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In this paper I present a model of climatic and cultural change on the
Northwest Coast beginning with the arrival of hunters following caribou from
the arctic tundra of interior Alaska through the Yukon to the coastal
tundra between 11,000 and 10,000 BP during the Younger Dryas climatic
interval, followed by a period of marine foraging that remained the norm
throughout the warm Hypsithermal climatic interval until the beginning of the
colder Neoglacial, 6000-5000 BP, when increase in salmon stocks permitted the
accumulation of an economic surplus basic to the elaboration of culture.
Derivation of the early Northwest Coast peoples from Alaska is
based on similarities with the lithic industries of the Nenana Complex of
central Alaska. The faunal remains from the site of Kilgii Gwaay and the
isotopic signature of the human remains from On-your-knees Cave are the best
evidence for the period of marine foraging. The development of fish traps by
about 5000 BP was essential to the maximization of the
salmon resource basic to the elaboration of culture evident in younger periods.
The paleoclimatic record of the lower Fraser region correlates roughly with the
rise and fall of cultural elaboration evident in the archaeological
record of that region and presumed changes in the quantity of available
salmon. There are also correlations between episodes of climate change and
quantities of salmon remains in the long sequence at Namu on the central coast
of British Columbia.
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