The Evolution of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Abundance, Prosperity & Complexity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
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NOTE: The map of the Northwest coast in this episode is not aligned to North but East. This was done to allow a more detailed map. Apologies for any confusion it may cause.
The lush coast Pacific Northwest is home to some of North America’s most well-known nations who are renowned for their rich culture. Despite never using agriculture, these nations formed vibrant communities with very complex societies. Discover how these cultures developed over thousands of years.
Indigenous History Now's Video on PNW cultures: • Indigenous American Cu...
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Sources and Bibliography: docs.google.com/document/d/16...
As a Coast Salish person, I think you did a great job covering the region. I’m a big fan of your channel and have enjoyed learning about all the fascinating cultures of the Americas.
Thank you! There was a lot to cover and I had to leave a lot out. But that means that we'll just have to come back someday!
But that group contains a lot of different tribes....
@@markgarin6355 I’m from the Lyackson First Nation
@@dylanthomas5475 ah, BC. In Washington state, there are quite a few groups around me.
@@markgarin6355 Just to say, if you told me you were Irish, I wouldn't immediately vibe check you hy asking you if you were Ulster, Donegal, Connacht, or, and God forgive me for saying their names out loud, Linster Irish.
I'm from the Tlingit tribe (Alaskan coastal Tlingit), Tlingit means "the people of the tides", and I've been told by elders that "Each time the ice comes, it chases us away from the coast and, as the ice melts, we always follow it back to the coast.". Back in the early 1970's, I was also told a story by an elder after I asked for a story from when the world was covered in ice and snow, and she told a story of how the tribe had been living in the ice-free zone in Canada for many, many generations, with winters lasting 2 to 3 years until, one winter lasted 5 years, and the next winter lasted 8 years, and while this was happening the ice walls grew and moved in, closing off the route south, and they were trapped in between the ice walls for many, many generations, with the food supply getting smaller each thaw season until they feared the tribe would all die. So they sent out expeditions of men & women to either find a way out and return for the tribe, or find a way out and leave the tribe behind if too dangerous to return. None returned (the Navajo tribe grew from one of those expeditions), but the ice had begun to melt quickly, the ice walls receded, and the tribe was no longer in danger of extinction. To survive the lack of food, they ate saw dust, wood chips, tree bark, animal hides, and some ate the dead tribe members.
Wow. That's a really amazing story!
@Land-Shark
I heard from a Nuxalk man who had a Tlingit storyteller grandmother that around whenever it was warmer probably by 2350BC but could be as early as around the Minoan Warm Period 3800BC there was an influx quite suddenly of a people with a superior culture and numbers, who just assimilated and displaced if they wanted it, the previous culture youse guys, you are talking about.
Now, this means we are up to the Ket-speaking Amurru or AKA Amorite Moors from the Tarim Basin and Amur River drainiage kingdoms arriving with the superior culture and as the ruling clans founding Tartaria in the PNW and the west side of Amurica as well, and look at the ruined civilization now on both sides of the Bering Strait. The Navajo said "they brought their own Mongols" which certainly sounds like they had technology, and who built the pyramids and "Mormon temples" but Moor-men the amurru from the Amur River Drainage Basin who started their Ket root language as the foundation of North Amurican lingo..
More, there was a war, and the Tarim Basin Amorites were driven right back up the Amur river and their depots burned, killing the PNW fur trade. I guess this at you know by the other indians-exterminated-the-giants-lore probaby as late as the mid 1200's coz they left Tartarian sheeeitt behind, like important Moor-mon churches, dikes, harbours and long dams now destroyed from roughly that...and they had six noble cities and more than 100 towns around the great Salt Lake by then so maybe as late as the mid-1800's. Lovelock Caves, the islands off California, the Chilkoot eradicated theirs too...Tsimshian and Tlingit too no doubt. The foreigners didn't wanna marry out much but I know a papered Nukwakwdukw Indian with no Haida in him who is 6'3" with red hair like Archie :)
Popular, but disproven, migration theory + vivid imagination + alcohol + gullible audience = 🐂💩
this is awesome. I believe the American people are more ancient than what we are led to believe. That story of multiple ice ages must be over a span of 50,000 years. I am glad to hear the oral history.
@@DrCorvidDid you make all this up yourself? What are your sources, besides just talking to (and probably misinterpreting) other people? (Not OP, DrCorvid, just in case OP gets a notification)
As someone who lives in this region (Vancouver Island, not Indigenous), thank you for choosing to cover the Indigenous people who live here. The cultures that have flourish here for millennia are quite fascinating. They not as flashy as those of Central and South America, but are unique in there own right.
Thank you! Even if they weren't building pyramids a thousand years ago, I think that they are no less fascinating.
Waving from Burnaby! 😃👋
Same for me (but born and raised in the Lower Mainland) and it’s always so interesting to learn more and refresh our knowledge of the incredible indigenous cultures that surround us and are so unique in the world. I have a friend from the Squamish nation who is justifiably really proud of their ancestry, it’s easy to see why! Excellent video. 😊
I was talking to an RCMP here in Port McNeill and he told me he was called back when to a skull reportedly in the sand at Yellow Point near Ladysmith. It was so elongated that neither crown counsel nor the local natives wanted it so he just kept it for several months.... I wasn't surprised because I know the Tarim Basin Amorites were credited for bringing agriculture to the Tarim basin and that they "brought their own Mongols" according to the Navajo and here they today are as Ainu, with the same uniquely Siberian bloodline and the Ket language used by the Tarim basin and Altai Amurru.
