ABSTRACT: Late Holocene environmental change on the Interior Plateau of Western Canada as seen through the archaeological and oral historical records.

CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Abstract

Western North America experienced drastic environmental changes during the late Holocene that impacted the lifeways and subsistence patterns of Aboriginal peoples. While archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data have been used to study patterns of climatic change, the rich oral historical record of the region's Indigenous peoples has rarely been used as a source of climatic knowledge. This paper will investigate the correspondence between archaeology and traditional ecological knowledge that can provide further understanding of late Holocene environmental change on the Interior Plateau. The archaeological analysis examines changes in the presence and abundance of faunal indicator species, densities of food processing features at highland sites, and shifts in settlement patterns at lowland residential sites as a proxy for environmental change. This data will be compared against oral records produced by Plateau Peoples since post-contact times that account for general and specific events of climatic and environmental change during the late Holocene.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology