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• 1. [Article] Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System Over the Last ~7,500 Years

  Archaeological data on the long history of interaction between indigenous people and salmon have rarely been applied to conservation management. When joined with ethnohistoric records, archaeology provides ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System Over the Last ~7,500 Years Author: Campbell, Sarah K., Butler, Virginia L. Year: 2010 Archaeological data on the long history of interaction between indigenous people and salmon have rarely been applied to conservation management. When joined with ethnohistoric records, archaeology provides an alternative conceptual view of the potential for sustainable harvests and can suggest possible social mechanisms for managing human behavior. Review of the ~7,500-year-long fish bone record from two subregions of the Pacific Northwest shows remarkable stability in salmon use. As major changes in the ecological and social system occurred over this lengthy period, persistence in the fishery is not due simply to a lack of perturbation, but rather indicates resilience in the ecological--human system. Of several factors possibly contributing to resilience, low human population size and harvesting pressure, habitat enhancement, and suppression of competing predators do not appear to be of major importance. Flexible resource use, including human use of a range of local resources, many of which are linked in a food web with salmon, likely contributed to resilience. Most important were the beliefs and social institutions (including ownership, regulation, rituals, and monitoring) that placed restraints on salmon use as a common pool resource. In contrast, only a small fraction of our modern society relies economically on or has direct interaction with the fish, which limits our concern and willingness to fundamentally change behaviors that contribute to habitat degradation and loss, the main challenges facing salmon populations today. Salmon recovery efforts may benefit substantially from investing more resources into establishing links between community groups and actual fish populations, which would create a sense of proprietorship, one of the keys to resilience in the indigenous salmon fishery. Title: Archaeological Evidence for Resilience of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations and the Socioecological System Over the Last ~7,500 Years Author: Campbell, Sarah K., Butler, Virginia L. Year: 2010 Archaeological data on the long history of interaction between indigenous people and salmon have rarely been applied to conservation management. When joined with ethnohistoric records, archaeology provides an alternative conceptual view of the potential for sustainable harvests and can suggest possible social mechanisms for managing human behavior. Review of the ~7,500-year-long fish bone record from two subregions of the Pacific Northwest shows remarkable stability in salmon use. As major changes in the ecological and social system occurred over this lengthy period, persistence in the fishery is not due simply to a lack of perturbation, but rather indicates resilience in the ecological--human system. Of several factors possibly contributing to resilience, low human population size and harvesting pressure, habitat enhancement, and suppression of competing predators do not appear to be of major importance. Flexible resource use, including human use of a range of local resources, many of which are linked in a food web with salmon, likely contributed to resilience. Most important were the beliefs and social institutions (including ownership, regulation, rituals, and monitoring) that placed restraints on salmon use as a common pool resource. In contrast, only a small fraction of our modern society relies economically on or has direct interaction with the fish, which limits our concern and willingness to fundamentally change behaviors that contribute to habitat degradation and loss, the main challenges facing salmon populations today. Salmon recovery efforts may benefit substantially from investing more resources into establishing links between community groups and actual fish populations, which would create a sense of proprietorship, one of the keys to resilience in the indigenous salmon fishery. Close

• 2. [Article] Can Salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) Be Identified to Species Using Vertebral Morphometrics?

