island because wind patterns are greatly affected by tides, but also because of the Queen Charlotte Mountains.

This range causes a rain shadow on the west coast, particularly in the winter months, as

the prevailing winds come from the west and move east. During the winter months in particular, storm clouds moving inland from the Pacific Ocean release water as they encounter the Queen Charlotte Range. Strong storms can develop on the east side as well during the winter months, and can last for several days. Hecate Strait, the water body separating the island from the mainland is rather shallow, about 40 m deep on average.

When tides and storms combine in Hecate Strait, extremely treacherous conditions can be created for boaters, and many times during the winter months the ferry connecting these islands to the mainland is cancelled due to unfavourable weather conditions.

Fog is a weather factor of note as well, particularly on the north coast of Graham Island.

Fog can roll in quickly and completely envelope the ocean traveller. In modern times, all boaters use global positioning system (GPS) devices and sounders. These devices go a long way to providing greater safety should the fog roll in unexpectedly.

3.1.4 Biogeoclimatic Description

Forest types are classified for management purposes by the Government of British

Columbia (Green and Klinka 1994). By this standard, Graham Island is included in the

Vancouver Forest Region, which is subdivided into a number of zones, and these, in turn, include a number of biogeoclimatic units. The biogeoclimatic units represented on the islands are three variants of the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone (CWHwh1, CWHwh2,

CWHvh2) and the Mountain Hemlock Zone, MHwh1, 2. These classifications are made based on climate, position on slope, soil characteristics, and indicator vegetation8.

The CWHwh1,‘ Submontane Wet Hypermaritime Coastal Western Hemlock’ variant and

CWHwh2, ‘Montane Wet Hypermaritime Coastal Western Hemlock’ variant are found on the eastern, leeward side of the Queen Charlotte Mountains and on the Skidegate

Plateau. CWHwh1 exists between sea level and 350 m elevation, while CWHwh2 exists between 350 and 600 m elevation9. The leading species of trees within the wh1 are Sitka

Spruce, Western Hemlock and Western Red Cedar (Figure 3-2), with Nootka cypress, also known locally as Yellow Cedar, occurring generally at higher altitudes, and Lodgepole Pine occurring in and near wetland areas. The shrub layer is not usually dense in this region, and consists of various combinations and concentrations of red huckleberry, false azalea,

Alaskan blueberry and salal. Boggy wet sites in this unit include typical wetland plants such as Labrador tea and Western bog laurel. The herb layer is not always prolific on the islands in general, due in large part to the introduction of deer in the 1940’s (Golumbia

2001). However, several species occur and their presence depends on the relative wetness of the site. A variety of ferns including deer fern, sword fern and oak fern exist in dryer

8 New Classifications are being implemented soon for the Haida Gwaii Forest District 9 The elevation limits may vary slightly depending on aspect.

Figure 3-2: Cedars with hemlock understory and salal mix in the CWHwh1. Cedar often occurs in groves and these groves will have various ages represented.

sites as does bunchberry. Wetter sites are indicated by the presence of crowberry, sedge, and Indian hellebore, with a few other wetland plants occurring in small quantities. The moss layer is dominated by step and lanky mosses, though several other moss types also occur. Shiny liverwort is also present.

Up the hill in the CWHwh2 the same tree species occur11 in the same relative proportions, except that there is less spruce and no pine. In the shrub layer, there is more oval-leaved and Alaskan blueberry but less red huckleberry. Salal is rare and its scarcity is often a key indicator of the wh2. Pacific crab apple occurs infrequently in the wettest sites. The herb layer in the wh2 is similar to wh1 and the moss layer is also similar, with the addition of running club moss, a key indicator species for this unit. As one encounters running club moss trailing along the forest floor when going up the hill, one knows they have entered the higher elevations. Similarly, false lily-of-the-valley in wetter zones is a key indicator of this unit. With the exception of the intermittent presence of pipe cleaner moss and alligator-skin liverwort, the moss layer in CWHwh2 is very similar to that of wh1.

On the windward or west side of the Queen Charlotte Mountains, the CWHvh2, ‘Very Wet

Hypermaritime Coastal Western Hemlock’ variant occurs from sea level to 500 m in elevation. This unit is characterized by forests that consistently contain cedar, hemlock,

11 Average tree heights go down as you go up hill. At sea level, spruce may attain heights of 70 m, while up the hill these heights are reduced to 25 m, and even shorter. Hemlock and cedar at lower elevations are usually shorter than spruce by an average of 10 to 20 m, but at higher elevations tree heights are more consistent across species.

and cypress, with spruce and pine occurring in some zones. It is important to note that there is a lot of variation in this biogeoclimatic unit, with some stands being clearly dominated by cedar and/or cypress while other stands are fully dominated by hemlock, and still others are dominated by spruce. This variability is due to undulating hillsides with varying microclimates and, as always, position on slope which affects soils and moisture regimes. The shrub layer is much like the CWHwh1 with salal very common as well as red huckleberry, false azalea, and Alaskan blueberry. Forest openings will contain salmonberry and elderberry. Devils club, which tends to occur along creek margins, is another species that has been affected greatly by the introduction of deer as they browse on the emerging leaves in the spring, eventually killing some plants. Therefore, on the islands, Devil’s club tends to exist only in areas that deer cannot access with ease. The herb layer, which is relatively sparse, includes deer fern and false lily-of-the-valley, with sedges and skunk cabbage in wetter ground. The moss layer is characterized by step and lanky moss. Since the CWHvh2 is located on the windward side of the island and subjected to very high winds and saturated ground during the winter months, this plant community is more prone to blowdown events. White woods (spruce and hemlock) may break in half during high winds and all species are prone to uprooting when the ground is saturated.

Sequential blowdown events can create very large openings in these forests (Figure 3-3), and also create significant impediments to human movement within this landscape. Tree size is a significant factor here, as when a spruce tree that is 2 m in diameter falls on a

trail, it becomes an impassable barrier for much of its length. In the case of sequential blowdown, a trail may have to change its course drastically to avoid these obstacles this alpine area, this biogeoclimatic unit is characterized by shorter trees and the presence of Mountain Hemlock. The only difference between wh1 and wh2 is that wh1 exists on the windward side of the mountains and begins around 500 m in elevation, while wh2 exists

The last biogeoclimatic unit, the MHwh1 and 2 or Wet Hypermaritime Mountain Hemlock

Subzone, exists in all forests above the elevations of CWHwh1,2 (above 600 m) and

CWHvh2 (above 500 m on the west side). Due to higher elevations and longer winters in on the leeward side and begins at roughly 600 m in elevation. They are not differentiated by indicator species. Cypress is often the dominant tree species in terms of percentage of stems with mountain hemlock being very common, hemlock and cedar usually being present, and spruce and pine being rare. The most common shrubs are Alaskan and oval- leafed blueberry whereas the red huckleberry is absent. The herb layer is characterized by fern-leafed goldenthread and bunchberry with Indian hellebore seen in wet ground. Wet ground is relatively common in the MHwh and perhaps due to this particular microclimate as well as the lower number of deer at this elevation, herbs are more abundant. Common species include twisted stalks, reeds, deer-cabbage, oak fern, skunk cabbage, lady fern and

Figure 3-3: White wood (spruce and hemlock) within the CWHvh2, near the shoreline in Rennel Sound, west coast Graham Island.

Sitka valerian. Moss species are similar to other units, but there is less step moss whereas lanky moss dominates the forest floor. As in the CHWwh2, pipecleaner moss is an indicator species in this class in some zones, especially on the windward side of the mountains.

Biogeoclimatic units are broad classifications which provide a rough idea of forest composition but often exclude species of importance to the human occupants of the island. For example, Pacific yew is not a common species but does occur in association with cedar in some locations and has been used to make fish hooks and bows (Stewart

1977). Similarly, the deciduous species indigenous to Graham Island such as Sitka alder,

Pacific crab apple and black hawthorn are not included in the tree species described in these units, but all of the above species have various uses, such as wood for smoking fish, and Pacific crab apples harvested and preserved for winter use. All of the deciduous trees are found within the conifer stands, but their main habitat is in new openings, along the edges of wetlands and along stream margins. Alder is usually the first species to colonize disturbed areas such as the location of slides and blowdowns. Alder is also a nitrogen fixer

(Courtin and Brown 2001) which naturally prepares the ground for successional stages.

3.1.5 Fauna

The fish and vegetation of inland areas have been mentioned above but there are many other inhabitants of the islands and the surrounding waters that must be described, so as to provide an overall understanding of the players in the web of life in this unique region of the world. Waterfowl including Canada Goose, Common Loon, Trumpeter swan,

Sandhill crane, Mallard duck, Merganser duck, as well as other less common species inhabit lakes and rivers on the islands seasonally as well as year round. Twelve species of seabirds live mainly on the ocean but nest on land and make their homes around these islands. They include Cassin’s auklet, Rhinoceros auklet, Pelagic cormorant, Glaucous- winged Gull, Fork-tailed storm-petrel, Leach’s storm petrel, Pigeon Guillemot, Ancient murrelet, Marbeled murrelet, Common murre, Horned puffin, and Tufted puffin (Harfenist

2003). The Bald eagle, Raven, Crow, and several species of owl are present in inland and sea side areas, as are a variety of song birds, the most common of which are Varied thrush, Robin, Winter wren, Junko, and Northern flicker.

Terrestrial mammals can be categorized as indigenous and non-indigenous, as several species did not exist on the islands prior to the contact period. The indigenous terrestrial, and sometimes air-born, mammals of Xaadlaa gwaayee are California bat, Little brown bat, Silver haired bat, Black bear, Dawson’s caribou (recently extinct), Dusky shrew,

Ermine, Marten, and River otter. Terrestrial species that were intentionally or

unintentionally introduced to the islands in the postcontact period are the Beaver, Black rat, Norway rat, elk, European red deer, Sitka mule deer, House mouse, earth worms of various species, Muskrat, Racoon, and Red squirrel (Golumbia 2001:328). In recent years, attempts have been made to introduce other species such as pheasant, pig and rabbit but this practice was frowned upon locally due to the known negative impacts of most previously introduced species on the indigenous fauna and flora of the islands (Golumbia

2001:1-4, Harfenist 2003:37-41). Ermine may be extinct now and are certainly extremely rare, apparently due to the introduced racoon pushing the martens to take over ermine habitat. Rats, racoons and squirrels are known to have severely impacted sea bird populations as they pillage the easily accessible terrestrial nests. Deer have proliferated on the islands since their introduction in the 1940’s, and their browsing has heavily impacted the shrub layer in most parts of the islands and has affected the regeneration of cedar as well. The indigenous Dawson’s Caribou became extinct around 1940 (Gold

2004:4) and this extinction is widely thought to have been caused by the gradual diminishment of caribou foraging habitat on the islands since the late Pleistocene. Sea otters, prized for their fur in Russia and Europe, were hunted to extinction in the 1800s.

Sea life is abundant on the islands in every zone, with far too many species to mention here. The broad categories are whales and smaller cetaceans, salmons, halibut and other flatfish, cods, herring, several species of clams (bivalves), crabs, all manner of star fish and related species (echinoderms), barnacles, and octopi. Plant species of the sea are also far

too numerous to be named, but include ‘fields’ of bull kelp and eel grass. Several edible seaweed species grow here. Sgiiw (Purple laver / Nori) is harvested by local people in the spring, and the time of harvest varies, as it ripens at different times along the coastline.

Spring and summer see the annual return of salmon, with Sockeye salmon heading up certain streams, (which must have a lake in their system), to spawn between late May and early July. Spring salmon go by the islands on their annual migration to areas south of the islands starting in May and going through to September, and resident returning Spring salmon head up the local rivers to spawn in September. Coho salmon arrive on the outside of the islands in June and spawn in the rivers in September. Every second year, Pink salmon return to spawn in many rivers and streams during August and September, and the Chum salmon are the last to return to the islands to spawn in their native streams in

October. All of these salmon species are known to have been fished ethnographically by the x̱aadaa. The anadromous Steelhead trout are found in some streams in the fall and winter. The non-anadromous Rainbow and Cut throat trout are in the rivers year round.

Sea urchins, abalone, various species of clams and other intertidal species are known ethnographically as a food source and may be harvested year round, but red tide, a biological hazard to humans, may preclude harvest during the warmer summer months.

Crab spawn in the summer and are near the shoreline at this time, making them easier to using a dip net. Seals and Sea lions are seen year round in open waters and at the heads of inlets, as are various species of whales and porpoises. Killer whales feast on returning

salmon in the spring and summer and are more abundant at that time. Grey and

Humpback whales are also seen in the spring and summer, as they feed on Herring spawn,

Krill and other species. Whales tend to stay out in the deeper waters, off-shore but sgaan

(killer whales) are occasionally seen in the inlets.

3.2 Physical Description of the Study Area

The specific study area on Graham Island for this inland research project extends from

Needan Kaahlii (Naden Harbour) to T’aaw Kaahlii (Otard Bay), where I contend that ancient inland trails were once part of the lifestyle of the x̱aadaa. Naden Harbour is on the north coast of Graham Island and may be accessed by small and large watercraft from

Dixon Entrance via Virago Sound12 through a narrow passageway, the Alexandria Narrows,

(80 m wide) into the harbour. Due to this channel being so narrow, tidal action can create strong currents here. Several rivers and streams of varying sizes form the Naden Harbour watershed, see Figure 3-4 Study Area).

From north to south, the streams with the largest watersheds are Daastlans (Lignite

Creek), Sgayn.andlee (Davidson Creek), and Xaa.andlee (Naden River). Smaller streams

12 On some older maps the Naden Harbour is not named, and is included as part of Virago Sound

Figure 3-4: Study Area, northwest Graham Island. The green line from Naden Harbour to Otard Bay is one of several GIS derived LCPs that will be described in subsequent chapters. It is used in this image to provide a rough guide to where this study is centered.

contributing fresh water to the harbour are xuut taas.andlee, Germania Creek, Stanley

Creek, and many other smaller, unnamed streams. The Naden River is the largest river and is the only stream in the harbour that supports a Sockeye salmon run. Sockeye salmon are the most sought after fish for preserving for the winter months because they are

delicious, and because, as they work to come up the river to spawn they become leaner.

Less fat means their dried flesh will store for longer periods of time without going rancid.

All other salmon species and trout are present in the rivers at various times of the year while halibut live near the ocean floor just outside the mouth of the Harbour. Salmon live in the harbour as well as the rivers, and other sea life found in the harbour includes

Dungeness crab, Stellar sea lion, seals, and various bivalves.

Topographically, gently sloped hillsides surround the harbour with the raised beach present at approximately 15 m elevation. The Queen Charlotte Lowlands extend from

Naden Harbour to the Queen Charlotte Mountains about halfway up the Naden and Sgayn watersheds. Steep slopes between the two watersheds at mid and upper reaches create a shared, slightly undulating ridgeline that peaks at 600 m on average. Sgayn Mountain, the highest peak in the study area at 715 m, occurs in the vicinity of three passes through the

Queen Charlotte Mountains at the top of the Sgayn and Naden watersheds (see Figure 3-

4). One of the largest lakes on the island, Eden Lake, as well as the smaller Marian and Roy

Lakes are also part of the Naden River watershed.

On the west side of the mountains, the entire area drains into one watershed, Otard Bay creek. Unlike the Naden and Sgayn watersheds, this side opens up into a broad, low elevation and relatively flat, forested plain, with large and small wetlands throughout. A small hill with a lake in the middle exists in the lower reaches, three km west of the Otard creek mouth. Otard Bay itself is surrounded by steep and often bare rock faces except at

the creek mouth where the flat boggy landscape culminates in a relatively wide estuary with a sand, cobble and gravel beach. Otard Creek is not a recognized salmon stream and, like many west coast streams on the island, the mouth may naturally in-fill with gravel and cobbles at certain times of year as the open Pacific Ocean swell, coupled with tidal fluctuations creates this pattern. The intermittent blockage of the river mouth may preclude salmon from spawning in this stream. The large portions of the study area, the boggy wetlands, are known ethnographically to have supported Dawson’s caribou

(Sheldon 1912). They fed on the Caribou lichen that is relatively abundant in this region.

Forests on the Naden Harbour side of the study area are in the CWHwh1 and CWHwh2 ecoregions, and on the west side of the range they are classified as CWHvh2. At the tops of the mountains there are small bands of the MHwh1 and 2 ecoregions, and at the very tops of the highest peaks, like Sgayn Mountain, boggy wetlands, small alpine meadows and bare rock outcrops are found. The lower reaches of the Naden and Sgayn watersheds are cedar rich, but as one climbs up into the CWHwh2 on the east side there is more hemlock and spruce with small, isolated groves of cedar. On the west side of the mountains, forests may have more spruce and hemlock, but the hillsides are undulating and the species composition of the forest is variable. More blowdown occurs on the windward side of the mountains creating stands of different seral stages and more openings.

3.3 Demographic Considerations of the Study Area

The time of contact of x̱aadaas with non-aboriginals is considered by some to be the date of first visitation of the islands by the Spaniard Langara and his crew on the tall ship

Phoenix in 1774. Importantly, this is not the date of first contact made between x̱aadaas and non-aboriginal people. The x̱aadaa used large ocean going dug-out canoes to move from Xaadlaa gwaayee to the mainland of North America, and up and down the west coast for centuries if not millennia before the visit of Langara and therefore they had previous knowledge of non-aboriginal visitors and settlers due to their presence on the mainland coast. Trading with Russian merchant ships is documented in the mid-1700s in the Alaskan islands, which are just 70 km north of Graham Island and are visible from the north shore. In the ethnographic period, some x̱aadaas, known as the Kaigani, lived in the southern Alaskan islands. Through trade, family and ceremonial interactions, Russian trade goods would have been known almost immediately throughout the x̱aadaa territories.

According to Dobyns (1983) and Fedje (1991), native populations of North America decreased in size rapidly after first contact, as epidemic diseases swept through in waves over two to four centuries, depending on location and time of first contact. This meant that portions of the orally related cultural archives of groups were lost, as there would not have been time for the dying, or the survivors, to pass forward all of the cultural archive.

On the northwest coast there was no writing system for the language, and therefore information was passed on through the physical and metaphysical doing of things together, as well as verbal communication. Some of the history of the x̱aadaa was passed on through the telling of gyaahlangee. Across North America, oral histories are thought to be the subject of artistic representations, such as ochre drawings on rock faces or erratics, teepee and horse paintings, and petroglyphs. On Graham Island there are petroglyphs that are thought to pre-date the contact period. Relatively abstract petroglyphs like these rely on a knowledge holder to reveal their full meaning, but due to the epidemics, the holders of this knowledge may no longer be available. Few examples of petroglyphs are known for the study area, though some were collected from K’yuusd’a (Kiusta) at the northwestern tip of Graham Island. They were created on boulders (Figure 3-5).

3.3.1 More than Decimation

As Dobyns notes, ‘Long isolated from face-to-face contact with residents of the Old World,

Native Americans lacked any experience with or immunity to the bacteria and viruses that evolved there.’ (Dobyns 1983:9) This situation meant not only sickness, but also inability to treat the ill because of lack of experience with these kinds of diseases. Food gathering would have halted for some, and if entire families were sick there may be no one to assist

Figure 3-5: Excerpt from Gessler1973. Similar styled petroglyphs may be seen in various locations on the northwest coast of British Columbia. These are examples were recorded at K’yuusd’a village site at the northwest tip of Graham Island. Note: # 6 Is not archaeological, but was created by one of the 1973 field staff. Excerpt used by permission of Nicholas Gessler.

the ill. Small pox was the most deadly, while Influenza, Bubonic Plague, Diphtheria,

Typhus, Cholera, Chickenpox, Measles and other diseases were also very deadly.

Ethnographic reports indicate that the x̱aadaa women were involved in early sex trade with settler peoples and this activity likely introduced diseases to the group upon their return to the islands from Victoria (Poole 1872:346). Notably, offspring of these unions likely had increased immunity going forward. In general, across North America, Dobyns argues that 90 to 95 percent of the native populations eventually perished by the late

1800s to early 1900s when vaccination was known (Collison 1915:204). On Xaadlaa gwaayee the percentages appear similar.

The first record of an epidemic of small pox amongst the x̱aadaa is from 1779, spread from the crew of the Spanish ship Arteaga. Pock marked faces, indicative of those with the disease, were seen amongst the Kaigani in 1791. Other significant epidemics followed in

1837 and 1862, and by 1881 when a census of the islands was taken, less than 600 x̱aadaas remained. This means that from an estimated pre-contact population of at least

14,500 (Fedje 1991:3,4), roughly four percent of the population survived.

3.3.2 Gathering of the Survivors

As populations dwindled and the people were weakened physically and spiritually, they

began to leave their home villages in order to survive. Some are said to have died along the way, as in the local tradition of a ‘small pox trail’, mentioned by Sandra Zacharias in her trail survey in the northwest coast of Graham Island (Zacharias 1997). In the late 1800s

Christian missionaries were stationed at Old Massett in the north and in Skidegate in the south. Due to their strategic locations for trade and good harbours, these are the two villages that grew in the postcontact period, while all of the other villages were vacated, and resource camps became less frequented. The number of contemporaneous villages and small towns of the late precontact is not known, but there are approximately 140 named places around the islands that appear to have been villages, small towns, or camps

(Council of the Haida Nation 2011). Indian Reserves that were designated mainly in the late 1800s and early 1900s number 27 in the north and 11 in the south, and were generally designated due to their importance for fishing purposes (Aboriginal Affairs and

Northern Development Canada 2014, Harris 2007). The missions at Old Massett and

Skidegate offered food to those in need, and tools to assist with controlling diseases. As many people were alone, without their extended families, they could eventually find a semblance of community in these places, but it was not an easy fix. The tuulang (families) also referred to as clans, were confused and the overall structure of an island community was shattered. People turned to Christianity because it provided a set structure that could be integrated across the clans and it stressed a new sense of community where no one gave in to one another, but rather a sort of acceptance was possible. The missionaries

were able to treat the physical ailments of the people which gave them significant influence (Collison 1915:91). Furthermore to be associated with the church and knowing

English likely brought more economic opportunity (Blackman 1976:27).

In the study area, the village of Ḵang ‘lnagee (Kung village) at the mouth of Naden

Harbour was the last to be inhabited in the northwest coastal region of the islands, and a group was still living there in the very early 1900s (Sheldon 1912). Less is known about the last traditional inhabitants on the west coast of the study area, but this area may have been abandoned some time prior to areas closer to the main villages of Old Massett and

Skidegate, as the new trade networks did not extend to the west side of the islands. Little archaeological study has taken place on the west side of Graham Island that could help shed light on this, though MacDonald’s inventory of some of the ancient village sites in this region, with associated notes gleaned from works of John Swanton (MacDonald 1994) is an important ethnographic source.

3.3.3 New Trade Network

When the trade network changed to accommodate European tall ships, the trade centers of the islands moved to harbours that were accessible to these ships. Merchant ships moved along the north and eastern coasts of the islands and did not venture out to the west coast probably because of the unpredictability of tides and weather in this area, the

scarcity of safe harbours, and eventually because there were few if any people living there. This along with all of the other cultural change and the results of the epidemics left the west coast areas empty of people.

3.4 Conclusion

Considering the devastating physical and demographic effects of the epidemics, in combination with changing trade networks and the resultant chaos of the time (Oetelaar

2010), inland travel became infrequent early in the contact period. People moved away from west coast locations early to be more accessible to trade, and inland pathways that would have connected these people to villages across the islands were vacated. Resource use associated with inland trails was drastically reduced due to the low population numbers in general, and poor physical health amongst many of the surviving population meant fewer and fewer excursions inland. Then, the dynamic rainforest environment of

Xaadlaa gwaayee would have quickly obscured evidence on the ground of precontact inland trails. Fortunately physical evidence of trails on the ground is not the only method for finding out where people were. What can be concluded is that travel by canoe would have been curtailed during winter months due to bad weather, and at other times of the year due to tidal and deep ocean influences, and therefore inland trails would have been necessary for communication and transportation during these times. How the people

navigated the forest would have depended on their values and specific topographical concerns.

CHAPTER 4: ETHNOGRAPHY OF INLAND LIFEWAYS

4.1 Introduction: Summary and Qualification of the Ethnographic Record of x̱aadaagee

A number of published ethnographic sketches provide a rich resource from which to create a summary of what is known about the late precontact lifeway of the x̱aadaa. As previously mentioned, due to the decimation of the population by the time ethnographic accounts were being written, parts of the late precontact lifeway are missing, and certain aspects will have changed since contact. Anthropologists, missionaries, government agents, and even a trophy hunter wrote accounts of local lifeways. In this section I shall provide a brief ethnographic sketch of the x̱aadaa from a range of sources, and work to quantify and qualify the available information as pertains to inland activities of the late precontact era.

Some Ethnographers of the X̱aadaa

The most important ethnographer of the x̱aadaa is John Swanton. He was of the Boas school of anthropology, and he visited Masset and Skidegate from 1900 to 1901 as part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. The resultant works, published between 1904 and

1908, are a baseline reference for every ethnographer, linguist, historian and archaeologist who studies this group. Swanton (1905a, 1905b, 1908) recorded the

customs, gyaahlang (legendary stories) and language of the people from Masset and

Skidegate in two dialects of Xaad Kil through local informants and interpreters. By the time Swanton arrived, x̱aadaas had adopted many settler customs, such as living in two- story frame houses, wearing settler-style clothes, and speaking and writing English.

Christianity was a prominent religion by this time, and Henry Edenshaw, Swanton’s main x̱aadaa informant from Masset, had translated the New Testament of the Bible into Xaad

Kil. In his ethnographic works on the x̱aadaa, Swanton does not make much note of the acculturation that had taken place by the time he arrived. What he was tasked with was to record what remained of precontact lifeways from the memories of the descendants.

Margaret Blackman estimates Swanton’s ethnography to be contemporary with the 1840s or 50s (Blackman 1976:388), which is 100 to 150 years after first contact with Europeans.

Other early ethnographies recorded prior to or around the same time range from geologists reports to adventure-style historic accounts of trips made to the islands for a variety of expeditions between 1850 and 1901 (Chittenden 1884, Collison 1915, Deans

1899, Dawson 1973 [1878], Jones 1914 Poole 1872, Sheldon 1912). One of the earliest substantial accounts is the memoire of Reverend William Collison, who established the first Christian mission on the islands, and whose wife was said to have been the first

European woman to take up residence there in 1874. The x̱aadaa of Masset were interested in the assistance that could be provided by the church mission, which included medical attention, such as vaccination (Collison 1915:39,91,204).

Poole, Chittenden and Dawson visited the islands as agents of government to quantify the physical resources of the territory and in their journals and narratives provide some notations on what they saw of the lifeway of the people. Charles Newcombe recorded an extensive list of place names that generally confirm Swanton’s similar notes. He also took down ethnographic notes, collected artifacts of the lifeway, and took photographs. Some years later in 1934, George Murdock visited the islands on behalf of Yale University and conducted a fairly extensive research into x̱aadaa potlatching and social organization through interviews with informants from Skidegate, Old Massett and Hydaburg, Alaska.

There is a break in ethnographies of the x̱aadaa after 1934 with a resurgence of interest after 1970. These later accounts were created by anthropologists, linguists, and an ethnobotanist, all of whom spent extended periods of time in x̱aadaa communities working with particular people in their homes. Amongst these accounts are language dictionaries (Leer and Lawrence 1977, Enrico 2005, Lachler 2010), a biography of a x̱aadaa woman (Blackman 1982), an in-depth discussion of the political and social structure of the x̱aadaa from the past into the present (Boelscher 1988) and a compendium of the x̱aadaa use of plants (Turner 2004). Van den Brink (1974) provides an important connecting work with his synopsis of cultural changes between 1876 to 1970, including important information on a mid-20th century trend towards assimilation with Canadian culture, and the differences in development between Skidegate and Masset villages.

The following ethnographic sketch mines information from several published sources and explores what we can know about the late precontact through ethnography. I begin with a discussion of cultural traits of the x̱aadaa generally, followed by an explanation of the seasonal round of hunting and gathering on Graham Island. I then move farther inland to the homes of the Daughters of the River, also known as the Creek Women, and other spirits that live within Xaadlaa gwaaye, who are the agents for appropriate conduct, and who personify aspects of the inland regions.

4.2 Xaadaagee: A Separate, Distinct Society

The x̱aadaa are sometimes considered a typical northwest coast cultural group, yet environmental factors set the group apart. The archipelago is well removed from the southern Alaskan islands and the mainland of North America, with 70 to 80 km separating it from these land masses. As the waters of Dixon Entrance to the north and the Hecate

Straits to the east are not always easy to navigate especially during the winter, the people of the region would have remained somewhat isolated for much of the year. The language of the people is distinct and unique, although connections to the Tlingit language in the north have been noted (Enrico 2004:260-295). Xaad Kil is often defined as an isolate language (Boelscher 1989:17) which can indicate long term separation from influences of other languages and, hence, other cultures.

Although the islands and the surrounding waters provide an abundance of food, some items were also traded in. According to pollen records, Red cedar on the northern northwest coast did not grow large enough to create ocean-going dug-out canoes until about 3000 years ago (Hebda and Mathewes 1984:712), at which time an expanded trade network began to develop. Due to its separateness and environmental particularity,

Xaadlaa gwaayee developed in a different, distinct way, especially until 3000 BP. Once there was more movement along the coast for trade, cultural practices would have diffused somewhat through that contact with other coastal groups. However, the islands remained and remain a world apart, an ‘insular realm’ (Fladmark 2005:xvii).

4.3 Settlement and Social Organization

In the pate precontact, the x̱aadaa lived in winter villages interspersed throughout coastal locations, at places where you could pull up a canoe with relative ease, and where there was a fresh water source nearby. Food resources would also be found near the village.

(Dawson 1993 [1878]:109-112). Resource camps were situated by river mouths and salmon runs, and therefore were often named by the associated river, such as Aayan,

Jaalan and Needan13 all of which are streams that salmon return to. Archaeologically there has been evidence of single small, one to three house settlement sites in the southern section of the archipelago and of larger multi-lineage towns (Acheson 2005).

