45KT28-96. Abalone Pendent, Cayuse III Subphase, Cultural Component VIIH.

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THE EXPANSION OF SALISHAN COMMUNITIES

ACROSS THE NORTHERN COLUMBIA PLATEAU

INTRODUCTION

   

[54] The hypothesis presented in this section of the report states that the Cayuse Phase was initiated by and is the direct result of the expansion of Salishan communities across the northern Columbia Plateau. The constituent elements of this hypothesis are summarized in the following statements. (1) Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the winter village pattern characteristic of the ethnographically documented Plateau social and economic organization was established at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. (2) The rapid increase in the numbers, sizes, and densities of sites at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase documents a rapid increase in population coincident with the emergence of the winter village pattern. (3) The introduction of new fishing techniques which allowed more efficient use of riverine resources along the margin of the Columbia Plateau provided the economic basis for the winter village pattern and greater population densities. (4) The introduction of the new economic system is interpreted as evidence for the expansion of Salishan communities across the northern Columbia Plateau, an interpretation which agrees well with archaeological and linguistic evidence. (5) A reasonable model of social relationships between adjacent groups possessing different economic systems can be constructed which explains how Salishan communities could have expanded across the northern Columbia Plateau by means of linguistic and cultural diffusion in a particular type of acculturative situation, an interpretation which can account for both the continuities between the Cayuse and pre-Cayuse phases and the changes involved in the emergence of the winter village pattern.

As the previous discussion of the characteristics of the Cayuse Phase indicates, the propositions that the emergence of the winter village pattern and an increase in population size occur at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase are reasonably well established inferences from the archaeological record. It will be necessary, however, to deal more specifically with changes in economic organization which might have made these two events possible.

 

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Conventions
Abstract
Table of Contents
Letters
Figures & Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Definitions
Setting
Cultural Record
 Introduction
 Vantage Phase
 Cold Springs
 Frenchman Spring
 Quilomene Bar
 Cayuse Phase
  Characteristics
  Age
  Ethnography
  Salishan
  Stratigraphy
  Cayuse I
  Cayuse II
  Cayuse III
  Discussion
Summation
Models for
  Prehistory

Typology
Stone Artifacts
  Flaked Stone
  Percussion
  Ground Stone
Bone/Antler Tools
Shell Artifacts
Metal Artifacts
Raw Materials
Methodology
Rockshelters
References Cited

CHANGES IN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION COINCIDENT WITH THE EMERGENCE OF THE WINTER VILLAGE PATTERN

Introduction. Since the emergence of the winter village pattern involved the maintenance of larger and denser populations, it follows that there must have been a change in the economic organization to support these increased populations. This change should be reflected both in the organization of the economic round and the kinds and quantities of food resources utilized.

The Cayuse Phase was characterized by the intense utilization of root crops, fish, and large game animals such as deer and elk. Roots and fish were accumulated in large quantities in order to provide the surplus food supplies necessary to maintain villages and high population densities during the winter months. During the winter, the major hunting season when other resources were not available, deer and elk were important sources of food, especially when stored surpluses were not large enough to maintain winter villages. [54]

[55] Since winter villages were made possible primarily by the storage of roots and fish, it follows that the emergence of the winter village pattern must have involved an increase in the effective availability of roots and/or fish. This might have come about through a natural increase in their supply or the introduction of techniques which allowed the more efficient exploitation of existing supplies. Since no natural phenomena are known to have occurred at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase which could have produced a significant increase in the supply of roots or fish, it is probable that the emergence of the winter village pattern was contingent upon the introduction of more efficient techniques of root gathering and/or fishing.

Utilization of Roots. Since root gathering was one of the basic means by which the surplus food necessary to maintain winter villages was accumulated, it is reasonable to assume that the utilization of roots was extremely important throughout the Cayuse Phase. However, the degree to which roots were utilized prior to the emergence of the winter village pattern can be inferred only by a direct comparison between the archaeological records of the Cayuse Phase with pre-Cayuse phases. If it is found that the archaeological evidence for root utilization is essentially the same in both periods, then it is probable that intensive root gathering was simply one of those features which was a basic Plateau characteristic retained in the newly emerging context of the winter village pattern. On the other hand, if the equipment and features normally associated with root gathering are especially important in the Cayuse Phase, then it is probable that innovations in the utilization of root crops were important factors in the emergence of the winter village pattern.

