Table Of ContentJournal Ethnobiology 18(2):273-308 Winter 1998
of
FOOD ON
PLANT RESOURCE RANKING THE UPPER
KLAMATH OREGON AND
RIVER OF CALIFORNIA:
A METHODOLOGY
WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL
APPLICATIONS
DONN
TODT
L.
Ashland Department
Parks
OR
340 Ashland 97520
Pioneer,
S.
NAN HANNON
Department Anthropology
of
Southern Oregon University
OR
Ashland 97520
—
ABSTRACT.
Ethno
used
The
Upper Klamath regional
period to indigenous peoples of the River.
grow
which within the
ethnographic record more than 60 food plants
identifies
Oregon-California
study area, located in the western United States, along the
enough
number ranked highly
border. Analysis only modest are
indicates that a
The most important
to have appreciably influenced food procurement strategies.
Madia
Finns lambertiana,
of these are Quercus garryana, Q. kelloggii, Perideridia spp.,
would have
which
The
plants
spp., Pinus ponderosa and several Rosaceae species.
genera.
and
been most Quercus Perideridia
amenable the
are in
to intensification
Many have range
restricted
producers,
of the remaining plants tend to be erratic
some combination of these
distributions, have low caloric return rates or evidence
suggests
record,
archaeological
factors. This information supplements the
indigenous
between
archaeological and the relationship
applications, helps clarify
study
While
peoples and Upper Klamath River. this
food resources along the
may have
analysis
focuses on methodology used for this
a particular location, the
hunter-gatherer
foods in
a broader of plant
utility in the evaluation of the role
diets.
—
experimen
tales
RESUMEN.
nutricionales
y
Datos biogeograficos,
etnograficos,
de
las
alimenticios
son usados de los recursos
para categorizar valor relative
el
Upper
indigena del
gente
plantas disponibles en periodo de pre-contacto a la
el
'
mas de plantas
60
Klamath identifica
regional
River." record etnografico
El
de
en oeste
localizada el
de estudio,
alimenticias dentro del area
las cuales crecen
Los analisis
Oregon California.
de y
los Estados Unidos, y a lo largo de la frontera
grado
un
tienen
numero de plantas
indican que solamente un modesto
como estrategicas
consideradas
para
suficientemente ser
de valor relativo
alto
kelloggn,
garryana
Quercus Q.
para su obtencion. Las mas importantes de estas son:
,
ae
especies
varias
ponderosa
Pinus y
Madia
Perideridia spp., Pinus lambertiana, spp.,
pudieron haber sido la
la Rosaceae. Las plantas mas sensibles a la intensificacion
errancas
tienden a ser
restantes
Quercus y Muchas de otras plantas
la Perideridia. las
mv
eie
producen bajos
produccion,
de
productoras,
tienen rangos restringidos
"^f«^"^^^'°"
factores^Esta
de alguno de estos
de
calorias o muestran combinacion
la
puede
sugeridas
de ambos
arqueologicas
suplementos record
el
'^'^'"'fj^fl'^
recursos
indigenas los
y
entre los
tener un mejor conocimiento de relaciones
las
HANNON
TODT
and
274 Vol. 18, No. 2
del ''Upper Klamath River/' Mientras este estudio se enfoca en una zona particular,
una mas
la raetologia usada por este analisis podria tener utilizacion amplia en la
evaluacion del papel de la comida de plantas para la dieta de los cazadores/
recogedores.
—
RESUME.
Les donnees ethnographiques, biogeographiques, alimentaires
et
pour
experimentales sent utilisees classer la valeur relative des resources des
plantes alimentaires disponibles aux peuples autochtones qui habitaient pres
les
du haut Fleuve Klamath avant 1827 (date du premier contact avec les Europeens).