I'm a 2nd gen native to Humboldt & my grandfather used to run with the Yuroks in Klamath, who my family is still cool with to this very day. I think a major reason why these tribes were so stratified despite practicing limited agriculture was due to production surpluses combined with living in settled societies. What isn't said is that the population never increased to meet that surplus because of high mortality rates due to how dangerous it was to brave the waters or venture too far inland. Local predators like the Grizzlies, Wolves, & Cougars are maneaters even to this very day, whereas at sea the volatile weather patterns due to the cold Humboldt current mean it's very easy to get caught in freak waves. My cousin was lost at sea in 2008 this way; this is a very tough & wild place to live in 2023, let alone all throughout antiquity. Sure, the land is rich, but it is also incredibly savage.
I don't think wildlife or weather would have been responsible for high mortality rates. There's plenty of other areas with far tougher environments. A combination of plagues and natural disasters (which would have occurred around the same time) seems more likely.
@@brandon9172 That's mostly when the colonists arrive, but people here lived tough lives. The age before modern medicine was brutal, but they lacked the plagues of the old world that we nowadays think are mundane; part of why they were so disasterous later on when the settlers arrived.
@@bustavonnutz We don't really know how tough their lives were before settlers arrived. We know how tough it was when settlers arrived and perhaps some years before that, but 100? 200 years before that? Diseases could have spread here through trade routes long before settlers got here.
No, those animals have never been "man eaters" nor "Extremely dangerous". Like all wild animals, they're fine and will always leave you alone unless you give them a reason not to. If they perceive anything you do as a potential threat, or an act of aggression that endangers them, you tread too close to a feeding ground, breeding ground or den, or, in the much rarer cases, they may attack due to starvation or diseases that directly impact their brains. Outside of that, they'll never attack, let alone give a fuck about you. As long as they see you're not a threat to them, and you mind your own business and maintain your own space, they'll end up leaving you alone. Sure, they'll likely get curious, and may approach and investigate your gear or camp, but again, that's never a dangerous situation unless you make it one. This constant preaching and treatment of wild animals as if they're innately dangerous, vicious and out to get you is the dumbest, most ridiculous lie humans have ever convinced themselves of about nature. Your fellow humans have always been and will always be infinitely more dangerous for you to associate with and put you at infinitely higher chance of death at that than any wild animal out there. And that is a fact.
@@brandon9172 Yeah, they lack crediting the Chinook with their huge social impact among countless other tribes each year for at least upward of a 100 or so years prior to the first settlers/fur trappers arriving, too. The Chinook were responsible for arranging the biggest trade event of NA each year for hundreds of years along the Columbia, where tribes from as far as modern day Saskatchewan and western North Dakota came in to do trade. Once the settlers and fur traders came in, they adapted their language for the trading "Chinook Jargon" to include English and some french inspired terms and words as well as they then included them on the trade event each year as well. The Chinook were the tribe that managed to perfect inter-communal cooperation and communication too. Effectively, they were master mediators and diplomats.
I find it both sad and surprising that they were entirely left out in this video, and even that has found itself abandoned in teaching as well. Its a huge and important piece of the puzzle of history to be sure.
42:02 It's important to note that the much of the Camas and Wapato eaten by the southern coastal tribes was actually acquired by trade with tribes living further south and inland on the Columbia Plateau and Basin, where growing conditions were more ideal for mass cultivation. The Coast Salish traded as much as a quarter of their oceanic fish and mollusc catch and large amounts of dentalium shells in exchange for the desired amounts of both plants.
Camas was especially desirable. A member of the Asparagus family, Camas produces edible grape sized bulbs that- when slow roasted for 12 to 24 hours- would have their polysaccharides hydrolyze into simpler sugars, making them one of the few native sources of sucrose. Camas is fireweed, meaning that it was the first plant to colonize areas of land cleared by wildfires, and the Plateau tribes deliberately used manmade fires to clear level ground (Camas Prairies) so the wild plants would grow in large clusters.
Wapato (Sagittaria¹ latifolia), AKA Katniss¹, Broadleaf Arrowhead or Duck Potato is a waterborne plant that possesses chestnut sized, starchy rhizomes that greatly resemble regular potatoes in consistency. Wapato can be found across North America and featured heavily in the diet of many other Native American nations (most notably the Cherokee). But the plant really thrives in the heavily inundated Columbia River Basin, and it was an abundant food source for many PNW tribes.
Incidentally there are the towns of Camas (across the Columbia from Portland) and Wapato (SE of Yakima) in Washington state that were named for their chief native crops.
¹: Suzanne Collins- the author of the Hunger Games trilogy- has confirmed that main character Katniss Everdeen was both inspired by and direct allusion to Wapato and its archer based scientific name.
Very interesting! I didn't read into a lot of detail on those plants so this is most welcome.
A human thing to add: Camas is delicious. Mixing it with coca powder is really good, and I eat it this way chasing my macro nutrients for the gym!
@@callusklaus2413 How do you source your Camas? I've been trying to find a commercial supplier with no success.
Always wondered where those two towns got their names. Thank you
I think it's misleading to state that camas is fireweed. What is almost universally known as fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium), though edible and a common food source for the indigenous coastal peoples of NW Americas, is a different plant species from the edible forms of camas. There are several edible camas', but I suspect the one referenced here is (Camassia quamash).
It is also misleading, though not wholly incorrect to state that camas was in some way propagated through fire management. Indigenous peoples of the region did frequently intentionally burn landscapes for a variety of reasons which I won't go into. But burning areas in which camas grew wasn't so much for propagation as it was just enriching the soil to create better growing conditions. Camas was primarily propagated by indigenous populations through division. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_(horticulture). It is not considered a pioneer species as you stated though.
Another fun fact: The clay in the coastal Pacific Northwest sucks for making functional pottery. You can make bricks out of it, but most of the clay types found deposited in the area will slump rather quickly at low temperatures instead of sintering. (Sintering means sticking together and holding its shape, an absolute necessity for functional pottery. Vitrification, turning glass-like--what porcelain and stoneware can do, as opposed to earthenware, happens on the 2nd firing at much higher temperatures.)
That's got to be the biggest bummer about clay anywhere...
Probably explains the extensive basket weaving and wooden box making technology among the PNW tribes.