Direct archaeological information about the age and significance of root gathering is limited to the known distribution of hopper mortars, pestles, digging stick handles, and earth ovens which may have served as roasting pits. Hopper mortars and pestles were introduced during the Cold Springs Phase and are common in all successive phases. Thus, the mortar and pestle, basic implements in the preparation of edible roots, were introduced or developed in the Columbia Plateau between 4000 B.C. and 4500 B.C., at least 2,000 years prior to the beginning of the Cayuse Phase and the emergence of the winter village pattern. Hammerstones having pestle-like platforms also became common at about the time pestles were introduced.

Earth ovens are also common in components antedating the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, but since they were also used for roasting meat and fresh water mussels, they are not always useful guides to the importance of root gathering. However, it is significant that many such earth ovens lack the faunal associations expectable if they had been utilized for roasting meat or mussels. Moreover, the existence of an elaborate Frenchman Springs Phase roasting pit with associated hopper mortars indicates that this technique for the preparation of roots was highly developed at least 1,000 years prior to the beginning of the Cayuse Phase (see Daugherty 1952: 45GR27, Feature 1).

Although perforated antler and grooved stone digging stick handles are known only from Cayuse Phase components, they are not common and may have been overlooked in earlier phases due to inadequate sampling. Moreover, an antler digging stick has been recovered from a Cold Springs Phase component (C. M. Nelson 1966). This indicates that digging sticks were utilized at least as long ago as ca. 4000 B.C.

The use of manos and metates is also recorded for the Cold Springs Phase (C. M. Nelson 1966) and are characteristic of both the Grave Creek and Rocky Canyon phases in west-central Idaho (Butler 1966). Moreover, though Butler's equation between edge-ground cobbles and root processing is difficult to demonstrate, it indicates the possible importance of root gathering for several millenia prior to the Cold Springs Phase. [55]

[56] The existence of pestles, hopper mortars, digging sticks, and root-roasting pits prior to the beginning of the Cayuse Phase demonstrates that the basic technology of root gathering was fully developed millenia before the emergence of the winter village pattern.

Salmon Fishing. Information about fishing may be obtained from the distribution of fish remains and fishing implements. In general, both are infrequent in pre-Cayuse components and common in Cayuse components.

Salmon and other fish bones usually account for 0 to 2.0 percent by number of all bones present in floodplain components antedating the emergence of the Cayuse Phase; notable exceptions are the early fishery at Five Mile Rapids (Cressman 1960) and the Cold Springs Phase component at Cold Springs (Shiner 1961). Unfortunately, data from Cold Springs is difficult to reliably interpret due to stratigraphic inversions created by rodents and the erection of pit houses. Elsewhere fish remains are infrequent or absent.

The floodplain components representative of the Cayuse Phase commonly contain 2.0 to 35.0 percent (by number) salmon bones. The average is about 10.0 percent in most areas of the Columbia Plateau.

Although there is a substantial increase in the frequency of fish remains and features associated with such remains at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, deer bones tend to be more abundant at winter village sites. This is due to a combination of factors. First, winter was the primary period of hunting. Since carcasses were often transported to the winter villages intact, it is not surprising that deer bone is abundant in the archaeological record. Second, fish were most commonly prepared for drying by filleting the flesh from the bones, which were then discarded. Since fishing was conducted at low water and the fish were filleted in areas that were frequently innundated at high water, countless fish bones would normally never find their way into site middens. This may help to explain the high concentration of fish remains in the early component at Five Mile Rapids where the beach zone of the site was occupied (Cressman 1960). It is also significant that fish remains are infrequent at other pre-Cayuse beach zone components such as those at 45KT28 and 45CO1 (C. M. Nelson 1966). Third, it is known that some Plateau groups ethnographically practiced food taboos and other rituals that selectively destroyed salmon bones (Ray 1932; 1942). And fourth, a great deal of the fishing was not conducted at winter village sites. For these reasons, fish remains recovered from floodplain sites represent only a small fraction of the fish that were actually taken and consumed.

Although the increase in fish remains at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase may be symptomatic evidence of the greater importance of fishing, a variety of practices make it difficult to interpret with certainty.

Like fish remains, fishing implements are rare in pre-Cayuse and common in Cayuse components. Reports of pre-Cayuse fishing implements are limited to Five Mile Rapids (Cressman 1960), Cold Springs (Shiner 1961), and 45C01 (C. M. Nelson 1966). Identified fishing implements from Five Mile Rapids include a composite harpoon valve fragment and a barbed leister prong (Cressman 1960: Fig. 20). The identification of the composite harpoon valve is questionable since the specimen might also be identified as an atlatl spur fragment. Fishing implements from Cold Springs include notched weights and a large grooved weight. Although these specimens are thought to be associated with the Cold Springs Phase component (Shiner 1961), complicated stratigraphy and more recent house building and occupancy at the site make it difficult to interpret these specimens without corroborative evidence from other Cold Springs Phase components. Assemblages from known Cold Springs components, including a large and diverse collection from a site at the [56/57] junction of the Snake and Tucannon Rivers (C. M. Nelson 1966), do not contain notched or grooved weights (also see Holmes: 1964, Occupations B and C; H. S. Rice 1965).

Early fishing implements from 45CO1 include a net shuttle and two possible net gauges, all recovered from a component dating between 2,000 and 3,500 B.P. (C. M. Nelson 1966: Assemblage 3C). Although these specimens demonstrate that nets were being made, there is no way of showing that the nets were utilized in fishing since birds and other animals may have been hunted with such devices (see Ray 1942:120).

Cayuse Phase components contain notched, perforated, and grooved weights, net gauges and shuttles, composite harpoon tips and valves, three-pronged salmon spear barbs and barb guards, unilaterally barbed stone projectile points, carvings depicting fish, and other implements commonly associated with fishing. Moreover, these artifacts are extremely common in spite of the fact that most of our knowledge comes from winter villages where only a small portion of the yearly fishing was conducted.

This evidence suggests that there was some increase in the importance of fishing at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, but it is impossible to ascertain the relative importance of this increase by the use of archaeological data alone. As previously stated, however, the fundamental association of the winter village pattern with the most basic economic patterns and techniques of ethnographic Plateau culture enables the extension of these features to that part of the prehistoric record in which the winter village pattern is a primary characteristic. In theory, then, it should be possible to extend fishing techniques most important to the accumulation of surpluses needed for maintaining winter villages as far back in the prehistoric record as winter villages themselves, that is to the beginning of the Cayuse Phase.

Although a very wide range of fishing devices and techniques were ethnographically utilized in the Columbia Plateau (Ray 1942), the dip net together with a variety of weirs and traps seem to have been the most important technological elements in producing large surpluses of salmon. Although there is no way of testing for dip nets in the archaeological record, it is interesting to note that salmon spears and composite harpoons, which first appear at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, are closely associated with the use of many traps and weirs.

For these reasons it seems reasonable to infer that the increase of fish remains and the increase and introduction of fishing implements at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase are symptomatic of a more basic revolution in the fishing technology. Such a conclusion is also quite reasonable in view of the fact that root gathering technology did not change at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. If this indicates, as it seems to, that the use of roots did not dramatically change at the beginning of the winter village pattern, then it is logical to suppose there must have been a fundamental change in the fishing technology which provided the economic basis for the greater population densities characteristic of the Cayuse Phase.

A Model of Economic Change at the Beginning of the Cayuse Phase. Assuming that the emergence of the winter village pattern was predicated on the more efficient utilization of fishing, the following model may be used to reconstruct changes in economic organization.

The carrying capacity of any environment is determined by the effective scarcity of vital commodities. In and adjacent to the Columbia Plateau the effective scarcity of food occurred during the winter when stored provisions and the productivity of winter hunting directly limited population size and density. Taking into account the human maturation period, infant mortality, and life expectancy in societies such as those characteristic of the Columbia Plateau, it is probable that the [57/58] severest scarcities of food in any given period of 10 or 20 years would serve to create and maintain the human carrying capacity of the Columbia Plateau and surrounding areas.

Prior to the introduction of extremely efficient fishing techniques at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, the carrying capacity would have been determined by the partial failure of roots resulting in inadequate winter surpluses, and the scarcity of game during the winter months. The periodic failure of either of these resources would have been enough to severly limit population size and density. The net effect of such an economic system, based on only two major resources which could be influenced by climatic fluctuations and over utilization, would be the maintenance of low population densities in areas which would support much larger populations in the presence of more stable conditions. As a result resources would not be fully utilized in years of plenty and heavily taxed at times of shortage.

