Table Of ContentU.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
Cultural Resources Overview
Northwestern California
Bob Wick, BLM
Jerome H. King
William R. Hildebrandt
Sharon A. Waechter
Cultural Resources Overview
for Northwestern California
By:
Jerome H. King
William R. Hildebrandt
Sharon A. Waechter
Contributions by:
Kaely R. Colligan
Mary K. Davis
November 2016
Submitted to:
Bureau of Land Management
Redding Field Office
6640 Lockheed Drive, Redding CA 96002
and
Bureau of Land Management
Arcata Field Office
1695 Heindon Road, Arcata CA 95521
FAR WESTERN ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH GROUP, INC.
2727 Del Rio Place, Suite A, Davis, California, 95618
http://www.farwestern.com 530-756-3941
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
This Class I Overview presents a comprehensive overview of the cultural resources on lands
managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Redding and Arcata Field Offices, including
prehistoric and historic-era archaeological sites, historic architectural properties, and traditional use areas.
While BLM has produced cultural resources overviews as part of its past land-use planning efforts, this
document represents a substantial update and expansion on previous overviews.
Per BLM Manual 8110, the purpose of this inventory is to “provide cultural resource specialists and
managers with an informed basis for understanding the study area” in terms of:
1. The range of variety, the apparent extent, and the probable importance… of each of
the various kinds of cultural resources presently known to exist within the study area,
including how and by whom they may be considered important.
2. The natural settings and landscapes where the various known kinds of cultural
resources might be expected to occur or not to occur within the study area, based on
present information.
3. The potential for and probable consequences of conflict between the known kinds of
cultural resources and the various types of land and resource uses that are likely to be
proposed in the study area or already exist.
4. The need for new focused cultural resources surveys to improve the state of knowledge,
especially where there are substantial data gaps because previous survey has been
limited and/or biased, and the data gaps coincide with areas of potential land use.
5. The human uses of the land and resources through time, as evidenced in the
ethnographic, prehistoric and historic record, and the ways that this knowledge of
successful and unsuccessful past adaptations might apply to decision making for
current land-use proposals.
BLM Manual 8110 also lays out a detailed outline for Class I Overview documents, which this
document follows. It begins with a brief orientation to the study area. To aid in interpretation, a series of
environmental/cultural zones, developed in consultation with BLM archaeologists, are presented. These
include the Coast Range, the Klamath Mountains/High North Coast Range, the Upper Klamath, the
Sacramento Valley, the Southern Cascade Foothills, and the Sierra Nevada. The Environment Context section
follows, providing a brief overview of the natural environment of the planning area, including geology,
climate, vegetation, and paleoenvironment.
The History of Research section offers a very brief overview of the history of cultural resources
investigations in the planning area. While a typical Class I overview would contain a complete accounting
of previous studies, this is impractical given the large size of the planning area included here.
The Prehistoric and Ethnohistoric Archaeology section provides a chronologically organized summary
of the prehistory of each of the zones defined above, beginning with the earliest known human occupations
in the region some 14,000 years ago, through to historic contact.
The Prehistoric and Ethnohistoric Research Issues section lays out a series of major research themes
emerging from the prehistoric context, both to provide potential directions for future research, and to set the
stage for determining the management significance of prehistoric resources. We discuss ten research issues,
including: Controlling Chronology; Identifying the First Colonizers of Northern California; Origins of Acorn-Salmon
Economies in Northern California; Evolution of Milling Tools and Features; Inter-Regional Exchange; Rock Art;
Historical Linguistics and Population Replacements; Pyrodiversity as a Land-Use Management Strategy; Native
Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California i Far Western
American Rock Features and the Spiritual World; and Native Responses to Contact. This list is by no means
exhaustive; rather, it focuses on the most current and significant topics within the larger region, and those
which can be addressed with archaeological data sets that are known or likely to occur within the study area.
The Ethnographic Context section provides a summary of the Native American groups inhabiting
the planning area at historic contact, with a focus on material culture and its implications for the
archaeological record of the region.
The Historical Context section provides a broad historical overview of the planning area, from the
earliest non-Native presence in the region through the modern era. It is organized according to a series of
themes, including: Early Exploration and Colonization; The Gold Rush and Western Expansion; The Homesteading
Era; The Extraction Economy; Maritime Activities; Infrastructure Development; and The New Century (including
Federal Land Management).
The Historical Research Issues section introduces a series of research topics which, like those
presented earlier for prehistoric resources, form the basis for making management decisions regarding
cultural resources. A distinction is made between “baseline” questions about the age, function, and
occupants of historic-era sites and “higher-order” questions, including: Technology, Innovation, and
Adaptation; Economic Strategies; Household Composition and Lifeways; Immigration and Cultural Adaptation; and
Socio-Cultural Dynamics. Also in this section, the historical themes presented previously in the Historical
Context are revisited and used as a basis for organizing historic-era cultural resources into a series of
property types appropriate for making management decisions.
The Contemporary Culture section briefly describes the present-day culture of the planning area,
including Native American and non-Native groups, with a focus on their uses of public lands.