Les donnees regionales ethnographique relevent plus de soixante plantes
alimentaires qui poussent dans la region oil I'etude prend place a I'ouest des Etats-
Unis a la frontiere entre TOregon et la Californie. Les analyses indiquent que
un nombre
seulement tres modeste de ces plantes sont classees suffisamment
hautes pour avoir exerce d'une fagon importante une influence sur les strategies
d'obtention alimentaire. Parmi les plus importantes sont Quercus garryana, Q.
kelloggii, les especes Perideridia, les especes Madia, Piniis ponderosa, et plusiers
especes Rosaceae. Les plantes qui auraient mieux disposees a une
ete les
intensification sont parmi genres Quercus Beaucoup des plantes
les et Perideridia.
qui restent ont tendance a se reproudire d'une fagon irreguliere et capricieuse,
ont egalement une distribution de portee limitee, possedent une quantite
insuffisante d'energie thermique ou bien font preuve de combinaison des facteurs.
Ces renseignements s'ajoutent aux donnees archeologiques, suggerent des
applications archeologiques, et aident a mettre au point le rapport qui existe entre
que
les peuples indigenes et les resources alimentaires du haut Klamath. Tandis
cette etude se concentre sur un endroit precis, la methodologie utilisees pour cette
du des
analyse
aurait peut-etre des applications plus larges dans revaluation role
plantes alimentaires dans le regime des peuples chasseurs-cuilleurs.
What we know
suggests that analysis of landscapes in terms of
iffood... will lead directly to the elucidation of archae\
distribution,..
(1982:152)
Melvin Aikens
C.
INTRODUCTION
may pre e
Plant food which
resource ranking methodology
provides
a research
m
no longer
where
particularly useful traditional food procurement practices are
rel-
place. It is a theoretically motivated method of ordering the ethnobotanically
both
evant elements which suggests
of a regional or hierarchy
local flora into a
hypoth-
and
predictive approach yields
retrodictive applications. deductive
Its
which may and tested
eses be incorporated designs
into archaeological research
on a
against the independent While assessment focuses
archaeological
record. this
have
and
may
particular region, the methodology be more broadly applicable
particular value for archaeobotanical evaluations and reconstruction.
diet
The West strong y
archaeological evidence for resource use in the Far is
food
weighted toward plant
the recognition and evaluation animal rather than
of
o
component
resources. However,
plant food gathering an important
constitutes
the lo-
the many
subsistence influencing
strategies of hunting-gathering peoples,
JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY
275
Winter 1998
ms
an part of
suggest plant-derived carbohydrates are essential
data strongly that
animal foods (Speth
having high proportion of lean
most especially of diets a
diets,
and Spielmann 1983; King 1994:197). Researchers in various locations are devel-
Using
hunter-gatherer
oping methods evaluate the role of plant foods in diets.
to
Hunn carbohydrate
has reassessed the role of
ethnographic information, (1981)
concomitantly
Interior
methodolo
Oregon,
work Rock,
the Fort
Recent archaeological in
within
traditional cultures.
among inhabitants of
food use the early
vicinity addresses the context of plant
While
Prouty
Jenkins 1994; 1995).
mav
enhanced
be
Hpsirrintion
n,^an\r
measurable
value of
dietary
the relative
paper an approach the quantification of
outlines to
Upper
who Kla-
along the
people lived
indigenous
specific plants available to the
stone
proto-hi
math Oreeon-Califomia border. In the
River in the vicinitv of the
most
tne area ror
Modoc may have used portions ot
Klamath and peoples
igh the
urce procurement (Figure
1).
j u
• tew
and with a f
sparse,
region
Anthropological pertaining to this is
literature
Klamath
Upper l<iver
the
pertaining to
Ethnographic material
'ptions, obscure.
A
perspechves
range of
on has been summarized bv Theodoratus (1991:9-17).
:hnographi
FIGURE
1.
Map
Univ
Tsity.
HANNON
TODT
and
276 Vol. 18, No, 2
may Harmon Olmo
on be found and
the prehistory of the region in Ar-
(1990).
