The Fur-Trade Archaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier Sites, Lower Columbia River

Authors

Kenneth M. Ames, Portland State UniversityFollow
Katie Henry, Portland State University
Patricia K. Banach, Portland State University
Robert J. Cromwell, Portland State UniversityFollow
Stephanie Catherine Simmons, Portland State University
United States. Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region 1Follow
Portland State University. Department of Anthropology

Sponsor

The preparation of this series of reports is supported by U.S. Fish and Wildlife contract number F14PX00232. Kenneth M. Ames is the editor of this series; Kathryn Henry is the production manager. We want to thank Anan Raymond for his unflagging support of the Wapato Valley Archaeological Project and the work at Cathlapotle since 1991, including his finding the money to produce this report series. Beyond Anan, there are a lot of people and institutions to thank. Supporting Institutions: Portland State University ♦ Chinook Indian Nation ♦ Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde ♦ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ♦ Portland State University Department of Anthropology, & College of Liberal Arts and Sciences ♦ National Science Foundation ♦ National Endowment for the Humanities ♦ Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropoloical Research ♦ National Park Service ♦ University of Michigan ♦ Simon Fraser University ♦ Jean and Ray Auel Foundation ♦ Friends of the Wapato Valley. Individuals and Groups: Gary Johnson ♦ Tony Johnson ♦ Sam Robinson ♦ Cinde Ede ♦ Virginia Parks, Alex Bourdeaux, Nick Valentine: Regional USFWS Staff ♦ Staff of Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge – too many to list ♦ Friends of the Ridgefield Refuge ♦ Don Meier ♦ People of Scappoose, Oregon ♦ People of Ridgefield and Clark County Washington Colleagues Cameron Smith, Portland State University ♦ Elizabeth Sobel, Missouri State University ♦ Jon Daehnke, University of California, Santa Cruz ♦ Ann Trieu Gahr, Southern Illinois University ♦ R. Lee Lyman, University of Missouri ♦ Virginia Butler, Portland State University ♦ Gay Frederick, Pacific ID ♦ Dongya Yang, Simon Fraser University ♦ Loren Davis, Oregon State University ♦ Kory Cooper, Purdue University ♦ Greg Baker, Portland State University ♦ William Gardner-O’Kearny, Portland State University This list does not include Portland State University Field School students from 1987 – 1996, the field school staffs, nor the many paid and volunteer lab workers. To them we owe a particularly deep debt of gratitude.

Published In

Wapato Valley Archaeology Project Report #10; Cultural Resource Series Number 18.

Document Type

Technical Report

Publication Date

2017

Subjects

Excavations (Archaeology) -- Washington (State) -- Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Historic preservation -- Washington (State) -- Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Chinook Indians -- Antiquities, Ridgefield (Wash.) -- Antiquities

Abstract

This report is one in a series on the archaeology of the Wapato Valley region of the Lower Columbia River. Most of the reports discuss aspects of the excavations and archaeology of two sites, the Meier site (35CO5) and Cathlapotle site (45CL1). Other related topics are also treated.

Attached supplemental files for this report: catalogs for glass, glass trade beads, non-cupreous metal, and ceramics found at both sites.

See Also: Preliminary Report and Catalogs: Archaeological Investigations at 45CL1 Cathlapotle (1991-1996) , Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Clark County, Washington (1999)

The issue of social status as it manifests in the archaeological record has long been a problematic one. Glass beads are often the most numerous class of historic artifacts recovered in protohistoric sites in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnohistoric accounts indicated that these beads might have functioned as prestige items and as a form of “primitive cash” among the aboriginal peoples of the Lower Columbia River in the early to mid 1800s. To what extent were glass beads indicative of status and can their spatial distribution within protohistoric sites be used to address this question? The purpose of the present study is to determine if glass beads were indeed wealth and prestige items along the Columbia River as suggested by the historic record. A distributional study of glass beads in three plankhouses in the Lower Columbia River area was used to address this question in the archaeological record. Seven hundred and four glass beads from the Cathlapotle (45CL1) site in Ridgefield, Washington and the Meier (35CO5) site near Scappose, Oregon were classified and their positions within the study sites plotted. Both visual and statistical analyses were used to determine if there were any significant differential distributions of glass beads within these sites. There were some statistically significant differences in bead distributions within and between both of the study sites. However, these differences could not be definitively correlated with social differences in the archaeological record. The differences in bead distribution within and between these sites can be linked to chronology and site formation processes. While the archaeological record does not agree with the historic record, glass beads in protohistoric sites can be used as chronological indicators as well as markers of European contact within archaeological sites.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26171

Citation Details

Ames, Kenneth M.; Henry, Katie; Banach, Patricia K.; Cromwell, Robert J.; Simmons, Stephanie Catherine; United States. Department of the Interior; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region 1; and Portland State University. Department of Anthropology, "The Fur-Trade Archaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier Sites, Lower Columbia River" (2017). Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations. 169.
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26171