The addition of salmon as a major food resource at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase would allow larger populations and higher population densities to be maintained by stabilizing the economic basis for accumulating winter surpluses. Since salmon runs are cyclical and little effected by the local environments along the periphery of the Columbia Plateau, they represent a highly stable and easily predictable food supply. Moreover, since salmon are not tied to the climatic fluctuations which might simultaneously effect the supplies of roots and game, their addition as a major food resource would mitigate the probabilities of periods of extreme effective scarcity and allow roots and game to be utilized more efficiently.

The net result of the introduction of salmon and the creation of a tripartite economic system was the more efficient and conservative utilization of roots and game, and the addition of another major resource. This in turn permitted higher population densities to be maintained during periods of effective scarcity.

This seems to be a reasonable model of change given the archaeological evidence pertaining to root gathering and fishing, but it would be far more secure if some precise ecological information were only available on important edible roots such as camas and kouse. For example, it is not known how early winters, spring frosts, or intensive utilization affected the seasonal distribution of such plants. If roots were never scarce or could never be depleted one could reasonably expect that winter villages might be based on surpluses of them alone. But the simple fact is that in the ethnographic period roots were not sufficient or not used as the sole source of winter food surpluses. Moreover, the utilization of roots is known to have been important thousands of years before winter villages first emerged in the Columbia Plateau. Thus we are forced to the conclusion that the model offered above is the most likely representation of history even in the absence of ecological data demonstrating that effective scarcity of roots was a real possibility.

CHANGES IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION COINCIDENT WITH THE EMERGENCE OF THE WINTER VILLAGE PATTERN

It is always tempting to speculate on the relationship between social organization and changes in the prehistoric record. This is usually an extremely difficult task, especially when it must be conducted in conceptual frameworks designed by social and cultural anthropologists with little regard for applicability to archaeological data. Nevertheless, something can be said about social structure from the standpoint of the framework of terms recently developed primarily on the basis of archaeological data (Beardsley et al, 1956). [58]

[59] In this framework of community patterning, the pre-Cayuse settlement patterning of small, highly dispersed, seasonal camps reflects a simple restricted wandering community patterning, probably in association with small bands which were not integrated into more complex social units.

On the other hand, the development of the winter village pattern, in which winter villages served as hubs dominating the yearly economic round, clearly marks the emergence of what Beardsley terms a centrally based wandering community patterning. As Ray's (1939) discussion of Plateau social structure indicates, this type of patterning was associated with a variety of social structures ranging from independent villages equivalent to simple bands to incipient tribal organizations reminiscent of Plains culture. Since the most complex of these structures were diffused into the Plateau from the Plains in the protohistoric period, it is probable that the emergence of the winter village simply saw the creation of larger settled bands or the organization of small numbers of geographically associated villages into somewhat larger social units. However, these conclusions must remain highly provisional, pending archaeological and ethnographic research.

THE EXPANSION OF SALISHAN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE NORTHERN COLUMBIA PLATEAU

Introduction. Although the gradual establishment of the fishing techniques mentioned above might be considered sufficient cause for the emergence of the Cayuse Phase, their sudden appearance argues for processes such as rapid diffusion, acculturation, or migration. The following points are offered in support of the hypothesis that the riverine bias and the winter village pattern, introduced at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase, document the expansion of Salishan communities along the western and northern margins of the Columbia Plateau.

Community Patterning. The winter village pattern which characterizes the Cayuse Phase also exists in the Canadian Plateau where preliminary archaeological research suggests that it may date from a period between 1000 and 2000 B.C. (Sanger 1963; 1966). On the northern fringe of the Columbia Plateau the earliest dated occurrence attributable to such a pattern dates from approximately 500 B.C. (Grabert 1966). In the rest of the Columbia Plateau C14 dates place the introduction of the winter village pattern between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. At the very least, these dates suggest that the winter village pattern diffused from the Canadian Plateau into the Columbia Plateau.

Coastal Trade. As previous discussions have indicated, extensive trade with the Canadian Plateau was probably established at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. This suggests that a new trade route was established as the winter village pattern was diffused into the Columbia Plateau.

Fishing Technology. Work in western Washington (Greengo 1966; C. M. Nelson 1962b; Nordquist 1960, 1961a, 1961b, 1963), the Fraser River delta (Borden 1962), and the Fraser River basin (Borden 1962; Sanger 1966) reveal well developed riverine fishing economies capable of providing the necessary technology for producing winter surpluses of fish in the winter village pattern. There is every reason to suspect that such fishing techniques diffused into the Columbia Plateau along with the winter village pattern itself.