(Newman
chaeological research in the area was sporadic until the mid-1980s and
Cressman 1959; Cressman and Wells 1962; Leonhardy 1961; Anderson and Cole
Mack and Gehr
1964; Cole 1965; 1979, 1983; Jensen Farber 1982; 1985, 1986a, 1986b;
Mack
Jensen 1987). (1991) recently synthesized this research. Archaeological in-
vestigation has identified numerous small temporary camps, large temporary
Mack
camps, and more permanent habitation sites within the project area. (1991:42)
suggests that people continuously used the upper Klamath River vicinity from
approximately 7500 years ago through the proto-historic period. Ethnobotanical
research for the study reported here being conducted in conjunction with ar-
is
chaeological investigations which began during the 1992 season, in which
field
Mack
serves as principal
investigator.
The working more
plant for the project area includes than 60 species iden-
list
tified as food resources in the regional ethnographic record.^ During the precontact
who
period, these plants exhibited a range of significance for the people inhabited
some were
the area; likely drove resource procurement strategies while others
harvested and impor-
infrequently evaluations of the
opportunistically. Ideally,
tance of food resources should be accomplished by Native People living within
Upper
the context of traditional cultures (Turner However, in the Kla-
1988:274).
math
River region, traditional food procurement systems have not been in place
since the late 19th century and a limited body of ethnographic data exists pertain-
ethnographic
ing to resource procurement. In the absence of robust and specific
site
data
paper and
data, this uses biogeographic, regional ethnographic, nutritional
peoples.
to estimate the relative dietary value of plant food resources for indigenous
The system
goal to retrodict the multi-component environmental information
is
may
rank-
that have guided plant food procurement behaviors. Plant food resource
may
the
ing have heuristic value in supplementing and helping to interpret
of
and understanding
archaeological archaeobotanical
record, leading to a better
Upper
Kla-
between
the relationship prehistoric peoples and resources along the
math
River.
The and Spatially
specific applicability of these data are limited in space time.
and
they apply only the Cascade Mountain upper Klamath River
to portion of the
durmg
time
its adjacent uplands. Chronologically they apply to that period of
the
which approximately
the present general climatic regime has been in effect,
abundance
past 4000 years. Climate-mediated discontinuities in plant distributions,
vegeta-
and
make on present
productivity prior 4000 B.R based
to observations
much
tion patterns
less applicable.
—
marshes
and
Physiographic setting, The Klamath River drains the shallow lakes
As
Klamath border.
of the Basin along the southern Oregon-northern California
Mountains
forms a steep canyon within a wider trough comp
ure The Upper Klamath
River
2).
Mountain-Klamath
Mountain
purpose
cor
pomon me
area extends along the Cascade upper Klamath «*
or i^iauidui ivivex
meters
the and and 1370
terraces adjacent uplands above between 640
the river
/ ^ "B m ft m\ _I M P^* /~\ f\ ^ * S, > 1 * -^ V
igure
JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY
Winter 1998 277
—
foreground.
FIGURE Oregon white oaks in
Upper Klamath Canyon with
River
2.
—
The Upper Klamath River
Climate. climate of the c(
by
hveen modified
a continental climate and one strongly
Klamath
River
incoming
the F
compara
cm The
between ^
31.2 - 48.5 (12.3 -16.1 in).
^i me Cclliimmaattee A wet year may ue luuuw ^^ ^^ ^ j^^- -- j
unpredictabihty.
is its
m
warm
weather
late
Unusually
that would
Great Basin.
it the pattern of the
fit
year
The average
may by hard freeze.
fpring, summer, be followed a
or early
fall
summation
This
(Figure
wildly
3).
••^"iiici diia year-to-year cclliimmaattee oosscciililiadtieess winji;^ v^-& /-
.
many ,
tne
ot
of
matic availability
year-to-year
variability profoundly the
affects
plant
food resources found within the study area.