Multi-lineage towns are identified by the ethnographic record as recorded by Swanton

(1905a) and further explained by MacDonald (1994), who associated archival photographs of the houses with the sites and ethnography recorded by Swanton. While permanent winter villages and resource camps of the contact period are known in relative abundance at the coast, one inland fishing station at Kose (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern

Development Canada 2014) may indicate the likelihood of other inland resource camps, the knowledge of which has been lost or was not provided to ethnographers.

The x̱aadaa house of the late 1800s was a structure that was built to impress, with very large posts and beams, sometimes up to or greater than a meter in diameter. They were made of Red cedar, a wood that grows tall and straight on the islands, and splits into planks and beams nicely. Cedar also has resins that reduce the incidence of rot (unlike the local white woods: spruce, hemlock and alder), making it an excellent choice for material uses of all sorts on the northern northwest coast. The grand cedar house frames would be encased with cedar planks, and cedar planks or bark boards would be used as roofing material (See Chapter 7, Figure 7-2 Two houses at Kung in 1878). Some styles of this kind

13 The an suffix translates to ‘river’

of long house had a subterranean pit, while others did not have this feature. (Church and

Edgars 2011). Totem poles exhibiting the lineage of the group, a legendary story, or perhaps a story of a particular event or set of events were erected in front of the houses during the contact period, but it is not clear as to whether such large and numerous totem poles were part of the pre-contact lifeway. No remains of free standing totem poles have been found archaeologically (Ames 1994:221), but this may be attributed at least in part to the fact that wood deteriorates quickly in the northwest coastal environment.

Reverend Collison notes that the totem poles at Masset appeared to him as dock pilings when he first viewed Masset, coming into the inlet from the north (Collison 1915:111).

The totem poles of the contact period would have attracted trading ships, as they could be seen from a distance, and were likely a very important landmark for ocean travelers.

Smaller structures not employing such massive timbers were erected at resource camps for seasonal use associated with the various resource gathering activities of the people.

Both the large and smaller structures typically had a smoke hole in the roof that could be adjusted depending on wind direction to create an outlet for the smoke created by indoor fires. Fires were used not only to heat the inhabitants but, in this wet climate, they were also important for preserving food by drying, particularly when the sun was not cooperating. The planks and bark boards used in the large frame houses may have been moved to be used at the resource camps on a seasonal basis, as cedar planks and bark boards were a valuable, moveable commodity (Hebda and Mathewes 1984:711).

Ethnographically speaking, x̱aadaas lived at towns and resource camps at the beach, but the presence on one resource camp relatively far inland at Kose Indian Reserve may indicate an older lifeway that included inland camps and villages (Figure 4-1).

Traditional xaadaa kinship is defined for the most part through the lineage of the mother.

In matrilineal societies, it is incumbent upon the mother, father and maternal relatives to ensure that her children, as members of her clan (gwaayk’aang) are well respected

(yahgudang). Hereditary chiefs existed for all lineages. In accordance with matrilineal rules of succession, chieftainship was passed down to the chief's oldest sister's first born son, or occasionally to the chief’s younger brother. In a few instances, if the chief had no sister’s son, the sister’s daughter became the caretaker chief until her own son was old enough to take the chiefship. Swanton reported an anomaly to this cultural feature in the

Pitch-Town-People of the mid-west coast of the islands. This group did not participate in a crest or clan system and thus may not have been matrilineal or had a chief (Swanton

1905a:90-91).

Figure 4-1: In the Double Line River feature database, rivers wider than 20 m become Double Line Rivers.

The Moieties: gúudaa and yáalaa

X̱aadaas were either guudaa (Eagle side) or yaalaa (Raven side) and it is said that you were not permitted to marry someone of the same moiety (Boelscher 1989:27, Murdock

1934:356, Swanton 1905a). In the postcontact period, marriages were often arranged, likely to support the retention and thoughtful distribution of property (Blackman 1982:29-

36,92-99, Boelscher 1989:91-137).

Clans or family groups of a matri-linage were named according to their certain personal or family characteristics, stories that were told about them, place of origin, and in the case of the Yahgu ’laanaas, Stl’ang ’laanaas, Taas ’laanaas and Kún ’laanaas, according to their residence in the earliest ancestral town. For example, the, the k’áawaas (herring row on kelp [People]) were named after k’aaw, which is a dense formation of thousands of herring eggs that stick to bull kelp leave. Because a woman of the Eagle lineage from which the K’aawas split off had many children, women from other clan started referring to her and her children by that name.

Crests were, and continue to be, important identity markers that were obtained in a variety of ways, from personally naming one’s clan, to trade, and through bestowment during a public ceremony. Crests were and continue to be prerogatives or property of the clans, but were transacted and gifted by clan chiefs in numerous instances. Some

examples of the crests of the x̱aadaa are grizzly bear, mountain goat, black porpoise, killer whale, two-finned killer whale, five-finned killer whale, gaagiid (a legendary forest spirit), and cumulus cloud. Crests might be painted or carved onto owned items such as house fronts, wooden spoons, or bent wood storage boxes. Tattooing of crests was also common. One version of the history is that the clan system of the Tlingit came from the x̱aadaa (Jones 1914), and another firmly places the origins of the system with the

Tsimshian of the nearby mainland region (For a detailed analysis of the Haida crest system see Boelscher 1989, Swanton 1905a). The most important point here may be the geographic adjacency of these groups and how this is reflected in customs and language.

Significantly, a variety of local crests, including grizzly bear, mountain goat, beaver and wolf, represent animals that have never lived on in these islands, but who are resident of

Alaska and the north coast region of British Columbia; that is the precontact territories of the Tlingit and Tsimshian.

Personal Names were given to individuals that reflected their station in life, rank in the society, relationships, or reincarnation, or one might be given a name that reflected more the nature of the person, for example, guut giidii xang laas (Baby Eagle Good Spirit), a child’s name. A person could have several names throughout their life, these typically being bestowed upon them at public events where it would then be recognized by the group. According to Boelscher, ‘Through the act of naming or being named, individuals

socially classify the person they name or themselves.’ The social order is linked to ‘both the supernatural and material world.’ (Beolscher 1989:151-152). There are personal names, names reserved for Chiefs, childhood names, potlatch names, Teknonyms and

Nicknames. Nicknames were and continue to be common in this culture, where a person is named by something that they have become infamous for, such as the size of their eyes or the fact that they often look surprised, for example, ‘Round Eye’. Names can imply wealth and can have associations that go far back into the cultural archive. Some names were the property of individual clans. The political and social aspects of naming were a part of a complex society that has only been briefly touched on here (Boelscher 1989:151-

166).

Property was one of the most important social measuring sticks. Those who were industrious and could amass wealth were honoured, and might rise above their old station. Cultural practices in Skidegate worked this way, as per Deans in 1899, 'As soon as one acquires property, or enough to pay for it, the chief gives him a good and honourable name, he at first having been given an ugly, nasty one, one he was ashamed of, in order to make him try for a better one.' (Deans 1899:11). Property figures in stories, gyaahlangee, as well, and relates not only to material wealth but also crest wealth. You could come to own a song or a crest by having a ceremonial feast where you were given it, and you could

obtain a crest from another clan through trade. You could also claim hunting territories if you listened to your elders and to the spirits of the land, and learned how to work with them to be successful in hunting (The Bear Hunters, as told by Walter, Swanton 1908:667-

677).

To gain stature within the group in the postcontact period, x̱aadaas may work to amass wealth, and when they had enough they would prepare for a ceremonial event. This event would showcase their clan, but others may be asked to contribute dancing and singing.

Should attendees stay to the end of the event, which could last several days, they would be presented with gifts in thanks for witnessing the ceremonies. Names were bestowed, songs, dances and crests might be bestowed or the clan might allow another clan to use their ceremonial properties (songs, dances) at subsequent events. Gyaahlangee would have been related; the exploits and talents of the host clan were on display. The guests were entertained with food, dance, and singing, and trade deals were made. The various kinds of ceremonial gatherings, generally referred to as Potlatch, in the Chinook jargon, were a way to re-distribute wealth. In Xaad Kil the communal gatherings were called gyaa.isdla (giving things away), as a general term, though there were other names for different kinds of gatherings. Communal feasts were held for such things as recognition of achievement, birth of a child, or the death of a family member. The celebration ceremony after the completion of the building of a house was called a waahlahl, and other types of ceremonial gatherings had their own names (Boelscher 1988:66).

In modern times, when there is a church funeral, the burial of the deceased is done in the community graveyard, and following that there is a tea, which is a gathering where light drinks and food are served. One or more years later, or when the family can afford it (van den Brink 1974:265), there is another ceremony to move the head stone and place it at the grave. The Headstone Moving Ceremony continues to be practiced today. At this time you must end your crying for the person who has passed. A large dinner takes place; a ceremonial event where people are asked to relate their stories of the deceased to all present. Payments are given to people who manage the ceremonial rights, such as the actual moving of the head stone, and wiping of it once in place. These payments are not a re-distribution of wealth but instead to pay for what the person has contributed, and to recognize them for witnessing the event (Barney Edgars, personal communication 2012).

Reincarnation is a traditional belief. A child may be born and assume the spirit of an ancestor at birth or even at a later time (Boelscher 1989). Parents look for traits of a deceased person in a child and then they announce that the child is the reincarnation of that person. Gagiid is an important human / animal / spirit that comes onto the land when someone dies from drowning. They can travel on land or water and if they hurt themselves they will start to remember their old life as a human and become sad.

A shaman (sgaagaa) was a specialist who might be engaged to cure someone of a disease of the body or mind, assist with child birth, and sometimes the shaman was asked to be present to determine the reincarnation of the child at the birth. Both men and women

could be shaman. A person might become a shaman after a particular near death experience where they saw other worlds, and then began to have access to those worlds

(Swanton 1908:570-573, The Woman Who Became a Shaman). Kugan (mice) feature in some shaman curing rituals. A mouse would be caught, and then it would be asked a question regarding the illness of a person, or some other matter, by the shaman, and then if the mouse faced a certain way, or moved one ear or the other, for example, it meant yes or no, or in some way answered the question. There were many beliefs associated with mice, these beliefs called kuganaa, which include witchcraft that may be performed using a piece of the intended’s hair or even a piece of their clothing (Boelscher 1989:190-

198). As Boelscher points out, ‘The techniques and beliefs involved in kuganaa put into ritual practice the indigenous belief in the vulnerability of humans to the influences of powers, and the notion that humans, their acts and fates, are manipulable if their state of mind allows it.’ (Boelscher 1989:196).

The Haida used parts of a wide variety of plants to make medicines for various ailments.

Plants or leaves may be called xil, which is also the word for medicine, and the use of plants in the lifeway is documented ethnographically by Turner (2004) and Poole (1872).

Various parts of plants were used for medicinal preparations, sometimes the leaves, sometimes the root, sometimes the bark, sometimes all of the plant. Other medicinal or cleansing treatments included the ingestion of sea water. During Francis Poole’s visit in the mid-1800s, he investigated the presence of an unusual puddle of water in a certain

area of the village encampment. Upon observation of and consultation with the people, he identifies the puddles as pools of regurgitated salt water, left when people brought salt water up from the ocean in buckets, drank large amounts, then regurgitated the water onto the land, rolling their bodies on the ground after this, and then regurgitating the remaining water. They claim to have been ‘washing themselves inside-out’. Says Poole ‘… for to the indiscriminate adoption of this cure, it seems to me, is clearly traceable the fearful mortality among the natives when the small-pox visited them.’ (Poole 1872:317-

318). The ingestion of salt water has also been recorded as a method of cleansing the body to prepare for ceremony and hunting (Swanton 1908:572).

Children are important as the reincarnation of a deceased person and as marriage partners to connect families in terms of wealth. Certainly, children brought happiness.

Children help with the gathering and preserving of foods once they were old enough, and it is through the inclusion of children in the performing of daily subsistence tasks that they learned lifeways. In my experience of the modern xaadaa lifeway, children are treated with considerable respect, and children are taught to respect Elders of the community first and foremost, and to provide for Elders when possible. For example, a portion of freshly harvested butter clams are often provided to an Elder who cannot get the clams for themselves with ease, and this goes for all other resources as well, from plant medicines, to berries, to salmon, to the inner bark of cedar and cypress trees for weaving. (Barney

Edgars personal communication 2002, Swanton 1908:667-677).

When a girl was tagwanaa (had her first menstrual period) she was secluded for 10 to 40 days behind a screen in the long house. She was not to look directly at any one, should she come into contact with them. Customs varied depending on clan, but generally a girl was given only a small amount of water and food once per day during this time, and if she went out she might have to wear an elaborate covering over her head. The enforced silence and the meditative state that would have been brought about during tagwanaa prepared a young woman for dealing with the hardships of life. When the tagwanaa was done she might be considered ready for marriage in some clans, and a feast might be held in her honour (Blackman 1982:27,28,91,92).

Another custom for the youth who were moving from childhood to adulthood is demonstrated in a ceremonial song and dance performance called k'aawhlaa (Sit Down and Reveal Oneself) (Elder Florence Davidson, Haida Gwaii Singers Society and Council of the Haida Nation 2009:11). This dance is so named because when the dancer dances, it is as if she is sitting down while moving. Mrs. Davidson related that, when a youth went into the forest to fast and find their spirit, they would return to the village in a spirit state.

During the performance, the dancer covers his or her face from time to time with a blanket, as they are shy in a spirit state. In Skidegate, the mask for this dance had a long nose which hung over the edge of the blanket. It is said by some that this dance can only be performed if it follows a Headdress dance, which is a Chief’s dance.

Some xaadaa grooming traits circa 1850 were witnessed by Sir Francis Poole, an explorer, geologist and adventure writer who travelled up and down the west coast of Canada and the United States, as well as through some interior regions. Though his accounts are often negative in terms of his descriptions of aboriginal peoples, he does provide observations that may not be found elsewhere, in part because of the very early timeframe that he visited the islands, prior to the last major small pox epidemic to hit the northwest coast in the 1860s14. He notes that a xaadaa named Kitguen, who was partial to Poole, told him that he liked him because he was ‘cleaner than most whites’. He goes on to say, 'Smooth faces, it seems, are fashionable with his tribe, every man of whom systematically eradicates the hairs of the face, and carries a tweezer about for that express purpose.’

(Poole 1872:74) In another encounter, Poole landed on Louise Island at Old Kluu village on the east coast south of Skidegate, where the people greeted him thus: 'The faces and hands of men, women, and children, were so thickly beslimed and befouled with the blackest of black paint, that no one feature could be discerned in its natural form.' (Poole

1872:107). What Poole witnessed was likely a ritual associated with the group encountering one of the first Europeans they had ever seen, or perhaps the people were covering themselves to provide a shield against small pox and other European introduced

14 Poole states that he was the first White man to live on the Queen Charlotte Islands for an extended period and also that it was his party of geological explorers who passed small pox on to a certain village on the mainland at Prince Rupert.

diseases, which were rampant during this time and had been for a century by then.

Importantly, a precise kind of face painting, very different than what Poole describes above, was known up and down the coast during the contact period, and distinct patterns were often associated with one’s crests and clan affiliations. As previously mentioned, tattooing was common practice. The wearing of labrets in the lower lip was practiced by women, and adornment of the nasal septum was known. The clothing that both women and men wore was typically cloak and skirt-type items made of woven cedar bark (Poole

1872:121, Dawson 1993 [1878]: 102,103, MacDonald 1994:210).

Before contact there was a long history of conflict on the North coast, possibly related to an imbalance between population and resources (MacDonald 1979 in Ferguson 1984,

Kelly 2007). Drucker believes property control was the motivation,

Presumably the development of the concept of a war of conquest is to be attributed to the highly developed concepts of property right in lands and places of economic importance, and to a certain amount of actual population pressure in the north in aboriginal times. [Drucker 1955:136]

Another reason for warfare or raiding may have been to obtain the food stores of others, due to the possibility of late winter starvation (Blackman 1976, Poole 1872). According to

Poole, the people at Old Kloo village, Louise Island, on the east coast of Xaadlaa gwaayee, were out of stored food by the end of the winter and they ate bulbs in the spring or otherwise may have died of starvation. The difficulty of maintaining stored food in edible condition until winter's end in a very humid environment, as well as difficulties of

successful hunting, fishing and gathering during this time of year may have contributed to the raiding mentality of the people. The starving mind, or seeing one's kin in need, may have been a tipping point where the risks involved in raiding became a reasonable option.

Revenge killings took place to balance the score between two clans. They could be fierce and fast, with a canoe of raiders pulling up next to another and killing the voyager(s)

(Swanton 1908:494), or land based, where the raiders came into a village after dark.

Motivations were various and might include what could be called empathy.

The raid staged on the occasion of the death of an important person, whether or not he had died from natural causes, was a typically northern custom. The usual expressed purpose was that of ‘sending someone with the dead chief’, or of ‘making other people mourn also’. [Drucker 1955]

SGALANGEÉ (SONGS)

The elaborate nature of the songs that have been recorded ethnographically by a host of researchers, including John Enrico, Wendy Stuart, Edward Curtis and Terri-Lynn Williams-

Davidson, indicate that song writing and singing was a significant part of the late precontact xaadaa lifeway. Songs would accompany major life events and ceremonies, and were associated with everyday activities as well. An important archival anthology of

Haida Songs was produced in 2009 that includes the following xaadaa song types: Canoe and Paddle Songs, Dinner Songs, Entering the House Songs, Prayer and Power Songs,

Peace and Headdress Songs, Ceremonial Songs, Dancing Songs, Lullaby Songs, Children’s

Songs, Honour Songs, Gambling Songs, War Songs, Love Songs, Mourning Songs, Fun

Songs, and Other Songs (Haida Gwaii Singers Society and Council of the Haida Nation

2009). As with all the cultural artifacts of this group, the drastic decline of the population meant that some songs were likely lost, but it is striking that so many songs made it through to modern times, and I contend that this exemplifies the pervasiveness of songs and dancing in the lifeway of the people before contact. A composer from Masset, Charles

Thompson, continued to sing and compose into the 20th century, carrying through the tradition (Enrico and Stewart 1996). At least one xaadaa of our generation, Vernon

Williams of Old Massett, continues the song composing tradition, and songs and dances are currently performed and participated in at communal events in Old Massett and

Skidegate. At such events all of the people in attendance are encouraged to join in with particular songs and dances, while others are performed only by a particular clan, dance group, or visiting group in attendance.

Notably, the 2009 song collection does not contain a category called walking or hiking songs, even though yaahl (Raven) was a hiker. This may again indicate that this inland aspect of the culture has been lost. It is similar yet different for the more ceremonial songs, as Enrico and Stuart note, ‘Soon after the missionaries began to work among the

Haidas, the potlatch was of course made illegal in Canada. The end of potlatching effectively meant the end of all those kinds of music with which it was associated.’ (Enrico

and Stuart 1996:65). There are however, two songs in Enrico and Stewart’s Northern

Haida Songs book that have a trail in them, and the trail is used as a metaphor for longing and memory. The English translations of the prose content of the two songs is given here:

Which trail Should one turn to To see his dear one? [Enrico and Stuart 1996:300-306]

I used to go around to the children of ts’eehl ‘laanaas You think of me like an ancient trail now [Enrico and Stuart 1996:371-374]

These songs include lines of chanting that fill them out, and, as with all songs sung at potlatches in the modern day, it is likely that the entire piece would be repeated several times. The first song was written by Robert Davidson Senior at Old Massett after the death of his first wife, and the second was recounted by Lydia Charles and Viola Morrison at

Hydaburg, a village of the southern Alaskan islands that was inhabited by xaadaas in the

1700s when some of the northern xaadaa moved there. A sense of longing is felt in both songs, it would seem a longing for the past, for people of the past and for the ways of the past, which the trail represents. The trail therefore is symbolic of memory, as the trails may only have been known in memories when these songs, especially the second song, were written.

4.3.1 Spiritual Beliefs and Cosmology

Spirits are found all over and inside the landscape, in the sky, under the islands, and out in the sea. The ‘spirit of the atmosphere’ or ‘power of the shining heavens’ (Swanton 1905a) was called sang sG̱aanawee, and today, the great spirit and the singular God for some, is referred to as sgalaanaa.

Numerous supernatural figures are described as the personifications or animations of agents or catalysts. These were “deities” (Swanton 1905a) or spirit powers of the xaadaa̱ , and they were prayed to or talked to, and they may take action and talk directly to human beings (Swanton 1905a:23, 1908:673). The deities might talk to a person if the individual was in a pure state, and to acquire this state of being, a person may need to do a physical and spiritual cleanse, inside and out. For example, cleansing could be done with a salt water purge or the ritual ingestion of prepared medicine, such as ts’iihlants’aaw (Devil’s club). When a person was pure they could see and sometimes interact with supernatural beings who numbered in the dozens if not hundreds. The following paragraphs provide a summary of the xaadaa cosmological outlook as recorded by Swanton, to provide context for considering how xaadaagee of the late precontact thought of inland areas.

Swanton (1905:11-37) divides the deities into four groups: Beings of the Upper World,

Beings of the Sea, Beings of the Land, and Patron Deities. The Beings of the Upper World

inhabit the sky country, which exists as a bowl shape over the circular, flat earth, and has five levels. The stars, moon and sun are all named and, importantly, these celestial bodies were the xaadaa compass. There is an understanding of the tides and how they affect the weather as they twice daily rise and fall, creating a noise in the mountains that is not thunder but something different. One important deity is not of any of the afore- mentioned categories. He is called Kuuyaa giigaangdal (Sacred-one-standing-and-moving) and he holds up xaadlas tlagee. The implication is, as confirmed by Swanton, that xaadlas tlagee is separate from other lands, and areas outside of the archipelago are not part of the mythology, as these are the business of the mainland peoples. Again, the concept of separateness is key to the xaadaa cosmology and general mindset. When there is going to be an earthquake, that is, when he is about to move, Kohyagiiagaangdal has a pole that a marten runs up and the marten’s running creates the thundering sound that precedes the earthquake. Humans may interact with Kohyagiiagaangdal, for example, if someone throws a stone at a Bufflehead duck, this will create a reaction from Kohyagiiagaangdal that causes it to snow. Actual thunder and lightning are caused by Thunderbird, a mythical bird who is known similarly to mainland aboriginal groups15.

15 Thunderbird is probably an imported deity, because, even though it rains a lot, there is little incidence of thunder and lightning on the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Thunderbird crest is not owned by any of the old clans of the xaadaa.

The Beings of the Upper World have houses that are suspended in the air and these may be considered something like heaven in the Christian religion. One such being is named

Taaxat, and it is his house that people go to when they die a violent death. Wiigit has a house where he or she keeps account of all the people on the islands, and the cry of each new born child is heard in the corner of her house. Finally, another example of those who had houses up high was The Great Stingy One, to whose home those who died of hunger went. Also included in this category are the eight winds, northeast, north, northwest, etc. that are all named, indicating their agency in the xaadaa mindset. Each wind is personified and has a home, even kin. The various kinds of clouds that accompany certain winds are all named, and one of the brothers of the Northeast wind is called He-who-takes-off-the- tops-of-trees.

Possibly the place with the most supernatural entities was the sea and the various tribes of these beings were reportedly very important to the xaadaa, and were the most prayed to, due to their importance for sustenance.

The Beings of the Sea also known as the Ocean-People, like those of the Upper World, were of a moiety, had clans, and some were said to have been human in a previous life.

Not only this, but there was a duality of meaning for animals, who could be just animals, some of which were hunted for food, or who could be supernatural entities in disguise, and it seems that at least in part for this reason the concept of respect was extended to all animals. Swanton’s informant elaborates on the method for killing a supernatural being

that is very different from killing an animal. In order for the being to die, one must cut the supernatural being in half and place a sharpening stone between the two halves so that if the halves try to mend together, they will …“grind themselves to nothing” (Swanton

1905a:17). The Ocean-People include all animals, such as the Salmon-People, the Herring-

People, and the Killer Whale-People, and all of these ‘People’ may appear in their animal form when in the waters, or, when they are at home in their houses deep down in the water, they take human form. Killer whales were given individual names that reflected their seasonal movements and/or residency at particular parts of the islands. The names might refer to the shape of their dorsal fin (as these are unique to each individual), their colouring, and other personal signifiers. Points of land, rocks exposed at low tide, headlands and beaches were all personified, and stories were known of these places and their associated deities. (Swanton 1905a:18-23). There is a long description of various

Ocean People in the work of Swanton and he even says that he leaves out some, indicating the breath of numbers of these deities, and correspondingly, the elaborate nature of this aspect of the ethos of the people, whose lifeway was so inextricably connected to the ocean in terms of food and movement.

The Patron Deities, as Swanton refers to them, are a set of deities that are not related to environment specifically. They are compelling actors who are often the harbingers of good and bad things and, like the Beings of the Sea, were usually affiliated with a moiety. Skil,

(Property) is a bird that was never seen, but its voice was heard, sounding like an old

heavy church bell. If you heard Skil, you would become wealthy. Skil jaadee is The

Property Woman, and she is said to have curly, partially gray hair. In order to see her you had to eat xat (unknown plant), and then you might see her carrying her baby on her back and become rich. Others of this group include the Master Canoe Builder, whose ‘carving was so life-like that the eyes of the creatures seemed to wink.’ (Swanton 1905a:30). The-

Singers were two sisters who one might learn songs from, as they had obtained them from birds. The energy of The Slave-Power would be felt just before someone was going to be taken as a slave. There were many others like this, and while some informants said that people might pray to individual patron deities, other informants, noted to be from Old

Massett, denied that this was practiced (Swanton 1905a:29-37).

The last category of super naturals or deities of the xaadaa are the Beings of the Land, and for the purpose of this essay, they are the most important, because they were the spirits that inhabited and managed inland areas. The roles of these deities were somewhat diverse and yet they were always related to the proper way of doing things on the land, making sure that respect was given to all creatures, plants and trees. Saw Whet Owl, called Screech owl by Swanton, was an important actor, whose call might indicate to a hunter that there was a bear in the hunter’s trap. The Daughters of the River, also referred to as the Creek Women by a Skidegate informant, were the catalysts for the return of the salmon who spawned in their rivers of origin. The salmon would swim towards each individual Daughter, who lived at the headwaters of every stream on the

islands. A Daughter of the River might be thought of, prayed to, or given offerings through the fire when many fish were desired. As they lived as far inland at the headwaters of rivers, these women were important to the inland traveler, if not for their function as salmon masters, then for the knowledge that her presence might be felt when far inland.

Yaahl is one of the Beings of the Land, and while he is named as Nang kilsdlaas (He- whose-voice-is-obeyed), he is not prayed to or provided many offerings. Old Massett people today, as in Swanton’s time, may give some food to Raven, but they say that he already steals too much, and therefore he does not deserve anything more (Swanton

1905a:27, personal observations of the author on Xaadlaa gwaayee 1990-2012). Yaahl,

Raven, the Trickster, as we have seen, is at once revered and held in distain.

Cosmology of Inland Lifeways, Hlk’yaans xaadaagee (The Forest People)

In the gyaahlang, references are often made to Hlk’yaans x̱aadaagee. The Forest People are spirits that can affect human beings and they are generally invisible, though not always. Even though they are invisible, they are also, ‘…the Trees, the Ground and all kinds of bushes’ (Swanton 1908:672). They can put a song into the mouth of someone to ensure that the ritual practices are observed; so that the correct song is sung at the right time when performing a certain task such as the butchering of a bear (The Bear Hunters,

Swanton 1908:672). The Forest People are, ‘All the spirits in the woods, be they

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quadrupeds, birds, or the spirits of trees, sticks, and stones.’ (Swanton 1908:347) Also, a

Forest Person can be like a human being, as in the story recorded by Swanton entitled,

The Woman Who Married the Artisan, ‘The Artisan helped her. He was a carver. He was one of the Forest-People [and thus he provided the people with the appropriate practices to follow when carving wood]. He was like a human being, - he who married this woman.

He saw that her friends had cast her out, so he helped her.’ (Swanton 1908:476-478) This story is about a woman who does not adhere to the customs of her people and who, for this reason, is banished from the village by her brother, the chief. She walks about behind the village because no one is allowed to take her in, and she sits down in the forest and is crying. The Artisan sees this because he has been noticing her walking about, inland. The story teller says that it is because her people had cast her out that he took her in and married her. He builds a house for them overnight and later takes it apart, and then builds another one far inland. This may refer to the practice of moving inland to harvest salmon at a fishing camp upstream, such as Kose, or it may refer to a different inland cultural manifestation, such as a salmon harvest of a north coast river by a west coast group, or a harvest that was for people of an inland village. She has an opportunity to say good bye to her relatives at the first house, and then she and the Artisan move inland and she stays with him and never returns to her old family, because the Artisan is ‘a good person’. Half way through the story we are told that the Artisan is ‘one of the Forest-People’, and that

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he was like a human being. He does not show himself to any other human being from the village but her.

While any conclusions about an inland lifeway may be hard to draw from one example of a Forest Person who is like a human being, it may be that there is, in the memory of the people, and as expressed in the oral-history-through-story-telling tradition, a time when people who did not adhere to the local customs left their villages to go to ‘…another country’ (Swanton 1908:477) far inland, to live out their lives. Another theme with the

Forest People in the gyaahlang is that they do not show themselves or communicate with just anyone. You must be chosen by them to be honoured with their presence and counsel, and in some cases, ritual cleansing is required. When the Forest People present themselves, they only do it after the human being has been in the forest doing something that is of interest to them. They may be both physical and spiritual, and their purpose seems to be to ensure that the right thing is done; the proper, correct thing is done that will appease them and all other spirits who are responsible for the success of a human endeavor. This theme is also expressed in the story ‘The Bear Hunters’ (Swanton

1908:409-416), in which voices speak to the protagonist, a bear hunter, and tell him the ritual way to butcher a bear, while also ‘putting a song in his mouth’ so that he sings the correct song before and during butchering.

