North America - Northwest Coast. Indigenous Land Use

Indigenous Land Use. Indigenous communities of the Northwest Coast used resources in all these vegetation zones. Although a diversity of land- and resource-use patterns exists, anthropologists identify the Northwest Coast as a single cultural region. Most of the precontact (before the arrival of Europeans) communities practiced little or no horticulture.

They were mostly hunting and gathering societies, but fishing remained the major food resource for all indigenous groups of the region. Indigenous peoples (commonly referred to as First Nations in Canada and Native Americans in the United States) harvested all five species of anadromous (ascending rivers to breed) salmon on the Northwest Coast using hooks and nets on the open waters and various forms of weirs, traps, nets, and harpoons along the rivers.

Between 8000 act; and 6000 всі; coastal tribes became more sedentary and more reliant on specific resources. One result is that regional boundaries of resource use between tribes became more distinct and strongly defended. Communities claimed and defended their privileged use of salmon fishing sites and shellfish beds. Coastal communities of Nootka and Makah tribes (both members of the Nuu-chah-nulth nation) hunted whales from large canoes off the coast of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. Inland tribes such as the Upper Skagit, Sauk, and Skykomish in the Washington Cascades hunted elk, bear, and mountain goat to supplement their fishing of salmon and to hade with coastal tribes.

Native Americans throughout the region made extensive use of plan! materials for clothing and shelter needs. They cut massive cedar trees to serve a variety of needs. Villages established permanent winter settlements of cedar longhouses. Cedar logs were carved into canoes of a variety of shapes, depending on their uses. Coastal peoples, such as the Haida on the Queen Charlotte Islands, carved large, elaborate ocean-going canoes for hunting and warfare.

Upland communities used a smaller, shovel-nosed canoe to ply the mountain rivers as far as they were navigable. They all wove cedar bark into baskets, clothing, and summer shelter. People used fire focused at the base of a tree to help in felling the cedar and in logs to help carve out canoes, although they rarely used fire as a more extensive landmanagement tool.

Due to the abundance of resources and improving ability of First Nations and Native American people to exploit diverse elements of their resource base, a population boom occurred in the region between 5000 bcf. and 4000 все. The Northwest Coast developed into the most crowded region of North America at the time of European arrival. By 1774, when Spanish ships under the command of Juan Perez made contact with villages on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, as many as 183,000 people lived in the region. It was one of the most densely populated nonagricultural societies in world history.

Coastal culture also developed strongly hierarchical societies, ruled by an elite whose members maintained their power through hereditary lineage and distribution of material wealth. These societies stand out among early Americans for their material culture, particularly their elaborate artwork.

Wood carvings, from ceremonial masks to totem poles, demonstrate tire intricate skill levels of native craftsmen and played a role in maintaining social status. All communities along the coast north of the Columbia River practiced the potlatch ceremony, by which influential families enhanced their position with the ritual distribution of material wealth. Slavery was widely practiced, and ownership of slaves was an important display of wealth and social power.