Great to see clam gardens and candle fish get some spotlight. Shellfish and hooligan grease are basically the historic beans and butter of the PNW haha. I know this is already a packed video, but it would've been cool to see the linguistic diversity of the PNW if you showed the Quileute and Nuxalk on your map, or talked about just how many language families and isolates exist here! Also, im curious when canoes and bentwood boxes became so intricately designed. I wonder if the archaeological record is able to show this, though it's probably tough for preservation...
Thank you! A full linguistic map of the Northwest would have been a lot so I highlighted the big ones.
Agreed, but why is it considered aquaculture, but the same process occurring on land with camas, Wapato, blueberries etc…. Is not agriculture? We had agriculture out here, including European style with tobacco as well as potatoes with the Makah and Ozette.
@@bensabelhaus7288 It's 100% a form of agriculture. Not sure why the consensus has been that they didn't practice agriculture, this isn't recently discovered information... Probably just a myth that white settlers made up to make our region seem more bountiful than it really is.
@@bensabelhaus7288I think what they did with berries, trees, tobacco, etc, would be considered horticulture rather than agriculture
Oolichan grease..... Fermented salmon pat'e .... My brother Christopher always tried to get me to man up and try some (he is Haida) as a indigenous canoe carver and tribal dancer, as such he had lots of stories to share, I love him very much and am very grateful for his friendship and shared knowledge.
With all that being said, IM STILL NOT GOING TO EAT OOLICHAN GREASE ANYTIME SOON!😂
Furthermore Neah Bay is a beautiful gem, visit if you can and spend some money there on smoked fish 😉
great video Blessings and aloha
Your channel is probably the only one where it explains Native American cultures in exquisite detail. Thank you for existing.
Happy to exist!
Nathaniel Fosaaen is an archaeologist and has the same great detail www.youtube.com/@NathanaelFosaaen . He mainly covers the Eastern Woodlands
@@juniperpansy His channel is amazing! I never miss an episode.
@@AncientAmericas you do such a great job with your videos. Thank you so much for this great content.
Real ass comment
Once years ago, while building the sweat lodge fire I said to my grandmother "hey our ancestors didn't use chainsaws and touches to build the sweat fire" so she said "if they'd had them they would." ❤
Talk to your elders I don't care where you're from you might be surprised what you learn.
My partner is mixed Tlingit and white, her dad grew up in Sitka, Alaska! She has some carved bone and obsidian jewelry that her great grandmother would have made a hundred years ago! Tlingit families are very focused on the maternal lineage, and so all the information we have about her family comes from her grandmother's side. The nuances of these cultures is super interesting!
I’m Tlingit and my family comes from Sitka! What clan is your partner? I am Wooshteekaan
As someone born in the shadow of Tahoma and on the shore of the sound, this is excellent mate, and I really appreciate your coverage of the history. In my PNW history course, we touched on indiginous history for a measly chapter, which essentially just breezed over indiginous history in favor of European extraction.
Also, there's something really incredible about turning home on it's "side" like this. It really highlights our coastal islands.
Love from Tacoma!
Thank you!
😊😊
I flew from Seattle to Juneau a few years ago & was incredibly lucky to have a window seat & unusually clear weather. The number of glaciers & fjords & valleys & rivers & estuaries & tideflats & coves & bays & inlets & spits & islands upon islands is absolutely staggering. I was immediately struck with the understanding of a saying I heard from a Yakutat native "When the tide is out, the table is set". The richness of these unique ecosystems allowed for culture & art to thrive, and are an absolute reflection of the landscape.
Seems weird to see such a big TH-camr talk about my culture (Aka, the Haida), but am impressed by the amount of research you must’ve done!
Thank you! That's a very awesome compliment coming from you!
You have a pretty dog. XD
Granted, yours is a VERY big and important culture in the region. Probably the most dynamic in the first decades of European interaction. Even down in the south coast, Haida is recognized as a big cultural force and influence.
Eulacheon (called "hooligans" in my hometown) actually become candles when dried. No wick needed; you turn them upside down and light the tail. It's not very impressive light, though. Not only is it orange and not terribly bright, there's a lot of greasy black smoke, grease spattering off, and, of course, the smell of burning fish. But that's why they're called candlefish.
This is awesome! I've lived in Seattle and the northwest all my life, super happy to see the Native cultures of my home getting the spotlight.
Thank you!
Wet??
Just want to say that this episode is not "too long" and I love details, so if you ever want to go MORE in depth, I, for one, would welcome it. Thanks for the great video.
Thank you! If you want more details, check out indigenous history now's video on the northwest. (Link in the description.) It's much more detailed than mine.
Hello! I am so grateful that youve made this video, i'm a pacific northwest anthropologist in training(workin' my way thru getting a degree), and honestly this video was an amazing introductory piece that i think you should be very proud of. i have small nitpicks here and there (like how western redcedar is NOT a cedar, but rather a species of cypress, misidentified early on) however all in all those dont matter that much and i had a lot of fun watching this and couldnt take my eyes off for the whole duration! also very glad you mentioned the complexities of the word "chief"(which i frankly think doesnt fully apply but that is no fault of yours), in fact in several PNW languages the word for "rich person" is also the word for chief (tlingit=aank̲áawu, haida= íitl'aagdáa). Final note i have is that the property laws and shaming laws applied to the revenge wars as well and in fact one would be required to(at least for the tlingit) compensate fairly for the death of a person(usually in the form of death of an equally important person on the offender side) or be attacked. The life of a commoner was not equal in compensation to that of an aanyádi(elite), so even if the murderer is a commoner, their death would not be fair compensation(take Isaac N. Ebey's beheading for example)
Two things i wish you had touched upon more were the trade networks that reach all the way down to mexico and the presence of japanese shipwreck iron usage.