The theme of spending time within the forest prior to a spiritual event is repeated in the story of ‘The Woman Who Became a Shaman’ (Swanton 1908:667-677). This story relates

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a trip made by 10 women to harvest bark across the inlet from their home village. The harvest location is in the study area, in Daastlans, also named Lignite Creek, on the east side of Naden Harbour. The women went into the forest along this creek to harvest cedar bark and one of them went further inland. When she was far inland and away from the group she was working to take a long strip of bark from a tree and the strip would not come off at the top. She refused to give up on the piece of bark, and continued to try to pull it off for the rest of the day. Finally, the strip still not off, she feels she must eat something and she takes some pitch or sap off a spruce tree nearby. The pitch she chooses however is pink, which is the wrong colour to be eating, as we are told by the story teller. The woman passes out, and her friends try to find her. They travel far inland to try to find her, and when they are unsuccessful they all must stay overnight in the forest. ‘Then all sat down in one place on the trail….So they staid there overnight. It was a long distance.’ (Swanton 1908:571,572).

Once they find her she cannot be woken up, and they make a matt out of some of their harvested cedar bark and carry her back down the hill. When she does wake up, they hear something in her chest, and it is said that they then know she had become a shaman. The story ends with a description of the ceremony that takes place when the group returns to their village with her, the new shaman. A woodpecker, who is referred to as one of the

Forest People, and thus one of the deities, stands on the edge of the smoke hole of the long house, and the people drink salt water to prepare for the ceremony. The new

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shaman is adorned with a dance apron, and when she sings it is a big Naden Harbour crab that sings through her first, then the wood pecker. The story of The Woman who Became a Shaman reveres and accentuates the power of individual forest spirits and physical, material values of the trees for humans, while at the same time cautioning against behaviours that can harm humans in the forest. This story also demonstrates the lifestyle of walking far inland for cedar bark along trails, and the trail in this story is associated with a watershed called the Daastlan. A trail, at least in the lower reaches of a watershed, may run along the side of a river. In Haida texts, Massett Dialect (Swanton 1908), informant

Walter McGregor tells the story, How Shining-Heavens caused Himself to Be Born, in which the mother of the main character,‘…took her mats and property, and started inland, in the bed of the creek. And there she settled herself. Then there was a trail over her. She said that the people tickled her by treading upon it, and she moved farther up. There she had her station forever.’ (Swanton 1908:291,292). She thus may have become one of the

Daughters of the River; a human who turns into an Inland Supernatural Being.

An important reference to hiking inland up the island chain from the south to get to a north end location is noted specifically in ‘The Bear Hunters’ gyaahlang. The story talks of a young man who is shunned by his village, but whose Grandmother teaches him how to kill bears using a dead fall trap. He then goes to the territory of his Uncles, in the Yakoun

River watershed and,

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He saw all of his uncles’ dead-falls. In each was a bear caught. He saw ten dead- falls. After he had seen ten dead-falls, he walked far into the woods. Then he came to a mountain far inland. The mountain was named Red-Huckleberry-Bush- Mountain. Then he came upon a wide bear-track under it. And he began to set up his dead-fall there. [Swanton 1908:671]

The young protagonist obtains some bears with his trap, then at one point, after he sets the trap again, a man walks over it and is killed. The man is from Cape St. James, that is, the southern tip of the islands, and he was travelling north to gamble. The young hunter can tell where the gambler is from by looking at the crests, which are carved into the copper leg bracelets he is wearing. This story documents a significant inland hike for a social purpose, that would have included crossing water occasionally, at minimum between Kunghiit Island and Moresby Island, and between Moresby Island and Graham

Island. This in turn indicates that there were water craft waiting at portage locations for this purpose. However, he may have swum across, which is certainly possible considering that the distances are not very far if you go to the right spots to cross.

To conclude this section, according to the gyaahlang gathered by Swanton, human activities in places far inland included trapping of bears, the interaction of humans and

Forest People, walking on trails to get from one village to another to gamble and socialize, and bark harvesting. Due to there being so few survivors, the stories Swanton collected may represent only a remnant of how the inland lifeway was known in prehistoric times

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through the tradition of storytelling, but the fact that inland activities are a focus of some stories may indicate that more inland activities took place in the late precontact.

4.2.3 The Seasonal Round of Northern Graham Islanders

Gathering and hunting those things that sustained and enhanced life was important to the xaadaa in terms of how they approached and thought of inland areas, and the times of ripeness dictated when some inland expeditions took place. Cultivation of some plants, and enhancement of environments to increase productivity of food species was a possible, if not likely, adaption in the late precontact on Xaadlaa gwaayee, in the same way as in other parts of the Northwest coast (Groesbeck et al. 2014). The cultivation of potatoes during the contact period, which the xaadaa excelled at and profited from, may have been an expression of an understanding of cultivation that had its roots in a precontact system. The harvest of cedar and cypress products, including the wood, bark, and roots, for use in the building of homes, canoe making, weaving of clothing, and for making implements such as rope, canoe bailers and storage boxes, took place a specific times of year, dictated not only by ripeness, but also by logistics. During my life a resident of the islands, I have participated in the harvest and preservation of many species throughout the seasons, and through this activity, I understand something of the ancient lifeways of working with the seasons of ripeness, the tides, and the weather. I also

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understand how some activities take place in combination with others due to the seasons of ripeness being the same or similar – you may as well kill two birds with one stone if you can. In this section, the seasonal round of hunting and gathering will be explained with reference to ethnographic reports and my personal experience.

A very broad range of plants and animals were, and continue to be, accessed for food, material, and medicinal / spiritual needs. Percy Brown, an Elder of the Masset xaadaa, provided a listing of species that he and his ancestors used to anthropologist Margaret

Blackman in the 1970s. Importantly, Blackman concurs with my research regarding the loss of cultural information since contact, stating that her 1979 article is limited not only by the number of informants she had, but also ‘…due to the late date at which it [the ethnographic information] was collected and the consequent decline in knowledge of traditional subsistence economy.’ (Blackman 1976:43). The information obtained from

Percy Brown by Blackman, in addition to information from Turner 2004, personal communications with xaadaa friends and family, and my personal experience of the landscape are summarized in Table 4-1, which provides a list of some of the more common or well-known foods, their time of ripeness, and other notes.

Hunting and gathering took place almost year round, but the spring, summer and early fall were the most productive because the various times of ripeness are during these seasons, and additionally because the intense late fall and winter storms did not hinder movement.

In the early spring, winter seaweed might be harvested at the sea shore, if the winter had

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been particularly warm during the months of January and February (Karen Church, personal experience). From February to March the cambium of hemlock trees would be scraped off in relatively small sections, and this wet material, loaded with vitamins, might be dried for later use as a flour that was mixed with dried berries, made into cakes, wrapped in dried leaf packages, and stored in cedar boxes (Archive of taped Interviews with Haida Elders, Haida Gwaii Museum, Skidegate, 1999). All of the foods harvested during the spring and summer would be eaten fresh and some would be dried or otherwise preserved for later use or trade. Foods might be immersed in Eulachon grease, seal grease, or water to store them for the winter (Turner 2004). Clams were harvested at the beach throughout the winter and into the late spring, and may have been ‘cultivated’ for easier and more abundant harvest through the terracing of the coastal clam beds

(Groesbeck et al. 2014, Parks Canada 2014). Sometimes whales would be taken in the spring at the northwest tip of the archipelago, and also from this region, small birds called s’daanaa (auklet) were captured with nets as they flew to shore during the night, towards fires set to attract them (Barney Edgars personal communication 2003, Blackman 1976). A variety of bird eggs were eaten fresh and the gathering of them would have taken place in riparian and coastal locations (Blackman 1976). Occasionally a Spring or Coho salmon is taken in the spring, when some pass by the north shores, and halibut and cods were taken at this time, when the winter storms had subsided allowing for safer ocean travel. In

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modern times, as was likely done in the past, a large portion of fresh halibut is sliced and dried in the sun and wind on large racks, and packed away for later consumption.

Late spring and summer are the times when most berries are ready, and Sockeye salmon are returning to their streams of origin. The aboriginal food fishery for Sockeye, in modern and past times, takes place in intertidal environments, with rising tides being the times to prepare to pick the fish from the nets that have been strewn across a section of river. In the past, fish weirs and other kinds of capture systems were used to funnel or corral the fish for easier procurement (Blackman 1985:10, 11). In Naden Harbour, and the Naden

River specifically, Sockeye usually return in July though the date at which they come up stream can vary depending on the amount of rain that has come down in the preceding weeks (Barney Edgars personal communication 2005). Sockeye was one of the preferred salmons for preserving because of its predictable seasonal abundance, and probably because once it comes up river it is less fat than other salmons, and therefore provides a more stable dried product. Other salmons are harvested at this time as well, their flesh being eaten fresh and some dried and/or smoked for preservation for winter or for trading purposes. Salmon eggs were eaten and preserved, and salmon heads might be buried in the ground and dug up later for eating. Martens would be trapped or snared at this time, as they attempted to access smoke houses containing the fish (Brown via Blackman 1976).

Marten skins were used to make blankets (Swanton 1908:676).

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Now in the early to mid-summer, the harvest of cedar and cypress bark could take place on harvesting expeditions when groups of people, (women in the gyaahlang), used trails that went inland that may have generally followed the banks of streams (Swanton

1908:570-573, Oliver 2007:11). Cedar was the most important material of the lifeways of the xaadaa. Clothing, canoes and bark boats, ladders, rope, baskets, diapers, houses; almost everything but food and medicine could be created from the ts'uu (Western Red

Cedar). For the xaadaa, the inner bark of cedar and cypress (also known as yellow cedar) provided many of the physical amenities of life because the fibers are durable and versatile. This activity takes place in the summer when the sap is flowing between the bark and wood layers, allowing efficient, slick bark stripping. Bark stripping is an activity that might take place in conjunction with Sockeye salmon fishing, as the season of availability or ripeness is concurrent. Cedar dominated forests full of bark stripped CMTs near to salmon fishing areas have been recorded (Province of BC 1950 to present). The bark that is stripped for the purpose of weaving has the hard and dry layer removed in the forest, and the remaining supple bark is bundled for transport. Once home, the material might be stored for a time and later re-freshed by submersing it in water. The material is then further processed by splitting the fibers which, if the bark is very straight (highly desirable), are split by hand into nice long, straight pieces used to weave capes, hats, shoes, and other items of clothing (Figures 4-2, 4-3 and 4-4). Thicker inner bark from older trees would be used to make floor mats and stronger baskets. The resource was cultivated

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by the bark harvesters, who did not take more bark than was acceptable, in terms of individual clan practices (Churchill-Davis 1996). Approximately a quarter of the circumference of a tree would be stripped of bark, leaving the remaining bark and cambium layer to grow and to heal around the scar. The roots and branches of cedar were gathered and used for various purposes as well, including rope production and tree climbing gear (see Chapter 7 Figure 7-9). Other trees such as Sitka Spruce, Pacific Yew,

Pacific Crabapple, Western Hemlock and Black Hawthorn were used for other cultural purposes, showing that xaadaas were well versed in the anthropomorphic utility of trees.

The roots of spruce were particularly important. Smaller roots were gathered and prepared for splitting, then woven into waterproof hats which, in the local rainforest environment were of high utility.

Also in the summer and as part of the bark harvesting expeditions previously mentioned, the ‘gum’, which is a semi-hardened extrusion of k’aas (sap, pitch) from a spot on the outer bark of a spruce tree, would be removed from the tree and chewed, and was known to some as ‘women’s medicine’ (Turner2004:63,64). An important tonic, a physical and spiritual medicine plant, ts’iihlants’aaw (Devil's club) would be harvested as required in the early spring and summer, because it is the bark of this plant that holds what is needed for the medicine. Again, bark is most easily removed in the spring and early summer when the sap is flowing. I was provided with medicine for cleansing and revival after the birth of my second child by her xaadaa father, who knew the particular way in which this

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Figure 4-2: Lovisa Thompson with her freshly harvested cedar bark. Central Graham Island 2010.

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Figure 4-3: The outer bark is removed and left on the forest floor and inner bark is bundled and brought back to the village for additional processing, and eventually weaving.

Figure 4-4: Cedar bark hat by Lisa White. Old Massett.

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medicine should be harvested, prepared, and administered, as this was passed forward to him by his mother. On Louise Island, Government officer Francis Poole also noted that

‘Bark forms their grand medicinal specific.’ (1872:317). Not only bark, but root medicines would be harvested in the spring because the roots are most potent at this time, not yet having spent energy on the production of leaves and fruit. Similarly, root medicines might be harvested in the late fall when the energy had gone back into the root.

A host of berries become ripe in June, July and August, making berry picking and preservation a consistent possibility for a day’s work. Strawberry, salmon berry, thimbleberry, blue huckleberry, red huckleberry, and saskatoons are ripe, and usually abundant. Baskets woven from cedar bark were used to hold and transport berries which, as previously noted, were dried for winter use and trade. Berries were, of course, always eaten fresh as well. K’as xil (False Azalea), a tall bush that looks somewhat like a huckleberry bush but which does not have fruit, was accessed for its branches, which were used in tattooing, and to line coffins (Turner 2004:156-157). This plant is found farther inland than most, indicating travel inland was required to obtain it Since K’as xil is associated with ceremonial activity, I think it would have been the reason for a hike inland at the time it was needed. Importantly, once you know where to find such plants it is easier to go back to them in the same way, and in this way the harvest of these plants in inland areas becomes mnemonic, as memories of past forays to obtain them are recalled, particularly in the case of K’as xil as relates to ceremony, the tattooing of crests, and the

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deaths of relations. High bush cranberry was also a resource of inland areas that was harvested on lake sides. This plant has become extinct on the majority of the islands due to deer foraging.

In the fall, small hemlock boughs were taken to make grouse snares (Brown as per

Blackman 1976), and as grouse do not frequent the coast, this activity would take place in the forest. Grouse begin to move to the upper elevations at this time, and therefore their movement would have been predictable. Along the coast, Chum salmon started to come up some rivers, and were harvested, smoked and dried for the winter. This salmon is known to be a favorite of the Elders (Barney Edgars personal communication) and like

Sockeye, dries and preserves well due to the low fat content. In October, crabapples become ripe and are harvested in coastal areas, or areas where there are large openings in the forest on the edges of grassy wetlands. Crabapple trees in more sheltered forest areas do not produce fruit. While crabapple picking may not require movement inland, it does require knowledge of where they are growing and producing well. At Yaan, the village site that is across from Masset, a profusion of crabapple trees are found behind the old house line in one section of the village site, which is speculated to indicate cultivation of these trees, at least during the early contact period (Church and Edgars 2011). At this site we also find remnant patches of nettles and mint, both of which are plants that are only found on Graham Island at places where people lived (cultivated). There is also an interesting stand of cedar trees at Yaan that appear to be even aged, which is not typical

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of how cedar grows, and in addition the trees are not in a typical cedar eco zone (Figure 4-

5). We speculated that these trees were cultivated in the postcontact period. They appear to be approximately 100-150 years old, though no increment boring for dating by dendrochronology was conducted.

Harvest in Inland areas in the Late Summer and Fall

Some kinds of food, medicine and material would be harvested concurrently during forays inland. As demonstrated in 4.2.3, in the example of the legendary story ‘The Bear

Hunters’, dead fall traps for bears could be situated far inland on wide trails that both humans and bears used. The mountain that the young hunter walks up to, to install his new dead fall trap is ‘far into the woods’ and called Red-Huckleberry-Bush-Mountain, which was likely named for the amount of berries that could be picked there. At higher elevations berries ripen later in the summer and into the fall, and so the harvest of Red huckleberries, if not for preservation but for food when travelling inland, could have been associated with setting up bear traps at higher elevations. These berries are irresistible when on a hike because they provide water and sugar, as well as other nutrients.

According to an Elder of the Masset xaadaa, Florence Davidson, hunters who were travelling inland, in the mountains, would often relate stories of walking through thick

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Figure 4-5: Possible Red cedar cultivation behind the postcontact village, Yaan. Note the even-aged, mono-culture stand.

bushy blueberries’ (Turner 2004:122). These were hldaan (the Alaskan blueberry), which are only found at higher elevations. In addition to the berries being good eating, and as we know today, high in anti-oxidants, the wood of the bush was used for house pegs.

Graham Islanders also hunted caribou in the precontact period (Christensen and Stafford

2005:253), and this hunt probably took place in the late fall and winter when the animals were fatter and their hides were in better condition. Today, deer and elk roam the islands

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but they were introduced to the archipelago around 1950. These introduced species are now hunted extensively by local people and visitors, who take them in the fall and winter when they are fatter and when the meat tastes best. It is likely that the same season of harvest existed for the caribou and for the same reasons. When caribou hunting, lingonberries, cranberries, crow berries and cloud berries may have been harvested.

These grow in the same eco zone as the documented caribou range, that is, the wetlands of inland areas of northern Graham Island, (Sheldon 1912) and are ripe in the fall.

Medicines such as Labrador Tea and Bog Rosemary, also of this eco zone and also ready for harvest at this time may have been harvested concurrently.

With food stores having been put up, and the season of gathering wild foods coming to an end, winter was the time for people to congregate in the winter village where they wove clothing and baskets, and created items from those things that had been put up for that purpose. This was also the time for the harvest of wood products from the forests. ‘The time preferred was late summer to early spring, as felling a tree when the sap was up hastened the rotting of the wood. ’A Westcoast canoe maker ritually fasted and prayed for success in choosing the right tree.’(Stewart 1984:37). The remains of this activity, though mainly of the contact period, can be seen in the CMT record within the forests.

CMTs that evidence aboriginal logging activities will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7.

Figure 4-7 is an example of one kind of logged CMT that may still be seen in the forests, though well covered in moss and not always visible to the untrained or inexperienced eye.

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Pacific Yew, which was used for the making of bows, octopus harvest sticks, and fishing hooks likely took place at the same time as cedar wood harvest because Yew and Red cedar appear to have a symbiotic relationship, as you never see Yew without cedar present. Large and small dug-out cedar canoes were created from the logs of massive trees, the remains of some unfinished canoes attesting to this, still present in the forest.

The quality of some cedars, especially prior to industrial logging, was perfect for making freighter canoes that could haul people and trade goods to and from the mainland. In fact, the canoes of the xaadaa were so good that they were traded with other groups

(Blackman 1985:12, 13).

Figure 4-6: Example of an Aboriginal logging CMT (AL). Note: A thick layer of moss approximately four cm thick covers all parts of felled CMTs in the northern rainforest

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Figure 4-7: Western Red Cedar exhibiting interior cavity. Trees that take this naturally occurring form may continue to grow for centuries and may be used to shelter and maintain a camp fire in this wet environment.

In the modern period a major trade of foods and hand-crafted goods takes place at the All

Native Basketball Tournament in Prince Rupert, BC each February. People from up and down the coast come to trade, and the tournament has become a way of bringing people together for a large annual multi-First Nations cultural gathering. The All Native appears to be partly, or largely, a continuation of the tradition of the potlatch. These invitational gatherings were one of the traditional ways of spreading wealth and cultural traditions on the northwest coast (Clutesi 1969, Boelscher 1989). In the late precontact, because of the

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treacherous weather during the winter months, ceremonial and festive gatherings would have been attended by people who could travel safely to the gathering. Proximity in terms of travel could limit the attendees and therefore people from around the archipelago would have participated in local events, as might the people from the islands of southern

Alaska. The ceremonial songs of the northern xaadaa include words and entire songs that are of Tlingit origin, attesting to the interrelationship of ceremonial and trade events amongst these groups.

Some of the items that the xaadaas used for export were cedar canoes, slaves, shell, seaweed, and dried halibut. They traded with the Tlingit in the north for their moose and caribou hides, copper, and Chilkat blankets which, in the late precontact, were woven from Mountain Goat hair. From the Tsimpseans to the east, they typically acquired eulachon grease, dried eulachons and soapberries (Blackman 1985). Cedar bark and spruce root woven items might also be traded (Blackman 1982). These trade expeditions took place in the late summer, when the eulachon grease was ready, and when the harvest of preserved foods was ready for export. Eulachons, a small oily fish found in abundance in large mainland rivers in the spring, was not found on the islands in abundance (Campbell 2011), and was therefore an important resource that could only be obtained through trade off-island island groups.

As found in the ethnographic record, and through modern experience of living from the wild products of the land and sea, the seasonal round of hunting and gathering took place

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mainly close to the ocean shore, but importantly, it also included forays inland to obtain certain foods, medicines and material goods. Forays for medicine and spiritual cleansing were also the main purpose of expeditions inland (see Turner 2004:154). The fact that descendant xaadaas have related traditional knowledge of inland foods and medicine, such as the Alaskan Blueberry, Caribou, K’as xil, and High Bush Cranberry attests to this.

4.2.4 Ethnographic Accounts of Inland Lifeways

In the Fraser River valley, a few hundred kilometers south of the study area, the presence of cedar CMTs and their associations with oral histories indicate that, like the xaadaa, these peoples probably stripped bark near waterways. ‘… a small tributary stream located in the Fraser canyon at Yale means “cedar bark stream” (McHalsie 2001 as cited in Oliver

2007:11). Patterns of harvesting radiated outwards from these places, creating tendrils of modification that followed pathways.’ (Oliver 2007:11). This information is corroborated by Stafford and Maxwell (2006) on Xaadlaa gwaayee and Vancouver Island, and also in the central interior of British Columbia, where CMT archaeological sites, especially bark stripped trees are usually found in association with hydrological features , that is within view of rivers and lakes, or the adjacent valley side (Burlotte and Canuel 2002). The rivers and streams provide orientation markers.

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In our study area, in Naden Harbour watershed, an ethnographic account published in

1884 by Newton Chittenden references the remains of fallen and utilized cedar trees.

During his exploration, on behalf of the then new Province of British Columbia, he and his local guides made a canoe trip to the study area where they went inland, up the Naden

River by canoe for three miles. They continued up along the river by foot for some distance, where several bear traps are witnessed, as well as ‘tame and plentiful’ grouse.

They camped overnight in this area, then walked and canoed out the following morning.

Regarding inland trails, Chittenden wrote,

Indian trails were almost invariably found, extending from one to three miles along the water course, terminating at or near bodies of the finest red cedar, which they had cut for canoes and poles, for carving and building purposes. Upon some of these trails considerable labor had been expended in bridging over ravines, corduroying marshy places, and cutting through the trunks of great fallen trees. Only a few of them showed much use of late years, being obstructed by logs and overgrown with bushes. But, poor as were these native roads, I was always very glad to find them, and correspondingly sorry when I could follow them no longer, for beyond progress was exceedingly difficult; fallen trees from one to eight feet in diameter, in all stages of decay, thickly overgrown with moss, lying one above another, not infrequently to the height of ten or fifteen feet, covered nearly the whole surface of the country. [Chittenden 1884:58]

Trail building and maintenance and the evidence of cedar harvest in the form of the visible human made markings on ancient trees indicate that inland trails were important for access to resources. Chittenden also notes that, ‘…the Indians to the south with whom the

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Hydahs [xaadaas] were at war, sometimes crossed over these mountains from the head of

‘Kio-kath-li’ [probably T’aaw Kaahlii ] inlet on the west coast.’ (Chittenden 1884:84)

This is one of just three references to an inland trail in the study area and it indicates that trails may have been used for purposes other than resource procurement. The choice of words used by his informants is also of interest, as Chittenden indicates that there was a group other than xaadaas living on the islands. A trail between Naden Harbour and Otard

Bay would be approximately 38 km long and would require going through a mountain pass, along the edges of wetlands, on sidehills and ridges, and along the banks of major streams in the lower reaches.

The second reference to this trail comes from the writings of a British botanist, Robert

Brown, who visited the islands in 1866, a few decades before Chittenden. ‘The Indians cross overland from Virago Sound to the opposite coast, and represent the country as thickly wooded and mountainous’ (Brown 1866, in Lillard 1989:113). Presumably, he is referring to the people from the north at Virago Sound who take an inland trail to the

‘opposite coast’. Given that the country is described as mountainous, he probably meant

Otard Bay. However, trails to the south coast of Graham Island were known in the postcontact era, and indicate that precontact trails may have existed in these places as well, together forming an inland trail network. Brown also provided an interesting notation regarding the possibility of people living inland in the study area:

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In Virago Sound are also several villages…Stanley River [Stanley Creek] here empties into the sea. It is said to flow out of a large lake in the interior, in which the river at Masset Harbour also take its rise. On this lake the Indians declare there is a powerful tribe who would slay the Coast Indians if they ventured there.’ [Brown (1866) in Lillard 1989:112]

No other ethnographic reference to people living far inland has been found during my research. Though there is no lake that drains into Stanley creek, this reference may demonstrate the lost knowledge of inland areas during the contact era, or the possibility that the nearest lake, Eden Lake, was considered to be the top of the Stanley watershed.

(There are connections through these areas via the heights of land at the top of the

Stanley watershed). There is also the possibility that Brown misunderstood his informant.

The inland trail briefly described by Brown and Chittenden is also noted by Charles

Sheldon in his conversations with his xaadaa hunting guides. Sheldon was an adventurer, naturalist, and what might be termed today as a trophy hunter. He travelled to different areas to hunt a variety of species, and on Graham Island in 1906, his quest was to shoot one of the elusive and rare Dawson’s caribou. His guides were from Kang, a coastal xaadaa village on the northwest side of the mouth of Naden Harbour. They had a blazed trail that went to Jaalan Suuwee (Jalen Lake), and this trail and other inland routes were used by Sheldon and his guides to locate the wetlands where the caribou ranged. The hunt was not successful, for while there were tracks and some signs of caribou along the edges of bog lands, they never encountered an actual live caribou, though they hiked long and hard for three weeks. With regards to the movements of the xaadaa in Naden

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Harbour, the Kang natives told Sheldon that, ‘…they occasionally have crossed the island to the west coast.’ (Sheldon 1912:138).

No reason for crossing the island is given in any of the three notations, but the name of the bay at the end of the trail is Tou-kathli or Otard Bay (Dalzell 1973). While kaahlii means bay or inlet or ‘the inside of’ [a place with a small opening], ‘tou’ could have one of at least three known meanings, in that there are three similar sounding words: t’aaw, meaning copper shield, tahaaw, meaning California mussel, and t’a’aaw, meaning snow.

Also, if the word was pronounced without the glottal t but with plain t, the word could be it could taaw (food) or taw (grease). During the modern period, travel to Otard Bay is quite rare, with commercial and sport fishers being the only people who frequent the mouth of the bay. It is a difficult place to land a boat, with bedrock exposures and sheer rock faces guarding the shoreline. The only place to actually land a small boat is at the end of the bay where there is a sand and cobble beach. If this place name means copper shield, then it may have been a place where merchant ships met with local people, as they were known to have copper shields, or it could also be a place where an important exchange was made16. California mussels are known to live along rocky northwest coastal shorelines, and so the name could be a reference to Otard Bay being a place to harvest

16 Owning a copper shield is and was a local status symbol

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them. Perhaps Otard Bay is a place where there is snow at certain times of year, or at some time in the past it was.

Discussion and Conclusion

As part of the seasonal round, xaadaas went inland to gather foods, medicines and material resources, but they also hiked through the interior of the islands for social interaction at villages far from their own. Cedar was abundant and of the highest quality in Naden Harbour, but of lesser quality and relatively scarce on the west coast of Graham

Island at Otard Bay, as indicated by biogeoclimatic data (Greene and Klinka 1994) and my personal experience in the area, having hiked and worked there fairly extensively (See

Appendix 4). Furthermore, there are no known Sockeye streams on the west coast of

Graham Island. Therefore, it is likely that west coasters came to the Naden Harbour watersheds to obtain cedar and cypress bark, or conversely, Naden Harbour residents brought cedar and perhaps Sockeye over to the west side for trade. Ethnographic accounts from the 19th and early 20th centuries mention a trail in the Naden River watershed that went far inland, a trail that had been used for cedar resource collection but which was in poor shape by the time it was observed, which is indicative of the state of inland culture by this time. The existence of an inland group that lived by Eden Lake, or by one of the other lakes in the Naden Harbour watershed, provides another possible link

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to the function of an inland trail here. This inland trail system would probably have been used for communication and trade during the winter months when travel out in the open ocean was perilous. The winter months were not a time for gathering much food along the coasts. Inland trail use probably increased in the fall and winter months as people accessed cedar groves for wood products and hunted bear and caribou. The notation of

Brown in 1866 of an inland village at what could be Eden Lake, along with the ethnographic information from a government commissioner in the late 1800s regarding the camp 5 km inland on the Naden River at Kose, shows that people had camps and permanent villages inland on Graham Island and these would have been destinations and stopping points on the trails. Finally, as demonstrated by the k'aawhlaa (Sit Down and

Reveal Oneself) song and dance performance, youth would go into the forest to find their spirit. Inland areas were certainly spiritual places, and plants found when on inland forays were used in ceremonial and ritual ways in the culture, indicating the sacredness of inland regions. The Forest People maintained the nature of inland areas by ensuring that the harvest of bears was done in the right, respectful way, and if it was not done in this way, famine could be the result. The Daughters of the River lived the farthest inland, at the heads of watersheds, and therefore may have been like spiritual companions to hikers far inland.

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In the following chapter, an analysis on place names and historic maps provides the next layer of ethnographic and language information to build on this research into the inland lifeways of northern Graham Island.

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CHAPTER 5: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE, PLACE NAMES, AND OTHER MAPS

As discussed in the previous chapter, human movements through the landscape were purposeful and activities that took place inland were diverse. Hunting a dwindling supply of caribou, trading foods such as salmon which would have been abundant in Naden

Harbour, harvesting bark and wood from the forest, and visiting family and friends on the other side of the mountain are some of the reasons that people would have moved through inland areas of northern Graham Island in the late precontact. To orient oneself today on an excursion such as this, maps, compasses and hand held Global Positioning

System (GPS) units are employed to help you know where you are and how to get to the destination. In the precontact past, there were no known physical maps of the study area; instead, indigenous vocabulary and oral accounts were the maps of the precontact x̱aadaa and these were used by people to know where they were, to navigate their journey and to make their way back to a specific place. As the language was not written, this information was kept in the mind and verbal discourse was used to describe your experience within the landscape, to communicate an itinerary, and to transfer the map from one generation to the next. In this chapter, language as the map, including indigenous place names for the study area, will be described and related to historic maps from the early contact period.

