Alaska Journal of Anthropology Volume 9, Number 1 2011 Alaska Journal of Anthropology ©2011 by the Alaska Anthropological Association: All rights reserved. ISSN 1544-9793 correspondence alaska anthropological association Manuscript and editorial correspondence should be sent to: board of directors Alaska Journal of Anthropology (AJA) Kerry Feldman President University of Alaska Attn: Editor Anchorage P.O. Box 241686 Karlene Leeper Secretary 611th Wing, U.S. Air Force Anchorage, AK 99524 Jenya Anichenko Anchorage Museum Telephone: (907) 336-0092 Joan Dale Alaska State Historic Fax: (907) 336-0093 Preservation Office Email: [email protected] Robin Mills Bureau of Land Management Manuscripts submitted for possible publication must conform Monty Rogers Anchorage with the AJA Style Guide, which can be found in AJA Volume 2(1–2):170–174 or on the Alaska Anthropological Association other association officials website (www.alaskaanthropology.org). 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Information on back issues and William B. Workman University of Alaska Anchorage additional association publications is available on page 2 of the subscription form. Please add $8 per annual subscription for David R. Yesner University of Alaska Anchorage postage to Canada and $15 outside North America. Design and layout by Sue Mitchell, Inkworks Copyediting by Erica Hill table of contents an update of intertidal fishing structures in southeast alaska ......................1 Jane L. Smith shoreline pictographs of extreme southeast alaska ...............................27 Martin V. Stanford precontact dogs from the prince of wales archipelago, alaska .....................49 Susan J. Crockford, Madonna L. Moss, and James F. Baichtal translations introduction to “notes on the koloches” by alphonse louis pinart ..................65 Richard L. Bland and Ann G. Simonds notes on the koloches .............................................................69 Alphonse Louis Pinart; translation and annotations by Richard L. Bland and Ann G. Simonds introductory notes on “vankarem antiquities” by n. n. dikov: preliminary results of the 1957 and 1963 archaeological investigations at cape vankarem, chukotka ....81 Owen K. Mason vankarem antiquities ..........................................................85 Nikolai N. Dikov; translated by Richard Bland; edited by Owen K. Mason and Erica Hill reports the hayfield site: a new look at the 1949 collection ..............................97 Molly Proue, Justin M. Hays, Jeffrey T. Rasic, and Joshua D. Reuther charlene craft lefebre (1923–1999) .............................................115 Dianne Gudgel-Holmes reviews the people at the end of the world: the western aleutians project and the archaeology of shemya island ..................................................117 Reviewed by Loukas Barton archaeology on the alaska peninsula: the northern section, fifty years onward ...................121 Reviewed by Donald W. Clark iii AN UPDATE OF INTERTIDAL FISHING STRUCTURES IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA Jane L. Smith USDA Forest Service, Petersburg Ranger District, PO Box 1328, Petersburg, AK 99833; [email protected] ABSTRACT Forest Service and other archaeologists have gathered a wealth of information on intertidal fishing structures located in the bays and estuaries of the Tongass National Forest. A total of 369 fish trap and weir sites have been reported in Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago and 182 wood stakes have undergone radiocarbon analysis. A review of this information reveals a complex array of trap and weir sites widely distributed across the region. This technological innovation, evident in the archaeological record as early as 5500 cal 14C years bp, continued to provide the mainstay of life to the traditional inhabitants of Southeast Alaska to near modern times. keywords: fish traps and weirs, Tlingit Indians, radiocarbon dates INTRODUCTION Intertidal fish trap and weir sites in Alaska, British Early ethnographers and visitors to Southeast Alaska Columbia, Washington, and Oregon suggest the impor- invariably mentioned the importance of fish to the tradi- tance of fish to prehistoric Northwest Coast societies. tional inhabitants, mainly the Tlingit Indians. Niblack Over 1,200 wood stake and stone traps and weirs have (1970:276) said that fish formed the staff of life amongst been identified and evidence of fishing is found in most the Indians of the region. Krause (1956:118) pointedly Northwest Coast archaeological sites (Moss 2011a:35). In stated “the Tlingit directs his attention primarily to- Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago hundreds of an- ward fishing; through this he gains the main part of cient fishing structures are preserved (Langdon n.d., 2006; his livelihood and to it he devotes the greatest part of Mobley and McCallum 2001; Moss 1989, 2011; Moss and his working hours.” Emmons (1991:102, 103) described Erlandson 1998; Moss et al. 1990; Smith 2006). Found the Tlingit as primarily a fisherman whose most valu- from Yakutat Bay south to Dixon Entrance (Fig. 1), these able natural product was the salmon. In his work on sites are situated in the intertidal zone and occur in both Tlingit traditional knowledge and the harvesting of island and mainland environments. They are made of salmon, Langdon (2006:1) stated that salmon was the piled stones or sharpened wood stakes and vary between mainstay of Tlingit diet and the resource most critical elaborate traps to simple weirs. Geological processes such to the rich and complex cultural forms practiced today as erosion, sedimentation, marine transgression, isostasy, and in the past. The success of intertidal fishing influ- and other post-depositional processes have affected site in- enced the social organization and societal welfare of tegrity. Data minimally suggest the diverse and complex the northern Northwest Coast people (Langdon n.d.:4; nature of the technology and the immense labor that went Moss 2011a:34). The archaeological record reported in into salmon and other fin fish harvest. Remnants from this paper supports these observations and further de- fishing structures have provided us with evidence of over fines the importance of fish and fishing by establishing a 5000 years of fish trap and weir use in the region. millennia-long temporal range. Alaska Journal of Anthropology vol. 9, no. 1 (2011) 1 Figure 1: Fish trap and weir locations in Southeast Alaska. 2 an update of intertidal fishing structures in southeast alaska ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURAL PAST the size and intensity of the Aleutian Low (Mann et al. 1998:118–119). Whether trap construction and use cor- Understanding the Holocene environment is important relate with climate change and its effect on salmon abun- in interpreting the archaeological record. The availabil- dance in Southeast Alaska remains an interesting question. ity of coastal terrain for settlement, sea level and climate Plant colonization reflects climate change and char- histories, and vegetation colonization influenced the acterizes the development of the Holocene environment. development of fish trap and weir sites. Glacial activity Pollen analysis from a study near Petersburg on northern and erosion created bays and inlets well suited for inter- Mitkof Island indicated that pine woodland with abun- tidal fishing. Southeast Alaska was deglaciated sometime dant alders, sedges, sphagnum mosses and ferns colonized around 16,000 14C yrs bp (Mann 1986:260). Retreat the island by circa 12,900 cal yrs bp (Ager et al. 2010:263– was rapid with iceberg calving causing glacier termini 267). By circa 11,460 cal yrs bp, Sitka spruce and moun- to withdraw to their modern positions by about 13,500 tain hemlock replaced pines over much of the landscape 14C yrs bp. The retreat was followed by marine transgres- and displaced some of the alder thickets that were previ- sion difficult to generalize because of variable tectonism ously well established. Sometime around 10,200 cal yrs bp and local glacio-isostatic rebound (Mann and Hamilton western hemlock arrived and expanded to become a domi- 1995:460). Radiocarbon-dated raised marine deposits nant species, forming a coastal forest composed primarily have been analyzed to formulate a marine transgression of Sitka spruce and western hemlock. After about 7,200 model for establishing paleo-shoreline elevations and pre- cal yr bp, muskeg vegetation with sedges and sphagnum dicting the locations of early archaeological sites (Baichtal mosses increased with a regional climate shift to cooler and Carlson 2010:64–67; Carlson and Baichtal 2009). and wetter conditions. During the late