This was an AMAZING thing to wake up to, thank you. (oh and your sources are great, love it and love your work)
Ah yes, the use of scavenged iron in the north in particular. And I guess also the importance of copper. Speaking also of trade networks, the grease trails would have been a fun tidbit just to show how crazy into hooligan grease people were in the greater region.
Thanks, those items you excavated to quibble about keep me awake at night, and thousands of ordinary Oregonians I meet each day - we really sling around our knowledge of tribal languages - because we all love to show off like a little kid.
@@BlueBeeMCMLXI hm?
My mother was born in Canada on Vancouver Island half Indigenous and half English Canadian. She was put up for adoption at a very young age and then was adopted by my grandparents who lived here in America. For years my grandparents had offered her the the chance to go back to Canada and meet her parents and tribe, but she always refused. Time passed she moved to Cali, met my dad, got married, had kids and lived her life. Eventually my sister became interested in our moms past and created a Ancestry for her. my sister found a cousin who was looking for my mom. To make be quick we went on trip the very northern tip of Vancouver Island do meet our family that we had never known. Ever since then I've had an interest in the area so thanks for the video.
Read John Smiths;' diary of his capture on Van. Island and the seven tribes. He was a blacksmith so they kept him alive. wrote in berry juice!
I’m not native myself (that I know of) but I grew up on the Oregon coast, Gold Beach to be exact. I moved to different areas of Oregon and grew there too, as well as moving to California for a bit and now back on the coast. Our Native American culture here is a huge part of the culture, names of cities/towns, and lifestyle among the coast, and almost every place you drive through has some sort of style or influence and tribe history. I’ve always loved growing up around it and my friends who are native, the stories they would tell and the history of how things were and how people lived in our cold wet winters and spring, and our hot summers. My ex was 100% native- Modoc, Klamath and Seminole, and would always tell me about the customs they had within their different areas.
Can you get your Ex back?
You handled this episode very well. I have been following your educational work. Very well put together. The PNW is my home. Live on a river with lots of complex history. You should come visit. You have earned it with a very respectful and informative episode. Your sense of humor makes it easy to access... fishing jokes...lol
Thank you! Glad to know someone appreciates the dad humor on display.
the Americas seem to be inexhaustible in it's amount of incredibly unique cultures so I'm always glad to see you still making these videos, this one vaguely reminded me of the people of Key Macro Florida specifically with the mask work and aquaculture. Also i always appreciate hearing these traditions still exist in ancestor communities today!
That they are!
Just on a side-note - yes you can infact turn the 'Candle Fish' - eulacheon into "candles" by deepriving them of most of their oil and drying them whole, though the "candle" effect isn't really significant. The Eulacheon is a species of Smelt, which are known for their oily content - in my area of Germany people used dried smelt (obviously not this NA species) as fire starters, they were considered the peasants trash fish. There is a video on the 'candle making' process uploaded by National Geographic.
Nice! I was hoping someone would answer that!
Yeah, you impale them on sticks. Dry them in the sun. Once dried - just light them up. They'll burn. On a side note - they have "runs" just like salmon. And they are in steep decline. Nobody knows why. But they are a _major_ part of the food chain...so this is worrying.
@@AncientAmericas smelt is a great change in fish. lots of freshwater smelt when I was a kid in Ontario. but eulacheon are more important on another level: the first real fish run indicated the end of winter, and good times are coming: salmon runs around the corner. !!
The similarities to Norway's coast after 10000BCE are striking. Nature is making the way for certain developments.
The Norwegian that Came here name the town after himself "Poulsbo" WA. Nicknamed Little Norway because that part of the KItsap Peninsula with the natural Viks look like Norway to him. So the Town throughout its finding has put that theme to use. The Old Town looks like a Norwegian Village. Even the street names .
I couldn't help but notice the similarities between their plank houses and Viking houses that started around the same era
Gosh. Global warming 5,000 years ago. Did these cultures drive Model-T’s back then? 🥵🥵😅
Really enjoyed this video! I spent 18 years in the prairies surrounded by Cree culture and people, and moved to Vancouver where it is quite different and interesting to learn about the PNW indigenous cultures.
If anyone would like to visit Vancouver Island, I recommend visiting the U'mista cultural centre in Alert Bay (close to Port McNeill and not too far from "Bear Cove" highlighted in this video). Musuem of Anthropology at UBC has interesting exhibits as well but unfortunately closed for seismic upgrades for most of 2023.
as a born and raised oregonian now living in washington, it’s so fascinating to finally learn about all this indigenous pnw history!! it was barely covered growing up and i really appreciate this information :)
It's important to understand the pre-contact Pacific NW as a Perma-Maricultural Civilization.
While the term "hunter gather" is casually referenced, often dismissively, what was practiced in the PNW was very sophisticated system of permaculture, wrapped around the central pillar of mariculture (fish, clams, marine mammals), that enabled population densities that are now considered by anthropologists as indicators of being a civilization.
As an aside, there is a great Jim Jarmusch movie, "Dead Man", which near the end of the movie has a quick scene of a PNW village that gave me the feeling, an emotional understanding, that the PNC was a civilization.
It's my understanding that there are now archeological sites which have dates going back to 12,000+ years ago on the central coast. Other sites in the Americas point to the possibility that humans have been crossing over from Asia for over 30,000 years
Very well said!
30K years may be conservative. The native indigenous origin stories refer to north America as a source place like Africa, but because of glaciation all traces are scattered willy nilly. The best origin places were coastal and with tidal and plate shifting would obliterate earliest traces. We have been here a long time, and our oldest stories always mentioned our being here as part of a celestial neighborhood, us being the new kids on the block.@@AncientAmericas
In Emeryville, CA they bulldozed the historic shell mounds to put up a mall. I never knew if they were fully explored from an archeological perspective before that happened. It's not as far north as this area but it was something I was reminded of while watching.