Archaeologists have used indigenous language, place names and clan names to inform their interpretations of archaeological sites. Moreover, the interpretation of place names

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has helped direct the methods of archaeological investigation. In these times of land claims by aboriginal groups, archaeological and ethnographic studies are often conducted to help delineate aboriginal territories. Questions of territorial divides, of whether these divides were part of the precontact culture of a region, and how the territories were managed in the past, for example, need to be answered so that the consultation with the appropriate groups may be done when land and resource development is desired. In

Canada, archaeological investigations take place as a matter of course and law prior to these developments and ethnographic information can help to refine archaeological survey methods. To this end, archaeologists currently use the ethnographic and geographic information contained in indigenous language, including indigenous place names. For example, Oetelaar and Oetelaar (2011) used ethnographic and topographic information to delineate the homeland of the Blackfoot First Nation and the seasonal lifestyle and patterned movement of these semi-nomadic bison hunters. Place names, such as those assigned to mountain tops in the foothills region, identify important landmarks that would orient the group as they conducted their seasonal round of this portion of the Great Plains of North America.

Archaeological surveys add a layer of physical information that can substantiate or challenge the extent of the homeland and the models of seasonal movement. As new developments, such as oil and gas or mineral exploration, are investigated by Cultural

Resource Management (CRM) specialists, territories may be re-defined. Unfortunately, at

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this time, there is a slight to significant disconnect between scholarly archaeological research and the information constantly coming into provincial management agencies as a result of CRM work. The approach used in this thesis incorporates the results of this applied research with academic archaeology to understand the inland lifeways of precontact Graham Islanders.

5.1 Mapping Territorial Lines

A local example exists south of the study area where there is a set of archaeological sites that were recorded between 1998 and 2003 that seem to indicate the presence of a particular group due to the unique nature of the sites. The name of the group is the Pitch-

Town-People. Ethnographic notes from Swanton (1905a:90-91) record how these people were known to have lived at Kaysun, an ancient village and territory located at the northwest end of Moresby Island, not far from the southwest extent of Graham Island.

The legendary accounts of this group indicate that they were a separate group of xaadaas that did not participate in the same cultural practices. The legend says that they did not have a clan or moiety system, were large in stature, and did not associate with other groups along the archipelago (Gold 2004; Kii7iljuus/Wilson 2005). Between 1998 and

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2003, CMT Inventories and other archaeological investigations on a coastal hillside between Bill Brown Creek and K’aas Gandlee (Pitch Creek17) west of Rennel Sound located a number of sites that indicate the ongoing use of spruce tree pitch (sap) near the ocean shore. I contend that the distribution of these unique CMTs could be evidence of the extent of the territory of the Pitch-Town-People. Live and dead CMTs found near the mouth of K’aas Gandlee exhibit deep holes that have continuously healed over after being accessed for spruce pitch on a regular basis over hundreds of years. In the entire archaeological record for the islands very few examples of this CMT type have been recorded and, while this may be in part due to the history of logging in this region, which has taken most of the original growth forests along the coast at river mouths, these sites remain very important archaeological and cultural features that may indicate temporally related sub-surface sites (Grant et al. 2004:21,70-71) (Figures 5-1 and 5-2). Notably, spruce pitch was obtained in a different way in an area at the north end of Graham Island, where a rare photo of the practice was taken by Harlan Smith, Dominion archaeologist in

1919 (Figure 5-3).This practice of taking all of the bark from the tree except for rings where the branches prohibit easy removal was done on young trees that could be climbed because they have a lot of lower branches, and it would have immediately killed the tree.

17 Barney Edgars of Old Massett was the first person to call this stream Pitch Creek. Later it was translated in to Xaad Kil, K’aas Gandlee.

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Figure 5-1: Spruce CMT located at the mouth of K’aas Gandlee, Rennel Sound, southwest Graham Island. Small 15 mm tool marks likely made by an antler tool are found around the edges of this scar. A slab of bark and the cambium beneath it was removed. Date of modification unknown, though healing lobe thicknesses and bone tool technology indicate precontact cultural modification. 135

Figure 5-2: Spruce CMT at Awun River, Masset Inlet, central Graham Island.

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Figure 5-3: Spruce CMT, likely seen on the north central or northeast coast of Graham Island. Variation in methods for obtaining spruce pitch may indicate clan territories. ‘A standing Sitka spruce tree from which the bard has been cut. BC’, Harlan I. Smith, 1919, Canadian Museum of History, 46663

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It is possible that the difference in technique for extracting pitch and cambium indicates a cultural/territorial change on the landscape, and may be a topic of further study on the use of territorial markers on Xaadlaa gwaayee. Therefore, it is possible that CMTs can serve the modern purpose of delineating the territories of tuulang (clans). I shall leave this concept for now and turn to language as the map, where territoriality may be implied by one or two place names even though this is not the focus of the discussion19.

5.2 Indigenous Language and Place Names in the Study area

Language is formed by the response to the life situation and is continually evolving.

Notably, aboriginal languages tend to be more focussed on action than objects, and therefore the verbs contain most of the important information. The following analysis of verbs and nouns that describe how humans experience the landscape provide a window into the prehistoric thought patterns of the people. Moreover, indigenous place names in the study area appear to reflect the importance of place at the time of ascription and in some cases beyond that time frame.

19 Xaad Kil has several dialects that are distinct, and even with the community of Old Massett, the ancestral families of my Elders who taught me this language came from Yakoun River, Alaska and Old Massett, and each of them had different accents and ways of saying certain words or ideas. In the ancient past, who you were was indicated very specifically by how you spoke the language. My Elders were protective of their dialects, as they taught me the specific pronunciations.

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The language of the x̱aadaa has been recorded since the late 1800’s by missionaries and anthropologists, and studied extensively by a host of researchers since. In 1900, when anthropologist John Swanton recorded more than 200 gyaahlangee and ḵ’iiganee (ancient transformer stories) of the Northern x̱aadaa, he transcribed them in Xaad Kil and translated them into English with the assistance of local interpreters. He recorded an equal number of Skidegate stories (Swanton 1905b). His volume of Massett stories (1908), accompanied by the ethnographic information he gathered (1905a) provides a record of the language as it was spoken at that time by the informants and is a valuable piece of research that has been built upon since. Other linguists have published dictionaries, syntaxes and grammars of the dialects of Xaad Kil, with at least four major works completed since 1973 (Boelscher Ignace 1989, Enrico 2005, Lachler 2010, Leer and

Lawrence 1977). Elder speakers of the language are noted as having been consulted extensively in all of these documents.

Xaad Kil focusses on shapes and textures to describe objects and actions. Colours are not used much as descriptors, which may be attributed to an environment and lifestyle that did not lend itself to such emphasis. The rainforest as well as the maritime environment may be characterised by greyed hues of green and blue, and while the full gamut of colours may be found in this place such as the delicate orange of salmonberries or the florescent green of a certain deep moss in the forest, it is shape and texture that have been used to refer to such things, not colour. Cloud cover and types of clouds may be

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described in great detail in the language. There is also an extensive vocabulary for trees including the tools used to process them and the end products made of wood. There are other particularities of the language that clearly point to the aspects of life that were most important, through the detail and specificity of descriptors and nomenclature. Xaad Kil is a complex language with various dialects depending on the origin of the speaker, a feature that in ancient times would have been a significant personal identifier. In comparison to modern English, there are approximately twice as many phonetic entities, and when learning this language (as a native Canadian English speaker) one must use additional muscles, particularly those within the pharynx and glottis. Xaad Kil was not a written language and therefore the English alphabet, international phonetic symbols as well as unique symbols have been used to record it. Today, two or three orthographies are in common use, reflecting the preference of the local language authorities of the northern, southern and Alaskan dialects.

Inland Lifeways: the words

Many words in the language are ‘compound words’ though this is in a different sense than for English compound words. The shape and texture of an object, the way in which an action is completed in relation to an object (quickly, slowly, vigorously etc.), whether the action was completed yesterday, long ago, or a series of times, and other classifiers may

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all be found in a single verb. Nouns then are far less important in Xaad Kil, than these intricate verbs. Table 5-1 provides a listing of words that are associated with movement as related to inland lifeways. This is not a complete listing of words that may be associated with inland lifeways, as such a listing and ensuing discussion could be the subject of at least one additional Master’s thesis. Rather, Table 5-1 and the ensuing discussion are meant to focus on particular words and parts of words that are significant to understanding movement inland on Graham Island.

The existence of some of these individual words shows that trails were a part of the culture, that there were different kinds of trails. The word for bridge, k'yuwaa t'ajee may point to trail maintenance, but it may also be a word created in modern times to refer to bridges over modern roads, and it may have been a way of referring to places where fallen trees had created bridges over deeper sections of rivers. The fact that there are several words for trails and trail usage is important, as it is still a common notion that the peoples of the northwest coast rarely ventured inland (Oliver 2007:1). Words for village, camp, cave, and ‘a sheltered place’ may indicate that there were different kinds of stopping points during movement over land, and the various words for coastal features such as harbours and inlets attest to their function in terms of seaward movement. Inland topographic features have nouns such as suu (lake) and gandl (river) or gaan (watershed), and ‘mountain’ has a name that has its root in the word for top, crown of the head, summit or ridge, tl’aaj (Lachler 2010:485). Mountains then may be considered significant

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Table 5-1: Inland words as taught to me by my Elders Claude Jones, Stephen Brown and Mary Swanson during language classes lead by Dr. Marianne Boelscher Ignace, Simon Fraser University 2005-2010 in Old Massett. Orthography: Old Massett. (Additional sources: Enrico 1994 and 2005; Lachler 2009, Leer and Lawrence 1977, Smith 1930)

Xaad Kil word English definition k'yuu, k’yuuwee trail, opening k'yuwaa t'ajee bridge k'yuuwaatlagee the pathway out of concealment, the trail out of the woods diidee k’yuwee a trail in the woods, parallel to the beach t'áay foot of a trail (where it enters or leaves the woods), trail head k'uhlgwaasgyaan trail, portage across to the other side of something trail going across a point, spit or island, that may cut through the k'uhlgwee back end of a peninsula k'uhlgwáa in a sheltered place Suu, suuwee Lake, the lake Tlada’aaw Mountain tl'aaj summit, ridge, crown of the head, crown of an evergreen tree andl or - an fresh water, river. an may refer to watershed kaahlii bay, inlet gaaw Inlet stl’ang place behind, rear Kún point, headland diin Cave na.aangee the camp, [ee]: pronounced hard [a], indicates definitive or 'the' ‘laanaa, ’lngee village or town, the village

in the language in terms of their summit, which indicates that they were visual landmarks.

All tree species are named and cedar has several names depending on the age of the tree and its associated qualities (Enrico 2005:1911). All of the parts of the tree are named, as

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are implements made from them (Gow Gaia Institute 2005). Plants, mammals, fishes, sea mammals, sea weeds and insects are all named and many of the plants and animals live in inland areas, though some also inhabit shoreline areas. Animals known to inhabit inland areas include tl’ak (ermine), k’uu (marten), taan (black bear), skaw (grouse), hlk’yaan k’ust’aan (toad ) and , before they became extinct, ts’inhlk’al (Dawson’s caribou).

Indigenous Place Names

The indigenous named places of Graham Island are often associated with topographic features and may indicate markers of navigational and terrestrial orientation. Food gathering and hunting areas may also be indicated by place names, and settlements are named based on a variety of environmental, cultural or spiritual criteria. The same is true for other regions of North America where the named places are the landmarks that guide the group through their seasonal round (Oetelaar and Meyer 2006, and Oetelaar and

Oetelaar 2012). The language and the named places are the only maps that were used by many precontact groups.

Following are the kinds of places that were given names in Xaad Kil. This list was created using my knowledge of the landscape as relates to inland movement, with reference to known place names and place types within the study area, with reference to the ethnographic evidence presented above, and in consultation with Xaad Kil dictionaries,

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mainly The Dictionary of Alaskan Haida (Lachler 2010). Four dialects of Xaad Kil are recognized; Masset, Alaskan or Kaigani, Skidegate, and Ninstints (Enrico 2005). The Masset and Alaskan dialects most often use the same word and the intonations are mainly the same with these two. When using The Dictionary of Alaskan Haida, I must change the orthography slightly on occasion, to be consistent with the Old Masset orthography that I have chosen to work with in this thesis. Examples provided are within and outside of the study area, but all are on Graham Island and all are provided in the 2009 Old Massett orthography.

- Topographic / landscape terms, for example: tl’aaj (mountain top and ridgeline),

kun (headland), gandl (river), gaans (watershed), kaahlii (bay, inlet, sound) diin

(cave).

- Functional / navigational and resource procurement, for example: T’aay ahl (trail

head by) k’yuusd’a (trail tip)

- Settlements may be named after a number of things, or the meaning of their

names is no longer remembered. For example, the following are xaadaa village

names: K’yuusd’a ‘away from the trail, where the trail ends’, Ḵang, Yaan

(‘straight’), Gad G̱awayáas (white sloped), T’lii’aal (Tlell, ‘fireweed’), K’aayáng,

and Ya’áats’ (iron).

A place may be named for a combination of the above factors. Table 5-2 lists xaadaa place names within the study area that were found during my review of historic maps and

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ethnographic accounts, the most informative of which is included following this table as

Figure 5-4, Charles Smith’s off-shore view map.

Indigenous language and place names are an important link to the precontact way of thinking about orienting oneself during an expedition inland. I shall now move into the historic period where these memories are transcribed to visual representations.

Table 5-2: Some named places in the study area

xaadaa name English Name, place type Translations and Notes Inlet (Port Chanal); also Aahluu unknown mountain peak Distlans River or watershed, Daastlans unknown Lignite Creek Inside the bay Note: Charles Gáwee Kaahlii Virago Sound Smith spelling: OW.WAY, and on his map it refers to Virago Sound No English name. Place type is K’aanang not clear on source map by Unknown Charles Smith K’uu ’laana No English name, village Marten village No English name, point near K’uu laana Kun Marten point k'uulaa No English name. Place type is K’wi.lan Sluu.as not clear on source map by unknown Charles Smith No English name ,point of K’wiihl tla kunee Includes point land, navigational Kose Kose Indian Reserve Unknown trail tip - a trail that cuts through K'yuusd'a Kiusta village the peninsula begins at this village

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xaadaa name English Name, place type Translations and Notes

Kún meanspoint. This is an Missong Kwoon headland unusual word in that there are very few [m] in Xaad Kil. Needan Stl’ang Naden Harbour, bay House-place harbour Nesto, Island on West coast Nasduu with peak that is visible from Unknown Virago Sound Possibly Middle Hill, mountain Sk’aaj Iiwaans ii’waans means “big” peak

Sk’a’áaws Skoas Cylindrical fishtrap

SG̱ayn Davidson River, Mountain Merganser duck No English name, a point along Charles Smith spelling: Tega. Tiiga, Tiik’aa, T’aay ahl Stanley River at the mouth Translation: by the trailhead

T'aaw Kaahlii Otard Bay See pp.134,135

Tian Indian Reserve, creek and Possibly “slaughter village” Tiiaan village site (Swanton 1905a), tii- means “kill” Klick.geagans - Smith spelling, Tlagaa giiG̱agangs Floating place village “standing up mountain” - Same No English name, mountain Tladaaw Tl’ajaaws mountain top as the one named peak Sgayn. (place to) do some hunting and No English name, possibly a ‘Waa.duus gathering. There is a creek and camp or docking location small point here. Hak andless - Smith spelling. X̱aa G̱andlaas mallard duck watershed Naden River watershed Smith notation, 1930: indicates a visual 'knotch', a mountain pass ? Leading Knotch and visual landmark seen from offshore in Virago Sound

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5.3 Graphic Mapping of Graham Island Place Names

X̱aadaa place names have been attached to points, regions, water bodies and entire islands on paper maps made by those whose tradition was, is, and continues to be to document such things in a physical form, in contrast to the verbal and mental ‘map’ or archive of the xaadaa. The map makers have been the Captains of ships, geologists, anthropologists and various amateur ethnographers. In the following section, several historic maps that depict the study area are described for their contribution to understanding inland lifeways of northwest Graham Island. One of the depictions prepared by Charles Smith (ca 1930) is not just a regular two-dimensional map but rather a perspective drawing of the landscape.

5.3.1 Off-Shore View by Charles Smith and Ihldiinii (John Marks) circa 1930

Many of the place names in Table 5-2 come from this three dimensional representation of the north coast drawn by Charles Smith while in a boat off shore in Dixon Entrance (Figure

5-4). He and his informant seem to have been floating in a boat directly north of Virago

Sound when this map was sketched. The named places on this map show specific mountain peaks, rivers and points of land that served, in part at least, as the x̱aadaa map

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Figure 5-4: Charles Smith, Off-Shore View Map Circa 1930. F/3/Sm5, Image Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum

Figure 5-5: Detail of Figure 5-4. English place names within the study area are Stanley R, Naden Lake, Marian Lake, Naden Flats, and Point Isl., whereas the rest of the names are in Xaad Kil. F/3/Sm5, Image Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum (cropped by the author)

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of this area. It is a valuable artifact in terms of recording place names as they were known to Hldiinii (John Marks), an indigenous man who was the K'aawaas clan chief from

K'yuusd’a, a coastal village near the northwest tip of Graham Island.

Smith recorded the names using the standard English alphabet. In terms of the route of the trail through to the west coast, he makes an important notation of a ‘Leading Knotch’ indicating a pass through the Queen Charlotte Mountains that may have been used for navigating along an inland trail. From this vantage point several named places line up in this part of the map to indicate an inland route from the back of Naden Harbour at the mouth of Stanley River over to the west side of the island. In Smith’s orthography, there is

Tega, Klidow Klajaw also labelled SIGN [Sgayn] MOUNTAIN after SG̱ayn G̱andlee (mallard creek). A notation ‘2000’ is shown above another mountain top, close to the west coast which it is presumed provides a rough elevation of the summit of the mountain.

As this map shows, indigenous places of note were named using a variety of criteria. The places were usually landmarks for navigation whereas the names appear to describe the shape of the feature. For example, the name Skaaj Ii’waans, which translates as Big Cup

(translation by author), refers to a mountain that, from a certain vantage point, looks like an inverted cup or bowl. The land mark might be named to reflect territoriality as in

Tladaaw Tl’ajaaws, or the name could reflect the human usage of the area, such as in

Needan, where several precontact settlements existed along the rounded coastline of this enclosed harbour. The name might indicate a place where there is, or was, good hunting

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as in ‘Waaduus and Tiiaan, and it may directly indicate where to land, to access an inland trail as in T’aay ahl and K'yuusd’a (Table 5-2). Thanks to Charles Smith and John Marks

(Ihldiinii) these place names have been preserved, and provide a very useful layer of information in understanding the inland lifeway.

Historic Maps

Early settler society maps also contain clues to the precontact lifeways because they show new and old trails and record place names or other points of interest in the precontact navigational system. They are compact, and they are a physical form that almost anyone may access, not only those who have been trained on the landscape through the oral transmission of information. Archaeologists use historic maps to find clues to ancient lifeways to assist them in archaeological potential assessment and the development of site specific survey methods. I conducted a search of map archives at the University of

Calgary and the Surveyor of Lands in Victoria and discovered several historic maps of the study area, the earliest map having been published in 1871. The maps depict a trail through the study area and provide place names that were of importance to the map maker. These early maps indicate harbours, landings and other important points of navigation because they were some of the first charts of the area and would be used for subsequent travel and investigation. Historic trails are indicated on these maps as well,

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and the mapped pathways may provide some indications of where precontact trails went, as they have in other North American studies (Anaya Hernandez 1999:46-61; Hooper

1999). The maps are discussed in chronological order, as follows:

1. Map of British Columbia, Lands and Works Office, Victoria, 1871

2. Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Map 176 A, Graham Island,

Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, 1916

3. British Columbia Department of Lands Pre-Emptor’s Map, with Survey Notes, 1919

4. Department of Lands and Forests, Dominion of Canada, British Columbia, SW

Section, 1945.

5.3.2 Map of British Columbia, Graham Island section, Lands and Works Office, Victoria,

BC, 1871

The earliest map of the Queen Charlotte Islands was prepared by the government of the brand new Province of British Columbia in 1871. Although this map depicted the entire province, only the relevant section is shown in Figure 5-6. On this map, places of import to the province are given names, and most of the names, such as headlands and harbours, refer to points of oceanic navigation. This map clearly identifies hazards to navigation, especially bars and rocks that are only passable at high water. I refer specifically to Rose

Spit and Spit Pt. (the location of the modern town of Sandspit), which when travelling

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Figure 5-6: Map of British Columbia, Lands and Works Office, Victoria, 1871, case study area section only. Note: The border on the left side of this cropped version of the map marks the western margin of the entire map. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

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from the mainland, must be passed safely in order to access the two largest inlets, Masset and Skidegate respectively. Navigation hazards also are depicted in Naden Harbour because this inlet must be accessed via the frequently perilous waters of the north coast.

Of particular interest to the present discussion is the nature and amount of detail included on the depiction of Naden Harbour, here identified as Mazareto Hr. The name ‘Mazaredo

Hr’ was probably bestowed upon Naden Harbour by the Spanish, the first recorded explorers in the region led by Captain Langara in 1774. Mazarredo was one of the most revered Spanish Admirals of the 18th century and, although there are no records of him visiting Xaadlaa gwaayee, his name exists in this region, likely in homage by his countrymen. This name for the harbour is not seen on subsequent maps, but it is the name in current use for a set of small islands, the ‘Mazarredos’, located just northwest of the mouth of Naden Harbour. The names Isabella Pt and perhaps Virago Sound also may be attributed to these early Spanish explorers. By contrast, Jorey Pt, C. Edenshaw and

Inskip Pt appear to represent landmarks named by a later generation of English explorers navigating the waters of Naden Harbour. Significantly, all of these named places identify hazards to maritime travel.

An obvious exception to this list of named places in the study area is ‘R. Stanley’, the smallest creek at the south end of Naden Harbour. Actually called a river on this historic map, Stanley Creek is clearly identified as an important watershed, more so than the much larger rivers such as Xaa.andlee (Naden R.) , Sgyaan.andlee (Davidson R.), Daastlans

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(Lignite Ck.), which are not named. Perhaps the inclusion of this name reflects nothing more than the location of an important trailhead, T’aay ahl, which was pointed out by a local guide and recorded later in the Charles Smith panorama. Alternatively, the mouth of

Stanley Creek may have been depicted and named because it was the best place to harbour a boat in the south end of Naden Harbour.

Although the eastern coastline is depicted in some detail, the majority of the west coast of

Graham Island is merely sketched in because the west coast probably was not visited during this exploratory expedition. A similar lack of detail is evident in the representation of the inland portions of the island. For example, the Queen Charlotte Mountain Range is drawn as a rather narrow range of mountains which is located much closer to Naden

Harbour than it actually is (compare to Figure 3-1). The representation is consistent with the perspective of the mountain range as seen from Naden Harbour. Therefore, the depiction of a mountain range on this map probably reflects its visibility from the harbour and its potential future value as a source of raw materials. Similarly, two lakes are drawn at the south end of Naden Harbour but only one is labelled as ‘L. Eden’. Eden Lake is actually located southwest of Naden Harbour. Marian Lake is not shown in the correct location either. These inland lakes were probably inaccurately mapped because the explorers relied on information provided by local guides. If they had actually done reconnaissance inland, they would have mapped the lakes with more accuracy.

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Two villages are depicted on Graham Island both of which occur near the mouth of Masset

Inlet. These settlements would have been the villages called Ḵ’aayang and

‘Uttewas’(MacDonald 1994:132) or (G̱ad G̱aywaas). Notably, at this time the modern village of Skidegate is not shown as a village, and was probably not well established yet.

This would have been just prior to the movement of the southern peoples to Skidegate, which would become the only remaining village in the south end of the archipelago by about 1910. Although settlements are depicted on the coast, none are represented at inland locations nor are any trails drawn on this early historic map.

5.3.3 Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Map 176 A, Graham Island,

Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, 1916

The government of British Columbia clearly had an interest in the properties of Graham

Island from its inception, and this map exemplifies this interest, as it was created to describe the geological formations and associated mineral resources. Compared to earlier maps of the islands, this one is much more detailed and accurate; indicating that a lot of survey work inland and on the coast of Graham Island had been completed by 1916.

Within the study area, Eden Lake and Marian Lake are mapped correctly, as are all major and some minor river and stream courses. Of most interest to this study is a trail depicted

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Figure 5-7: 1916 Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Map 176 A, Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Detail of West Central Graham Island Spatial and Numerical Desk, Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence, Canada.

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as extending from Tiiaan (Tian Indian Reserve), just north of Otard Bay, to Naden Harbour.

This map has an unfortunate bunching of tape over a notation in the middle of the inland trail although, beneath the tape, the words ‘location approximate’ are visible (Figure 5-7).

The trail on the map is simply a sketch and therefore accuracy in the inland region is not likely. Once the trail gets to Otard Bay from Tiiaan it is shown as a relatively straight line from the Bay all the way along the north side of the Sgayn River to the mouth of Stanley

Creek, and then it travels a little farther north to the Naden Whaling Station. This map records a significant oil drilling operation, the remains of which are at Tiiaan village (Figure

5-8 a-e). The drill had made it to the 1000 foot mark when various circumstances resulted in a halt to the project, not the least of which was the beginning of the First World War.

The drill had been taken by ship to the site at Tiiaan, and the trail, shown on the map, is said to have been roughly blazed in 1911 by Victor Virgalias (Dalzell 1973:52). The trail made it possible for mail to be brought in to the drillers from the Naden Whaling Station and, once the trail was established, the drillers could leave for civilization at their whim, without waiting for weather. In addition, prior to the establishment of the trail,

‘Transporting supplies to the drillers was always a hazard. Several boats were lost, but luckily no lives.’(Dalzell 1973:52)

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Because modern trails and roads often follow pre-historic pathways, this sketched-in trail provides our first historic era indication of a communication pathway through the study area. One other point of interest on this map is another inland trail that extends from the centre of Graham Island at Dinan Bay, Masset Inlet, over the Queen Charlotte Range to the back of Seal Inlet on the west coast, some distance to the south of Otard Bay.

Although outside of the immediate study area, the presence of a second trail extending across the mountains from an inlet on the east to a bay on the west coast indicates the possible existence of an inland trail system connecting establishments located on either side of the Queen Charlotte Mountains.

5.3.4 British Columbia Department of Lands Pre-Emptor’s Map, with Survey Notes, 1919

Pre-Emption took place prior to lands being offered for sale or settlement. Much of

Graham Island was divided up for the purposes of development and settlement in the

1910’s and this map shows the pre-emptions in the study area. The map also depicts a trail extending from the mouth of Stanley Creek to Otard Bay. Apparently, the surveyors were able to identify and locate segments of the trail in the surveyed sections near the east and west ends of the study area but had to extrapolate the course of the pathway between these mapped sections, as can be seen where the trail intersects survey lines.

(Figure 5-9). Field survey notes from this project provide some information on trails that

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were seen when these lines were put in, while the map shows the inland part of the trail on the south side of the Sgayn (Davidson) River. The surveyors appear to have encountered two inland trails in the vicinity of Otard Bay. On the detailed preliminary maps that accompany the survey notes, these are labelled as ‘Gov’t trail to Naden

Harbour’ and ‘Old Trail to Naden Harbour’ (Figure 5-10). The former appears to represent the western end of the trail used by the geologists, and depicted on the 1916 map, whereas the latter was the trail drawn by the pre-emption surveyors. Therefore at the time of survey, around 1918 or 96 years ago, the western terminus of an old trail to Naden

Harbour was still visible in the vicinity of Otard Bay.

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Figure 5-9: British Columbia Department of Lands Pre-Emptor’s Map, 1919, cropped to the study area. Note instances where the trail intersects survey lines. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

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Figure 5-10: Detail Map accompanying survey notes for Pre-Emption Survey. Compare the trail shown here with how it is shown in previous figure and it is clear that these surveyors used the ‘Old Trail to Naden Harbour’ as labeled, as opposed to the ‘Govt Trail to Naden Harbour’, used by the Geologists of a few years earlier. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

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5.3.5 Department of Lands and Forests, Dominion of Canada, British Columbia, SW

Section, 1945

Although the original map is of the entire province of British Columbia, only the northern part of Graham Island is depicted in Figure 5-11. Several inland trails are shown on this map including one in the study area which occurs in a slightly different place from both of the earlier maps. The trail is depicted on the south side of the Sgayn River and thus most closely resembles the Pre-Emptor’s map of 1919. However, this trail appears to follow a more southerly route closer to Naden River and Eden Lake before following a more westerly course to Otard Bay. The number of inland trails shown on this map indicates that walking across the island was at least somewhat common at this time. Therefore, an extensive inland trail network may have existed on Graham Island, both in historic and precontact times. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the nature this inland trail network by focusing on the trail extending across Graham Island from Naden Harbour to Otard Bay.

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Figure5-11: Department of Lands and Forests, Dominion of Canada, British Columbia, SW Section, 1945, Detail. The dotted red lines are inland trails. Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Province of British Columbia.

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Synopsis of the Historic Maps

The linguistic data and information from historic maps aid in establishing the locations of important places such as trailheads and passes as well as the approximate routes of inland trails through the study area. The indigenous words and place names combined with the historic map information show that inland areas were accessed both in prehistoric and historic times, possibility using the same routes or sections of old trails. Although the principal route across Graham Island in this study area is depicted on several maps, the most detailed representation of the old trail from Naden Harbour to Otard Bay appears on a 1919 map. On this map, the trail originates near the mouth of Stanley Creek, although an eastward extension to the Naden Whaling Station is depicted on another map. On the

1945 map, an historic trail extends along the high ground between Davidson Creek and

Naden River through the mountains and on to Otard Bay on the west coast of Graham

Island with a northern extension to Tiiaan village. On an earlier map of the study area, the trail is depicted as following the north shore of Davidson Creek. Given the points of origin and destination, I will now use Geographic Information Systems to evaluate the relative merits of alternate pathways across the study area.