-
which cut en-
only three riv'ers
^^ani one of
biogeography. The Klamath River
is
Klamath River a
the
tirely through The upper reach of
the Cascade-Sierra uplift.
heterogeneous
botamcally
most
flows
it through Mountains, the
Cascade
the is
Range serves as a ^^"^^-P^"^^^^^^
landscape
Cascade
along The
entire course.
its
Provmce and the Cali-
^iogeographic boundary between Great Basin Floristic
the
corridor
a
functions ^^
fornia by the river
Floristic Province. The trough created
characteristic
plants
connecting fwn The ranges of
pr^oorrttiionnns. of ,h. two pnrroovviinncceess.
g of the
HANNON
TODT
and Vol. 18, No. 2
278
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
M M M
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
1980 1990
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970
Rainfall
—
FIGURE
Yearly rainfall in study area (in centimeters)?
3.
interdi
im
ethnobotanical
im
had
orobablv strong cultural
iiriDortant soecies
materials
fluencing the location of resource
manufacture
from
im
culturally
im
ethnobotanically
thoug
and the lithosol meadow, are found above the Cascade section of the river,
study
commonly Klamath Mountain west of the
within the section to the
Both form topography anc
of these habitat types in areas of gentle
high
age associated with basalt/andesite rock types weathering into
with
proportion These associated
of clay particles. locations are
ethnobotanically important geophyte genera including
species in
Camassia, Lomatium, and
Dichelostema,
Perideridia, Triteleia.
Hon.u.
California
which the
...a.a..c...c .axgc pux..... ..
areioxi^^
which
Province, extend well up Klamath The two oak species
the River.
and
Newb.)
along upper
the river are California black oak {Quercus kelloggii
9^^^°^
reach
white oak known Garry Both species
garryana Hook.), oak.
(Q. also as
^^^
belo
few miles
primary
upriver range on only a
limits south-facing slopes
^^
a
the
Within
point where the river enters the Cascades from the Klamath Basin.
^
serve
have
fomia common, acorns
Floristic Province, wherever oak are
trees
^^
factors
dietary staple. In the abundance oak has been one of the ^^^^
fact, of trees
(^^^^^
attempt California
within
to retrodict aboriginal population densities
u^^
ethnobotanical
number
1963:223). Shrubs, which have an of
especially large
short s
rather
are particularly Along and above the
well-represented in the mix.
^^
more than
of river within the Cascades there are more than 70 shrub species,
found
within the entire hydrographic Great Basin (Mozingo 1987).
JOURNAL
Winter 1998 OF ETHNOBIOLOGY
279
—
The context plant food
of resources. Plant food resource ranking
information
is
when
most
useful integrated with and
it is contextualized by information about
imms
Rafinesque, hemionus
O. columbianus Rafinesque) and were
fish staple foods on
Upper Klamath
and
the River, are ethnographically
regarded having
as
relatively
equal value
as resources (Voegelin Although
1942:58). deer are resident year-round,
the local dispersed population supplemented and by much
is in late fall winter a
larger population which migrates
into the relatively snow-free elevations of the
study from
area the surrounding high country (BLM map
Deer
1990:2-28;
2-5). are
most and would
concentrated have been accessible from former village sites dur-
months
ant
meat
tein. In May, 1828, as explorer Jedediah Smith worked way down Klamath
his the
River to the west of the study area, he commented on the poor quality of the spring
(Morgan
anadromous
Klamath While
River.
through upper most
the the important runs
river,
Chinook
salmon
[Walba
(Onchorynchiis tshawytsclia
The
had
a relatively high fat content and so dried and stored poorly. The run of fall
Chinook
was by
usually began peaked and over
in late September, in October,
early November The
(Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force 1991:4-8). fall
salmon
were low and and preserved well.
relatively in fat content thus dried
Hunting
M
among
the Shasta,
men on
interdependent
concentrated
strategies were highly gender-specific; the
game
'gelin King
1942:62-3).
temperate
During
and
and de-
stored Carbohydrates
fats,
fish furnished high-protein
low-fat, diets.
rived beyond
from well
women, benefits
plants provided by supplied nutritional
and by
their
caloric value by of a high protein diet
buffering the deleterious effects
increasing were metabolized (Speth
the efficiency with which lean animal foods
and
Spielmann a functional
There therefore,
Leiberman
1983; 1987:231-235). is,
consistency particular
absence of
even the
in analyzing plant food resources, in
estimates
METHODOLOGY
Th
ine
methodology em
— plant
value of
rank the relative
. . ^geographic and nutritional data to
,
food - present
resn,,.... '"^^^ that the
d--
Regarding biogeographic '^
the
predictability
of
HANNON
TODT
and
280
Vol. No.