Linguistic Evidence. Linguistic evidence (Swadesh 1949, 1950, 1952; Suttles and Elmendorf 1962) suggests that Salishan languages spread into the northern Columbia Plateau from the northwest to the southeast. More recently, Elmendorf (1965) has provided a tentative chronology for Salishan expansion on the basis of glottochronologic dates. He places the initial expansion of Salishan southward into the Okanogan Highlands at approximately 1000 B.C. with subsequent expansion across the northern part of the Columbia Plateau continuing until perhaps as late as 1000 A.D. Elmendorf uses the dated spread of forests during the Medithennal to substantiate his [59/60] chronology, the assumption being that the Saiish language and a forested environment are ecologically linked.

Although dates for the spread of the winter village pattern agree reasonably well with Elmendorf’s proposed chronology for Salishan expansion, it is doubtful that Salishan expansion is functionally related to the onset of the Medithermal. Elmendorf relies on Heusser (1960) for his climatic statements and Heusser relies primarily on Hansen (1947; 1955), whose work in south and central British Columbia clearly indicates that there was a Ponderosa pine forest present during the Altithermal and that it was simply replaced by another forest type during the Medithermal. Since one would expect game to be plentiful under these conditions and since salmon runs were apparently not effected by the onset of the Medithermal, it is highly unlikely that climatic changes can be invoked as causative agents in Salishan expansion.

A MODEL OF THE EXPANSION OF SALISHAN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE NORTHERN MARGIN OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

If it is assumed that pre-Cayuse Salishan groups in the areas adjacent to the northwestern margins of the Columbia Plateau possessed all the essential features of the winter village pattern and Cayuse fishing techniques, and that adjacent groups occupying the margins of the Columbia Plateau possessed simpler economic and social systems, the following sequence of events can be constructed which explains the emergence of the Cayuse Phase.

1. Because the Salishan groups operated under an economic system in which salmon was heavily utilized, it would be possible for them to use the fishing resources of neighboring groups that did not operate specialized fishing sites or rely heavily on salmon as a food resource. Although this utilization of neighboring territory would not directly jeopardize the customary economic rights of the non-Salishan group, it would create a dialog between the two groups and expose the non-Salishan group to new and revolutionary fishing techniques, and to the winter village pattern.

2. When periods of food scarcity demonstrated the advantages of the new impinging economic system to the non-Salishan bands, they would begin adopting the new fishing techniques. However, this would be difficult since the best fishing stations in their own territory would already be occupied by the adjacent Salishan bands. In order to reconsolidate the economic rights to their own territory and take advantage of the more efficient economic system of their Salishan neighbors, non-Salishan band members would begin marrying into the Salishan bands.

3. However, intermarriage would only have the effect of extending the Salishan group's economic rights over the territory of the adjacent non-Salishan band as the larger winter villages gradually absorbed the non-Salishan population.

4. As long as the predominant language spoken by the winter village groups remained Salishan, that language would spread as the new economic and social system invaded new geo¬graphic areas. In this way linguistic and cultural boundaries would be pushed east and south while little actual population movement occurred.

5. The expansion of Salishan communities would be limited by the distribution of unutilized supplies of salmon and social structures which were easily broken down by the impinging winter village pattern. The Columbia Plateau would therefore be the ecological barrier to the southward expansion of Salishan communities and explains the distribution of the interior Saiish in the northern Plateau. But Salishan also failed to expand southward along the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains despite the existence of good salmon fisheries. Since the winter village pattern did spread [60/61] to groups in this area and was subsequently adopted by groups along the southern margin of the Columbia Plateau, it is probable that social or economic factors prevented a Salishan expansion into this territory. Though the exact nature of such factors cannot be specified at this time, any condition which would favor the diffusion of techniques and ideas more than the diffusion of the economic rights in adjoining territories would have provided the means by which Salishan expansion could have been inhibited. In this regard it is interesting to note Jacob's (1937) remark that Sahaptin was expanding northward at the expense of Salishan during the protohistoric period. This is probably related to the greater impact which the horse and Plains culture had in the southern and eastern Plateau. And while it indicates that Salishan may have once been distributed slightly further to the south, it does not explain the distribution of the winter village pattern in the southeastern section of the Columbia Plateau.

The model presented above is not designed to be a necessary representative of historical truth. It is designed to show how Salishan could have spread into the Columbia Plateau in the absence of actual migration. Although simpler, a migration model cannot account for the continuity which exists in the material culture between the Cayuse and pre-Cayuse periods or for the peculiar pattern of circumperipheral diffusion along the western and southern margins of the Columbia Plateau.

