Generationally-Linked Archaeology: The Use of Ancient Basketry (and Cordage) fromWet/Waterlogged Sites On the Northwest Coast to Show Cultural Ancestry and Identity

Dale R. Croes

doi:10.7273/000006404

Through five decades of basketry and cordage research, I have tested style similarities in specific regions of the Northwest Coast. In recent work with Salishan Master Basketmaker Ed Carriere, Suquamish Elder, we have coined our approach as Generationally-Linked Archaeology, defined and explained in our JONA Memoir Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry, Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science (Carriere and Croes 2018, Croes, Carriere and Stapp 2018). Working from as far back as possible (deep time), and as additional wet sites have been reported, I have tested degrees of similarity of basketry and cordage attributes (modes) and types using Average-Linkage Cluster, Cladistic, and Bayesian phylogenetic test time-calibrated analyses. These tests conducted over four decades continue to support the hypothesis and demonstrate stable cultural styles through time, especially with Ed’s work (Salishan region) in contrast to those from the outside (Wakashan/Makah) West Coast sites for at least 3,000 years. Together we have experimentally replicated ancient wet site basketry in museums as old as 4,500 years, where Ed, supported by my statistical hypotheses, has learned from over 200 generations of his Salishan grandparents, compiling layers of weaves from 4,500-, 3,000-, 2,000-, and 1,000-year-old styles in a single basket he calls an Archaeology Basket—analogous to a Salishan 4+ millennia history book. In July 2022, Carriere was awarded the Community Spirit Award by the First Peoples Fund, and in February 2023, Carriere received the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellowship, both in large part from his work with Northwest archaeological basketry. On the Science side, Ed Carriere and I were awarded the March 2023 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis, based on our Generationally-Linked Archaeological approach and demonstrating the synergy of culture and science produces more conjointly. Because of these awards, our publisher, Northwest Anthropology, LLC, has issued a hard cover version of our book, now available on their Storefront, or Amazon. The following are PowerPoint slides (Slide 1, 2, 3, 4,……) with captions as presented at the 76th Northwest Anthropological Conference held from April 12th to 15th, 2023, in Spokane, Washington.

Generationally-Linked Archaeology: The Use of Ancient Basketry (and Cordage) fromWet/Waterlogged Sites On the Northwest Coast to Show Cultural Ancestry and Identity

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