Fedje, Daryl W., and Rolf W. Mathewes, editors, 2005

Reviewed by Andrew M. Stewart, Strata Consulting
Toronto, Ontario, Canada in CAP Newsletter 29(2):12-14, 2006.

Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) represents a unique environment and fabulous opportunity for research. This archipelago is the most disjunct land mass in North America. It is likely part of, or attached to, a late Wisconsin biotic refugium that currently, or historically, contains a distinct array of endemic and disjunct species. And it was part of a possible coastal land route for the original movement of people into North America from Beringia after 14,000 BP. the opportunity lies in continuing the research reported on here, carrying it underwater to the continental shelf where this movement of people might have occurred. The text of this clearly written and well-edited volume conveys the sense that this is one of the most exciting and important research areas in the Americas. Geomorphology, biogeography, environmental change and cultural adaptation, and human history as informed by Haida traditional accounts as well as archaeological evidence are all part of the story. The book is divided into three parts: Paleoenvironmental History; Haida Traditional History; and Haida History through Archaeological Research (extending back to the early Holocene). This last section accounts for the largest part of the book (230 out of 375 pages of text). The content is integrated by short introductions to each of these parts, by cross-referencing of chapters, and by a good, detailed index. The book is suitable for both a general readership as well as scholars seeking a single source on Haida Gwaii from the end of the last ice age.

More specifically, paleoenvironmental research questions include: the existence and role of a possible (increasingly likely) late Wisconsin biotic refugium on the now submerged continental shelf in Hecate Strait between the island archipelago and the mainland; paleoecological reconstruction of the early post-glacial landscape of the coastal plain, between 14,000 and 10,000 BP. based on evidence of flora and fauna, the problem of modelling and sampling that landscape (now drowned) and the viability of human occupation there; the relation between vegetation trends and cultural developments (e.g., the expansion of western red cedar by 3000 BP and the elaboration of woodworking); the evaluation of competing theories to explain endemic taxa on Haida Gwaii using the evidence of mitochondrial DNA; the distribution of vertebrate fauna through time and its implications for understanding of habitat; and the dynamism of sea level and the coastal environment.

At the archaeological end of the spectrum, chapters highlight several topics. Geomorphic and stratigraphic contexts of several coastal sites are presented in some detail, appropriately so, considering the constantly changing sea level. Lithic technology figures prominently - stone tools form the most enduring archaeological evidence throughout the Holocene. Stone tools and ways of making them vary among dated sites and stratigraphic levels. On this basis, three distinct periods are defined on Haida Gwaii. Archaeologists attempt to capture the complexity of information contained in stone tools assemblages using a confusion of terms such as "complex" and "tradition". Rarely do these concepts correspond with other aspects of culture. Bit at least in this region there is the interesting possibility that local traditions can be related to regional (Northwest Coast/Alaska) ones. These regional traditions, may, in turn, relate to distinct subsistence adaptations, environmental change, and even to migrations of identifiable peoples. Thus, microblades are linked to the idea of adaptations to marginally productive environments (p. 243) and to exploitation of salmon runs (p. 367). Nevertheless, continuity among traditions at sites on Haida Gwaii is fully acknowledged and described, making it harder to formulated testable hypotheses about the relation between changes in technology and environment. The importance of organic (bone and wood) artifacts in the later period underscores the bias imposed by differential preservation. Settlement archaeology is another important theme; archaeological site location is examined in relation to both stable and moving (retreating and advancing) shorelines. The question of the nature of resources available to people on retreating as opposed to stable or advancing shorelines is taken up in several chapters. The emergence of chiefdoms at the time of European context can be traced using archaeological and written (ethnohistoric) evidence for location and amalgamation of villages.

There is a sense, expressed in various chapters and in the conclusions, that cultural features or patterns were added or enhanced throughout the middle and later Holocene (e.g., use of anadromous fish), rather than being replaced, and that this accretion coincides with the emergence of social complexity. In part, additions were enabled by changes in the environment (expanding red cedar forests allowing more sea-worthy canoes to be made, enabling more extensive coastal trade and contact). Differential preservation is, however, and important theme in the book. Preservation of organic remains is favoured in west and alkaline sites, including shell middens, which only become common after 5,000 BP. Exceptionally preserved organic remains from a deeply stratified intertidal zone site dating to 9400 BP are reported in Chapter 11.

Sandwiched between the paleoenvironmental and archaeological sections are two chapters containing oral histories. These histories work on at least three levels. First, there are fascinating glimpses of activity invisible to archaeology (e.g., capturing eagles from pits, p. 143). Second, there are remarkable convergences between events in the natural world that are related in oral history, on the one hand, and geologically documented events (ice retreat; sea level rise). Third, they convey a sense of mutual involvement between people and animals as actors. It is right, somehow, that these chapters are found in the middle of the book, providing a fulcrum for the investigations of the natural and human worlds at either end. Together with a forward by the president of the Haida nation, they call attention to our place in the world and the limitations of our understanding.