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CHAPTER 6: VISUALIZATION AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS: GIS AND REMOTE SENSING

In an attempt to develop a better model for predicting archaeological potential in inland areas, I have examined the environmental context of the Graham Island rainforest, the ethnographic accounts of and linguistic evidence for inland lifeways, and the historic maps showing the rough locations of historic inland trails from Naden Harbour to Otard Bay. In this chapter, I will use GIS as another tool for predicting where precontact inland trails may have existed and associated archaeological potential. GIS allows us to create cartographic representations that incorporate disparate sorts of research data and to explore spatial, temporal, and other relationships among these data20. I use the Spatial

Analyst and the 3D Analyst in ArcGIS10 to consider Least Cost Paths (LCP) and Viewsheds and how they relate to ethnographic, historical and archaeological data, towards refining the archaeological potential model.

Passive Remote Sensing is a second cartographic and spatial analytic tool that I use to visualise the landscape and interpret the results of GIS analyses. By importing files from the GIS to Google Earth it is possible to visualize the landscape and archaeological potential using three dimensional and multi-directional views21. Also, historical aerial

20 The program used for this project is the Environmental Systems Research Institute, ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10 21 Google 2014, Google Earth. Available at http://www.google.com/earth

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photography and orthophotos have been used to understand how water bodies may change over a period of 80 years, using the 1933 National Air photos, the oldest set of aerial photos available for my study area.

6.1 GIS Analysis

6.1.1 Software and Datasets

ArcGIS10, a software program created by Environmental Sciences Research Institute (ESRI

2011), is the only GIS software used in this study, although other software was considered. Varicost software was considered because it was employed by Bell and Lock

(2000) to analyze ancient trail routes and because this program places an emphasis on the use of the side hill for human walking. The sidehill is an even elevation along a hillside that either stays the same or changes gradually, and it is often the best place to hike from one place to another through mountainous regions, even though it may add some distance to the hike. Other research has shown that the side hill is the preferred route of travel in hilly and mountainous regions (Pingel 2010), as it reduces effort, and provides views of adjacent landscape features, such as the opposite side of a river valley. Varicost software is now outdated, and upon consideration of the time frame for acquiring an outdated software package, the learning curve involved, as well as the potential difficulty in incorporating outputs from the software to the ArcGIS10 project geodatabase, I decided

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to forego this option, even though it had potential for my study area, where side hill and ridge line travel are often the best options. Instead, I chose software that was available to me through the University of Calgary Archaeology and Geography Departments, which is the current industry and government standard, ArcGIS Version 10 by ESRI. This software provided a host of options for continued analysis, and is most readily available to other researchers now and in the future.

Data Format

Since the topic of this thesis applies to management of material and cultural resources in the Province of British Columbia, I chose to use the current British Columbia Provincial

Standard Coordinate System, PCS Albers, and the Albers Projection as the format of my

GIS. I was able to obtain all of my data from provincially based sources without the need for re-projection and hence forego any possibility of data compatibility issues. The datasets acquired for this project and their sources are listed in Table 6-1.

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Table 6-1: The geodatasets used in this project

Name of Dataset Source Digital Elevation Model (DEM) GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Slope raster GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Remote Access Archaeological Database Archaeology Branch, Province of British (RAAD) Columbia 1937 Air photos Haida Gwaii, digitized GeoBC, Province of British Columbia 20 m Elevation Contours Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia 2007 Orthophotos Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Coastline BC GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Double Line Rivers Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia FWA_ASSESSMENT_WATERSHEDS_POLY_HG GeoBC, Province of British Columbia FWA_NAMED_WATERSHEDS_POLY_HG GeoBC, Province of British Columbia FWA_WATERSHEDS_POLY_HG GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Lakes Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Ocean BC GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Streams Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Wetlands Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Indian Reserves Haida Gwaii GeoBC, Province of British Columbia Bathymetry_bc_eez_100m Living Oceans Society Merge_2002_2003CMTJan6_Project Millennia Research Limited CascadiaCMTs2005_Project Millennia Research Limited

6.1.2 Traditional LCP Analysis

The LCP is a set of algorithms that may be applied to a raster dataset to find the least costly route, in terms of construction and actual usage, for a new road or pipeline from one specific point on the landscape to another. As defined by ESRI,

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The least-cost path travels from the destination to the source. This path is one cell wide, travels from the destination to the source, and is guaranteed to be the cheapest route relative to the cost units defined by the original cost raster that was input into the weighted-distance tool [ESRI 2011, ArcGIS 10.0].

Change in elevation over distance, slope, is a significant factor when hiking through hilly and mountainous regions and therefore I chose to first consider the LCP in terms of slope in the study area. The cells of the slope raster dataset each represent a 25 m square on the ground and therefore running the LCP tools would create an output based on this scale of resolution, which is wider than the trail being researched by an estimated 23 m.

The LCP is therefore a larger grain output, but this is of value because the trail would not have existed in the same exact location for all time, but rather would have moved around large blow down and slide events in this dynamic northern northwest coast landscape.

I ran the LCP tools using a Slope raster for the cost surface:

Spatial Analyst > Distance > Cost Distance, then Spatial Analyst > Distance > Cost

Path

A source and a destination point were created and they were named ‘Trailhead 1’ which was T’aay ahl at the mouth of Stanley Creek in Naden Harbour and ‘Trailhead 2’, the sandy beach along the inland margin of Otard Bay. The output of this analysis shows the

LCP in the lowlands along the lowest reaches of the Stanley, Sgayn and Naden River watersheds, then following the northwest shore of Eden Lake to a creek at the southern end of the lake. The path then crosses the Queen Charlotte Mountains through a low pass

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before entering and following the course of the meandering Otard Creek to the sandy beach at Otard Bay. I then ran the LCP tools again using the same datasets but switching the source and destination points, and I found no relevant difference between the outputs. This LCP represents the least slope change over the entire route between the trailheads. (Figure 6-1)

6.1.3 Tobler’s Hiking Function LCP

When walking through a mountainous landscape, travellers will consider more factors than just slope to determine their route of travel. The Slope LCP is isotropic, meaning that just one factor, in this case slope, has been considered in the analysis. Tobler’s Hiking

Function (Tobler 1993) is an anisotropic analysis where more than one factor is taken into consideration22. The function was derived from measurements of hiking speed in mountainous terrain as reported by Eduard Imhof (Herzog 2010, Imhof 1950). Imhof used his measurements to calculate the time it would take to hike from one point to another through the Swiss Alps using the fastest route, and Tobler created a function based on this formula, that can be input to a cost surface in a GIS (Benfer 2012, Kantner 2004). Instead

22 Researchers, both academic and applied, from archaeologists to Canada Parks employees, have used the Hiking Function to help them consider travel time for pathways in mountainous regions.

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of a traditional LCP, Tobler’s Function calculates the best route for hiking through a mountainous landscape taking into account the difference in travel time when ascending or descending slopes along the way. The function looks at the entire route and determines the least cost path in terms of travel time between two points based on changes in walking velocity as determined by slopes and slope change. Interestingly, Tobler’s Hiking

Function, when input into a GIS, removes slopes greater than 100 percent (45 degrees) from the calculation (Herzog 2010). This is valid because slopes greater than 100 percent would require much more concentrated effort, taking much energy from the hiker, and they can be dangerous to traverse in real world situations.

Applying the Tobler’s Hiking Function to the derivation of LCPs between T’aay ahl and

Otard Bay

There are several steps to take in order to prepare a cost surface for Tobler’s Hiking

Function. I shall describe the steps below, and provide my rational for determination of cell size.

To begin the processing, I used the GeoBC DEM clipped to the study area. The DEM was converted to a Slope data set using:

ArcGIS10 3D Analyst > Slope tool

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This tool computes the averaged angle, in degrees, of the change in elevation between each cell and its eight neighboring cells in a raster. It is most often used to convert

Elevation datasets to Slope datasets, but has other applications as well, for example in understanding human population variation within city environments. The output from this process is a new raster dataset with averaged Slope values assigned to each cell23. In order to use the Slope raster for additional calculations towards application of the Hiking

Function, it was necessary to change the units of measurement from ‘degrees of slope’ to

‘percent rise’. Additionally, the percent rise would need to be converted to decimal rise in order to be compatible with the units of measurement used in the next steps. Therefore, when processing this information using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst > Slope tool, The Output

Measurement chosen was Percent_Rise, and the Z factor entered was .01, as using this Z factor would change the units of measurement of the Output to decimals because it divides the Output by 100.

Conversion of the decimal slope raster to a Velocity raster using Tobler’s Hiking Function

The next step is to apply Tobler’s Hiking Function to the decimal slope raster. I input the function using:

23 This is the same raster that was used for the slope LCP.

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ArcGIS > Spatial Analyst > Math Algebra > Raster Calculator.

The function input is:

6*Exp(-3.5*Abs(decimal slope raster dataset+0.05))

The output is a new raster dataset / cost surface wherein each pixel represents a set of values dictated by the function, those values being velocity. Higher speeds are represented by darker cells. I multiplied this raster by 1000 to obtain velocity in m/hr.

Conversion of the Velocity raster to a Travel Time raster

An LCP in terms of travel time is the purpose of the application of the Hiking Function and in order to obtain a travel time raster, the distance across a cell is divided by the velocity raster (Travel time = distance/velocity):

Spatial Analyst > Map Algebra > Raster Calculator

All of the datasets I have used for this project are 30 m resolution. According to the metadata of the parent dataset, the GeoBC Digital Elevation Model, each cell is 25 m across and 25 m high, which means that the diagonal on each cell is 35.355 m:

a2+b2=c2

I performed a basic calculation to find the average distance through a cell, based on the three dimensions and found that the average distance when walking across a cell, whether straight through or on the diagonal or mixed, would be 28.451 m.

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a+b+c) / 3

I then added 2.5 m per cell to account for natural obstacles such as large trees, root wad holes and patches of Salal bush24 to obtain an average distance across a cell, in this environment, of 30.952 m. The distance across a cell was then divided by the velocity raster:

Spatial Analyst > Math Algebra > Raster Calculator to provide a new raster dataset that represented average travel time through each cell in hours.

The final step is to run the LCP tools on the travel time raster from Naden Harbor to Otard

Bay and then Otard Bay to Naden Harbour.

ArcGIS > Arc Toolbox > Spatial Analyst > Cost Distance > Cost Path

I also ran the LCP processes using an unconventional approach, on the velocity raster, the output of which can be interpreted as the lowest velocity path. (Figures 6-2, 6-3, 6-4). The travel time LCP represents the most economical way in terms of time for a human to move from one trail head to the other.

24 This is derived from personal experience in this unique environment. Trees often reach diameters of 2 m, and salal patches can be large, and very hard to walk through, so they would have been skirted. The pathways used by humans and bears along the lower reaches of waterways and along ridgelines would be straighter and 2.5 m is meant to be an overall average in this environment, of distance to be added due to obstacles to a straight path over a 31 m distance.

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Figures 6-1: LCP in terms of slope. Figure 6-2: LCP in terms of travel time, Note: Panoramic viewpoints were the cost surface having been prepared assessed using Spatial Analyst > through the application of Tobler’s Hiking Surface > Viewshed (Figure 6-7) Function.

Figure 6-3: LCP in terms of velocity Figure 6-4: All LCPs represented on the Digital Elevation Model

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6.1.4 Comparison of the Slope and Travel Time LCPs

Predictably, the slope path is longer than the travel time path, with many more jogs that represent the search for lower slope change (Figure 6-5). While they both generally follow

Otard Creek on the west side, on the Naden side they follow two different river beds, the travel time LCP following the Sgayn River, and the slope LCP generally follows the Naden.

The slope path changes slightly in the mid and lower reaches of the Naden River watershed when the source and destination trail heads are switched, and this is mainly where it encounters Eden and Marian Lakes. When traveling from Otard Bay to Naden

Harbour, the slope LCP runs straight through the centre of Eden Lake and cuts through the west side of Marian Lake. On the reverse trip, it skirts the shore of both lakes in an uneconomical fashion, zigzagging up and down the west shorelines. When encountering a lake, the GIS recognizes it as a no slope, which is reflected in the LCP. The use of watercraft to traverse the length of Eden Lake, and to cut through the south west side of

Marian Lake are a possible cultural interpretation, and the portage docking points, in the vicinity of where the LCP encounters the lakes on either side are therefore places with archaeological potential. The travel time LCP on the other hand does not change anywhere along its length when the source and destination points are switched. Neither the travel time nor slope paths choose one side of their respective rivers on the Naden or

Otard sides of the mountains, because the lowland areas are significantly devoid of

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Figure 6-5: Comparison of Slope and Travel Time LCPs topography. They chose different low passes through the Queen Charlotte Mountains because the Sgayn and Naden watersheds end at these two different passes.

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6.1.5 The random Velocity LCP

The Velocity LCP is not a standard use of LCPs for archaeological study. It is not economical, and it does the opposite of maximizing travel time, as it follows the route of lowest velocity, with the caveat that it rules out any slopes greater than 45 degrees or 100 per cent for its route (Herzog 2010). It constantly changes slope however in many sections it follows the side hill before it dives down a hillside or ravine, as in the area near the

Otard Bay trailhead, or takes the steep 45 degree climb up the slope such as from where it leaves the Sgayn River heading west. People may have taken the steep slopes in order to move quickly out of a river bottom and then follow the sidehill, as this trail does in the middle reach of the Sgayn River. On the Otard Bay side of the study area, the Velocity LCP takes the steep upper elevation pathway that crosses many ravines, which seems rather unlikely; however, it does indicate a possibly economic pathway upslope of the river bottom in the middle reach of the Sgayn that must be less than 45 degrees. Otard Creek is a very meandering waterway and people would tend to walk along the sidehill instead of walking through the associated wetlands and thick brush of the creek side. Visibility would be very limited in this lowland area, and this would be bad for defense, bad for caribou hunting, and it would make general orientation difficult on days when there is no sun, which is often in this region. Many similarly sized creeks feed into Otard Creek and therefore following the main stem beyond the lower reach would be confusing. Taking the

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sidehill is not only economical but it also affords views that help with orientation. In order to further assess where the sweet spot for hiking, hunting, and orientation would be in this region, I overlaid the DEM with 20 m contours. The best hiking areas appear to be between the upper and lower LCPs, where contour lines are farther apart (Figure 6-6).

LCP derivations in a GIS cannot be used alone to predict the routes of the precontact trails in northwest Graham Island. This is because of the variation in micro-topography that can be present within the 25 m square that is generalized in the rasters used for my cost surfaces, and also due to human factors of resource locations associated with the trails as well as other culturally important considerations. Using the velocity raster to run a cost path analysis is a random method, but the results appear to have relevance to this study.

In Chapter 8, my Discussion chapter, I compare the LCPs derived here with trail locations shown on historic maps and the archaeological record, and assess the LCPs in terms of how they may contribute to a refined archaeological potential model for inland lifeways.

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Figure 6-6: The Velocity LCP follows the hillside whereas the slope and Travel Time LCPs stay in the creek bottom. The Velocity LCP may be useful in identifying areas with panoramic views and the extreme limit for human travel, as is limited to 45 degree maximum slope. The sweet spot for hiking appears to be about 1/3 of the way upslope between 40 and 60 m, in this section.

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Figure 6-7: The viewshed from a treeless point selected near the height of land, along the hiking function LCP. All areas in light blue are visible.

6.2 Remote Sensing

Remote sensing may be used to view cultural modifications to a landscape. For this study I reviewed four different types of remote sensing data, the BC 2007 orthophotos, the most recent Google Earth satellite imagery for the region (2004), LANDSAT 2006 satellite

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imagery, and a set of aerial photos taken in 1933 that cover some of the west side of the study area. The orthophotos were used mainly for cartographic work, while Google Earth was used for cartography as well as for simulating three dimensional views for further spatial analysis, as may be seen in some figures that follow. LANDSAT 2006 imagery helped me to locate Trailhead 2, the sandy beach at the back of Otard Bay, where it would have been possible on a calm day, to pull up a canoe.

6.2.1 1933 Aerial Photo Analysis

There is archaeological and ethnographic evidence that confirms that people hunted caribou on Graham Island and in the study area (Christensen and Stafford 2005:252,253),

Sheldon 1912), and therefore archaeological sites associated with caribou hunting should be considered as part of the precontact inland lifeways. Sheldon and his local guides searched for signs of caribou along the edges of wetlands in the Jaalan watershed near

Kung. The edges of wetlands, therefore, have particular archaeological potential associated with caribou hunting, such as the presence of buried hearths, butchering, and lithic manufacturing sites. In addition, there may be CMTs near these places that were used as landmarks. There are many wetlands in the study area, particularly near the height of land at Sgayn Mountain and throughout the upper Otard Creek watershed and these could have associated archaeological potential (Figure 6-8).

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Figure 6-8: Aerial photo taken during flight through the top of the Otard Bay watershed in 2012. The edges of wetlands were known to be caribou habitat prior to their extinction and would have been visible when hiking along the sidehill on the far side of Otard valley. (See also Figure 6-6).

The edges of wetlands

In order to assess human movement between the trails and hunting associated sites on the edges of wetlands, I reviewed orthophotos of the region and questioned whether the

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locations of bogs changed over time. I then consulted the oldest set of air photos taken of the study area, from 1933, and compared them to wetlands as seen in the 2007

Orthophotos. I found no difference over the 74 years between these sets of remotely sensed data, and therefore concluded that change of bog edge location would not be a significant factor in archaeological potential assessment of these ecoregions (Figures 6-9 and 6-10).

I also searched the 1933 air photo set for any evidence of a cleared trail, and while at one point I was fooled by a lens scratch, no evidence of cleared pathways was visible. These aerial photos do not cover areas very far inland, and they were only taken in the west coast region of the study area. The photos were taken 22 years after the establishment of the presumably narrow trail used by the geologists at Tiiaan on the west coast to get to the Naden Harbour Whaling Station and Post Office to the north.

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N Fi g u r e 5 - 8 : T h e

V Figures 6-9 and 6-10: 1933 Aerialie photo of an inland area along the northwest shore of Otard Bay. Wetlands are the whitew areas above the larger lake. When compared to the same wetlands in the 2007 orthophotop there is little difference in size and shape. o

i Summary n ts i n In this chapter I have demonstratedr that the edges of modern wetlands have potential for el archaeological sites associateda with caribou hunting, and that LCPs derived using three ti different cost surfaces may beo of interest to understand where a pathway existed n between Naden Harbour and sOtard Bay. In the next chapter, the archaeological record will h be described and interpreted,i to add another layer to my research into the inland lifeways p of northwestern Graham Island.t o L 186 C P .

A l s

CHAPTER 7: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

The archaeological record of Graham Island contains significant information on the late precontact and contact periods, and may be the richest source for understanding the movements and activities of people in inland areas. Hundreds of archaeological sites have been documented during a variety of studies over the past few decades and the sites have been registered with the Province of British Columbia. Data from the RAAD will be used to interpret the nature and patterned distribution of sites as evidence for the presence and location of inland trails and other culturally significant sites. I will describe and interpret the archaeological record starting at the shores of Naden Harbour, then move up and over the hill into the Otard Bay watershed on the west coast.

Precontact towns or encampments in the study area have been known through place name research, oral history, and early explorer and Missionary reports (Collison 1915,

Dawson 1993 [1878], Enrico 1994, Dalzell 1973, Stafford and Christensen 2000, Swanton

1905a). At the time of George Dawson’s visitation of the islands in 1876 the population of xaadaas was at about its lowest level which has been estimated at 4 percent of the precontact population25 which indicates significant loss of the cultural archive. All of the ethnographic reports were written 150 years or more after contact and were therefore

25 See Section 3.3.1

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several generations removed from the late precontact. This makes the archaeological record very important to understanding inland lifeways.

7.1 Late Precontact to Contact Period habitation sites by the Harbour

Archaeological indications of former villages and camps include shoreline middens, fishing or fish processing sites, and the locations of Indian Reserves (Harris 2007). Along the shores of Naden Harbour, a series of shell middens have been recorded 1 to 3 metres above sea level (masl) and these are related to habitations and camps of the contact and late precontact periods (Figure 7-1).

The shell middens attest to the fact that bivalves, especially butter clams, were abundant and that they were often eaten. Most of the middens were located during the Naden

Harbour Archaeological Inventory Survey (Stafford and Christensen 2000), when approximately 70% of shoreline areas of the Harbour were inspected. The depth of middens varies, with some as deep as 2 m. The deep middens may indicate sustained habitation over longer periods, and midden sites extending far along the shoreline indicate higher populations associated with larger habitations. Several of these middens were found without any sub surface testing as they were eroding out of the bank on the shoreline and were plainly visible when walking along the beach (Stafford and Christensen

2000:117) The surveys also included systematic auger testing for sub surface deposits

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Figure 7-1: Aboriginal Villages, Settlements and Camps, Historic Era Settlements, and Indian Reserves, and 1-3 m elevation shell middens in Naden Harbour. The shell middens indicate habitation during the contact and/or late precontact periods. IR: Registered Indian Reserve.

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along the high tide line and up into the forest. Erosion, while it exposed some sites for easy identification, has also removed sites from the region.

The middens dating from the contact to late precontact are distributed along much of the harbour shore. This appears to indicate that the name of the harbour, Needan, referred to the large number of houses present along much of the harbour shores suggesting much higher populations in the region prior to and at the time of contact. There are 23 registered archaeological sites along the shores of Naden Harbour (Figure 7-1, Table 7-1).

Some house pits and other archaeological features are associated with these middens.

Moreover, since middens would be found behind the houses, the eroding middens suggest that several of the associated house pits and other archaeological remains may have already eroded away (Wolfe et al. 2008). The Naden Harbour Archaeological

Inventory Study did not record any artifacts that date conclusively to the late precontact, and only one artifact dating to the late precontact has ever been registered here. Amateur collection is thought to be the culprit (Stafford and Christensen 2000:137), an observation with which I agree, considering that there has been a significant amount of human activity in Naden Harbour throughout the historic period.

Beginning in the late 1800s, land reserves for the purpose of aboriginal use were designated along the northwest coast of British Columbia and, at this time, certain places in Naden Harbour received such designation. Between 1882 and 1943, most reserves in

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coastal British Columbia were allotted for fishing purposes (Harris 2007) and the following reserves were designated near and within the Naden Harbour region: Kose 9, Naden 10,

Naden 23, Kung 11 and Daningay 12. Kang (Kung 11) is the only Indian Reserve in the area to have received much attention from explorers during the historic period, probably because it was the only one that was inhabited in the late 19th and into the 20th century.

Kose is a unique reserve as it is located 6.5 km inland on the Naden River, and is the only inland reserve on the entire archipelago. Two post-contact sites in Naden Harbour are

Skaos, which was a crab cannery in the mid-1900s and is now the site of the Haida

Fisheries Watchmen cabin and camp, and Naden Harbour Whaling Station, which operated from 1912 and 1943 (Dalzell 1973:442-443) and is now the site of the Queen

Charlotte Fishing Lodge. At all of the Indian Reserves and historic era sites, archaeological finds indicate that these sites were also inhabited at some point prior to the historic period. Archaeological sites recorded within reserves and the historic era sites include features such as middens, CMTs, house pit depressions and platforms, mounds, various smaller depressions, ruins of houses and mortuary poles, and historic period grave markers. A few historic period artifacts were recorded at Skaos, Naden 23 and at the site of the Naden Harbour Whaling Station (Figure 7-1).

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Table7-1: Registered Archaeological Sites in Naden Harbour containing 1-3 masl shell middens. Data current to August 2014.

Site Borden Place Number Designation Archaeological Site Type Name multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden, cultural depression- function unassigned, human remains-grave Kung 1 GaUd-1 house, cultural depression-plank house, (Kung, IR earthwork-mound, HISTORIC: building, 11) habitation, townsite, CMT (Date of modification unknown) 2 GaUd-4 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden, surface lithics, 3 GaUd-3 Hluu.an subsurface lithics, cultural depression-function unassigned, CMT (Date of modification unknown) multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 4 GaUd-26 subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface Hluu.an lithics Naden multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl Harbour 5 GaUd-7 subsurface shell midden, surface lithics, Whaling HISTORIC: building-whaling station Station multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl surface 6 FlUd-7 shell midden, surface lithics multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl surface 7 FlUd-17 shell midden, surface lithics, cultural depression- unassigned 8 FlUe-5 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl Naden IR 9 FlUe-6 subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface 10 lithics, CMT (Date of modification unknown) multicomponent: PRECONTACT: surface shell, 10 FlUd-14 surface lithics Daastlan 11 FlUd-1 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden (Lignite Ck)

12 FlUd-11 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden

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Site Borden Place Number Designation Archaeological Site Type Name multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 13 FlUd-6 subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface lithics, CMT (Date of modification unknown) 14 FlUd-2 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden 15 FlUd-9 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 16 FlUd-8 subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface lithics multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 17 FlUd-20 subsurface shell midden, surface lithics 18 GaUd-33 PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 19 GaUd-20 subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface lithics multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden, surface shell, surface 20 GaUd-17 lithics, subsurface lithics, CMT (Date of modification unknown) multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden, surface shell, subsurface 21 GaUd-15 Skaos lithics, surface lithics, HISTORIC: building-cannery, CMT (Date of modification unknown) multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl 22 GaUd-14 subsurface shell midden, CMT (Date of modification unknown)

23 GaUd-10 multicomponent: PRECONTACT: 1-3 masl subsurface shell midden, surface shell

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7.2 The CMT Archaeological Record

Ethnographic reports that include the earliest photographs of villages and camps

(MacDonald 1994) show how the local built environment came from the forests and that large cedars were used to create simple plank houses and more elaborate houses with massive beams and house posts. This elaborate architectural style would require an average of eight high quality cedars for one long house (Figure 7-2). While this form was clearly the style throughout much of Xaadlaa gwaayee during the period of the late 19th and into the 20th century (MacDonald 1994), it is not certain that this same form was used in the late precontact which ended roughly 170 years before the first of these photographs were taken. We should be cautious when interpreting the elaborate housing style of this period as reflecting how people lived on Graham Island before contact. A photograph of Kang taken around 1915 shows two large ocean going dug-out canoes the west end of the beach in front of the village (Figure 7-3). The logs required for canoes may have come from the rich cedar forests of the Naden Harbour region.

The use of trees, in particular the use of cedar and cypress by the contact and precontact population is well documented archaeologically in the form of CMTs. The modifications to the trees may be seen hundreds of years later, and can provide context for inland cultural activities. It should be noted however, that the CMT record most often appears

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Figure 7-2: Two of the houses at Kang in 1878. By 1915 when Newcombe arrived here, most of the houses were abandoned and what remained of some houses were their totem poles, house posts and beams, but the planks for the walls appeared to have all been removed. Kung Indian Village, BC, George Mercer Dawson, 1878 Canadian Museum of History, S71-3761

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Figure 7-3: Life at Kung circa 1915. Dug-out cedar canoes in front, and overgrown house pits in background. One house may be seen at far right.

Photo by Kermode, RBCM E846, image courtesy of Royal BC Museum.

to represent the forest works of the contact period population, as indicated by a few dates of modification that have been collected for sites on Graham Island (Bernick

1984:29, Grant 2009). Therefore, I cautiously use the CMT record as a proxy for the late precontact.

7.2.1 CMT Identification

The dark forest floor combined with the resinous nature of cedar and cypress trees helps to preserve aboriginally logged CMTs (AL) for identification, even though the trees may

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have been felled decades or even centuries ago. Seeds do not germinate readily in the remains of cedar and cypress and therefore the remains of AL features can remain intact for decades without much change except the build-up of moss. Eventually the CMT detritus loses toxicity and seeds take root in the rotting wood, a process which will slowly reintegrate the detritus into the forest floor. Some CMTs are identified by the line of nurse trees growing along their length, and minimum dates of modification for a felled CMT can be obtained from the age of these nurse trees. Natural regeneration will eventually absorb the remains of felled trees, making them difficult to identify with confidence.

Standing live CMTs do not have this concern however. Trees that have had bark removed from them, or that have had holes chopped into them usually continue to grow and may eventually heal over the modifications, as the healing lobes come together. The only way to identify a healed CMT with confidence is to use an invasive procedure such as falling the tree, taking a wedge sample, or removing two or more increment cores from the standing live tree26. In the absence of tool marks, ‘scar crust’ may be evaluated using dendrochronological methods and may prove that a modification is human (Province of

BC 2001). Cedar can grow to be very old, over 1000 years, and the cypress may live up to

1500 years (Stafford and Maxwell 2006). A tree is at least 100 years old before it is

26 At this time there is no standard technology used to obtain a date of modification for a CMT that is non-invasive, though technologies such as x-ray and ultra sound might be a possibility and could be explored.

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suitable for bark stripping. Therefore the CMT record for Xaadlaa gwaayee can extend back 1600 years (1400 years alive, plus 200 years when dead) or circa 400 CE. Dead cedar and cypress may remain standing for many years because these trees are resinous, and this oily nature allows them to preserve well as snags. There are very few (three percent)

CMTs in the study area of species other than cedar or cypress and they are invariably found in association with cedar or cypress CMTs. Patterns of movement and cultural activities inland can therefore be considered through an analysis of CMT location and associated data in forests with a significant percentage of cedar and cypress.