No clue what the dates on that are but these days, they'd have to call in the archaeologists to evaluate the site to assess it first. Nate Fosaaen (a professional archaeologist with an awesome channel) goes into detail on how the process works and what the criteria is. I tried finding the video but couldn't locate it but his channel is below if you want to sift through his stuff. www.youtube.com/@NathanaelFosaaen
@@AncientAmericas I follow his channel too. Good dude with some good knowledge to share. He probably gets annoyed by my comments lol. I wish his editing was as good as yours. I'm also not sure on the age of those mounds I just know they were very big and when it happened there was a big outcry.
I'm so sorry about the clumsiness of people and their disregard for true history
The organic curves of their scrimshaw and carpentry make everything look uniquely futuristic, very cool
Ah I’m so excited to watch this! I’d love even more videos about more “Canadian” Indigenous peoples!
Thank you!
Excellent presentation!
This vid mentioned the class systems of the various pac NW tribes, and I thought I'd comment on one/ expand upon the points about 'stratification', and the political organization of the tribes. (I've spent a good amount of time on the NW Washington and Vancouver island coasts)...
As it has been explained to me by tribal members the 'class' organization of those tribes is mosty analogous to the 'caste' organization of some east Asian cultures (India in particular, with the Brahmins, untouchables, etc). I had wondered why there were so many 'chiefs' in the various places that I stayed, and once I asked a member about that, such was the explanation he gave me: the 'chiefs' were like 'Brahmins'... Though there was sometimes a first/primary chief (sometimes hereditary, sometimes elected- by consensus rather than by a ballot)...
Of course, having grown up watching John Ford westerns, I had a preconception of all Native American/ First Nations groups as having one chief who exercised power like a member of the european nobility, though now I know it is closer to an informal aristocracy, for lack of a better term.
I'm sure that isn't universal in this area, but both of the tribes that I spent several summer's with (I am a surfer/bum) had such a system, both historically and even to this day in many ways.
Also, re: war, raiding and intertribal relations: the dynamic between the Makah tribe at the tip of the Olympic peninsula and their neighbors to the south (Quilute, Hoh, etc) makes for an interesting study. The Makah held their neighbors to tribute and raided them for slaves, etc... And, speaking of the Makah: they still have treaty rights to participate in (ceremonial, these days) whaling, and they still do (though not recently).
Last thing: I've ridden in one of the NW coast tribes sea-going canoes, and it was an amazing experience. Those things are very stable, seaworthy, and FAST. In the early 1900s, a team of native rowers in one of their canoes beat the University of Washington crew team in a race!
Of course, I would love to hear how accurate my impression of the political/social organization of the NW coast tribes is, and how much variation there is. (After all, my sample size is...two.)
Cheers!
Thank you! Appreciate you sharing those experiences. As someone who's actually interacted with the people themselves, you have a lot of knowledge and experience that I don't.
Back when I was in school in California, we didn't learn about local nations and tribes (this has changed), so we basically studied the four most stereotypical cultures that everyone had heard of, and the Kwakiutl were always my favorite for the artwork, northwestern landscape, and delicious salmon. I think northwestern peoples were having a big moment of cultural relevance in the 1990s due to the popularity of _Northern Exposure,_ which prominently featured Tlingit and Haida characters.
Tangent: it was also the first time most Americans had ever seen First Nations people depicted in a non-historic setting. I think seeing them in a modern context, still maintaining a thriving tradition but not being singularly defined by it, had a big impact on American culture that's too often overlooked.
That's good to hear that more local nations are being studied in school. Where I grew up, we learned very little about them unless you went to the nearby state park for a field trip. The early 90's were a time of cultural relevance for native Americans as a whole with films like Dances with Wolves and Last of the Mohicans.
Yooo, exciting to see my peoples; Nuu-Chah-Nuulth, showcased on your channel
Though I live in the interior part of BC, it’s still super interesting to learn about these ancient cultures. I’d love to learn a bit more about the interior cultures too.
Thank you! We'll get to the interior cultures someday.
I wonder if the reason shell middens disappear is that they began to be used in wars? I know that some stories mention laying shells nearby the doorway so that they will hear the shells crack as people stepped on them. I always just assumed it was for when guests arrive but its purpose may be more defensive as my Grandpa told me that the reason our doors were circles was so that invaders would be forced to enter by crouching head first leaving themselves open to being bonked on the head. Some people still lay shells all around their doorway and along the paths in the yard in my area
Thank you for this video! As a lifelong PNW-er, this was a fascinating history of the original peoples of this land. Especially in these times of climate change, it's so important to listen to and learn from indigenous communities who have so much more experience living and thriving here, even through times of environmental change.
I love learning about my Local history I have lived in the Pacific NW for about 17 years and find this fascinating . I Got interested in local history's when I was in Jr College over 40 years ago lol. I had to take a Elective class so I took one on the History of Tehama County (Northern CA.) My family's ancestors had been in that area since the time of the Mexican -American war for California before it became a State. MIgrated from Missouri in the 1840s -1850s. Except for One brief move back to Missouri because of the Civil War. Richard Parker was given Land officially by the US Government for his service in The Mexican American War and Civil war. and the family settled In Tehama and Butte Counties (Gerber -Los Molinos to be precise) . Amazing to learn about the history in the place you live and Place were your family came from.
Bro 1 million people…. It really goes to show how there were millions on millions of people living on this continent before it all got taken over - and more importantly, the scale of what was lost.
Yesterday I acquired a dictionary and reference grammar for Coast Tsimshian (Sm'algyax). It is a language isolate (other than being one of four dialects) and is one of the strangest native American languages I've encountered. It has a distinction between flat and descending tones, so it is mildly a tonal language and I'm not aware of any other tonal languages indigenous to the Americas. Like its otherwise unrelated neighbors it is polysynthetic, and from what I can tell the tonal distinction is unnecessary since there aren't any words that would be pronounced the same without it (not even close). It is also one of the most difficult to pronounce languages I've encountered, with multiple rare vowels and consonants. It also uses glottal stops more than any other language I've seen.
