Western American Prehistory — An Hypothesis

Abstract

Recently I published a paper, together with Warren Caldwell and Robert Crabtree, disagreeing with an old theory that the development of most of Northwest Coast culture was due to movement of inland groups down the rivers to the seacoast where they proliferated physically and culturally (Osborne, Caldwell, and Crabtree 1956). We indicated (p. 117) that we did not propose to discard an old concept but suggested, rather, further evaluation and examination of alternate hypotheses, for we felt the reconstruction of Northwest Coast prehistory was only in the hypothesis stage.

Archaeological Evidence for the use of Atlatl Weights in the Northwest

“…We guess that'the bead is an import from the East or the Midwest. A relationship of a typological nature between some of our weights and the boatstones or bar weights from the eastern part of the country has been suggested and cultural relations with the Eastern Woodlands or with related areas have been postulated previously (Osborne, Caldwell, and Crabtree 1956;Osborne 1958). The implications of both the typological study of the atlatl weights and the metallurgical analysis of the bead throw into sharper focus the need for a thorough examination of the archaeological and ethnological relationships between the cultures of the Northwest and those in the East and Midwest.…”