  Remains of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout (genus Oncorhynchus) are common in archaeological sites from California to Alaska; however, morphological similarity generally precludes species identification, ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Can Salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) Be Identified to Species Using Vertebral Morphometrics? Author: Huber, Harriet R., Jorgensen, Jeffery C., Butler, Virginia L., Baker, Greg, Stevens, Rebecca Year: 2011 Remains of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout (genus Oncorhynchus) are common in archaeological sites from California to Alaska; however, morphological similarity generally precludes species identification, limiting the range of questions that salmonid remains can address in relation to past human use and ongoing efforts in conservation biology. We developed a relatively simple, rapid, and non-destructive way to classify salmon and trout vertebrae from archaeological contexts to species using length, height and the ratio of length to height. Modern reference material was obtained from all seven anadromous Oncorhynchus species native to the west coast of North America. A minimum of ten adult Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum (O. keta), coho (O. kisutch), pink (O.gorbuscha), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) and cutthroat (O. clarki clarki) and steelhead trout (O. mykiss) were skeletonized and vertebra length and height were measured. Morphometric analyses compared species classification success based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Classification and Regression Trees (CART), and randomForest, with CART performing the best. Classification analyses used all seven species individually, but because of considerable overlap among several species we also conducted analyses on four species groupings. We assigned Chinook salmon and cutthroat to their own groups based on their dissimilarities from each other and the other species. The remaining species were divided into two group complexes (a) chum, coho, and steelhead; and (b) pink and sockeye. When we grouped species according to similar morphology, CART overall success rates increased, ranging from 92 to 100%. Individual species with the highest successful classification rates using CART were Chinook salmon and cutthroat, from 92 to 100%, respectively. We applied our classification to an assemblage of ancient (1000 to 3000 year old) salmonid vertebrae from the Swiftwater Rockshelters excavations on the upper Wenatchee River in Washington State, U.S.A. Title: Can Salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) Be Identified to Species Using Vertebral Morphometrics? Author: Huber, Harriet R., Jorgensen, Jeffery C., Butler, Virginia L., Baker, Greg, Stevens, Rebecca Year: 2011 Remains of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout (genus Oncorhynchus) are common in archaeological sites from California to Alaska; however, morphological similarity generally precludes species identification, limiting the range of questions that salmonid remains can address in relation to past human use and ongoing efforts in conservation biology. We developed a relatively simple, rapid, and non-destructive way to classify salmon and trout vertebrae from archaeological contexts to species using length, height and the ratio of length to height. Modern reference material was obtained from all seven anadromous Oncorhynchus species native to the west coast of North America. A minimum of ten adult Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum (O. keta), coho (O. kisutch), pink (O.gorbuscha), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) and cutthroat (O. clarki clarki) and steelhead trout (O. mykiss) were skeletonized and vertebra length and height were measured. Morphometric analyses compared species classification success based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Classification and Regression Trees (CART), and randomForest, with CART performing the best. Classification analyses used all seven species individually, but because of considerable overlap among several species we also conducted analyses on four species groupings. We assigned Chinook salmon and cutthroat to their own groups based on their dissimilarities from each other and the other species. The remaining species were divided into two group complexes (a) chum, coho, and steelhead; and (b) pink and sockeye. When we grouped species according to similar morphology, CART overall success rates increased, ranging from 92 to 100%. Individual species with the highest successful classification rates using CART were Chinook salmon and cutthroat, from 92 to 100%, respectively. We applied our classification to an assemblage of ancient (1000 to 3000 year old) salmonid vertebrae from the Swiftwater Rockshelters excavations on the upper Wenatchee River in Washington State, U.S.A. Close

• 3. [Article] Structural Bone Density of Pacific Cod (<i>Gadus macrocephalus</i>) and Halibut (<i>Hippoglossus stenolepis</i>): Taphonomic and Archaeological Implications

