Northern British Columbia
Microblades began in north coastal British Columbia, their makers moving up the rivers and over passes to the undated Callison site with its many Taye Lake traits, and Grizzly Run on Mount Edziza, Stikine drainage, with its many microblades (Figures 1 and 5).
Figure 3 The early cultures. © 2008 Bryan Gordon. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This was a quarry site, high and far from water, where microblades were made, but taken elsewhere to be used. Contemporaneously, the Rattlesnake Hill fishing station far to the south on the Thompson River has fish remains, but no microblades. Some rare cases of microblades older than 7000 years occur on the Interior Plateau, but their use ended 4000-5000 years ago, contemporaneous with those of Yukon’s Little Arm phase and Mount Edziza and the appearance of pithouses probably derived from the south (Figure 5).
Almost nothing is known about the ancient people of British Columbia’s rugged interior, especially between Hazleton-Lower Liard and the Rockies. Unlike the coast, the interior ranges could not support many people. The rivers with salmon were mainly controlled by coastal people, but some degree of accommodation with the interior Dene likely occurred, especially far upriver. Along these east-west ecotones leading to the coast, midsized early-looking points are ubiquitous but undated. It is likely some were ancestral to Early Taltheilei points that occur after 2700 years ago along the Peace River. Taltheilei points (see section on the Barrenlands) are a distinctive marker for Dene that were first defined around Great Slave Lake. They are ubiquitous east of the Continental Divide and occur occasionally in northern British Columbia. A better understanding of Taltheilei shouldered points and artifact associations is needed by archaeologists studying British Columbia, if they are to identify them confidently. Too large for arrows, many may have been dartheads until their makers carried them down the Peace River to the Barrenlands, where they would have been used to tip thrusting lances at caribou water-crossings. Complicating interpretations, some Late Palaeoindian-like points persist long after small notched and stemmed forms are found elsewhere. Notched and stemmed forms are in the 36003200 year-old Skeena River Kitselas Canyon site, the 4000-2400 year-old Shuswap Horizon on the Plateau and the 5600-3500 year-old Plains McKean complex.
Tracing pre-Contact Dene movements in British Columbia is tenuous because the tribes at Contact
Figure 4 Proposed origin of the Navajo-Apache from the Chipewyan c. AD 800, including the distribution of the White River ashfall. © 2008 Bryan Gordon. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Are too difficult to differentiate through their toolkits. Kaska artifacts in the far north of British Columbia resemble those of the Beaver, Sekani and Slave. For example, Late Fisherman Lake material from the southwest Mackenzie District of the Northwest Territories could be Kaska or Slave because the Kaska were Fort Simpson traders before the Slave pushed them up the Liard River to British Columbia. To the west, the rugged Stikine and Cassiar Ranges were occupied only by scattered, seasonal Tahltan Dene hunters. Along the Stikine River, the Tahltan caught seasonally abundant fish using nets and weirs. They hunted caribou with the aid of traps, snares and fences, the last extending 5-16 km to prominent headlands. To augment their construction, fences were interlaced with deadfalls and branches. Snares were placed in open portions. In 1821, Fort Halkett was built on the upper Liard River, followed in 1838 by a Hudson’s Bay Company post on Dease Lake.
We know little about Interior Plateau Dene, although Klo-Kut arrowheads occur in the early phases. The Ulkatcho and Chinlac site pithouses north of Anahim Lake have barbed bone points, eared end-scrapers, bone beamers and awls, and birchbark, but their Carrier occupants were recent immigrants. They ate caribou, then moose when caribou retreated west into the mountains. Taltheilei-like points were replaced by side-notched arrowheads, but the only preserved Dene bow is a 50 x 5 cm Tahltan, for example, tapered at each end with flat inner and round outer surfaces. It had been rubbed with beaver castor and wrapped in hide for toughening. Twisted caribou sinew was used to make bowstrings. It is associated with 75-cm-long saskatoon berry cane arrows with notched caribou bone, antler or obsidian points.
Late Taltheilei Dene spread south to the Oregon and California coasts to form the Pacific Dene about 1500 years ago (Figure 6), but little can be said until
Figure 5 The early intermediate cultures, including their movements. © 2008 Bryan Gordon. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
More excavation reveals their routes. Bridging the gap somewhat are similar Interior Plateau and central California rectangular houses. Unfortunately, Interior Plateau pithouses have mixed components and mixed radiocarbon estimates because older soil from the pit was often piled upon younger soil around its edge during house construction. In both Interior Plateau and Pacific Dene in the White Contact period, there were unique puberty and curing rites. A warrior status from raiding was initiated and focus switched from group to individual, a widespread Dene trait. Coquille arrowheads in the Standley site in Oregon are reminiscent of Klo-kut ones, but their context in large coastal villages with highly visible shell middens does not compare well with small single-family dwellings in the interior. New British Columbia research should be continued away from pithouses, with a view to tying Plateau and Pacific Dene by focusing on hide smoothers like chithos, Klo-Kut arrowheads, stylistic artifact differences, and sequential radiocarbon dates (Figure 6).
World History
