The Inland Tlingit

1953 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 47-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharine McClellan

Ethnographers confidently point to the Tlingit-speaking population of southeastern Alaska as an important component of the Northwest Coast culture area. They cite these Indians as a maritime oriented group, sharing a common speech and many distinctive culture traits. About fourteen Tlingit tribes have been listed and in part described for the Alaska coast.I should like to discuss three less well-known Tlingit-speaking bands now located in the interior of northern British Columbia and of southern Yukon Territory. These three neighboring groups are: the Tagish band of Carcross at the junction of lakes Bennett and Nares; the Atlin band on the lake of the same name; and the Teslin band with headquarters on Teslin Lake. This is the farthest inland of the lakes mentioned, and it is little more than a hundred miles from the mild, damp Pacific coast with its abundant sea and shore life.

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian F. Atwater ◽  
Alan R. Nelson ◽  
John J. Clague ◽  
Gary A. Carver ◽  
David K. Yamaguchi ◽  
...  

Earthquakes in the past few thousand years have left signs of land-level change, tsunamis, and shaking along the Pacific coast at the Cascadia subduction zone. Sudden lowering of land accounts for many of the buried marsh and forest soils at estuaries between southern British Columbia and northern California. Sand layers on some of these soils imply that tsunamis were triggered by some of the events that lowered the land. Liquefaction features show that inland shaking accompanied sudden coastal subsidence at the Washington-Oregon border about 300 years ago. The combined evidence for subsidence, tsunamis, and shaking shows that earthquakes of magnitude 8 or larger have occurred on the boundary between the overriding North America plate and the downgoing Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates. Intervals between the earthquakes are poorly known because of uncertainties about the number and ages of the earthquakes. Current estimates for individual intervals at specific coastal sites range from a few centuries to about one thousand years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-122
Author(s):  
H. Kory Cooper ◽  
Garett Hunt ◽  
Nicholas Waber ◽  
Carey Gray

Copper has figured prominently in discussions of social complexity among Northwest Coast Cultures. Coppers, shield-like sheets of copper variable in size, were a form of lineage wealth displayed, gifted, or ritually destroyed at potlatches; and copper artifacts have been recovered from human burials. The former use of copper is well-documented ethnographically and historically while the latter phenomenon is less well understood. This paper provides an overview of the occurrence of copper in precontact archaeological contexts in British Columbia using published and unpublished literature. Our investigation is framed within a Behavioral Archaeology approach that elicits ideas on copper innovation and all that it entailed. We find that copper is rare in precontact contexts from a province-wide perspective; there was likely more than one instance of native copper innovation; and contrary to previous suggestions, the copper-rich Dene region of south-central Alaska and southwestern Yukon cannot account for most of the precontact examples of copper use in the province. We offer some hypotheses to explain the precontact distribution of copper in BC, including both local invention and diffusion, not in an attempt to deliver the final verdict on this topic, but rather, to stimulate additional research.


1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. P. Popenoe ◽  
L. R. Saul ◽  
Takeo Susuki

Seven previously described and seven new taxa of gyrodiform naticoids from West Coast Late Cretaceous–Paleocene age strata are discussed. Gyrodes (Gyrodes) dowelli White of Turonian age is a typical Gyrodes; G. robustus Waring from the Paleocene has the shape of Gyrodes s.s. but lacks the crenulations. G. greeni Murphy and Rodda, G. yolensis n. sp., G. quercus n. sp., G. banites n. sp., G. canadensis Whiteaves, G. pacificus n. sp., and G. expansus Gabb comprise the new subgenus Sohlella, which thus ranges from Cenomanian through Maastrichtian. Gyrodes robsauli n. sp. resembles “Polinices” (Hypterita) helicoides (Gray), and Hypterita is reassigned to the Gyrodinae as a subgenus of Gyrodes. Gyrodes onensis n. sp. of Albian age is similar to the G. americanus group of Sohl (1960). Three texa—Natica allisoni (Murphy and Rodda) of Cenomanian age and N. conradiana Gabb and N. conradiana vacculae n. subsp. of Turonian age—which have all been previously considered to be Gyrodes are placed in Natica. Well marked relict color patterns on N. conradiana and N. conradiana vacculae suggest that these naticids from northern California and southern British Columbia were tropical forms.Diversity of taxa and size of specimens are reduced at the end of the Turonian, suggesting a change in West Coast marine conditions at that time.


Author(s):  
Ben Potter

This chapter synthesizes our current understanding of Holocene prehistory (from 11,500 years ago) of the northwest Subarctic, encompassing Alaska, Yukon Territory, and northern British Columbia. Various cultural chronologies are considered, as are new interpretations based on recently excavated sites. These data indicate conservation of lithic technologies concurrent with economic change throughout the region. Periods of cultural transitions occurred at 6,000 and 1,000 years ago. High residential mobility is inferred for most of the Holocene, with radical shifts in settlement and technology throughout the region at 1,000 years ago, though there are elements of continuity. Current debates on ethnogenesis of Athapaskans and the utility of typological approaches are also discussed.


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