CMT Surveys

I helped to create and maintain the archaeological record of Graham and North Moresby

Islands for ten years, as I conducted and oversaw archaeological surveys on the operable lands in this region. My job had been created as a result of the FPC which is a set of regulations that ensured that AIAs would take place in areas where there was a medium to high risk of encountering CMTs and other archaeological sites in areas slated for logging. The FPC was brought into force after extensive public consultation in reaction to:

…significant changes in society's attitudes with respect to protecting environmental values, maintaining biological diversity, increasing recreational use of forest land, protecting culturally significant sites, accommodating the desires of First Nations' people to negotiate comprehensive treaties, and providing greater protection for aquatic resources… [Osberge and Murphy 1995:1]

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Prior to that employment, I was a field archaeologist for the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte

Islands: CMT Inventory, also known as the Random Survey for CMTs on the Operable Lands of Haida Gwaii (Stryd 1994). During this study, I assisted in conducting transect surveys from the coast or sometimes a river bank or an inland road to a point 1200 m inland, then over 200 m and back. These surveys took place along every coast and in some interior regions of Graham and North Moresby Islands. The results of these surveys were used by the local Forest Service to understand the presence and relative abundance of CMTs on the lands under tree farm licensing. This experience forms the basis for my understanding of the relative value of the CMT record as evidence of inland lifeways.

Archaeological Impact Assessments of varying intensities have informed the majority of the CMT record. These surveys have been conducted in response to proposed developments, mainly logging, usually on a cut block by cut block basis, cut blocks being generally 20 to 40 hectares in size. One larger survey, the Naden Harbour Archaeological

Inventory Study (Stafford and Christensen 2000), added significantly to the CMT record of the region through inland transect surveys that recorded dozens of CMTs. As part of this work, Stafford and Christensen compiled a draft archaeological survey coverage layer to

1999 and, while the data remains in draft form, Figure7-4 shows a completed section of the survey coverage layer to 1999. The patchiness of the CMT record with respect to the survey coverage is clearly visible. The light green forest areas represent second growth

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Figure 7-4: Sample of survey types and coverage in the study area. CMTs that are shown in non-surveyed areas were recorded after 2000.

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forests logged prior to the implementation of archaeological survey requirements in 1995.

With reference to Figure 7-4, cut block surveys often identify a number of CMTs that are dispersed throughout the development or along its edges. The Random Survey transects

(Stryd 1994) nicely identify patches and bands of cedar and these help in predicting potential for CMTs inland. The judgemental surveys of the Naden Harbour AIS added many CMT sites to the archaeological record and identified some areas as having higher concentrations of CMTs near aboriginal settlements.

7.2.2 CMT Classes

CMTs identify inland movement from coastal settlements to areas where the extraction of cedar and the traditional use of other trees took place. Ninety-seven percent of the CMT record in the study area is contained in cedar and cypress trees, and the remaining three

% are of other species, including Western Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, Pacific Crab apple and very occasionally Lodgepole Pine. There are three classes of CMTs within the study area including aboriginal logging (AL), bark stripping (BS) and other modifications (OM). The

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OM designation is typically used for modifications on trees other than cedar and cypress.

BS is further separated into triangular bark strips (TBS) and rectangular bark strips (RBS)27.

Aboriginal Logging (AL) CMTs

ALs are consistently found within work sites where a series of such features exist in close proximity to one another, and with CMTs of other classes. CMTs resulting from aboriginal logging activities exhibit tool marks from the process of log selection, tree falling, bucking logs into sections, and removing planks from felled trees, blow downs or standing live trees (Figures 7-4 to 7-7). Test holes are also common and represent the beginnings of falling a tree, preparation for falling the tree at a later date, or to mark and claim the tree.

The remains of trees felled using metal and ground stone axes, adzes, and chisels are found on the forest floor. Where the logs were further worked during the construction of a canoe, for example, detritus in the form of large slabs and angular chunks of wood may still be recognized on the forest floor to either side of where the log used to lay. Canoes were roughly shaped in the forest prior to moving them out to the ocean or river where they would be floated to a village or camp site for the final detailed shaping and other manufacturing processes. The AL worksites often include TBS, RBS, and occasionally

27 CMTs are classified as per the CMT Handbook, Province of British Columbia, 2001.

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Figure 7-5a: At left: CMT: AL, Test Hole or Under Cut. Syne watershed. Figure 7:5b: Detail of modification in 7-5a. Dark stain inside the test hole is a result of sharp metal tool use

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Figure 7-6: CMT: AL: Stump and Log. Western Hemlock nurse tree growing on CMT stump. The butt section of the log often remains in the forest because the root flare and top are removed before the log or manufactured parts, such as planks, are moved out.

Figure: 7-7: CMT: AL, Canoe blank. This canoe has a large crack running down the middle of it which may be why it was left in the forest. Partially shaped canoes such as this one are rare finds. The moss has been removed from this one which, for the short term at least, has aided in its preservation. Located in the Yakoun River watershed, Masset Inlet, Graham Island Photo: Barney Edgars, Used by Permission

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cambium or pitch removal CMTs (OM). The bark stripping may be related to the extraction of large wood products, the inner bark especially from twisted trunks having been used to make rope (Barney Edgars personal communication 2003). AL CMTs show where people were accessing cedar for wood during the contact and late precontact periods. Techniques used for falling trees and shaping canoes vary, and may indicate clan affiliations. In terms of this study, AL CMTs indicate forays into the forest to access wood products along resource access pathways.

Bark Stripped CMTs

There are three types of CMT on Graham Island that were created by the extraction of bark. They are classified as rectangular bark strips (RBS), triangular bark strips (TBS) and

‘ringed’ bark strips (an OM, Other Modification). Ringed bark strips are no longer seen on the landscape because trees stripped of their bark using this method do not live past the stripping event.

Rectangular Bark Strips (RBS)

Rectangular bark strips (RBS) CMTs, also known locally as bark boards, are trees that have had a rectangular slab of bark removed. A cut is made at the bottom just above the root

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flare, and another horizontal cut is made at the height of the desired piece. In most cases, the tree must be climbed in order to make the top cut line and extract the bark slab. Most of these slabs are taken from cedar except in areas where the proportional representation of cypress is higher, in which case this species is occasionally selected for bark boards. RBS are always taken from larger, more mature trees with thick bark (Figure 7-8a, b, and c).

Kink

7-8a 7-8b 7-8c

Figure 7-8 a, b, c: Examples of RBS CMTs (bark boards) 7-8a: Lovisa Thompson and Barney Edgars with RBS near Yaan ‘llnagee (Yaan ancient village site) which is located on the west side of Masset Inlet, across from Old Massett. 7-8b is a very old (estimated > 600 years) modification in the Sangan River watershed, Graham Island. 7-8c is located on the east side of Masset Inlet. The live tree next to the RBS has a crease scar indicating that it may be a triangular bark strip (TBS).

In some areas of Graham Island, slabs average 350 cm in length and 100 cm in width when stripped, but these dimensions vary depending on local tree sizes, watershed, age of

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modification and end purpose for the inner or outer bark of the slab. The outer bark slab is known to have been used extensively for roofing material, to create temporary shelters, and to trade with off-island groups, while the inner bark of RBS is used for weaving a variety of sturdy items such as mats and interior screens used to separate space in the long house, and for creating one slab baskets (Stewart 1984:119).

The large slabs of bark were removed in the spring time when the sap was flowing, creating a slippery layer between the bark and the heartwood that made it possible to pry off the entire slab. Figure 7-8c clearly shows the kinks in the healing lobes that develop at the top cut line as the tree heals around the scar face. During archaeological surveys, field workers look up, ahead, and behind, to search for kinks and open scar faces on RBS. In fact, the kink in the healing lobes often provides the visual cue to the presence of a CMT or group of CMTs during surveys. In order to climb up to complete the top cut and remove the slab, x̱aadaas used tree climbing kits made from cedar, as documented by the artifact labeled, ‘Haida Climbing Outfit’ shown in Figure 7-9 and acquired by Charles Newcombe at

Masset in 1914. It is now in the collection of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria.

This portable kit could have been made while in the forest, or brought along from the village.

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Figure 7-9: Implements used to climb trees on Graham Island. A cedar sapling with branch still attached was used as the platform, the supple branch wrapped around the tree and secured to the other side for a climbing assist. Once the harvester had climbed to the desired height the plaited item would be strapped around the tree and around the back of the harvester, to hold him in place while he worked (Stewart 1984:165). RBCM 1440, image courtesy of Royal BC Museum

Triangular Bark Strips (TBS)

Triangular bark strip CMTs (TBS) show the marks of bark extraction for the purpose of

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weaving. A relatively young cedar or cypress tree, one that you can get your arms around

(Barney Edgars, personal communication 2002), would be selected and a cut line made through the bark to the cambium layer at the point on the trunk where the flare of the roots ends, approximately one m above ground. The cut line is horizontal, cutting across the grain of the bark. The length of the cut line which defines the width of the strip is typically a quarter to a third of the circumference of the tree. The strip is then taken from the tree by loosening the bark at the lower cut line and then pulling it up. When done correctly, the bark naturally comes off in a long, even, triangular strip which tapers to a point at the top and falls off. Strips average 15 m long and may be longer or a little shorter depending on the size of the tree. Healing lobes begin to form around the scar after the stripping event and, within two years, the healing lobes are visibly growing in around the scar. In modern times, processing of the strip begins immediately, with the rigid outer bark layer being removed from the inner bark layer while still in the forest. The inner bark is then bundled for easy transport, while the outer bark is left on the forest floor. (Figure

7-10a, b and c). It is thought that these modern practices are similar if not identical to precontact ones, as these techniques have been passed down through the generations

(Barney Edgars personal communication 2002, Churchill-Davis 1996).

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7-10a

7-10b

Figure 7-10 a, b, c: TBS CMTs. Bottom left, 'new' CMT, approximately four years since stripped. Older CMTs have larger healing 7-10c lobes, as the tree appears to ‘heal’ over the scar. 210

Ringed Bark Strips

The third bark strip CMT type is no longer seen on the landscape because the practice of stripping completely around the trunk kills the tree. Two rare photos of Ringed bark strips were taken by archaeologist Harlan Smith in 1919 during a research trip to Graham Island, one of which was presented earlier (Figure 5-3). Neither photo comes with specific provenience, but it is possible, if not probable, that these trees were found along the north or east coasts of Graham Island where Smith conducted a study of earthworks at

Rose Spit (Smith 1927). A medicine was made from these slabs of bark and there were other uses for spruce sap and bark, such as fire starter and patching material for canoes.

Secondarily, this CMT could have been a trail marker because the horizontal pattern of strips with the bark lines in between would be a visual contrast in the forest, and if along the coast, it would show well as a navigational aid in a landscape of comparatively low contrast. In Smith’s photo, the CMT appears to be next to a trail.

Other Modifications (OM)

OM CMTs are rarely recorded and include cambium and pitch removal scars on hemlock, spruce and pine trees as well as Pacific crab apple tree stumps remaining after the wood categories. Roughly rectangular slabs of bark were removed from spruce and hemlock

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trees on Graham Island (Figures 7-11a and b), but few examples of this practice remain because these species appear to be quite affected by this practice, which may eventually precipitate the death of the tree. In addition, most of the foreshore, a region where spruce is the dominant species, has been logged. The cambium and pitch were collected and used for food and medicine, while the outer bark may have been used as fire starter

(see Smith 1997 [1927] for Gitxsan example).

Having now described the basic CMT classes that are part of the archaeological record for

Graham Island, I shall now describe their distribution patterns in the study area and interpret these patterns in relation to precontact inland lifeways.

7.2.3 Assessing the CMT Record and Interpretation

The Province of British Columbia manages a database of archaeological sites that have been recorded during permit and some non-permit surveys, and this information is stored in an on-line database called RAAD. As discussed above, archaeological impact assessment surveys have, since 1995, been standard practice prior to logging developments, and all surveys conducted since that time have been registered in the provincial system. There are a few cases where CMTs and other archaeological sites were recorded in the study

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Figure 7-11 a, b: RBS on Sitka spruce. 7-11a was found along a trail route between Tiiaan village and Otard Bay by the author in 2012. 7-11b was recorded near the mouth of K'aas Gandlee (Pitch Creek), Rennel Sound, west coast Graham Island. In both examples the tree died long ago and only a fraction of it remains standing. Notably, spruce and hemlock are not as resilient and long-living as cedar and cypress.

area prior to 1995 and some of these are also in the provincial database. I have accessed the RAAD extensively for this project, and all sites in the study area that were registered in the RAAD to August 1, 2014 have been considered in this discussion.

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Much of the foreshore of Naden Harbour and many inland areas were logged prior to the adoption of the FPC in 1995 and therefore hundreds if not thousands of CMTs and other archaeological sites were destroyed or significantly disturbed before archaeological site recording became standard practice. While sub-surface testing for archaeological sites should be conducted on land forms with potential during impact assessments, such work has not always been carried out in the study area. Up until 2003, for example, sub-surface testing was not conducted during most AIAs because the primary objective of the surveys was to inventory CMTs. Dates of tree modification have not been obtained as a matter of course during AIAs conducted on Xaadlaa gwaayee, even though this is standard practice in other regions of British Columbia. This was a decision of the local First Nation government who, in dialogue with the Provincial government, established that they were the hereditary stewards of these archaeological resources, and that they were therefore empowered legally to develop rules around how each individual CMT should be managed.

No intrusive dating of CMTs was allowed and no CMTs were to be cut down or impacted by proposed developments. These rules are current to 2011, when I took the official course offered by the Secretariat of the Haida Nation in Cultural Forest Feature

Identification (CFI Certification, Masset, 2011)29. During the years that I worked as an

29 On January 23, 2015, I discussed this with a local surveyor who said that the policy has changed, and now some CMTs are harvested.

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archaeologist on the islands, there were less than a handful of cases where a CMT was cut down and a date of modification obtained. Later, some CMTs were cut down, against local policy, and dates of modification were obtained. Comparative analysis of healing lobe thickness in relationship to dates of modification obtained through dendrochronological analysis can provide temporal estimates (Bible and Grant 2010:142). The CMT archaeological record for the study area is thus a GIS database of CMT locations and types with various attributes recorded for each CMT, as per the CMT Handbook (Province of

British Columbia 2001) with the exception of date of modification.

Archaeological surveys for Xaadlaa gwaayee registered nearly 6000 individual CMTs by

2005. This information was digitized into point files by an archaeological consulting firm

(Millennia Research Ltd. Haida Gwaii CMT database 2005). The point files have associated attribute fields such as CMT Class, CMT Type, Borden Number, report name and author.

No comparable point data was available for CMTs recorded since 2005. Instead, CMTs recorded since 2005 were grouped into polygons that enclose the entire registered archaeological site. The CMT site boundaries for Xaadlaa gwaayee are determined using a formula where CMTs within 50 m of each other are grouped together into one site unless there are operational issues such as the need for a logging road through a cluster of CMTs.

The CMTs are also buffered as a protective measure, usually by 30 to 50 m of standing forest.

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In the following interpretation, CMTs recorded as point files are mapped using the points and associated attributes while CMTs recorded after 2005 are mapped as polygons without other attribute data. The CMT record for the Naden Harbour portion of the study area is presented here in a series of four regions including the harbour region and the watersheds of the Daastlan, SG̱ayn and Needan Rivers. Thereafter, the CMT record on the west side of the Queen Charlotte Mountains will be described and interpreted.

The Lower Naden Harbour Region

A mix of archaeological survey types has located 880 CMTs in the lower Naden Harbour

Region within 2.5 km of the shore. I have used the 2.5 km buffer to represent approximately where the majority of the CMT clustering occurs relative to the largest water body. Naden Harbour, as previously discussed, had its own indigenous place name which meant ‘house watershed’. The CMT record of this region is therefore interpreted with respect to what I interpret as the meaning of this place name.

With reference to Figure 7-12, it appears that CMTs were recorded in nearly every place that archaeological surveys were conducted. Random survey transects, cut block surveys, and the Naden AIS (Stafford and Christensen 2000) shoreline and judgemental inland transect surveys have recorded CMTs throughout the region suggesting that any forests in this region with trees suitable for material harvest were probably known and accessed.

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The paucity of CMTs very far inland along the northern shores of the harbour probably reflects the lack of survey in these areas, which is in turn due to the lack of imminent land development plans. Finally areas logged prior to survey requirements have no data.

All CMT classes are found in this region with the majority (43 percent) of modified trees exhibiting RBS. TBS and ALs are represented equally with 27 percent of the total whereas

OMs account for only three percent of the CMTs. The RBS were likely used for roofing material for the many houses in the region, and they were used extensively for creating temporary shelters at resource camp sites. ALs likely represent the extraction of posts, beams and planks as house building materials. Dug-out canoe manufacture also took place here as is evidenced by two canoe blank CMTs remaining in the forests. Other AL CMTs include stumps with aligning crown sections with their median sections harvested. Many felled and unused trees remain in the forest and this may represent the impact of epidemic diseases on the population. It is not clear whether logs were always taken out of the forest at the time of falling, and since moving large logs out of the forests would require a team of labourers (Stewart 1984:39,40), I concur with other researchers who suggest that teams would come back to a site to extract the prepared logs and canoe blanks in a subsequent year or season (Bernick 1984:19). RBS, while good for roofing and siding, would not last as long as planks because of the porous nature of the outer bark, and therefore planks would have been the preferred roofing material for long term housing. RBS however, may have been easier to extract at certain times of year, as they

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did not require the falling of the tree in order to harvest, and this relative ease of procurement could account at least in part for their abundance. Some smaller RBS may have been created when using the inner bark to make slab baskets, particularly at resource procurement areas such as berry patches or salmon-bearing streams. On

Graham Island there are very few standing CMTs with evidence of plank removal suggesting that the preferred method for splitting off planks was to take them from fallen cedar trees.

Twenty-seven percent of the CMTs recorded here are TBS, and this seems a relatively low percentage, considering that the inner bark of the young trees was used to make so many of the implements of daily life, from diapers to complete clothing outfits and from small to large baskets of all kinds (Stewart 1984). Importantly, TBS may heal over relatively quickly, within 150 years in some cases, obscuring the scar and making them unidentifiable as

CMTs thus reducing their numbers in the record. Healed over TBS may be accessed during subsequent generations for other purposes because their bark grows thicker as they age and the logs may remain relatively intact after this kind of bark extraction. TBS show the marks of a practice of extracting inner bark for the purpose of weaving and, according to the legendary story of The Woman Who Became a Shaman (Walter of the Rear-Town-

People of Yaan, Swanton 1908:570-573), this kind of bark extraction was accomplished by women working in groups, taking several strips at a time in an area. Such behaviour would create stands of cedar and cypress CMTs that exhibit a pattern of group movement by

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harvesters through an area during specific years, as may be evidenced by correlation in healing lobe thicknesses. In the lower Naden Harbour area, we can see some groupings of

TBS, the largest and densest of which are located in the Daastlan creek watershed.

Given the proximity of CMTs to the aboriginal villages and camps around the harbour, one may conclude that the CMTs located nearest to these individual places were often created by people who lived or camped at these historic settlements or older shell midden sites in the area. However, the CMTs may also have been made by people from outside of the harbour mouth, or people who were in the area specifically to harvest from the rich cedar forests on this part of the island. Since this is Needan (house-place creek or watershed), perhaps this is where people from the north coast of Graham Island came to harvest building materials. According to Barney Edgars, his Elders mentioned Naden Harbour and

Masset Inlet as the places where people obtained the best cedar (Barney Edgars, personal communication 2014), and it is possible that their ancestors also did so during the late precontact. The frequency and density of CMTs has been observed by other researchers.

In their large inventory report for the region, Stafford and Christensen eloquently state what other researchers in this region have also concluded (Personal Observation, also see

Mason 1995), that is:

Due to the intensity of use within and near the study area, as indicated by the large number of habitation sites located, the densities and distributions of CMT features correlate strongly with the density and distribution of cedar trees on the ground. [Stafford and Christensen 2000: 134]

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The abundance of CMTs in the Harbour region may indicate continued traditional use of forest resources in this landscape and suggests that there were very likely more CMTs visible in previous years, as scars heal over and natural regeneration on the forest floor obscures CMTs.

Visually, the CMT record of areas around the harbour appears to indicate that people were accessing the forests starting at the beach and heading inland. Once again, it is important to remember that any CMTs located in the foreshore areas were logged prior to

1995 and thus have not been recorded. Therefore, the CMT record is patchy and somewhat visually inaccurate when seen on maps. In the southern regions near the mouths of the Naden, Sgayn and Stanley rivers large areas were logged, removing significant amounts of CMTs.

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Figure 7-12: CMTs and other late precontact sites generally occur in larger concentrations along the coastline of the harbour, typically within about 2.5 kilometers of the shore. Many areas remain unsurveyed. Note: The oval in the coastline buffer in the middle of the harbour is due to an overlap of the coastline dataset and should be ignored. The small, often triangular polygons within the buffer are created by the presence of bays that cut deeply into the shoreline.

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Table 7-2: CMT Class totals within 2.5 km of the shores of Naden Harbour

Percentage of CMT Region Count Total CMTs in Class Region Naden Harbour, within 2.5 kilometres AL 235 27 RBS 380 43 TBS 236 27 OM 29 3 880 100

The Daastl Watershed

The CMT record of the Daastl Creek watershed presents an interesting example of CMT presence that appears to be associated with the use of streams as guides to access cedar and cypress in areas far inland. This is a cultural adaption to the coastal rainforest environment that is known by contemporary bark strippers (Barney Edgars, personal communication 2002) as well as in other parts of coastal and interior British Columbia

(Oliver 2007:11, Stafford and Maxwell 2006). Many of the CMTs were recorded after 2005, and therefore have been mapped as polygons without point attributes (Figure 7-13). Using the available point files as proxies for the proportions of different types of CMTs in the rest of the watershed, AL and RBS appear to be the most common classes in the lower reaches of the watershed, while TBS are more common in patches farther inland. As noted

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Figure 7-13: The Archaeological Record of the Daastl Creek watershed. The archaeological record appears to indicate patterns of both resource extraction and movement related to stream courses.

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Table 7-3 : CMT Class Totals in the Dasstl’ watershed Percentage of CMT Region Count Total CMTs in Class Region Daastl watershed AL 79 36 RBS 102 46 TBS 39 17 OM 0 0 Total Number of CMTs recorded (2005) 220 99

for the lower Naden Harbour region, CMT class representation may relate primarily to stand age, where larger, older stands have mainly AL and RBS CMTs and younger stands have mainly TBS CMTs. Cedar and cypress of good quality appear to have been acquired from areas farther inland in this region perhaps reflecting the need for more cedar and cypress to support the needs of a larger population. Additionally, cultivation of cedar and cypress may be represented by these patterns, although more research is needed to support this theory.

In the CMT polygons, all CMT classes are represented, and a cursory review of these sites in addition to my personal experience conducting several archaeological surveys in the

Daastlan watershed (Church 2001a, 2001b, 2001c), indicates that where large, older cedars and cypress are located farther inland, some have been harvested for bark boards

(RBS), logs, canoes and planks (AL). Figure 7-14 shows me standing next to one of the

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Figure 7-14: In this photograph the surveyor’s hand is next to bear claw marks on this massive Western Red Cedar that was located in the Daastlan watershed.

cedars in this region that had been climbed by a bear, and is an example of the massive, high quality cedars suitable for canoe manufacture and house building materials in this watershed.

The gyaahlang entitled, The Woman who Became a Shaman, was recorded by anthropologist John Swanton on the islands in 1901 and refers specifically to Daastlan

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Creek and the HlGguln village. This narrative tells us that, at one time, people moved around the harbour for cedar and did not just harvest from the forests behind their villages. Additionally this story talks of women working in groups of 10 to harvest bark.

Ten women went from the town of Hlguln30 to get bark. And they arrived on the other side (of Naden). The stream in the valley of which they were is named Daastl. And when they were about to go up to the woods, they anchored their canoe at an island lying in the mouth, because they thought they would come down when the tide was low. This island is named t’iid. The canoe was upon this. And then they went up into the woods together. And after they had gone on for a while, they came to many young cedars. They said to one another, ‘Let no one wander faraway.’ [Walter of the Rear-Town- People of Yaan, as recorded in Swanton 1908:570, Old Massett orthography]

The class of CMTs produced by the activities of these women would be TBS, and because the women worked in groups, we can extrapolate from this cultural practice that there will be TBS of the same date of modification here. These women, having seen the large cedars and cypress far inland, may have passed the word on to house builders and canoe makers, as AL CMTs are also found far inland here. The pattern of forest activity in the

Daastl indicates the presence of a resource trail system in this region. Moreover, as per

Walter’s account, people were apparently not tied to specific areas behind their villages.

Therefore, the inferred link between CMTs and the people inhabiting the closest village site may not be well supported in the study area.

30 Swanton used the International Phonetic Alphabet to record Xaad Kil, which I have transcribed into the Old Massett orthography in these examples.

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The Middle Reach of Naden River Watershed

Unlike areas to the north, the southern part of the Naden Harbour watershed has CMT sites extending far past the 2.5 km buffer. Not only does the CMT presence extend as much as 6.5 km inland here, but AL types are also the ones being recorded this far inland, farther than RBS and TBS. It is very important to emphasize though, that there has been very little survey south of Kose Indian Reserve and Marian Lake, and nearly all of the land around Eden Lake was logged prior to 1995 (Figure 7-15). At 6.5 km inland, three AL CMTs were recorded on a transect survey (Arcas 1994) in a small strip of original forest along the

Naden River, north of Eden Lake. The three ALs are all felled trees, with no additional information available.

The type and point provenience of 131 CMTs were recorded in this section of the Naden

River watershed before 2005. Fifty-three percent of the CMTs are of the RBS variety whereas 31 percent of the CMTs are identified as ALs (Table 7-3). TBS are uncommon accounting for only 14 percent of the sample recorded before 2005. The majority of the

RBS occur in two large clusters located west and north of Marian Lake but neither grouping appears to be readily accessible from either the lake or the Naden River. These data suggest that the two groves of trees may have been especially well-suited for the removal of rectangular bark segments, perhaps for use in Kose to construct temporary

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Figure 7-15: The Archaeological record in the middle reach on the Naden River. Group CMT sites described in the text above are labelled.

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Table 7-4: CMT Class totals in the middle reach of the Naden River watershed

Percentage of CMT Region Count Total CMTs in Class Region mid-reach Naden River watershed AL 41 31 RBS 70 53 TBS 17 13 OM 3 2 Total Number of CMTs recorded (2005) 131 99

Figure 7-16: The majority of the Eden Lake watershed was logged prior to 1995. Note the lighter green of the second growth forest on the west side of the lake with the white logging road through it. No archaeological surveys were conducted prior to the logging. Google Earth 3D simulation data from 2004.

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shelters. Since Kose is the nearest recorded fishing station, the bark may also have been used to build smoke houses.

The higher percentage of RBS in this region, in addition to the ALs, indicates the use of not only bark but also the wood of cedars and cypress. Large wood products such as logs or planks may have been floated out to the harbour on the river or they could have been used locally for building houses or for racks for drying fish, for example. The high numbers of RBS could indicate the presence of a more permanent settlement inland such as a village because houses require dozens of these thick outer bark slabs for roofing (Bernick

1984:20). RBS are known as temporary shelter material on some parts of the northwest coast, however on Graham Island, the inland lifeways are not well known and therefore I contend that high numbers of RBS may indeed indicate more permanent sheltering that was created using this material instead of planks. Indeed, this could be a very local custom of the middle reach of the Naden watershed.

Another site, FlUe-1, located just 900 m southwest of Kose provides further support for the presence of inland camps along this stretch of the Naden River. FlUe-1 is a grouping of eight AL CMTs recorded in 1991 with evidence of modifications done over 250 years ago

(Volkman 1991). Two of the CMTs are burnt, one CMT having a test hole burnt into it and the other being burnt all the way up its trunk. In this region, burning as a falling technique is thought to predate the use of metal tools, which may be the basis for Volkman’s estimates of the date-of-modification. Falling a large diameter tree with fire would take

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time, more than a day, suggesting that the fallers would have established a camp in the area. Perhaps some of the RBS in this region were used for making temporary shelters such as lean-tos (Stewart 1984:119) to support such activities in the awaahl agwii.

Another site of interest is FlUe-77 which is located near the southeast shore of Marian

Lake and contains a 10.75 m long cedar canoe blank. Canoe blanks left in the forest are rare and this example is just one of four such CMTs in the Naden Harbour watershed.

Good canoe logs are not common, but they may have been more readily available in the lower reaches of the Naden River given the abundance of cedar in these foreshore regions. A good canoe log should come from a large tree with a diameter of more than a metre and should have a very straight grain with as few branch nodes as possible

(Secretariat of the Haida Nation 2011). Perhaps this canoe was going to be used for fishing in Marian Lake or the intention may have been to float the watercraft across the lake to the western shore where the Naden River comes close to the lake, and then float the canoe out to Naden Harbour along this stream. Therefore the intended purpose of this watercraft could have been either for inland or coastal use but, in either case, the work needed to fall the tree and prepare the canoe blank could have been accomplished in one day but probably would have involved more time and required an overland trip to this region using the waterways as guides. A canoe blank this far inland may indicate a stay of several days in the area and therefore suggests the presence of a campsite and perhaps the existence of a nearby inland village.

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Another important site in this region, recorded after 2005 and therefore not included in the CMT totals here (Table 7-3), is FlUe-104. This site appears to exemplify the harvesting activities of women (Walter, in Swanton 1908:570-573) and paints an entirely different picture of harvesting strategies as 83 of the 100 recorded CMTs are TBS. This cluster of

CMTs is located 600 m north of the Kose Indian Reserve which, as mentioned previously, was an important inland fish processing station on the Naden River in 1882 and probably earlier (Harris 2007). The high numbers of TBS in this area may indicate that people were harvesting cedar bark while staying at Kose during the fishing season, as the seasons for bark stripping and the sockeye harvest are concurrent31. The bark may have been used for making baskets or backpacks to carry dried fish back to a coastal site, whether that site be on the coast of Naden Harbour or on the west side of Graham Island. The bark may also have been harvested to be used later for a variety of purposes.

