1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...

How many native North Americans were living in 1491? Estimates range widely,
from 900 thousand to 18 million (Verano and Ubelaker 1991), in part because many died
before a first estimate was possible. The indigenous genome conferred little resistance to
some Old World diseases like smallpox, measles, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and
influenza (Horse Capture 1991). Swift hemisphere-wide pandemics started at points of
contact with the first explorers and traders. Native populations were reduced by 50-90%
(Viola 1991) and cultural systems profoundly changed (Henderson 1992) before literate
observers arrived (Diamond 1998).
Historic Period (350 YBP-present)
Before 300 YBP, aboriginal people appear to have abandoned most of West Virginia.
Although several reasons for this hiatus have been offered, such as the holocaust from
infections, depopulation by the Iroquois Confederacy, and westward displacement by
aggressive Europeans, the causes remain a mystery.
Trails
The rapid spread of Paleo-Indian fluted points, Archaic atlatls, Woodland horticulture,
and pathogens was presumably facilitated by a network of trails (Haynes 1996) (Fig. 2).
Via trails, people of the western Mid-Atlantic participated in a larger cultural sphere that
shared ideas, tools, and other cultural elements (Gardner 1984). In a heavily dissected
region with a dendritic drainage pattern, like the Canaan Valley area, travel occurred
along ridges and stream bottoms (Bush 1996). [The Native American trail system is the
basis of our mountain highway system (Sullivan and Prezzno 2001c).] The resulting
cultural diffusion contributed to a regional identity (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001c).
Facilitated by trails, prehistoric people of the Mid-Atlantic uplands participated in
an extensive trade network that reached from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains and
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Valued rocks, like cherts from Ohio, flints
from Illinois, and obsidian from Yellowstone, were passed hand to hand, from one band
to another, over hundreds, even thousands, of miles. Other trade items included mica
from North Carolina, copper from the Great Lakes, and mollusk shells from the Gulf of
Mexico. All of these items have been found at prehistoric sites within the cultural sphere
that includes Canaan Valley.
A dominant path, known as the Great Warrior Trail, extended along the grain of the
Appalachians from New York to Alabama (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001a). Probably
functioning by 5,000 YBP, this well-worn route enabled the movement of commodities,
people, and ideas (Watson 2001).
Projectile points from all prehistoric periods have been recovered from West
Virginia and adjacent areas (Lesser 1993). Because its artifact assemblages reflect
cultural influences from the Ohio Valley, the northeast, and the southeast, the Mid-
Atlantic uplands appear to have been a melting pot of the prehistoric cultures of eastern
North America.
Therefore, because North America was criss-crossed by trails, which presumably
facilitated the movement of people, valued items, and ideas over vast distances, the
prehistoric people of the Canaan Valley area were part of the regional, even continental,
cultural trends that characterized the major prehistoric periods.
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