The Cultural Resources Synthesis section views human history in northwestern California as a
continuum, focusing less on ethnicity and more on changing patterns of human settlement, resource use,
technology, and socio-cultural development. It begins with the first known human occupation of California.
The Management Classification, Management Options, and Research Directions section begins the
management-focused part of the document. While previous sections of the document provide contextual
information for the entire planning area, this section focuses specifically on the known cultural resources
on lands currently managed by BLM. This section lays out the types of cultural resources known in the
planning area, their likely significance, and the BLM use categories to which they can be assigned. The
relevance of these resource types to the research issues discussed earlier is presented as a general guide for
making future management decisions regarding cultural resources.
The Future Inventory Strategy section addresses one of the primary goals of this study, which is “to
provide cultural resources specialists and managers with an informed basis for understanding the study
area in terms of… the potential for and probable consequences of conflict between the known kinds of
cultural resources and the various types of land and resource uses that are likely to be proposed in the
study area or already exist” (BLM Manual 8110). This section concludes with a brief discussion of current
BLM land uses and their relationships with the distribution of high-sensitivity BLM-managed lands. Also
included is an annotated bibliography of the key cultural resources documents for the region, including
both cited and uncited sources. It is intended to serve as a general reference for future cultural resources
studies. The bibliography was compiled via an exhaustive study of documents on file at BLM, consultations
with regional experts, and in-house research and literature reviews.
Far Western ii Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We owe a debt of gratitude to a long list of people. In particular, BLM Redding archaeologist Eric
Ritter was instrumental in guiding the creation of this document. He shared his vast knowledge of Northern
California archaeology and history with us, and much of that knowledge is reflected in these pages. Eric, as
well as BLM Arcata archaeologist Sharyl Kinnear-Ferris, provided many insightful comments on an earlier
draft of this document and helped extensively with the compilation of the thousands of relevant reports,
articles, and site records. Thanks are also due to Amy Jordan, Andy Suppiger, and Lisa Grudzinski in the
BLM Redding office, who provided help and guidance throughout the project.
A number of other archaeologists also contributed their expertise to our summary of regional
prehistory, including Greg White, Elaine Sundahl, Joanne Mack, Jeff Rosenthal, Jack Meyer, Jamie Roscoe,
and Gerry Gates.
Many Far Western staff members contributed to this effort. A huge amount of data-entry, scanning,
and GIS-digitizing work was ably done by Kaely Colligan, Kathy Davis, Laurel Engbring, Kari Osegueda,
and Ruth Zipfel. Kaely compiled the annotated bibliography in Appendix A, while Kathy studied every
single site record, as well as completing a technical edit of the entire document. Project manager Kim
Carpenter kept the authors and everyone else on an even keel. Thanks too to Nicole Birney and Mike Pardee
in the production department.
Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California iii Far Western
Far Western iv Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... iii
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY AREA ORIENTATION ................................................................................ 1
Study Area Orientation ......................................................................................................................................... 1
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................. 7
Geology .................................................................................................................................................................... 7
North Coast Ranges ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Klamath Mountains ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Sacramento Valley .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Cascade Ranges ................................................................................................................................................ 12
Sierra Nevada ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Climate ................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Vegetation .............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Important Animals ............................................................................................................................................... 14
Paleoenvironmental Overview ........................................................................................................................... 20
The Latest Pleistocene (22,000–13,500 cal BP) .............................................................................................. 20
The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (13,500–11,500 cal BP) ..................................................................... 21
Early Holocene (11,500–7000 cal BP) ............................................................................................................. 21
Middle Holocene (7000–4000 cal BP) ............................................................................................................. 22
Late Holocene (4000 cal BP–AD 1850) ........................................................................................................... 22
HISTORY OF RESEARCH (by William Hildebrandt) ..................................................................................... 25
Early Ethnographic Studies................................................................................................................................. 25
Reservoir Surveys and Excavations ................................................................................................................... 26
Early Cultural Resources Management and Academic Research Projects ................................................... 26
Contemporary Studies ......................................................................................................................................... 27
PREHISTORIC AND ETHNOHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY
(by William Hildebrandt and Sharon Waechter) ............................................................................................... 29
Upper Klamath ..................................................................................................................................................... 30
Paleoindian Period (14,500–12,800 cal BP) .................................................................................................... 30
Paleoarchaic Period (12,800–7800 cal BP) ..................................................................................................... 34
Basin Period (7800–5200 cal BP) ..................................................................................................................... 36
River Period (5200–2250 cal BP) ..................................................................................................................... 37
Canyon Period I (2250–1000 cal BP) .............................................................................................................. 38
Canyon Period II (post-1000 cal BP) .............................................................................................................. 39
Contact Period (AD 1820s–1850s) .................................................................................................................. 39
Sacramento Valley ................................................................................................................................................ 40
Paleoindian/Paleoarchic Period (13,400–8850) ............................................................................................. 40
Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California v Far Western
Borax Lake Pattern (8850–5700 cal BP) .......................................................................................................... 41
Squaw Creek Pattern (5700–4500/3200 cal BP) ............................................................................................. 42
Whiskeytown Pattern (4500/3200–1600 cal BP) ............................................................................................ 42
Shasta Pattern (post-1600 cal BP) ................................................................................................................... 44
Contact Period (AD 1820s–1850s) .................................................................................................................. 46
North Coast and Klamath Mountains/North Coast Ranges ........................................................................... 48
Paleoindian Period (13,400–12,800 cal BP) .................................................................................................... 48
Borax Lake Pattern (10,000–6300 cal BP) ....................................................................................................... 48