There are no known sockeye streams on the west coast in the vicinity of Otard Bay and therefore dried or smoked salmon from this region may have been traded with west coast peoples. Kose may also have been a staging area where people prepared for travel farther inland or to west coast locations. The bark stripping could have been part of the preparations for these trips, the inner bark of younger cedar and cypress having been employed to weave baskets used by pedestrian travelers to transport goods across the

31 See Chapter 4 Ethnography, Table 4-2: The Seasonal Round of the Graham Island xaadaa

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island. Finally, on the west coast, cedar and cypress are not as abundant and their quality is less consistent. Therefore, cedar stripped at FlUe-104 could have been bundled and packed overland to west coast villages.

Aboriginal use of wood products is supported by the archaeological record in the mid- reach of the Naden watershed. Unfortunately, farther upstream, very little of the original forest remains and therefore the CMT record cannot be used as evidence of late precontact cultural activities (Figure 7-16). We may speculate from what we have, but in this section of the study area especially, the CMT record does not exist and cannot be used by itself as evidence of inland cultural activity around Eden Lake in the late precontact period.

The Middle and Upper reaches of the Sgayn watershed

The nature and distribution of CMTs in the middle to upper reaches of the Sgayn watershed differs substantively from the patterning in the other watersheds. The CMTs occur in small clusters of RBS and TBS separated by distances ranging between 200 and

1200 m. In addition, the clusters extend farther inland than anywhere else in the study area. One CMT, identified as a TBS, is located 14 km inland and approximately 1000 m southeast of the main channel of the Sgayn. The rest of the CMTs are located in the middle reach of the river some 6 to 8.5 km inland of the mouth of the Sgayn at Naden

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Harbour. There are just 17 RBS recorded in the middle to upper Sgayn which make up 76

% of the total number of CMTs and 4 TBS that make up the remaining 24 percent of the total. (Figure 7-17, Table 7-4).

RBS are approximately five cm thick and average one m wide by 3.5 m long. Since the sap must be flowing in order for them to be harvested, they would be large, heavy items to move. The presence of these CMTs so far inland in small numbers appears to indicate the use of the bark slabs for temporary shelters. The few TBS occur in small, scattered groups, sometimes in proximity to RBS. In other regions of the study area, TBS are found in large clusters (as in FlUe-104), and often mixed in with AL and RBS CMTs. All CMTs in this area are up the hill from the river at elevations of between 80 and 120 masl. On the south side of the river the CMTs, including the TBS that is 14 km inland, occur at elevations of 100 to

120 m (Figure 7-18).

As with the middle reach of the Naden watershed, large sections of the Sgayn were logged prior to 1995. In fact, there is nearly no original forest along the northwest bank. As one moves farther inland, the banks of the river become steeper, especially on the southeast side, and the majority of the CMTs were located along the steepest sections of the valley margins. I conducted the archaeological surveys that located the majority of the CMTs in this section of the study area, and noticed that there were not many cedars that had been modified, even though there were cedars present in each one of the stands (Church 1998 a, b). This is atypical for the study area. These are not bark harvest centres, as in the

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Figure 7-17: The Archaeological Record in the middle reach of the Sgayn watershed.

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Table 7-5: CMT Class totals in the middle reach of the middle and high reaches of the Sgayn River watershed

Percentage of CMT Region Count Total CMTs in Class Region midddle to high reaches of Sgayn River AL 0 watershed 0 RBS 13 76 TBS 4 24 OM 0 0 Total Number of CMTs recorded (2005) 17 100

Daastl, and these are not logging worksites as in the middle and lower reaches of the

Scattered TBS and RBS are found on ridgelines with even elevation (sidehill) in this region.

Instead, they show a unique distribution pattern that does not seem to be motivated by the intensive harvest of cedar or cypress bark.

In addition to the side hill on the southeast bank, another landscape feature in the area appears to be related to the patterned distribution of CMTs. A large gravel bar in the

Sgayn is located midway between the group of CMTs on the northwest side of the river and another set on the southeast side. The gravel bar is so large that it served as a convenient landing pad for a medium-sized helicopter (Figure 7-19). In addition, important medicinal plants rarely found inland were seen at the back of the gravel bar near a small side channel (Church 1998a). Ts'iithlants’aaw (Devil's club) was relatively abundant here

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Figure 7-18: 20 metre elevation contour line overlay shows all CMTs in middle reach of the Sgayn watershed are located between 80 and 120 masl. On the south side they are all between 100 and 120 masl.

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Figure 7-19: Gravel bar and CMT relationship on either side of Sgayn River, middle reach. Note: South is up in this figure. Google Earth 3D simulation data from 2004.

and may have been a draw for aboriginal people who were living or travelling through the area. It is also possible that the medicinal plants were cultivated in this location. During intermittent high water flows from fall through winter and into the spring, people would not have camped in this location, but during the salmon season, when the Coho salmon would have been returning to this reach of the Sgayn, the large, elevated gravel bar may have been a good place to camp and, if sunlight penetrated through the forest canopy in this rare, open and flat inland location, this sunny spot may have been a place to set up

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fish drying racks. RBS slabs may have been used for temporary shelters and stored in a dry location, perhaps suspended in the lower branches of spruce and hemlock trees, for use during subsequent visits. In any case, a camp in this general area, either on the gently sloping northwest bank or on the gravel bar, may have provided shelter for travellers heading farther inland and over to the west coast. Camping on the southeast bank is unlikely, as this place is steep with no flat areas suitable for resting. After walking seven km inland to reach this point, the travellers would be ready for a break or may have opted to establish camp before night fall.

Due to the wide spacing of the CMT clusters along the side hill and the spatial relationship of the CMT clusters on either side of the river to the large gravel bar on the Sgayn, I believe that the RBS and TBS in this area may have served as trail markers in addition to providing construction materials for shelters and inner bark for baskets. When conducting archaeological surveys, we find CMTs by looking up and ahead (or behind) and I contend that this is also how the people would have used the TBS and RBS to orient themselves in the past. The possible TBS recorded during the Naden AIS is over 14 km inland and may be another example of a trail marker. It was found next to a game trail at the top of a steep bank along a feeder stream to the Sgayn, approximately 1200 m southeast of the river.

The nature and patterned distribution of CMTs in the middle and upper reaches of the

Sgayn tells us that people travelled far inland and suggests that RBS and TBS of this, and

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perhaps other sections of the study area, served purposes other than only a source of bark.

The West Coast side

On the western side of the Queen Charlotte Range, the archaeological record is very sparse. Only four archaeological surveys which located a total of eight CMTs have been conducted in this area. One unknown site type was also identified near the Susk Indian

Reserve (Figure 7-20). Two random survey transects were conducted by Arcas in 1994, an unknown survey type was completed by the Canadian Museum of History32, and a judgemental transect survey was undertaken in the summer of 2012 as part of my

Masters research project, which was designed to locate a trail along a predicted route.

The lack of surveys is due to the paucity of proposed development in the region. The only development that has taken place here is a series of large clear cuts in the upper reaches of the Haines and Cave Creek watersheds prior to 1995 and the 1911 oil drilling expedition at the Tiiaan village site. Moreover, there are no plans for development at this time as this

32 An unknown archaeological site type is part of the archaeological record, FlUg-1The year of record, is1967, the recorder, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (likely by George MacDonald), and there is a site map that locates it near a sandy beach by the Susk Indian Reserve.

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Figure 7-20: The Archaeological Record in the west coast section of the study area.

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Table 7-6: CMT class totals on the west side of the Queen Charlotte Range, from Boussole Rock to Otard Bay

Percentage of CMT Region Count Total CMTs in Class Region West Coast, Boussole Rock to Otard Bay AL 1 13 RBS 1 13 TBS 5 63 OM 1 13 Total Number of CMTs recorded (2012) 8 102

area has been protected by the establishment of the Duu Guusd Tribal Park, now known as the Duu Guusd Heritage Site / Conservancy.

Four of the TBS were recorded in a one cluster approximately 300 m inland of the west coast shoreline and one other TBS was recorded in association with an AL feature on a second transect about the same distance inland. While it may be a very small sample from which to project trends, the fact that no CMTs were found more than 300 m inland on these surveys may indicate that there are few CMTs in general in the region, and very few or none farther inland.

During my 2012 research project, the CMTs found on my transect survey were an OM spruce bark slab removal and what appeared to be an incomplete RBS with only the bottom cut line. The OM may be associated with the Tiiaan village site as it is 200 m east

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of the Tiiaan along a predicted trail route that cuts off a near-shore rocky outcrop between two sandy beaches (Figure 7-11a). The RBS is of greater interest in terms of inland activity, as it was found 750 m inland of the often sheer, 20 m drop off to the shoreline at Otard Bay. Moreover, the presence of this CMT indicates that someone travelled through this place. This RBS may represent a point along an inland trail that extended from the sandy beach at the back end of Otard Bay to an unknown destination, possibly Tiiaan, and it may be evidence of someone seeking material to build a temporary shelter, or someone attempting to make a trail marker (Figure 7-21). Notably, the cedar in this area is rough and not ideal for the removal of bark slabs or wood planks. I suspect that this bark slab was not taken because the sap was not flowing enough to be able to extract the slab, especially not from a tree with such corrugated bark and so many knots.

Cedar in this biogeoclimatic zone do not have a straight grain, and they have more lower branches and knots than those in the Naden and Daastlan watersheds. People who lived on the west side probably obtained some of the higher quality cedar they needed from elsewhere, such as the Naden Harbour region. An inland trail between these two regions may have been used to move inner bark for weaving to west coast locations, while larger materials for house and canoe manufacture would have to have been floated out and around the top end of the island, and down to the village sites; a trip that could have taken place during good weather in the spring and summer months.

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Figure 7-21: RBS, strip not taken, at ridge top near the north side of Otard Bay. See Figure 7-20 for mapped location.

The two Indian Reserves shown as Aboriginal camps or villages in Figure 7-20 are Tiiaan and Susk. Unlike the reserves in Naden Harbour, neither of these appear to have been designated for fishing purposes. They are both situated along sandy beaches that have some protection from the western winds. According to Kathleen Dalzell, a local historian,

Susk was apparently so named ‘by the Whites’, and the original xaadaa name was Tii.

Tiiaan was known in the early contact period as a camp for sea otter hunters. Swanton referred to Tiiaan as Slaughter village, while Dalzell translated it as ‘good-hunting’ (Dalzell

1973:51). One archaeological site was recorded near Susk, but there is no information on

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it other than a sketch map showing a location. I saw some archaeological features at T

Tiiaan iiaan Indian reserve in 2012, including a few house depressions and what appeared to be well deteriorated mortuary posts. Remains of the machinery from the oil drilling operation of the early 1900’s are also still present in the area. None of the artifacts and features seen at Tiiaan are part of the Provincial archaeological record (As shown in

Figures 5-8a, b, c, d, and e).

West Side Summary

The archaeological record of the west side of the study area is not extensive but it does show that people lived in the region and accessed the forest for materials, though far less so than in the Naden Harbour watersheds. The near absence of AL and RBS CMTs may indicate that the cedar and cypress of the west coast region was not well suited for house building. However, so little archaeological survey has been done in the west coast forests that this observation remains speculative. Inland trails were probably used to get around the rocky outcrops that made hiking along the shoreline difficult if not impossible in some sections, and CMTs may be found along these routes. An inland trail connecting the west coast people to the sockeye salmon runs as well as the cedar and cypress resources of the

Naden Harbour watersheds may have provided access to food and raw materials such as high quality inner bark for weaving.

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7.3 Archaeological Potential along the Naden to Otard Bay Trail

A trail in this region would be quickly obscured by disuse as compared to one in the interior (Hooper 1999). Hooper’s study of trails in the central plateau region of BC provides a useful contrast to the trail network of Graham Island because of the difference in environments and the difference in how proto-historical events unfolded. While early explorers to the plateau arrived by land, via interior rivers, on Xaadlaa gwaayee the first contact was necessarily by sea. Hooper quotes early geologists, who find the trails of the

Carrier First Nation embedded into the ground. Trade with x̱aadaas was initiated in coastal locations, while on the Central plateau of British Columbia all movement of goods was via terrestrial or riverine pathways; that is, using canoes and portaging. In contrast, it is doubtful that early explorers of the islands would have left their ships for long, as in

1852 a merchant ship was attacked and plundered by Old Massett x̱aadaas. The Susan

Sturgis was boarded and raided, and all that was of value to the xaadaas was claimed, and the ship was later burned. The sailors were held for ransom, which the Hudson Bay

Company at Fort Simpson paid (Dalzell 1973:103, 335). In the Central Interior, trade with groups was terrestrial and walking and packing goods was extensively documented by early explorers starting around 1793, but on Graham Island the new trade regime was coastal and documentation of this trade first came from Captain Dixon in 1784, when he visited Cloak Bay on Kiis Gwaay / Langara Island. Trade on the islands was dictated by

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coastal accessibility and visibility and, as human numbers dwindled due to epidemic diseases, inland travel became less physically possible and any trails were abandoned. The trails quickly grew over, as is referenced in a song sung by a xaadaa elder:

‘ts’eehl ‘laanaas git’alang-.aa hl ’is-gwaang dagwaang-giinii tladluu k’yuwaay gingaan dii-.an dalang guuhl dagwaang-gang Translation: I used to go around to the children of ts’eehl town You think of me like an ancient trail now Haida Song, excerpt, composer unknown, Prose version , # 109 [Enrico and Stuart, 1996:373]

Another important factor with regards to the physical visibility of trails that is completely different on the islands than the central interior plateau is the size of the trees and their ability to completely disrupt the forest floor when they blow down. As noted above, blow downs are common disturbances in the ecology of Xaadlaa gwaayee, especially on the west coast of the islands. This fact was documented during field work prior to and for this study, when a walk that was projected to take three hours actually took nine hours due to sequential blow down events that had to be navigated slowly and carefully with a large pack on my back (Figures 7-22). My intention was to follow a contact period trail along the side of a mountain, minimizing effort in rugged terrain. I had determined the route through a review of historic maps as well as an assessment of orthophotos. The photos were relatively recent, just five years old, but the resolution was not high enough to be able to recognize the blow down events in the study area.

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Figure 7-22: An extended patch of recent and old blow down along predicted trail route between Tiiaan and the sandy beach at the bottom of Otard Bay. This forest was relatively young with trees averaging 80 cm in diameter, and still some of the blow down patches were stacked up over my head.

In this region (presuming that climate patterns that precipitate large blow down events were similar in the late precontact), humans would not have bothered to try to cut their way through such large timber, or weave in and out of the pick-up-sticks of sequential blown downs. Instead, they would have changed their pathway and detoured around the obstruction, perhaps coming back to the original trail bed after passing the hazard. In contrast to the central interior plateau trails, small trees that may blow down on to a trail could be quite easily cleared away, and the trail would therefore not need to change course. Finding a precontact trail bed or other landscape indication of a trail other than

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CMTs in this rainforest may still be possible, however the indicators would need to be established by a landscape level survey focussed specifically on this endeavor.

7.3.1 Trail Marker and Mnemonic CMTs

Bark Strip CMTs stand out because modifications extend high up the tree, and the smooth texture and colour of the open scar faces attract attention. RBS have the additional visibility afforded by the high cut line, typically 4 m up the trunk of the tree, and the bulges at that cut line, that result from the tree healing around the cut line of the scar.

The kinks can be seen from several angles. As such, these CMTs can serve as landmarks.

But scarred trees themselves stood out in stark contrast to the often-muted tones of the forest floor. Their pale colour, smooth texture, and height afforded them a visual peculiarity against the darker background of trees and understory of ferns and salal, making them in many situations ideal landmarks. [Oliver 2007:13]

In order to see anything in the rainforest ahead of you, you must look up often, because the underbrush and the girth of the large trees often limit visibility. When looking up and around, you can see what is coming ahead of you and, on archaeological assessment surveys, bark strip CMTs are commonly discovered in this way. In the awaahl agwii, the precontact inhabitants would have used bark strip CMTs to navigate along the trail when necessary, particularly when moving away from major hydrological features which would have guided them up until a point. The outlying CMTs in the Sgayn watershed are all TBS

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and RBS, and the small clusters are spaced apart in such a way as to be useful for orienteering along the side hill. They are multi-functional CMTs, being used as sign posts along the trail after having been accessed for their bark. When encountering these trees far inland, previous excursions to the place may have been recounted and, in this way, they also served as mnemonic devices.

In my work as a forest archaeologist on the islands I have recorded and witnessed less than a hand full of CMTs that appeared to have been modified for the main purpose of marking a trail. These trees were located at or near the height of land at important turning points and they are solitary or found in small clusters. They are RBS CMTs that have a high top cut line or TBS CMTs. One of them appeared to be a very large old blaze at chest height and was near the height of land. Due to my considerable field experience in the region, and with reference to the archaeological record, I knew that these trees were unusual.

Figure 7-23 shows a CMT that was seen in a selectively logged area near the height of land south of the study area. This CMT is an example of a tree that may have been modified primarily to mark a trail. It has a high cut line, slightly higher than would be typical of RBS, and the face of the scar is oriented towards the higher ground near the height of land and an open wetland to the north. The species is cypress and it appears to have been one of

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Figure 7-23: RBS Trail Marker CMT. Canyon Creek drainage, Tartu Inlet, West Coast of Graham Island. Approximate diameter at breast height 100 cm. the larger, taller trees in the area at the time of stripping34. This site is 6 km inland on a 40 percent slope at an elevation of 560 m. Once the ancient trail reached the height of land, the path would have skirted the adjacent wetland to get to inland areas of Graham Island coming out at Juskatla Inlet. From there, travellers could have ventured down to the more southeasterly part of Rennel Sound. I postulate that this tree may be located at the junction of several inland trails (Figure 7-24) because of its location near the height of land

34 I conducted a field review of this area post-logging with Barney Edgars, as part of our duties as employees of the Forestry and Heritage Programs of the Secretariat of the Haida Nation.

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Figure 7-24 Google Earth 3D view. The study area is to the northwest, The Canyon 59 CMT is located near the highest elevations of the Queen Charlotte Range

between watersheds. At this elevation this tree is slow growing, and is likely over one thousand years old. Slow growing means tighter growth rings and therefore the healing lobes will be smaller but much more dense. The scar face is broad and the modification would be visible for several hundred years at this elevation.

Spirituality Represented by CMTs

It is said that people prayed to the tree prior to stripping bark from it, though this was not

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practiced by all people (Barney Edgars personal communication 2002). As per ethnographer John Swanton, cedar bark had a spiritual and filial relationship to women, as in the following excerpt from the legendary story The Woman Who Became a Shaman:

The cedar-bark is also said to have sung a song through her at this time, the words of which were as follows, repeated over and over: Dii daang daansgay.ya.aanga, duunaay (‘You let me hang always in spite of your pulling, younger sister’, - a poetic way of saying, ‘You could not pull me down, younger sister’). Cedar bark is said to be every woman's elder sister. [Swanton 1908:571 footnote]

This is one example of animism in the landscape related specifically to bark stripped trees.

When gathering cedar bark on Graham Island with Barney Edgars and other family members each spring to summer, we went to places where cedar had been stripped by the ancestors. A full range of dates of modification were seen in these sites, from a few years old to perhaps 350 years old. By looking at the girth of the healing lobes, the experienced stripper or local forest archaeologist may be able to make a relatively accurate guess at the date of the stripping event. From there, a story of what came to pass in this place at the time when the tree was accessed for some of its bark may be told.

On my bark stripping excursions with Barney and other family members, we have examined the techniques of previous strippers as demonstrated by its effect on the healing of the tree after bark harvest. We may re-strip a tree whose last bark stripping scar is mostly or completely healed over. The techniques for stripping trees may vary slightly with each stripper or clan, but one fact is clear via the CMT archaeological/cultural

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record - about 90% of the time, the tree was stripped in such a way so as to facilitate its ongoing growth and health. In a few cases, a standing dead CMT may be found, and this tree may serve as a teacher of how not to strip bark. While in the forest, Barney has related to me how his naanii (Grandmother) and her friends came to strip in the same area, and which trees were the ones they likely stripped. As we walk in the footsteps of these ancestors, we continue cultural practices that are hundreds or thousands of years old and the trees themselves serve as reminders of how to do things the correct way.

When visiting inland sites such as trail marker CMTs, the stories of those who walked this pathway before would have been related, the trees being the catalysts for remembrance; the tool marks of ancestors being the visceral reminders of their presence, their activity.

At times, when amongst these trees, these ancestors, I have felt the presence of those who came before, because it is possible to know with certainty exactly where they stood to harvest bark from the trees, and to stand where they stood.

7.3.2 Bridges?

The widest parts of rivers in the study area are 35 m, but the average width of the Sgayn and Naden Rivers in the lower reaches is 15 m as measured on the orthophotos. River courses in the rainforest can change dramatically due to high flows during the winter and spring, landslides, and blow downs of massive old growth trees. When these trees blow

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over there can be a domino effect. This can happen anywhere on Xaadlaa gwaayee, but it is particularly common to have these catastrophic events in areas on the west coast along rivers and on steep hillsides. The way to cross a river in this environment is by using the trunk of one of these blown down trees as a bridge. Trees were often found blown down across the width of a river during our surveys, and indeed, this is how we got to the other side of wider or deeper reaches of rivers. Metal and ground stone tools may have been available during the precontact period but there would rarely be a reason to make a bridge in this environment, as either the river is shallow and narrow enough to cross without a bridge, or a wind thrown tree or log jam could be found to cross the river. There is potential that such bridge trees would have been modified to be flatter and easier to walk on in areas of higher traffic and that the remains of this activity may still be identifiable, but I never saw this during my survey work. Small dug out or bark canoes may have been left in strategic places to cross rivers (Sheldon 1912:155, Stewart 1984:121).

The idea of bridge construction is intriguing and may have occurred in particularly highly travelled sections of trails where the river is wide and where there were settlements or camps on either side. Since this trail heads inland where the rivers are more easily crossed than at the estuary, the possibility of bridge use and construction is less likely.

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7.4 Middens of Other Periods

Some of the midden sites in the study area are the remains of human habitations from a time between 2000 to 9000 BP when sea levels were significantly higher. Middens from this time may be found at the high still stand terraces about 17 masl down to about 5 masl. Further study of middens in the Naden Harbour watersheds, including radiocarbon dating and technological assessment of the associated artifacts, could provide greater understanding of the origin and relative number of people living in the Harbour during different eras.

I was present when a deposit that appeared to be one such midden was discovered within the side wall of an excavated area in a logging camp during a field review of recently surveyed areas. The field review team consisted of Ministry of Forests staff, Secretariat of the Haida Nation Heritage and Forestry Program staff (including the author), and representatives of the development engineering contractor. I recognised an artifact in what appeared to be a meter deep shell midden in the side-wall of the excavation, which had been recently excavated to install a new cookhouse for the camp. I collected a basalt biface fragment from this midden on behalf of my employer and the Province of British

Columbia. No further intensive studies of the midden have taken place since this discovery even though leading archaeologists in the region identified this large shell deposit as potential evidence for a sustained occupation in an inland region of the islands, which

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would make it the first such site recorded on Graham Island . The Eden Lake biface and the associated midden, tentatively dated to 8000 BP, remain a bit of a mystery and a possible indicator of a sustained habitation on the northwest side of Eden Lake in the interior of Graham Island.

Along the raised beach landform in the Naden River watershed, at elevations of between

7 and 9 m, deep middens have been exposed by road building and some of these exposures have been visited by archaeologists and registered in the RAAD (Figure 7-25).

One of these sites, FlUe-4, was radio carbon dated from 3070 to 3900 BP (Fedje and Gold

1995). This particular habitation ends 1200 years before my study period begins. With regards to the Eden Lake biface, logging company representatives speculated that the midden material that was seen at the camp was not local, but was instead fill brought to the site from one of the middens exposed by the road to level the area. This may be correct, considering that the butter clams lived 4 km from the site at the closest (during the highest sea levels, 9000 BP), and because the exposure that we saw had been disturbed and its origin was unclear, and unfortunately, no further permitted sub-surface investigation took place, to my knowledge. However, since clams are so abundant on

Graham Island, and because they are easy to obtain during nearly all seasons, it is conceivable that people would hike out to the ocean at Naden Harbour to get them, and walk back 4 km or more, along a trail, for this purpose.

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Figure 7-25: Registered Raised Beach Midden Sites found along road cuts. FlUe-4 was radio carbon dated to 3070 to 3900 BP.

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7.5 Synopsis

The archaeological record shows that Naden Harbour was a busy place in the late- precontact to contact periods, with 23 shell middens located around the shores of the harbour, some as much as 2 m deep. Several more may have existed but have eroded away. Needan or house watershed had high numbers of settlements and houses along its shores, and the surrounding forests were accessed extensively for materials used to build houses or shelters and to weave clothing or baskets. The CMT record of the entire Naden

Harbour watershed has over 1000 registered CMTs, and this represents a small fraction, perhaps 10 percent of the forested lands having been surveyed for archaeological resources. It seems that nearly everywhere that surveys have taken place, CMTs were recorded, except farther inland. Certain watersheds such as the Daastlan, Naden and

Sgayn suggest movement farther inland. In the Naden, the nature and patterned distribution of the CMTs support ethnographic accounts that an inland village once existed, perhaps near Eden Lake. On the Sgayn, a possible TBS recorded 14 km inland, along with a series of small clusters of RBS and TBS arranged along the margins of a hill 7 km from the shores of the harbour indicate strongly that people were moving through this area and probably camping briefly while on their way to the west coast. Trail routes changed over time due to obstructions such as blow downs, especially on the west side of the Queen Charlotte Mountains where strong winds and relentless rain storms saturate

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the ground and precipitate sequential blow down events. On the west side of the Queen

Charlotte Range, very few archaeological sites have been recorded, primarily because no development has taken place there. In fact, in the Otard Bay watershed, there has been no development at all. For this reason, the Otard Creek watershed could provide interesting information on cultural practices taking place during the late precontact, because the CMT record is fully available. If a trail marked by TBS, RBS or other CMT classes exists here, a survey could be designed to find these trees and further prove that

CMTs mark trails. Since CMTs are visible without excavation and also extraordinary evidence of precontact to contact era human movements and cultural activity, they are very important and significant artifacts in terms of research on inland trails and lifeways in northwestern Graham Island.

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CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION

The Inland Lifeways of Xaadlaa gwaayee has examined archaeology as a method for understanding the part of the lifeway of the late precontact people of northwestern

Graham Island. In this thesis, I have attempted to demonstrate that people followed trails to move far inland and that a trail network also existed in the historic period. Particular activities took place along and in association with the trail network including camping, harvesting cedar wood and bark, fishing and processing fish. Each activity created unique kinds of archaeological remains with different visibility and potential of discovery. To research this inland culture, I have:

hiked and conducted focussed cultural and archaeological feature identification participated in ‘indigenous lifestyle;’: intensive hunting and gathering of wild foods dictated by the seasons, the tides, and the weather of Graham Island studied the indigenous language studied indigenous language terms and place names as they refer to place and landscape analysed ethnographic accounts of Graham Island and nearby regions assessed the information contained in postcontact maps experimented with LCPs in a GIS interpreted the archaeological record with a focus on the CMT record and viewed and assessed my results in three dimensions.

My physical experience in the landscape provides me with the perspective that I can understand how the precontact x̱aadaa felt when they were walking inland, to a degree.

While climate may have changed somewhat, many of the same trees that were thriving during the lives of many generations of xaadaas of the period before contact are still alive.

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Many of the trees are the same trees that the ancestors were experiencing, though generally wider and taller. Moreover, the composition of the forest remains roughly the same. Therefore, during my 22 years living in the rainforests of Graham Island, I became knowledgeable of the inland lifeways of the precontact inhabitants, not only by working on archaeological and cultural studies, but also by living an indigenous hunting and gathering lifestyle. The trees cannot move and the markings on them are physical evidence of where the ancestors walked and accessed the products of these trees.

Discussions over the years with my colleagues in the field also assisted in bringing the precontact era to life. It is from this perspective that I have completed this thesis, and in this final chapter I shall integrate my data by identifying and interpreting important relationships between the variables as they relate to how people lived on northwestern

Graham Island during the late precontact.

8.1 The Archaeological Record, Indigenous Place Names and Inland Lifeways

With 23 midden sites having been registered at 1 to 3 masl along the shores of Naden

Harbour, it is clear that there were many contemporaneous or intermittently contemporaneous habitations. The name Needan may, in fact, refer to the many houses that would have existed here and that would have been visible to the boats in the harbour and from its shores. There are over 800 CMTs recorded in Needan, and with the majority

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of the landscape unsurveyed, and much of this logged before archaeological survey requirements, thousands more CMTs are predicted to have been located along this stretch of coast. Due to the abundance of forest work sites as represented by the CMTs,

Needan may also refer to the watersheds of the harbour as places where house building materials can be found in abundance.

T’aay ahl is another important place name in understanding inland lifeways in the study area because it translates as ‘beside or by a trailhead’. This place was accordingly selected as one of the source points for the LCP analyses. Other place names on the north side of the study area that have been recorded during the historic period are not as readily associated with inland lifeways. There have been no middens recorded at or very near the two trailheads, T’aay ahl and T’aaw Ḵaahlii, but there has been no intensive archaeological survey in these locations, though a few CMTs have been recorded along the coastline in the bay by T’aay ahl (Figures 8-1 and 8-2). Both trailheads have the potential to yield archaeological evidence of canoe landing and camping. At T’aaw Kaahlii there is potential for the remains of a camp or more permanent village. In particular, people may have brought their canoes up onto the sandy beach, which is less likely to damage the canoe bottom than bedrock beaches elsewhere along the coast. Canoe Runs, which are an archaeological site that is formed by the movement and pile up of rocks to form a water pathway to the beach may also be part of the undiscovered archaeological record here.

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Figure 8-1: The Northern Trailhead, T’aay ahl

Figure 8-2: The West coast Trailhead at T’aaw Kaahlii. There has been no logging within this watershed, making it an excellent candidate for a watershed level, west coast CMT survey.