18, 2
TABLE
1 Comparative Importance Ratings and Estimated Caloric Return Rates For
Plant
Food Resources Found Along Upper Klamath
the
River.
Used
Species Part
1 2 3 4
5
Staples
Querciis garryana acorn 33
11 11 11
Qucrcus acorn
kelloggii 33 10 11 12 5000
Peridcridia oregana root 32 11 13 8 650
Perideridia bolanderi root 32
11 13 8 <250
Peridcridia gairdneri root 30 10 13 7 <250
Piiius laiiibcrtiaiia seeds 30 9 10 500
11
Important
Madia
spp. seeds 27
9 9 9 350
Sambuciis
tnexicana fruit 27 8 9 10 2000
Amelanchier
ulahensis 27 >250
fruit 9 10 8
Perideridia erylhrorhiza root 25 9 8 8 250
Camassia
qiiamash bulb 850
25 9 8 8
Pinus cambium
ponderosa
25 13 4 8 400
Rhus
trilohata fruit 24 10 6 8 700
Arctostaphylos
patida 400
fruit 24 9 7 8
Pinus
ponderosa
seeds 400
24 12 5 7
Prunus
subcordata 1000
fruit 23 6 9
8
Brodiaea coronaria corm 23 12 4 7 <250
Sometimes
important
Ribes veluiinum
fruit 22 8 6 8
Typlia rhizome 400
latifolia 21 12 2 7
Rurnex
spp. <250
seeds 21 13 2 6
Prunus
<250
virginiana 6
fruit 21 5 10
<250
Vitis
californica 5
fruit 21 9 7
Sometimes
used
Cornus
glabrata
fruit 20 10 3
Bryoria
sp.
thallus 20 13 2
Lomatium >250
7
piperi tuber
20 5
8
<250
Loinalium
nudicaule stem 7
20 7 6
900
Scirpus
acutus
seeds 8
19 10 1
Pinus <250
lambertiana
sap 4 6
19 9
Rubus <250
ursinus 6
fruit 19 4 9
>250
Lilium pardalinum
rhizome 6
4
18 8
<250
Darrtiera 7
peltata greens 4
18 7
<250
Dichelostema capitatum corm 4
4
18 10
<250
Rosa
spp.
6
2
fruit 18 10
<250
Fritillaria recurva bulb 7
17 4 6
500
Carex
spp. 5
stem
3
17 9
<250
Scirpus acutus 5
rhizome
17 11 1
<250
Sparganium
5
sp. root/stem
2
17 10
<250
Balsamorhiza
6
sagittata seeds 2
17 9
250
Eriogonum
spp. 6
seeds
16 9 1
400
Calochortus macrocarpus 5
bulb
2
16 9
<250
Eriogonum nudum
8
stem
7
16 1
Rubus <250
leucodermis 6
fruit 16 7 3
JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY
Winter 1998
281
—
TABLE
(continued)
1
Used
Species Part 2 3 4 5
1
Sometimes used
Rubiis parviflorus fruit 16 6 4 6 <250
Descurainia pinnata seeds 15 7 1 7 350
Mcntzelia laevicaulis seeds 15 7 2 6 400
cambium 400
Pinus contorta 15 6 2 7
<250
AlJhim spp. bulb 15 10 4
1
<250
Chrysolepis sempervircns seeds 15 6 3 6
Icymus cinereus seeds 15 7 2 6 550
Elymus 7 6 550
glnucus seeds 14
1
<250
4
Arctostaphylos nevadensis 14 6 4
fruit
7 2 5 <2=^i)
Fragaria vesca 14
fruit
<250
Heradeum hmatum 7 2 5
14
stalks
Low
or infrequent use
300
Helianlhus 6 6
bolanderi seeds 13 1
6 <2'^n
Grindelia sp. foliage 13 6 1
300
Phragmites 6 2 5
australis seeds 13
<250
Pinus 7 5
contorta seeds 13 1
<250
4
Primus 7
emar^inala 12 1
fruit
Return
rate,
1 Rating. 2 Ethnographic 4 Nutritional rating. 5
Availability rating. 3 rating.