I've also done a little digging into the Chinook languages. This is also a micro-family with no relatives (although there is a speculated family that includes the various isolates from this region including Tsimshian). It is a dialect continuum with one end being around the mouth of the Columbia, and the other end being around The Dalles where the land becomes dry. I live in the Portland area and middle Chinook seemed to have been in between Coast and Upper Chinook. There is also a Creole, Chinook Jargon, which mixes Chinook with English. It actually had (and possibly still has) native speakers, and is the only Chinook language that isn't extinct. It became a Lingua Franca for the Chinook and some other nearby cultures since the Oregon coast has a lot of isolates.
Fantastic video, well done. I live on the Suquamish reservation and have been finding a lot of stone tools like hammer stones, nutters, mortars, pestles, celts, polishing stones and possibly some effigies. This video is helping me understand things better.
Ayye, ǧilakas'la! I am Kwakwakaʼwakw, also known as Kwakiutl (Kwa-cue-til). It was so cool seeing my people and history pop up on my video feed. You know, I had to google 'Eulachan', wondering if my family had been pronouncing Ooligan wrong lol but it looks like that is another word for it. Awesome video! Now I'm craving fried ooligan though. Not the oil however, I was forced to eat a teaspoon of ooligan oil as punishment whenever I acted up lol that stuff is nasty and will clear a room!
Great video, such an interesting watch. Keep up the good work!
Also, I have a friend who is Coastal Salish and we tease them because it is well documented that back in the early days their people were always warning the whites travelling on boats that they should stay away from my people's villages, that we weren't nice 🤣. I think we might've bullied a few Coastal Salish villages in the past.
Really looking forward to a video exploring the mythology of our people! Please PLEASE include Dzunukwa! A giant woman who kidnaps kids who venture into her woods, puts them in a basket, and takes them to her home. Once there, she puts pitch in their eyes, then hangs them upside down over a fire to smoke, then eat! I was told stories of her as a child and was terrified lol. So many cultures have similar stories to keep kids out of dangerous woods and she was ours. Might've worked too well, she still scares me lmao.
Thank you for the response! Your comment was an absolute pleasure to read!
As a settler who lives on Vancouver island, and as someone who has family with indigenous heritage, I'm glad more information is becoming more wide spread. I think we as inhabitants, new and old, should learn more about the histories and culture of indigenous peoples of the regions we live, as to not repeat myths and misconceptions colonizers have perpetuated.
Northwest cedar is still used today for all the reasons you mentioned, but importantly its inherent resistance to weathering and rot. Why you see so many home decks in the suburbs made from it.
You mentioned Wapato! Hey i still got live examples if you need pics or footage.
Also i would Love to see an art of the northwest episode. Its so intricate, bold, and has a pretty difined rule set as i found out in an art class.
Also my father worked at First Nation Afairs Canada... Ehhh well before it got a better name. Anyways one fact they always used to love saying was "remember, British Columbia is still 110% claimed by the first nations" shared gathering grounds or old feuds truly never die.
The PNW peoples' clam gardens had to be among the earliest examples of shellfish aquaculture.
Fantastic video as always. Love the professional, adult, and educational tone of your videos, Keep up the good work:)
Thank you!
I've been curious about who lived in the Ouachita mountains just south of the Ozarks in Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma. I used to visit every year, but at that time I was more into finding quartz crystals than learning about the old cultures. I'll check your past catalog, but it would be a good topic for the future, if you haven't covered that area. It's got to be one of the oldest mountain ranges in North America, and had huge quartz crystals right on the surface, and caves of crystals, so I wouldn't be surprised if native Americans treasured the area... as well because it's teeming with wildlife. There's another archeology channel, with this Viking gentleman who specializes in the southeastern woodlands... I'll check his back catalog, too.
I haven't made any content about the Ozarks yet. The aforementioned Viking gentleman has made some content on some of the rock shelters in the Ozarks. You might also check out this recent video of his, th-cam.com/video/tFWZvU9aqoQ/w-d-xo.html
You have to do an episode on safety harbor culture and the west coast of florida in general. It was a very similar situation as the pacific north west, in that hunting and gathering sustained massive populations with mound building.
That would be a good topic someday!
I'd like to see this episode too! I see other people mentioning it in the comments, so hopefully it's been added to a list :)
safety harbor culture practiced agriculture(beans, squashes) as well as dog ranching(very common food animal throughout north america before colonization). no small amount of their food was hunted and gathered though.
Babe wake up, Ancient Americas just dropped another video
I've been looking forward to this video for a while. I really appreciated how you contextualized things that answered several questions I've had in my own research. I have lots of new ones to shape my own research going forward!
You’re videos are an instant click for me. I love them!
Thank you!
It's so interesting to see the similarities between the peoples of the Pacific Northwest and those of the Amazon delta region in Brazil. Both regions featured cultures with elaborate social stratification, complex political systems, an economy that was based on the exploitation of fish and other aquatic resources instead of agriculture and even an ancestral stage in which shell mounds were made.
Awesome video as always! Greetings!
Thank you! I never thought of that comparison but it's a really neat one to consider. Cheers!
I lived on Flores Island in Ahousat, a Native village, for a school year in 1999-2000. It was a truly amazing experience! They still practiced fishing, hunting and gathering. During my time there, a whale drowned after getting caught up in a herring fishing net. A few specialized whalers from a tribe in Washington state came to help process the meet, while everyone in the village participated. Nothing was wasted, except for the tongue. During my stay, as a teacher, I spent a lot of time with the cheerful and smart children, in and out of school. We collected berries and shell fish, took long walks, made cookies and did artwork. The children were amazing artists, creating beautiful drawings and paintings full of symbolism and stories. I dream of going back one day !
Sounds incredible!
Oh wow. What timing!