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Inland, there are rivers and mountains that have names, and because these features of the landscape help to guide the traveller, their names and locations are relevant to this study. The Naden River has been called Xaa.aandlaas (Mallard duck watershed) whereas the Davidson River in known as the Sgayn (Merganser duck). The decision to designate watercourses with the names of waterfowl is interesting although the reason for this selection remains obscure. The names of distinctive peaks in the study area are equally interesting. Sk’aats Iiwans or ‘ Big Cup Mountain’ (translation by the author) is a small mountain visible from Virago Sound on the east side of Naden Harbour while

Tladaaw Tl’aajaaws is another name for Sgayn Mountain, which is at the top of the Sgayn n watershed in the Queen Charlotte Range. The note of a ‘Leading Knotch’ that could guide one through a pass in the range is particularly important in terms of orientation via landmarks as indicated on the panorama prepared by Charles Smith and Ihlldiinii. All of these landscape features would have guided travellers as they made their way inland.

The CMT record near Kose indicates that there were inland camps in the region associated with the harvest of cedar wood and bark. It also indicates the intensive extraction of inner cedar bark for weaving. Moreover, the variable thicknesses of the healing lobes on TBS at

FlUe-104 indicates that this activity has been conducted by different generations of x̱aadaas. Since it is near the Naden River and along a possible trail route that may continue to the west coast, where quality cedar bark is not as abundant, the bark may have been collected here and transported to the west side of the island. Figure 8-3

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combines the place names in the study area with the CMT archaeological record and the

LCPs.

Figure 8-3: Archaeological Record, indigenous place names and LCPs.

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8.2 Correlations of LCPs with ethnographic and archaeological information

8.2.1 The Traditional Slope LCP

As indicated by place names in the region, historic and prehistoric encampments and villages existed in proximity to river and stream estuaries suggesting that an LCP using slope as variable might indicate the path used by people moving inland during the late pre-contact period. This LCP generally follows the Naden River up to Eden Lake, hugs the western shoreline of the lake, heads through a low mountain pass and continues on to the west coast trailhead using the bed of Otard Creek. An inland aboriginal camp or village probably associated with Eden Lake is mentioned anecdotally to one early explorer by his xaadaa guides (Brown 1866 in Lillard 1989) and is part of the modern local gyaahlang

(Gow Gaia 2005). Chittenden (1884) also describes the lower segment of a trail in this area, and Sheldon noted that people were occasionally using a trail to get to the west coast from Naden Harbour in 1908. In addition, several archaeological sites, including a possible archaeological midden, have been discovered along the river and the west side of

Eden Lake, despite extensive logging of the area prior to 1995 (Figure 8-4). The LCP also passes near Kose before heading over towards and following the shore of Marian Lake, where there is a cluster of CMT sites including one with the remains of a canoe blank. The canoe, once completed, may have been intended to transport people and goods through the lake or along the navigable stretch of the Naden River. Alternatively, the canoe blank

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Figure 8-4: Detail of Slope LCP in the Middle Reach of the Naden River

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and the associated AL CMTs could indicate the presence of an inland village nearby.

Furthermore, the presence of CMTs, in particular the RBSs north of Marian Lake, indicate that camps were probably used in this region and/or that the area was the subject of bark slab harvest for trade with other groups. These slabs would have been heavy to move in numbers, so if they were to be used as a trade item, it is possible that canoes were used along this reach of the Naden River to move them out to the coast.

Kose, the inland fish camp on the Naden River, is strategically located near a meander in the river. Dozens of fish weir stakes have been noted in the lower Naden River at low tide, suggesting that the Naden River was and continues to be an important waterway in the region, a stream with one of the largest sockeye salmon runs on Xaadlaa gwaayee. The salmon from this area may have been traded with people in the Otard Bay area who did not have local access to sockeye. If so, the traders may have used this trail which intersected the Naden River at Kose and passed along the shores of Eden Lake to transport dried salmon to the west coast. Under these circumstances, the social affiliations between the north and west coast peoples would have been very important to maintain as food sources were, and continue to be, the most basic human needs.

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8.2.2 The Hiking Travel Time LCP

The Travel Time LCP generated using Tobler’s function follows the Sgayn river bed to a low pass through the Queen Charlotte Mountains. This LCP does not follow a course along one side of the river but instead opts to take a route directly through the meandering river, crossing the stream many times. This LCP passes by a group of TBS and AL mixed sites in the lower Sgayn, but does not intersect with any other registered archaeological sites (Figure 8-5). It is important to point out that there have been few archaeological surveys in the Sgayn watershed and the majority of the lower Sgayn, specifically the west bank of this watercourse, was logged prior to 1995. Therefore, evaluation of this LCP and its relationship to archaeological sites such as clusters of CMTs must remain tentative.

The Travel Time LCP resembles the historic trail depicted on the 1916 map (Figure 8-6a, b).

This trail was used to connect the drill team on the west side of the Queen Charlotte

Mountains at Tiiaan with supplies and mail which were available at the Naden Harbour

Whaling Station, north of T’aay ahl. Maximizing travel time would have been important to these men, who were not looking for cedar groves or hunting for caribou, but just trying to get from A to B in the fastest way possible while packing supplies. So, in the late precontact period it is plausible that a route similar to this one would have been used if the primary concerns were to communicate information and move materials from one of

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Figure 8-5: The Travel Time LCP runs through a CMT cluster in the lower Sgayn.

the trail heads to the other. Importantly however, the resources transported along this trail may not have been gathered in the Sgayn watershed, and a trail through the Naden

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a b Figure 8-6 a and b: Comparing Travelling Time LCP (green) to the historic communication and supplies trail mapped in 1916.

watershed may have been chosen for harvesting resources. It is quite possible, if not likely that more than one trail existed between the Needan and T’aaw Kaahlii.

8.2.3 The Velocity LCP

Use of the Velocity LCP is a random experiment in archaeological potential assessment associated with the determination of precontact inland trail routes in a GIS. The velocity cost surface was made as a step in processing towards creating the hiking travel time cost surface which, as previously described, is the velocity raster divided by the distance across

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one cell in the raster. The LCP through this raster therefore follows the path of least velocity through adjacent cells from the source to the destination.

This LCP follows the ridgelines occasionally, to reach the less steep ravine sides (less than

45 degrees) because it is the lowest velocity path up to these places, and then the lowest velocity again to go down and up through ravines to end up back along a ridgeline or sidehill. This search for low velocity cells therefore creates an extremely undulating path in terms of slope change, but at times it will follow an even elevation, a sidehill route, to achieve this. It heads up steeper slopes to follow the sidehills and it passes through the mountains at the location of a panoramic viewpoint, the peak of Tladaaw Tl’aajaaws, which again is because it is the lowest velocity route overall. It seems that its relevance is in that it often follows a path that provides a view of the opposite valley, good for hunting and orientation, and because it passes by a panoramic viewpoint at the peak of Tladaaw

Tl’aajaaws. The panoramic viewpoint would be useful to see people coming and going in canoes from the trailheads and other locations on the coast and as noted in the ethnographic section, hillsides were viewed from good vantage points to assess quality cedar locations. Along the way the trail passes by several outlying trail marker CMTs in the

Sgayn valley, which is the most striking alignment of this LCP with cultural sites.

In a region where food was abundant, trails need not consistently be maximized for travel time or energy expenditure. This LCP and the culturally important points that it connects may indicate that humans in this landscape followed paths that are not always tied to a

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concern about travel time or economical energy expenditure. In the T’aaw Kaahlii watershed it identifies a pathway that is limited by its formulaic variables in the GIS to slopes of less than 45 degrees, and in this way finds a pathway that seeks out the 45 degree slope (least velocity possible using this formula), while following the sidehill to get to this slope (recall Figure 6-6). Sidehills are good places to be for orientation while hiking, hunting, or gathering because the traveller has a better view of the surroundings, especially places within and across the valley. Significantly, this LCP intersects some isolated small clusters of CMTs which may have served as landmarks along the middle reach of the Sgayn. Therefore, archaeological surveys seeking to identify communication pathways between Needan and T’aaw Kaahlii should include assessments of this potential corridor. Inland trails along ridge tops and side hills have been recorded, not only on

Graham Island, but in other regions in British Columbia (Brulotte and Canuel 2002). Where the trail shifts from the Sgayn to the Needan watershed east of the Queen Charlotte

Mountains and the route the path follows west of the divide along Otard Creek down to the bay, the LCP approximates the location of a trail sketched on the 1945 Map of the

Dominion (Figure 8-7a, b).

Since the density of archaeological sites in the harbour suggests a lot of human activity in

Needan in the late precontact to early contact period, I would now like to explore the archaeological potential associated with inland trails connecting Needan with the west coast at T’aaw Kaahlii, possibly the longest inland trail connecting two coasts on Xaadlaa

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a b Figure 8-7a, b: Comparison of Hiking Velocity LCP to one of a set of historic trails on Graham Island, as depicted on the 1945 Map of the Dominion. Is this random, or does it say something about the value of travel time in the late precontact?

gwaayee. At all times of the year, this trail would have been accessible to healthy individuals who wanted to communicate with their neighbors and help maintain strong social ties. From place names like Tl’iidaaw Tl’aajaaw and from ethnographic information, it is clear that territoriality was not exclusively a coastal phenomenon but also involved interactions between coastal and inland groups as indicated by the following comments:

In Virago Sound are also several villages…Stanley River (Stanley Creek) here empties into the sea. It is said to flow out of a large lake in the interior, in which the river at Masset Harbour also takes its rise. On this lake the Indians declare there is a powerful tribe who would slay the Coast Indians if they ventured there. [Brown in Lillard 1989:1129(1866)]

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To counteract the negative aspects of territoriality, people often relied on the establishment and maintenance of social networks:

…to overcome adverse situations in which territoriality can play a major role, societies create social networks and alliances maintaining regional and far- reaching social ties. …The only procedure that allows these social networks to be maintained is the practice of movement. [Murrietta-Flores 2012:262]

The trails connecting Needan with T’aaw Kaahlii had high cultural importance in terms of communication and movement of trade goods between north and west coasts and therefore the balance of this discussion will consider how to determine where these routes existed and how to find the associated archaeological sites. These data will help us address questions such as (1) When were these trails in use? (2) When did the trails stop being used? (3) Is there evidence of changes in the location of trail routes based on the

CMT record? (4) How did the trails connect to a network of trails? (5) How was the trail used for caribou hunting? (6) Is there evidence of trails used for transporting goods versus trails for other purposes?

8.3 Archaeological Surveys as Doorways into Inland Lifeways

8.3.1 The development of Survey Maps

The maps used for the survey are built in the project GIS and must continuously be updated as the project moves forward. The layers in the GIS should include all of those

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used in this study plus any others of potential value such as those incorporating information from historic maps. The pre-emption survey lines, sketched in trails, and other important landscape features from these maps can be georeferenced and incorporated into the GIS. CMTs found near the historic survey lines should then be closely examined for evidence of modifications relating to historic developments as opposed to indigenous alterations. Often, trees modified by surveyors in the early 1900’s are clearly not indigenous CMTs, but there are times when they look similar, so understanding the survey line layout is useful.

8.3.2 Draft Survey Corridors

Survey corridors can be developed in large part from the LCPs that were considered in this study. In the lower reach of the Sgayn and Naden Rivers, the survey corridors should centre around the paths of the Slope and Travel Time LCPs, which follow the beds of major rivers. Where logging roads cut through LCPs, the cut bank of the road should be systematically tested for subsurface remains near the crossing. This accounts for the resolution in the GIS and can be amended in the field as required. Because trails in the lower reaches followed the riverbanks ethnographically, the river banks in these areas have the highest potential for CMT sites. Farther inland, for example at Kose, or at the gravel bar crossing on the Sgayn, camps should be expected and subsurface testing should

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be conducted to locate remains of these encampments. The survey corridors would be refined further by accessing LiDAR imagery or the finest scale of elevation contours possible to locate the flat spots where people may have camped or lived for extended periods inland.

Archaeological Survey should be conducted along an approximately 150 m wide corridor that surrounds portions of the he LCPs. The corridor width and centreline location should be evaluated and amended as the survey progresses. In the Otard Creek watershed, the small benches should be surveyed as well as the broader bench located at a lower elevation (40 to 60 masl). Evidence for movement along sidehills and ridgelines should be sought as should indications of the use of the top of Sgayn Mountain as a panoramic viewpoint.

Once the maps and survey corridors are drafted, a helicopter fly over should be conducted. The prepared maps are used to assess the survey corridors from the air and the fly over would be completed in two days. A fly-over can greatly increase the productivity of a survey. Through evaluating the area from a low level aerial view, patches of impassable blow down, dangerous slides, deep ravines, and panoramic viewpoints can be better assessed. Flying the ridgeline at the height of land between the Sgayn.an and

Needan would be of great interest to the pre-work review, and a helicopter may be able to land at the top of Sgayn Mountain, facilitating part of the archaeological survey. If there are caves that are visible from the air, these could be mapped with GPS and revisited

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during the field survey. Areas that were identified during the mapping phase as ‘flat’ spots with camp or village site potential can be further assessed from the air because of inaccuracies in the baseline data. Another value of the fly-over is the ability to roughly map cedar groves which stand out due to their lighter green colour. At the end of the first day of flying over, the information gained (which has all been georeferenced using GPS) is added to the GIS and re-assessment of survey corridors takes place. The second day of flying over is used to refine what was viewed on the first day, and for dropping down to look at places that are helicopter accessible and which may be of further interest to refining the corridors of survey.

8.3.3 Field Work

Once the survey corridors have been determined, field survey methods are refined and the field survey can begin. The crew working on the survey is well-informed on the goals of the research and the first days of field work are training days as we learn to work with the strengths of our colleagues, and adjust our survey methods to the particular study.

Local experience is important. All work is done on a snow-free landscape.

The survey methods that have worked best in this landscape have been crews of three people moving together along a fixed bearing or toward a landmark, approximately 15 to

30 m apart, zigzagging back and forth using individual trees and groves to orient

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themselves and constantly keeping in contact with fellow workers through verbal calls or radio communication. When high potential areas are identified, either from maps or in the field, the crew comes together to inspect and test as required. CMTs must be fully recorded on the Provincial Standard forms, (Province of British Columbia 2001, especially pp.98-109, also Appendix 5: CMT Recording Form) and for the purpose of this research, that recording has to be very accurate. Therefore, CMTs within the predicted corridors of movement that were previously identified would be re-measured, as the initial measurements may not have the accuracy needed. For example, the face of the scar on a

TBS or RBS is important to map with high accuracy, as this is an important detail regarding trail orientation and direction of movement. Most archaeological survey records use the cardinal directions to denote the face of the scar, which is not a fine enough grain for this project. The scar face direction should be recorded by standing directly in front of the scar face and taking a bearing looking straight ahead from the centre of the scar face.

High potential landforms include flat spots along ridgelines and side hills, especially those with a view of the adjacent valley. Systematic sub-surface testing, including shovel tests, auger and probe tests, as well as larger excavations as required, are conducted on high potential landforms. The system is developed in consultation with local experts in subsurface testing, such as Tina Christensen, who has developed such methods for similar types of survey in the Needan (Stafford and Christensen 2000).

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Fishing stations can be identified by the remains of fish weirs and the presence of hearths.

The bottoms of weir stakes can remain lodged in the river bed for generations, as I have witnessed in the lower Naden River (2005) and therefore when rivers are low, the remains of the stakes, preserved in the muddy river bed, can be exposed. When encountered, tree throws should always be inspected for exposed archaeological remains. AL CMTs may indicate the potential for subsurface archaeological remains, and methods for testing around these sites will need to be developed as this has not been the focus of any surveys in the past. CMTs are identified during AIAs, but sub-surface tests related specifically to their manufacture have not taken place. Another unexplored area of archaeological potential in inland areas are sites, such as lithic manufacturing or butchering areas associated with caribou hunting in the late pre-contact. The potential for these kinds of sites is particularly high in the west coast region in the Otard Creek watershed, where there are many wetland areas similar to those elsewhere identified as caribou habitat

(Sheldon 1912). The edges of wetlands are important hunting locations, and therefore a method for identifying where hunting blinds and other site types associated with caribou hunting may have been constructed would be useful. CMTs could point out important hunting locations.

Historic sites associated with mapped trails are another set of data to seek out and record.

Possible historic site types include blazed trees, overnight camp sites, and discarded items such as glass bottles used as containers for water or fuel. Significantly, many historic sites

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were established at the same locations as precontact sites, especially those dating to the late precontact period.

Field records are meticulously kept and the locations of all sites and test units are recorded using a GPS. Data is downloaded and analysed daily to ensure no issues can reoccur, and to inform the next day of survey. Therefore, survey in the field is six hours per day only, allowing for three to four hours of post-field analysis and preparation for the next day of survey. Field methods are adjusted as required by changes in topography and by the daily analysis of field data.

Unlike Needan, the T’aaw Kaahlii watershed has not been logged, anywhere, and therefore the CMTs recorded when surveying the corridors of potential in this region provide an exciting opportunity to understand the nature and distribution of CMTs for this entire west coast watershed. Overall the methods I used in this thesis have contributed to understanding inland lifeways, but field survey would go a long way to further substantiate my argument.

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CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION

This study was conducted to bring back into the light a little known aspect of the culture of the people who lived in northern Graham Island in the late precontact period. Through a landscape archaeological analysis, I have provided a method for understanding aspects of the inland lifeways that would have been associated with a set if not a system of inland trails, and associated cultural sites, and how they may present archaeologically. Graham

Island, the largest and most ‘terrestrial’ island in the archipelago was a beautiful and unique study area, where the ancestors of my elders who taught me the language of these islands as it was passed down to them through the generations, lived. Though I was not born on Graham Island, I lived there for 22 years, and it continues to be one of my homes.

Having had children of the Gaaw Xaadee and, with the island community, raised these two female children in the culture, I became a part of this place.

Through the landscape archaeological approach of overlaying research information of various types, and further analysing that information from the resulting combination, much of it demonstrated through maps created using a GIS, my argument that there was an inland system of trails has become a solid foundation on which to build a survey method for locating inland routes and associated activity sites of the late precontact.

Demography and trade influences suggest that people stopped doing certain activities inland, because people no longer lived on the west coast or anywhere far from the main

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trade villages of Masset and Skidegate on the north and east coasts respectively. They also stopped inland activities in the late 1800s due to very low population numbers and sickness. Inland trails for communication and movement of resources fell out of use, and when the people left, the rainforest quickly grew over the traces of their activities.

However, CMTs have provided an opportunity to see where the people were in inland areas, and additional archaeological survey in areas where trails likely existed would certainly shed more light on the late precontact inland lifeways of Graham Island. LCP analyses can form part of the basis for determining higher potential corridors for survey.

Although many coastal middens have been recorded, there has yet to be an inland village site identified on Graham Island, and it is my hope that the work I have done with this project will assist in positively identifying the first inland village in the near future. By identifying more archeological sites, obtaining dates, and walking the predicted routes, we can begin to say something about the extent of trail usage in the late precontact, whether the trails were set or more fluid in terms of their routing, how much people travelled inland, and what their activities were in these regions. More than this, if this project allows for more people to experience the rainforests through study, recreation, and associated job creation, the main goal of my project will have been achieved.

Dates of modification of CMTs have not been obtained as a matter of course when conducting archaeological assessments on Graham Island, but in the future, I would like to

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see this practice change. It would benefit our understanding of ancient inland lifeways. I agree with fellow researchers in this field who state:

With more care taken to identify older features and obtain good dating samples from the better-preserved parts of a bark-stripped cedar CMT stem, combined with efforts to cross date dead and, when necessary, living CMTs, we will gather the sort of data and the number of dates we need to answer historical demographic questions.[Stafford and Maxwell 2006:6]

Analysis of dates of modification could also provide information on whether trees were planted or otherwise managed, and they could, along with tool and technique analysis, point to territorial affiliations and boundaries.

Except for my use of the velocity raster to run an LCP analysis, the ideas I have expressed in this thesis are not new. From the onset of using Tobler’s Hiking Function, I felt there would be issues with the path in terms of relating it to an inland communication and resource trail, because I never thought that travel time was the most important concern during the late precontact. By exploring an untried and somewhat naive option, running the LCP tools on the velocity raster, I found something of use to my particular study.

Changing the formula that is input to the Raster Calculator to reflect a search for low velocity slopes is a possibility that could be explored in future in this and other mountainous regions to understand precontact trail locations.

I have expanded upon some ideas, and created a method for inland survey that builds upon the methods used in the past. By conducting the survey as described, identification of a pattern of late precontact inland activity related to communication and resource

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procurement between Naden Harbour and Otard Bay, is available. This method can be applied to other regions of Graham Island and the coast in general, with considerations for location variation in late precontact culture.

Humans used bear trails (Swanton 1908:407-417), and bears appear to make some of the same choices as humans regarding movement in the study area. I witnessed this during my studies in the Sgayn River valley, where bear trails were seen in association with CMTs

(Church 1998a), and while these different artefacts, the bear trails and the CMTs, may not be considered as contemporaneous, it is possible that they are, because bears are known to use the same paths over and over again, putting their feet in the same places, creating foot print paths (McLaren et al. 2005). I have also witnessed these well used paths on the islands when conducting survey work. I concur with Kantner (2012:236) in his conclusion to a discussion that assesses the use of various LCP derivations for human movement through landscapes, in that, ‘…approaches for understanding and predicting animal movement across complex landscapes may be informative as archaeologists refine the tools of GIS to better re-create and understand the human past’. More information on bear movement may be useful to us in unlogged regions where they have not changed their habits due to the presence of large clear cut areas.

Understanding the routes of ancient trails connects us to Hlk’yaan x̱aadaagee and the

Xaadlaa gwaayee forest culture of long ago, that went into dormancy when the trade networks changed and when the epidemics hit, and this connection is needed, especially

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by local people. There are socio-economic benefits to understanding the ancient inland trail routes that include job creation to accommodate the growing trend towards hiking and cultural tourism (Church 2011). As the entire Otard Creek watershed and nearby west coast locations are now part of the British Columbia Provincial Parks system, we can be sure that these unique northwest coastal rainforests will be available for recreational enjoyment in the years ahead, and cultural sites, including perhaps the precontact trail network, can be enjoyed and appreciated by those who are willing to make the trip to this still remote region.

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Appendix 1: Xaad Kil Pronunciation Guide by Karen Church

International Xaad Kil Phonetic Old Massett Alphabet Canadian English alphabet Sample word in Example Word in Orthography 2005 (IPA) equivalent English Description of sound production Xaad Kil VOWELS a ɑ a dad open, back gandl aa ɒ o, aw song, saw open, back, rounded saangg i i i tin close, front skinaa ii ɛ hard [e], ē eel open-mid, front iijang u ɨ ou (sometimes) could close, central kugaay uu u oo boot close, back duus ee ɶ hard [a], ā day open, front eehl CONSONANTS b b b ball voiced bilabial plosive biid ch ʝ ch church palatal fricative chaawgan d d d desk voiced dental plosive dal voiced alveolar plosive lateral dl dl [dl] blend not used in English approximant dluu g g g gal voiced velar plossive gangáa g ʔ glotal velar plosive not used in English glotal velar plosive gal tl'agaa h h h hand glotal fricative hadaaw not used in English, hl ɬ voiced postalveolar affricate see note below lateral fricative hl j ɹ j jam voiced postalveolar affricate jagwa k k c cup velar plosive kúnaan k' k' pharyngeal velar plosive not used in English velar plosive ejective k'uuk

k (ph)k pharyngeal velar plosive ejective not used in English pharyngeal velar plosive kaahl k' (ph)k' pharyngeal velar plosive not used in English pharyngeal velar plosive ejective k'uust'aan l l l letter alveolar lateral approximant laagang glottal alveolar lateral 'l ʔl approximant not used in English glottal alveolar lateral approximant 'laaneehl m m m math bilabial nasal miidii 'm ʔm glotal bilabial nasal not used in English glotal bilabial nasal 'maa n n n nose dental nasal nang ng ng tongue velar nasal áangaa p p p potatoe bilabial plosive páabaa p' p' bilabial plosive ejective not used in English bilabial plosive ejective t'ap'ad s s s safe alveolar fricative saana st st st stable alveolar fricative dental plosive stang alveolar fricative dental plosive alveolar fricative dental plosive st' st' ejective not used in English ejective st'iigang t t t tall dental plosive taan t' t' dental plosive ejective not used in English dental plosive ejective t'alang ts ts [ tch ] blend batch dental alveolar fricative kuts ts' ts' dental alveolar fricative ejective not used in English dental alveolar fricative ejective ts'iin

tl tl tle subtle dental plosive lateral approximant tlaan dental plosive lateral fricative dental plosive lateral fricative tl' tl' ejective not used in English ejective kintl'aa'aayaan w w w weird voiced labial-velar approximant waasdluu voiced glotal bilabial fricative or voiced glotal bilabial fricative or 'w ʍ voiceless labial-velar fricative not used in English voiceless labial-velar fricative 'waagyan x x uvular fricative not used in English uvular fricative xil x ɣ voiced uvular fricative not used in English voiced uvular fricative xang y ʎ y yellow high front vocalic glide yaalaay

Note: [ hl ] is a common letter in Xaad Kil. To make this sound, touch tongue to spot behind top teeth, say [ l ] while blowing air with force through the two sides created with togue placed in this fashion. References; Enrico 2005 319 Lachler 2009 Ladefoged 2005

Appendix 2: Glossary of Xaad Kil words awaahl agwii: adjective, sometimes used as a noun: long ago time gáw: place name: the Masset area, now called Old Massett an, andl: noun, used like an adjective: river gyaahlangee: definitive noun: the legendary stories, the history [pronounce: gyah.hlingay]

Hlk’yaan x̱aadaagee: definitive noun: The Forest People kaahlii: inside an enclosure with an opening, inlet k’aas: noun: tree pitch, sap k'uhlgwee: definitive noun: the [trail that cuts through] cutting through an island or the back end of a peninsula on a trail

‘lngee: definitive noun: the village naanii: noun: Grandmother or Female Elder sgalangee: definitive noun: the songs stl’ang: at the bottom of, at the back of, also refers to a harbour tsinnii: noun: Grandfather x̱aadaa : noun: people who are indigenous to Graham Island

Xaadlaa gwaayee: place name: The Home Islands , also called Haida Gwaii, BC

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Appendix 3: Pleistocene and Holocene Environmental Change on Graham Island

1. 21,000 - 16,000 BP: Glacial Maximum 2. 15,000 BP: Deglaciation is underway - Humans migrate south and some come to Haida Gwaii: 13,500-12,000 BP 3. 12,000 BP: Sea Levels rise quickly - Haida Gwaii becomes increasing removed from mainland North America as sea levels rise 4. 9,000 - 9500 BP: Sea Level averages 15.5 meters above current sea level = high still stand - Kinggi Complex > 9500 – 8900 BP - Sea levels were rising from a low of about 150 m below present levels at 12,000 BP - Occupations prior to 9400 may only be found in the intertidal zone - At 9000 the high still stand 15 m above modern sea level was reached - ‘leaf-shaped bifaces, large scrapers, scraperplanes or adzes, large unifaces, cobble choppers, gravers, and spokeshaves.” They go on to say that since these tools appear to all have been made from local materials that trade with mainland may have been limited or non-existent. Bone tools are also mentioned but most interestingly, ‘ wooden tools and woodworking debris…’ have been recorded for this period. (Fedje and Mackie, 2005: 158) - Moresby Tradition: ca. 8900 – 5000 BP - microblades replace the Kinggi technology - sea levels remained stable at 15 m above modern - Early Moresby / Late Moresby – separated by the ‘shift away from the use of bifacial technology in the late period - Combination of bifacial and micro blade technology - The tradition appears to be associated with the Alaskan Denali Complex, with ultimate origins in Northeast Alaska . Early period 8900 – 8000 BP  suggests movement of microblade tech south, and bifacial tech movement upward from the south  Not much evidence for this tradition – relatively few sites and artifacts . Late Moresby: 8000-5000 BP  Bifacial tech is absent  Arch record is from sites in south and north  Middens have terrestrial, marine and inter tidal fauna 5. 5000 BP – 3000 BP: Sea Level averages 11.5 – 7 meters above current sea level - Habitations and camps ‘continuously’ move down the beach as accretion takes place

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- Graham Tradition: 5000 BP to 1774 AD - Early Graham Tradition: 5000 – 3000 BP - Sea levels dropped from high still stand to 7 m above modern - Late Graham Tradition 2000 BP – 1174 AD - The reason for this distinction is primarily evidential: although substantial work has been performed at some earlier sites, they differ in ways that prevent reliable synthesis with late Graham materials.’ (Mackie and Acheson 2005) - 2000 BP = plank houses, and McDonald hypothesizes tsimpsean influence = Northcoast typical adaption - Western red cedar was mature, and increasing you could find them large enough to make large, ocean crossing canoes from (Matthews 2011) 6. 1600 BP – 300 BP: The Late Precontact (Church) - Cedar and Cypress CMTs can theoretically date back to 1700 BP, in particular, Cypress at higher elevations. 7. 1200 BP: Sea Level averages 3 m above current sea level - Habitations and camps move down the beach as accretion takes place 8. 500 BP: Sea Level averages 1 m above current sea level - Habitations and camps move down the beach as accretion takes place

References: 2005 Fedje and Mathewes, editors 2008 Wolfe, Walker, Huntley

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Appendix 4: Table: Experience in the Study Area ( 3 pages)

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Appendix 5: CMT Recording Form

Province of British Columbia, CMT Handbook 2001. P.99

APPENDIX 6:

Permission to

Use

Copyrighted

Materials

Permission was obtained from

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the following individuals or organizations to use their personal or copyrighted materials in this thesis. Documentation of permission is provided below.

1. Barney Edgars, Old Massett. Photographs

2. Barney Edgars, Old Massett. Personal communications.

2. Lisa White, Old Massett. Photograph of traditional cedar bark Haida hat.

3. Daryl Fedje, Victoria. Unpublished Manuscript.

4. Nicholas Gessler, California. Original Drawing.

5. Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa. Photographs from the collection.

6. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria. Photograph of an artefact in their Collection.

7. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria. Copy of a Drawing from their Collection.

8. Province of British Columbia, Archaeology Branch, Victoria. CMT Recording Form.

9. Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Technology, Victoria. Historical Map Images.

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