  Describing prehistoric human subsistence strategies and mobility patterns using archaeofaunal assemblages requires archaeologists to differentiate the effects of human behavior from natural taphonomic ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Structural Bone Density of Pacific Cod (<i>Gadus macrocephalus</i>) and Halibut (<i>Hippoglossus stenolepis</i>): Taphonomic and Archaeological Implications Author: Smith, Ross E. Year: 2008 Describing prehistoric human subsistence strategies and mobility patterns using archaeofaunal assemblages requires archaeologists to differentiate the effects of human behavior from natural taphonomic processes. Previous studies demonstrate that differences in bone density both within and between taxa contribute to variation in element representation in archaeofaunal assemblages. Measurements of contemporary Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) skeletal elements using Dual Energy Absorptiometry (DEXA) and hydrostatic weighing revealed differences in bone volume density between elements and taxa. Density values were highest in Pacific cod and halibut jaw elements; the lowest bone volume densities were measured in Pacific cod and halibut basipterygia. While halibut and salmon often exhibited similar bone density values, the densities of Pacific cod elements were consistently higher than those from either salmon or halibut. These density data indicate that the remains of Pacific cod are more likely to persist in archaeological deposits. When combined with existing salmon bone density measurements, these data allow for the identification of density-mediated destruction in fish faunal assemblages from along the North Pacific rim. Analysis of cod, halibut and salmon faunal assemblages from the North Point, Cape Addington Rockshelter, Rice Ridge, Uyak and Amaknak Bridge sites revealed that density-mediated element attrition has not consistently affected cod, halibut and salmon element representation in these sites. Significant correlations identified in aggregate site assemblages were not present at finer scales of analysis; the effects of density-mediated element attrition varied between depositional contexts. This research demonstrates that bone density data can be used to differentiate the effects of density-mediated element attrition from the results of human decision-making. Once density-mediated element attrition is ruled out, archaeologists can examine the effects of human processing, transportation, preparation and disposal activities on the distribution of Pacific cod and halibut skeletal elements both within and between archaeological contexts. Title: Structural Bone Density of Pacific Cod (<i>Gadus macrocephalus</i>) and Halibut (<i>Hippoglossus stenolepis</i>): Taphonomic and Archaeological Implications Author: Smith, Ross E. Year: 2008 Describing prehistoric human subsistence strategies and mobility patterns using archaeofaunal assemblages requires archaeologists to differentiate the effects of human behavior from natural taphonomic processes. Previous studies demonstrate that differences in bone density both within and between taxa contribute to variation in element representation in archaeofaunal assemblages. Measurements of contemporary Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) skeletal elements using Dual Energy Absorptiometry (DEXA) and hydrostatic weighing revealed differences in bone volume density between elements and taxa. Density values were highest in Pacific cod and halibut jaw elements; the lowest bone volume densities were measured in Pacific cod and halibut basipterygia. While halibut and salmon often exhibited similar bone density values, the densities of Pacific cod elements were consistently higher than those from either salmon or halibut. These density data indicate that the remains of Pacific cod are more likely to persist in archaeological deposits. When combined with existing salmon bone density measurements, these data allow for the identification of density-mediated destruction in fish faunal assemblages from along the North Pacific rim. Analysis of cod, halibut and salmon faunal assemblages from the North Point, Cape Addington Rockshelter, Rice Ridge, Uyak and Amaknak Bridge sites revealed that density-mediated element attrition has not consistently affected cod, halibut and salmon element representation in these sites. Significant correlations identified in aggregate site assemblages were not present at finer scales of analysis; the effects of density-mediated element attrition varied between depositional contexts. This research demonstrates that bone density data can be used to differentiate the effects of density-mediated element attrition from the results of human decision-making. Once density-mediated element attrition is ruled out, archaeologists can examine the effects of human processing, transportation, preparation and disposal activities on the distribution of Pacific cod and halibut skeletal elements both within and between archaeological contexts. Close

• 4. [Article] Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of Fish that Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River

  As part of a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly,' discusses the native species of fish in the lower Columbia River described by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805-06. They identified ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of Fish that Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River Author: Butler, Virginia L. Year: 2004 As part of a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly,' discusses the native species of fish in the lower Columbia River described by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805-06. They identified red charr, salmon trout, sturgeon, anchovy, skeet, and other fish that Indians caught and used as trade items with the Corps of Discovery. However, editors of the Lewis and Clark journals have often erred in identifying the fish Lewis and Clark described; the challenge in identifying anadromous fish lies in changing coloration, markings, and examination of habitat. There has been a drastic decline of native fish since 1805 and a growing dominance of exotic species. Title: Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of Fish that Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River Author: Butler, Virginia L. Year: 2004 As part of a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly,' discusses the native species of fish in the lower Columbia River described by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805-06. They identified red charr, salmon trout, sturgeon, anchovy, skeet, and other fish that Indians caught and used as trade items with the Corps of Discovery. However, editors of the Lewis and Clark journals have often erred in identifying the fish Lewis and Clark described; the challenge in identifying anadromous fish lies in changing coloration, markings, and examination of habitat. There has been a drastic decline of native fish since 1805 and a growing dominance of exotic species. Close