I'm just wrapping up 10 days in the PNW and have had some interesting discussions with my sister (a teacher) about the historic and current treatment of native children by the school system. I first came here in the late '90s for college and have visited ever since, and like many other aspects of the region, native culture is something I didn't learn enough about. Thanks for sharing this great video.
This is a fantastic video! Living in the PNW, I see the influence of the native peoples all around, in place names, art, and culture. I've had the pleasure of attending a speech by a local member of one of these groups and it really sparked my interest in their vibrant culture and beliefs.
Thank you!
So happy to see this video. I have watched and rewatched several of your videos and have been patiently waiting for a new release. Welcome back.
Thank you! Good to be back!
I've been looking forward to an episode about these peoples for a long time. I grew up near the southern boundary of the Pacific Northwest & I've been interested in learning more about the peoples of this area for a long time, but it's hard to find much information in a digestible form. Thanks for this!
Wonderful video as always my friend! It’s always great working with you!
The honor is mine!
this was a wonderful summary of practices of northwest coast peoples i haven't seen before, thank you! as someone growing up here it's wonderful to hear more about it. so interesting to hear about how much people made from the trees here
also looking at comments it seems like i'm an exception but i personally really like looking 'up' at the coast from the direction of the ocean, as that's one of the most important things in these histories. it also is nice because it feels less eastern-centered like it seems a lot of american history often is. i like getting to see the coast undivided by borders too
Thank you!
Ah no way!!! I've been rewatching your old videos waiting for a new one!! So happy this just came out!! Thank you 👍
Glad my timing was good!
I’ve been waiting for a NWC video, so so so excited!
This is great, thank you. It's so interesting to me not only because I find early human history so interesting, but because I grew up in a small village in this region and it's really neat to see how much of the indigenous cultures influenced how we lived and what we valued even in an American ("western") town. So much of my upbringing was centered around fish, shellfish, trees, local foods, woodworking, boats and paddling, etc. Some of it was intentional and explicit but some of it I think I took for granted.
This was a very nice overview of an enormous timespan. Making a video on a related topic at the moment!
Thank you! Can't wait to see that video!
Great episode! Cannot wait for the episode giving a deep dive into art!
Thank you! I'd like to revisit the topic later this year but the schedule is already a bit packed so we'll see.
Been watching you since your first video and I’ve been waiting for this episode for a while now, the only good anthropological studies on my families culture aren’t well known by people not related to the area, it’s exciting knowing how many people will be exposed to the unique and unified cultures of the Pacific Northwest
Thank you! Hope it was worth the wait!
Looking forward to more regarding these fascinating folk. The nuances of culture, in response to quirks of the environment.
I haven't been there since the '70s but my husband's best friend lived in a little town, I think called Tahola, but as I said it has been a very long time since I was there. His friend's stepfather was called Cakes. I think they moved the whole town up to a higher elevation recently because of climate change and tsunamis.
Great video! Thanks!
Hey outstanding video! It was really fascinating to learn just how diverse the Pacific Northwest cultures are in terms of aquaculture and woodworking. The research you put into this must have been really fun to do. Thanks for the work you put into this!
Thanks! There's a lot of love about the northwest coast.
24:45 the detail on the box is amazing! I paused the video and stared at it for minutes!
Right!?
One of my favorite indigenous cultural regions!
This was probably the most requested topic I've had. I couldn't ignore it any longer.
@@AncientAmericas it is definitely for good reason.
I grew up with my own indigenousculture from the plains but even with my exposure to that, the northwest was the biggest culture shock of my life when I moved to Vancouver. Absolutely stunning art, History and mythology.
I thought that only the Calusa of Florida were the only ones that sustained on marine life only. It is great to always be learning! Would love to see an in-depth on the Calusa, or the Windover Bog People of Central Florida (believe you may have grazed the Windover people).
I get a lot of requests on the calusa so I imagine we'll get to them someday.
Hell yeah I love your videos. Thanks for posting big dog!
Any time!
This was really a wonderful report. Thank you so much! I'm from this area and can't wait for the next video.
Such passionate, humble vulnerability. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself.
The PNW is lovely and has a rich history...but as a displaced Californian, it's too cold and water comes out of the sky and it scares me.
I am so glad that I found a video on these amazing cultures. I grew up in the Nass valley, on the north coast. I am not myself First Nations, but spent most of my childhood there, as my parents were teachers in one of the villages. I always found it weird that there was a seeming void in the school curriculum on the cultures here on the pre-contact cultures and have wanted to learn more about the place I grew up. So thank you.
One side note, however-and I wonder if anyone from the southern or central coast could answer-is that everyone I’ve ever talked to has pronounce eulachon sort of like ull-ah-kun, not yoo-la-chyun. Is this a dialectal difference?
Also, I remember hearing stories of the bloody wars between the nations here during nisga’a class. (Ie, sending a canoe back full of heads on spikes.)
Thank you for making this video. Up in the north, as you said, archeology is rather overlooked, and I wish it wasn’t. This video makes me homesick, and I hope i can go back soon :)
Thank you! There's a few different pronunciations of eulachon. I hope you're able to get home soon. It's a beautiful area.
Thank You. This is very well done . You made my quest to learn of the Coastal peoples of Salish and Nations they dealt with around 1500 or so
Another well presented video. I have enjoyed every one. Thank you for putting in the time and energy.
Thank you!
This is sooooooo interesting I’ve always wanted to know about this area !!!
Thank you! Hope you learned all you wanted and more.
Really enjoyed the watch, nice job. I appreciate your mention that sites going back to the glacial period are likely underwater and not explored.
Worldwide there is such a huge area to explore just off present coasts from when ocean levels were hundreds of feet lower.
Someday when underwater archaeology gets cheaper and more refined, the Pacific coast is going to be THE PLACE for archaeology.
This is the first video of yours I have seen, I clicked because I live in the Pacific Northwest. Instantly subscribed when I finished the video, I really enjoy your writing style.
