Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

including the presence of exotic lithic raw material such as obsidian as early as the Paleo-Indian
Period, limited use of fish, shellfish, and plants from the Early Period, and material culture
indicative of warfare and social stratification from the Middle Period. It is the abundance of
these archaeological correlates dating to the Late Period coupled with similar patterns seen
across much of the Northwest Coast culture area at the same time, however, that distinguish this
time period from earlier ones.
Plateau and Northern Rocky Mountain Culture Area
The traditional territory of Salish-speaking groups and the Kootenai in the PEIS zone
corresponds with the Columbia Plateau and northern Rocky Mountains of eastern Washington
and Idaho (Walker, 1998). Similar to Western Washington, the PEIS zone bisects several
distinct environmental zones that are relevant when considering prehistoric land use and
potential to impact archaeological resources. This portion of the PEIS zone is mountainous with
the exception of the northern edge of the central Columbia River basin, which comprises the only
extensive level landform within the area of consideration. The headwaters of all the major river
systems that drain this area (including, from west to east, the Okanogan, Sanpoil, Columbia,
Pend Oreille, and Kootenay Rivers) reside to the north in British Columbia and their north-south
trending valleys were carved by continental glaciation during the Pleistocene. The mountainvalley
systems and Columbia Basin that comprise this portion of the Northern Border PEIS
project area today represent a more arid environment with greater seasonal temperature extremes
than that of Western Washington. The extent and magnitude of this seasonality, however, have
fluctuated since the end of the Pleistocene and shaped changes in human land use over time.
Land Use
Settlement and subsistence in the region over the past several millennia centered around several
seasonally restricted but often abundant resources (Chatters and Pokotylo, 1998; Pokotylo and
Mitchell, 1998; Ames et al., 1998). Salmon, edible roots, and ungulates were staple subsistence
resources for much of the Holocene. The distribution of subsistence resources and basic
environmental constraints such as availability of water throughout this landscape helped shape
seasonal land use patterns, and broad-scale changes in their availability over time coincide with
changes in the archaeological record of northeastern Washington and northern Idaho. Runs of
spawning salmon are impeded past Kettle Falls and Metaline Falls, and were therefore not a
directly accessible resource to Native American communities living in the Pend Oreille and
Kootenay River basins. Ethnographically, these groups relied more heavily on edible roots, most
notably camas in the Calispell Valley. They led a much more mobile lifestyle than the salmondependent
communities of the Plateau to the west, and their patterns involved trade for salmon
with those Plateau groups and seasonal pursuit of bison in the Great Plains to the east (cf.
Anastasio, 1985).
Similar to many other parts of North America at the end of the Pleistocene, the earliest human
populations in this region were small, highly mobile groups that frequently moved hunting
camps across a landscape that was recently deglaciated and, across the Columbia Basin,
repeatedly scoured by massive floods as glacial lakes to the southeast periodically released
meltwater. There is limited archaeological evidence of salmon fishing and plant processing
elsewhere in the Plateau dating back to the beginning of the Holocene. The focus of these early
groups however, especially within the PEIS zone, appears to have been on large ungulates. The
Northern Border Activities H-62 July 2012