Exploring Faunal Assemblages to Identify Ethnic Groups

Ethnographic accounts of how the Makah and Quileute peoples of the Northwestern Olympic Peninsula used the marine environment suggest that these two groups targeted different combinations of the locally available fish, mammals, and birds. Vertebrate faunal assemblages from late precontact shell middens in each group’s territory are used to explore whether the reported differences are apparent in this data. The effort is complicated by substantial differences in the sample sizes currently available for each group and statistical tests are used in order to better understand these problems and make valid comparisons. The very large fish and mammal samples offer detailed insights, while the much smaller bird assemblages are more problematic. After detailed considerations of the bone assemblages directly, interpretations of the probable cultural behaviors of both late precontact Makahs and Quileutes are considered. While there are many strong similarities in the assemblages from the two groups of sites, some clear differences are apparent. Makah assemblages contain substantial evidence of both nearshore and offshore fish and a broad range of marine and terrestrial mammals. In contrast, Quileute assemblages contain a much higher proportion of nearshore fish and much more limited ranges of both marine and terrestrial mammals. The observed differences are largely consistent with the ethnographic accounts and suggest additional details about some of these behaviors that are not described in those sources. We believe that these conclusions are supported by the existing data sets but recognize that the substantial differences in the sample sizes remain a concern. As such, we offer recommendations for both further sampling of sites in both territories and further studies that can be done with the existing samples.