Thank you!
Great video! I always learn such interesting things from this channel. Thanks for the upload!
Thank you!
You packed a lot of information into a great synopsis of this area through time. Great work.
I have heard that Coast Salish people did grow camas as a crop, so a bit of agriculture did possibly occur.
The word usually used for it is silviculture. Basically, it's managing the landscape to help useful plants thrive.
@@AncientAmericas wow what a useful new word!
@@AncientAmericas I'd add that silviculture also, and somewhat more centrally, involves managing forested zones. Forest is what the root "Silvi-" refers too.
@@Lotsofleaves Yes, that's usually how it's used but it can refer to other natural spaces as well.
Another great one! I'm curious as to how you make your maps? They are very good with just the right amount of detail to be useful without being overly distracting
Thank you! I spend a lot of time of them and I love it when people notice. Basically, I take a good, detailed map that I find online, trace it carefully in Adobe Illustrator, check my work against google maps as I go to make sure the small details are right. Then I just add in the colors. I try to strike a balance between detailed and simple so that it's not too busy for the viewer.
@@AncientAmericas well the results are great. I especially love the rivers since they're so important for so many cultures
Your TH-cam Channel came up as recommended on TH-cam. I subscribed because I find your videos very informative and interesting. I will over the next few weeks watch all your videos.
Enjoyed this. I live on Vancouver Island and work with a lot of the First Nations people. One young guy is on with me a lot and to hear him talk about discovering his culture makes me want to know more about mine. Cockney Grandmother etc. I am 68 and he is 23. Love this place. have not been off Island since 2010.
You should do a video on Amerindian dogs and how they were used for trade.
OMG a dog video would probably go viral
That topic is on my list. Coincidentally there was a dog fact that didn't make it to the final script. There was actually a type of dog that the Salish used for wool. You can read up on it here, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Wool_Dog
The class dynamics between Nobles, Commoners, and Slaves reminds me a lot of ancient Rome or the American South, where there were expansive political and economic rights for citizens and the impression that they were generous and self-made, but ultimately the coercion was just exported to the slave class that wasn't even considered part of the equation.
Great video, I’m so glad you picked this region. I very much look forward to the video that covers the art and mythology of the Pacific Northwest peoples as well.
Thank you!
So happy to see a new video!!! Love the way you present them! As always this video is just as awesome as the rest!!! ❤
Thank you!
Surprised you didn't go over one of the biggest finds in Ozette, which was that the natives were using Iron. The theory is the iron is salvage from Asiatic shipwrecks. But it means they had iron before first contact with Europeans.
So this is something I deliberately left out. This was my longest episode and I had originally wanted to discuss iron usage but decided against it because I might actually be covering it in a future episode.
@@AncientAmericas That makes sense, well I look forward to future videos about this, it sounds like there is a lot of material you want to share.
Stuff such as iron can drift to the Pacific Northwest coast from east Asia.
Love watching your videos!
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying them!
That is ONE interesting culture I very much appreciate learning more of:) Thanks as always for the great content!
Thank you!
This is amazing, as always! Learned so much!
Thank you!
You forgot to add the Nuxalk nation (Bella Coola) to the map of the nation’s of the northwest coast at 0:30 Which is also home to the world famous Thorsen creek petroglyphs which show cases some of the oldest known examples of the distinctive indigenous art style of the northwest coast. And was also the people who famous explorer Alexander Machenzie first encountered when he finally reached the Pacific Ocean from overland from the east in 1793.
Good eye! You are correct. I put a disclaimer the first few times I showed the nations that it was not meant to be comprehensive. I just listed some of the larger ones but also left off others like the Chinook and the Makah.
You showed picture of Manila Clams, which didn't come to the Northwest Coast until the 1920's, same with the Japanese Oyster.
I believe I know which image you are talking about. You have a very good eye for detail!
@@AncientAmericas I may have seen the same photo twice. I grew up on an estuary, on Hood Canal, west of Seattle on the west edge of the Kitsap Peninsula.where you could sit down in the warm tide water,, insert your fingers in the loose gravel, and make the Manilas just roll out, a great spot. Up from where the clams are, is quite a large midden, where I did do some digging around, not finding anything but butter clam shells, cockles, moon snail, and a few littlenecks, also some horse clams, not many geoducks. Most people think the manilas are native, but grow in a much different area, littlenecks along with butter clams, very hard digging where they both are. Below that midden is an artesian spring boiling up out of a hole in the mudflat edge, so it was just down a small trial to get good fresh water. The Chum Salmon would spawn in that spring at high tide, swimming in circles. That whole estuary is filling in quite fast, as the oysters have filled the channel between the spits, and they work like velcro stopping the silt and sand from washing through, and wouldn't ya know it, manila clams right under the mat of oysters, all easy to get at with only a 5 foot low tide, where with butter's and little necks, you need a zero tide or lower for good digging. The little Quilcene Oyster is found at zero or below, so there's just not many of them. You can dig and dig in the midden, and never find an oyster shell. Are you familiar with the book; Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast? The book is great for telling uses of all the berries, important wood and so on, and even some pics of native women with the cedar baskets, picking huckleberries. There's also quite a bit about the mixes which I guess we'd call pemmican, or the Pacific Northwest version, berries, oolichan oil, maybe bear grease and so on. My book is so worn out, it's taped and glued back together. It's a great book, one you should have, by Pojar & Mackinnon
Ive lived here all my life and have been trying to learn as much about it as possible, i look forward to the part 2
Another video in a series of back to back absolute masterpieces. Keep it up dude!
Thank you!
I was born and raised in this area. Temperate rainforest for sure. It rains half the year.
Would have loved if you had dived a little deeper into the complex fishing techniques and technologies used by coast salish peoples. I grew up in Bellingham and was always keenly aware of Lummi ingenuity in inventing reefnetting