Northwestern North America (7,821 – 6,094 BCE) Early Holocene — Salmon Villages, River–Bay Networks, and Broad-Spectrum Foraging

Geographic and Environmental Context

Northwestern North America includes Alaska, western Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest territory and Nunavut west of 110°W) Alaska, Washington State, northern Idaho, and the northwestern portions of Montana, Oregon, and California.

• Anchors: Cook Inlet–Prince William Sound, Inside Passage & Haida Gwaii, Skeena–Stikine–Fraser tributaries, Columbia headwaters, Puget Sound.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Warmer, wetter Holocene onset stabilized salmon runs and expanded conifer forests; rising seas created drowned river-mouths.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Semi-sedentary salmon villages emerged at confluences and tidal flats; smokehouses and racks proliferated.

• Diets blended salmon, shellfish, marine mammals, deer/elk, waterfowl, berries, and nuts (acorn, hazelnut, camas).

Technology & Material Culture

• Weirs and basket traps; barbed fishhooks; ground-stone adzes for hollowing dugouts; net weights.

• Early shell middens formed along protected bays; dog companionship aided hauling and hunting.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Canoe trunklines along the Inside Passage; portage paths across low divides linked interior lakes to the coast.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• First-salmon observances inferred from curated heads/bones and patterned discard; ochre graves with bead ornaments.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Storage + territorial rotation across river reaches buffered run variability; multi-habitat rounds sustained year-round security.

Transition

Toward 6,094 BCE, village permanence and complex salmon engineering set foundations for later ranked coastal households.