cal
/ hr.
assumed
ethnographic
that the
snouiu
aata
and bhasta
the long-term much that
occupants study area,
of of the
assumed
therefore carry Regarding the nutritional data, it is
the greatest weight.
humaH
bchavior.
that O'Dtpitmipmiall lfUolrdaggUilngg mrro,d^^eolisc r^r^A\r^ anri rpfrodict actual
'-'^iniiai fr,rarr,-r.rr IllUUeib pieUlLL dllU ici
'
Each
tudy
plant food found within the
species
ethnograph
These
broad
potential The
utility (Turner 1988:27
feet the im
projected
cultural
and
assum
The
category
utility
a
--&--
auu categories
vaiue..
weight,
categorical
between
comparisons the
facilitating
^
each ^^l"^'
are attached to
weighted importance j^^"
according degrees of
to
deemed
ot
points)
is
ample, possible
(eight
the geographic abundance species
of a
^eater
importance
than seasonal availabilit)
the
Klamath
other
common
ground-truthing.
sense,
>,
system method might well dictati
HANNON
TODT
282 and
Vol. No.
18, 2
egorical values and weightings. The and
categories
their sub-categories
are
fur-
ther explained below (and Appendix
1).
—
An
Ecological salience (biogeographic and temporal
availability rating).
availability
rating should include both the geographic and abundance
distribution
of the spe-
cies as well as variations in the abundance of the food product over
the course
of
a year and from year The abundance
to year. rating categories are
relatively
fine-
tuned, ranging from
"locally rare" "regionally abundant" and
to are weighted
known
American
occupation The
temporal
sites.
window
some
greens are available over most
time The
in the earlv serine.
im
may
example,
prodi;
production
the
next.
communities along UuDer Klamath
the
and abun
in modifications
of the distribution
imp
establishment
mestic
stock grazing most we know
initiated of the changes. Although never
will
all of the details relating to the nature of the precontact environment, we can fac-
many
tor of the changes an Upper Klamath
into ethnobotanical
analysis. In the
we
River
area, are relatively close in time and condition to the precontact environ-
ment, which
remained
largely ethnographic,
until the Relevant
ii^itact 1850s. historic,
and
may
ecological
clues be found which
pertam to changes in the distribution
and
abundance many
of
species. Modifications biogeographic and availability
of
ratings based on
changes
since the precontact period are specified in the rating
document
(Appendix
for that
2) particular species.
—
Perceptual
salience {ethnographic Ethnographic subcategories are
ratings). rating
based
primarily on
published works pertaining
ethnographies
or ethnobotanical
to the cultures which
occu-
inhabited Euroamerican
the region begirming
at the of
pation.
Tribes located within and are the
immediately study area
adjacent to the
Penutian-speaking
Klamath and Modoc Shasta
and Hokan-speaking
the
(Theodoratus
1991:9-11; Two ethnobotanical
Silver primary
1978:211). sources of
mformation
pertaining Mod
to the Klamath and
(1963), are used ethnobo
to structure the data There paucity of
for these a
tr is
tanical information
in the primary ethnograph
from
supplemented
by
information from and ethnohistoric
additional ethnographic
sources
(Merriam MS;
Olson I960;
Curtis
1924; Kroeber Voegelin 1942;
1925;
LaLande
Mary
1981; Ethnobotanical
Carpelan,
personal communication,
1998^).
information are
regarding
the Hokan-speaking Karuk and Gifford 1952)
(Schenck
mcluded
in the analysis and were obtained
since the data arp np,rHr„lp,rK. Hpt;,npd
Klamath
.m