Provisional Squaw Creek Pattern (5700–4500 cal BP) ................................................................................. 49
Mendocino Pattern (4500–1500 cal BP) ......................................................................................................... 50
Tuluwat (formerly Gunther) Pattern (post-1500 cal BP) ............................................................................. 51
Contact Period (AD 1700s–1850s) .................................................................................................................. 53
Sierra Nevada and Adjacent Lowlands ............................................................................................................. 55
Paleoindian/Paleoarchaic (13,400–7800 cal BP) ............................................................................................ 55
Middle Holocene (7800–5200 cal BP) ............................................................................................................. 55
Martis/Bucks Lake Complex (5200–4500 cal BP) .......................................................................................... 56
Mesilla Complex (4500–2500 cal BP) ............................................................................................................. 56
Bidwell Complex (2500–1100 cal BP) ............................................................................................................. 57
Sweetwater Complex (1100–500 cal BP) ........................................................................................................ 57
Oroville/Chico Complex (post-500 cal BP) ................................................................................................... 58
Contact Period (AD 1820s–1850s) .................................................................................................................. 59
Southern Cascade Foothills and Lake Britton Area ......................................................................................... 59
Southern Cascade Foothills and Adjacent Lowlands .................................................................................. 60
The Lake Britton Area ..................................................................................................................................... 62
Contact Period (AD 1820s–1850s) .................................................................................................................. 63
PREHISTORIC AND ETHNOHISTORIC RESEARCH ISSUES
(by William Hildebrandt and Sharon Waechter) ............................................................................................... 65
Controlling Chronology ...................................................................................................................................... 65
Projectile Point Chronologies ......................................................................................................................... 65
Obsidian Hydration ......................................................................................................................................... 71
Identifying the First Colonizers of Northern California ................................................................................. 72
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 72
Origins of Acorn-Salmon Economies in Northern California ........................................................................ 73
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 74
Evolution of Milling Tools and Features ........................................................................................................... 74
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 76
Inter-Regional Exchange ..................................................................................................................................... 76
Utilitarian Obsidian ......................................................................................................................................... 76
Non-Utilitarian Obsidian ................................................................................................................................ 79
Far Western vi Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California
Shell Beads and Other Ornaments ................................................................................................................. 79
Rock Art ................................................................................................................................................................. 80
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 82
Historical Linguistics and Population Replacements ...................................................................................... 83
Arrival of the Wintu......................................................................................................................................... 83
Arrival of Algic and Athapaskan Populations in Northwest California .................................................. 83
Arrival of Maiduan Speakers in the Northern Sierra Nevada ................................................................... 84
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 85
Pyrodiversity as a Land-Use Management Strategy ....................................................................................... 85
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 85
Native American Rock Features and the Spiritual World .............................................................................. 86
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 87
Native Responses to Contact .............................................................................................................................. 87
Data Requirements ........................................................................................................................................... 88
ETHNOGRAPHIC CONTEXT (by William Hildebrandt) .............................................................................. 91
Upper Klamath ..................................................................................................................................................... 91
Modoc ................................................................................................................................................................ 92
Shasta ................................................................................................................................................................. 93
Sacramento Valley ................................................................................................................................................ 95
Wintu and Nomlaki ......................................................................................................................................... 95
Chimariko.......................................................................................................................................................... 99
Coast Range and Klamath Mountains ............................................................................................................... 99
Core Northwest California Groups ............................................................................................................. 100
Southern Athapaskan Groups ...................................................................................................................... 102
Yuki and Northern Pomo Groups ............................................................................................................... 103
Sierra Nevada ...................................................................................................................................................... 104
Konkow ........................................................................................................................................................... 104
Southern Cascade Foothills ............................................................................................................................... 107
Achumawi and Atsugewi ............................................................................................................................. 107
Yana ................................................................................................................................................................. 108
HISTORICAL CONTEXT (by Sharon Waechter) ............................................................................................ 111
“Discovery”: Early Spanish and English Mariners ........................................................................................ 111
Coming into the Country: Early Exploration and Colonization .................................................................. 112
Trappers and Explorers ................................................................................................................................. 112
The Rush for Territory ................................................................................................................................... 114
Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 115
The World Rushes In: The Gold Rush and Western Expansion .................................................................. 115
The Discoveries .............................................................................................................................................. 116
Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 120
Cultural Resources Overview for Northwestern California vii Far Western
