Record Details

When Celilo was Celilo : an analysis of salmon use during the past 11,000 years in the Columbia Plateau

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Field Value
Title When Celilo was Celilo : an analysis of salmon use during the past 11,000 years in the Columbia Plateau
Names Thomison, Patrick (creator)
Hogg, Tom (advisor)
Date Issued 1987-01-28 (iso8601)
Internet Media Type application/pdf
Note Graduation date: 1987
Abstract The presence and significance of salmon for prehistoric and aboriginal people of the Columbia Plateau is a matter of considerable debate among anthropologists, archaeologists and historians. Data from over 100 archaeological sites are scrutinized in the light of an example salmon fishery developed from ethnographic and archaeological information on aboriginal salmon dependencies
and exploitation in the locale of The Dalles on the central Columbia. The research incorporates a cultural ecology orientation.
Data from prehistoric sites of the Columbia Plateau do not conform precisely to The Dalles fishery example and strongly suggest both a temporal and spatial variation in salmon use and cultural patterning and therefore call to question the presumption of the primary relevancy of salmon to cultural patterning throughout the Plateau. Other resources, including especially botanical species, appear to have an importance too often overlooked. Other riverine and terrestrial mammal food resources are presumed to have a lesser prehistoric importance, though the archaeological record actually supports the importance of resources other than salmon as having pervasive
affects on cultural patterning in the Columbia Plateau. Data show that it was not until recent times that salmon occurrence had the effect on cultural systems that has been observed in historic times.
Genre Thesis
Topic Salmon fishing -- Columbia Plateau -- History
Identifier http://hdl.handle.net/1957/7935

© Western Waters Digital Library - GWLA member projects - Designed by the J. Willard Marriott Library - Hosted by Oregon State University Libraries and Press