III. SETTING

[3] An archaeological site is not simply a sequence of assemblages at a defined place in time and space, for each of its components records a particular cultural adaptation to the local physical and ecological environments. Moreover, it is possible to discern relationships between and within societies and cultures by relating many components in both time and space. Therefore, it is not enough to look at a site only in terms of itself; the broad cultural and ecological patterns of which it is a part must also be considered. Although the fourth part of this report [4] (The Cultural Record) is devoted to this kind of an analysis to an important degree, a few comments at this time will serve to introduce the reader to some of the ecologic and ethnographic factors with which any student of Plateau prehistory must come to grips.

ECOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY

Because the Sunset Creek site is located along the Columbia River, it is situated in an area which is transitional between both ecologic and physiographic zones. As Swanson (1962a:2) has aptly noted, drainage and altitude are the keys to the differences between these zones. To the east lies the most depressed area within the Columbia Basin, the Central Plains section (Freeman et al., 1945). It receives between five and ten inches of rain per year (Landes et al., 1912:24; Piper 1906) and is very poorly drained. Indeed the most significant bodies of water in the area are a series of small lakes, some fresh and others saline, which are strung out in the Grand Coulee, a scabland channel of Wisconsin age. The only continuously flowing stream in the area is Crab Creek.

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This general lack of water is strongly reflected in the ecology and the availability of potential food resources for aboriginals who were hunters and gatherers. According to Dice (1943:42-44) the area is characteristic of the sagebrush lifebelt of the Palusian biotic province. Thus the ground cover is typically that of a semiarid area. The most important food resources are edible roots such as camas, wildfowl, and deer.

To the west of the Columbia River lies the Yakima Folds section, an extensive area characterized by narrow upfolds of basalt alternating with broad downwarped valleys which are oriented primarily in a northeast-southwest direction (Freeman et al., 1945). It is essentially a foothills area to the Cascade Mountains and is characterized by the bunchgrass and montane lifebelts of the Palusian biotic province, the climax of which is the Ponderosa pine (Dice 1943). On the average the area receives between ten and fifteen inches of rain per year. This rainfall coupled with discharge out of the Cascade Mountains, provides the area with numerous streams.

Some of the area's most important economic resources are great runs of steelhead trout and silver, blueback, and Chinook salmon. Deer, elk, wildfowl, and edible roots are also abundant, while bear, cougar, and mountain sheep are found in lesser numbers and berries become common as the Cascades are approached. Smaller game animals include badger, fox, marten, beaver, muskrat, mink, raccoon, porcupine, and bobcat.

It is obvious then that the Yakima Folds section has been of greater economic importance than the Central Plains section, a fact attested to by our ethnographic knowledge (e.g. Ray 1932). In fact, essentially the same kind of situation has prevailed since the beginning of the Altithermal, some 7,500 years ago. Prior to that time, however, cooler, moister, conditions prevailed (see Hansen 1944; 1947), and grasslands throughout the Central Plains section could have supported large herds of grazing animals such as bison. Such conditions are strongly suggested by the remains of bison at the Lind Coulee site (Daugherty 1956a).

Although this statement of physiographic and ecologic relationships is specifically designed to be applied to the greater Vantage locale, similar trends would be seen if we were to consider transects originating in the Central Plains section and terminating in areas such as the Blue Mountains to the south, the Okanagon Highlands to the north, or the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the east. In other words, those areas which are peripheral to the central portion of the Columbia Basin have tended over the last seven or eight millennia to be ecologically most favorable to hunting and gathering societies, a tendency evident in archaeological, ethnographic, and early historic documents.

ETHNOGRAPHY

General ethnographic descriptions which are particularly useful to the archaeologist include works by Ray (1932; 1936; 1939; 1942), Teit (1900; 1906; 1909; 1928; 1930), Spinden (1908), Spier and Sapir (1930), and Suttles and Elmendorf (1962). These and other works are used hereafter in the discussion of specific problems, three of which may be profitably outlined at this time.

1. Can the origin or development of ethnographically recorded Plateau culture be discerned in the archaeological record? The answer to this question is closely related to winter village patterns which are characteristic of historic Plateau culture. These patterns may be defined in the archaeological record and, as Swanson (1962a) noted, are the key to defining the emergence of Plateau culture. This problem is discussed in some detail in comments on the origin of the Cayuse Phase.

2. Students of ethnographic Plateau culture have long since noted the great influence of Plains horse culture on Plateau peoples and concluded that it dated from a recent prehistoric period. Is this influence detectable in the archaeological record? This problem is considered in a discussion of the Cayuse III Subphase.

3. With the exception of some Athabascan and Kutenai speakers in the far north, the Plateau is divided [5] between two massive linguistic blocks, interior Salish and Sahaptin. The Sahaptin area coincides roughly with the dry, unforested southern portion of the Plateau, while Salishan speakers occupy the vast timbered regions north of the Columbia and Spokane rivers, penetrating the semiarid Plateau only as far south as the Saddle Mountains, a few miles down the Columbia River from the Sunset Creek site. We may ask, then if any dialogue between the Salishan and Sahaptin portions of the Plateau can be discerned in the archaeological record. Speculations regarding this problem are presented in comments about the significance of the Cayuse Phase.

These three problems entail an archaeological approach to rather broad ethnographic pat¬terns and say little of the specific ethnography or early history of the Vantage locale in which the Sunset Creek site is located. To the extent that such information is pertinent it has been incorporated at advantageous points in the text of the report, especially in the discussion of the Cayuse Phase and the description of the material culture of the site (Appendix A). Gunkel (1961:1-38) has summarized ethnographic information for the Upper Columbia and reviewed the local archaeological research prior to 1960. [5]

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LAST REVISED: 18 NOV 2014