It has been pointed out several times that the archaeologically observable material culture does not undergo any obvious radical transformation at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase when the winter village pattern was introduced. This is consistent with the model outlined above since the spread of the winter village pattern only involves the necessary diffusion of those technological assemblages, tools, and morphological types that are required for producing the necessary winter surpluses. Since the winter village pattern could be built to a large degree upon older Plateau patterns of hunting and root gathering, the technological assemblages associated with these activities did not change as fishing gear and winter villages diffused across the Columbia Plateau.

If migration had occurred on a large scale, the entire technology, including the typological attributes of the migrating group, would have invaded the Columbia Plateau. That this did not happen can be seen even more clearly when the patterns of regional diffusion at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase are considered. The Columbia Plateau Corner-Notched projectile point was evidently developed just to the west of the Columbia Plateau and diffused eastward into the Vantage locale in great abundance at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. But diffusion of this projectile point type was less effective further to the south on the Middle Columbia, where it was common but not a dominant type. The early diffusion of the type along the southern margin of the Columbia Plateau was still less spectacular and its introduction into the easternmost portions of the Columbia Plateau was very spotty.

Quilomene Bar Base-Notched projectile points were extremely common in the Vantage locale and, to a lesser extent, along the Middle Columbia, when the winter village pattern diffused into these areas. Locally this type became much less common, but it was diffused eastward into the lower section of the Lower Snake where it had not existed previously.

Side-to-Comer-Notched projectile points were extremely common along the Lower Snake River at the time the winter village pattern diffused through the area. They were diffused eastward into Idaho where they [had not] existed previously.

This pattern of local west to east diffusion is understandable in terms of the larger diffusion model offered above, but it is not the result of migration since none of the point types involved existed in the Canadian Plateau prior to the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. [61]

[62] ALTERNATE HYPOTHESES

The only published alternative to the Salishan expansion hypothesis is Daugherty's (1962) Intermontane Western Tradition hypothesis which sees the Cayuse Phase, or Late period, as the culmination of gradual internal development within the Columbia Plateau. As has been stressed repeatedly, if the presence and absence of traits are simply tabulated in the archaeological record, then no great change will be apparent at the beginning of the Cayuse Phase. But if the traits are considered in terms of the configurations that they form and the contexts in which they occur, then the transition to the Cayuse Phase cannot be described as gradual.

SUMMATION

The Salishan expansion hypothesis has been developed and presented in order to stimulate more meaningful research in Plateau archaeology and to show that it is possible for archaeologists to reconstruct cultures and sequences of cultural change at a level of sophistication substantially higher than the simple description of archaeological sequences based on tool types and decorative motifs. Archaeological work in the areas marginal to the Columbia Plateau and a close inspection of the ethnographic evidence should allow a substantially more detailed version of this hypothesis to be proposed and tested.

Two papers have recently been published which have a direct bearing on the interpretation of the Cayuse Phase. The first of the represents the culmination of Grabert's work in the Okanogan (Grabert 1968). This monograph presents in greater detail the evidence reviewed in brief in earlier interim reports (Grabert 1966) and so does not alter the fundamental interpretations in this section of the report.

The second paper of note is an aritcle by David Sanger (1967) in which it is suggested that the Cascade Landslide (Hodge 1938), which created the Lake of the Gods around 1265 A.D. (Lawerence and Lawerence 1958), may have lowered the gradient of the Columbia River sufficiently to allow the passage of salmon whose runs were previously limited to downstream sections of the basin. If this were true the late emergence of sophisticated fishing techniques throughout the Columbia Plateau and in peripheral areas to the east and north would in part be a function of the late availability of salmon. The distribution of salmon remains in the Okanagon (Grabert 1966; 1968), and at 45KT28, Wakemap Mound (Caldwell 1956; Butler 1958a), and Wildcat Canyon (Cole 1964; 1965) do not support this interpretation. An unpublished study by the author of the fauna! remains at 45C01, at the junction of the Tucannon and Snake rivers, has revealed remains of salmon and/or steelhead in Assemblages 2, 3, and 4 (see C, M, Nelson 1966). Thus the Cascade Landslide does not seem to have altered the presence of migrating fish in either the Snake or Columbia river systems. [62]

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LAST REVISED: 06 JAN 2016