INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / November 13, 1991

 

 

Toquaht archeological project well underway

 

 

 

 

 

The main winter village site of the Toquaht, where part of last
summer’s excavation took place. The site is at Barkley Sound, on
the west coast of Vancouver Island.

 

A month ago a housing
developer’s backhoe in Ucluelet on
Vancouver Island revealed an an-
cient burial site, and Douglas
College’s Alan McMillan took
notice.

The Anthropology Instructor
spent last summer at nearby Barkley
Sound where he directed a project
with the Toquaht Band, the next-
door-neighbours of the Ucluelet
people. 1991 was the first phase of
the three-year Toquaht Archeologi-
cal Project.

“The purpose is to document the
cultural history of the Toquaht
people, particularly the early historic
changes in their social organization
and economy, and the impact of
early European settlement,” says Mc-
Millan. “We predict that the
prehistoric pattern is different than
what the turn-of-the-century ethnog-
raphers recorded.”

Once one of the most powerful
bands in the area, the Toquaht were
virtually wiped out, first by disease
that arrived with the Europeans,
then by warfare that followed the
fur trade.

There are only a few Toquaht
elders left, but their memories can
provide insights into the past. “We
worked with modern native elders

to gather new ethnographic data,
such as place names. We asked the
elders what they called the village
sites, and what they used them for.”
Primary funding for the project
comes from B.C. Heritage Trust.
Challenge 91, Douglas College,
SFU, and the To-

ings on rock),” says McMillan. A
soil probe was used to identify
buried village and camp sites.

As well, excavation of the tradi-
tional winter and summer villages
began. It’s a meticulous process
that involves choosing a 1m by 2m
or 2m by 2m square, stripping off
the sod layer, and then using
trowels to slowly dig down through
3 metres of shell midden and
animal remains (bones of whales,
sea lions, salmon, herring, and other
species) to the bedrock.

McMillan says that analysis of the
shell midden indicates that the To-
quaht began using the main winter
village site about 1,000 years ago,
and that warfare may have led the
Toquaht to choose that particular
site. It’s close to a bluff, which
provided refuge from enemies.
“We got the information we
needed to plan for further work
next year.” They'll continue excava-
tion of that site next summer to try
to find a relationship between the
village site and the refuge area on
the bluff. =

 

quaht Band are
supporting the
project as well.
The early
summer was
spent recording
all archaeologi-
cal sites in the
traditional ter-
ritory of the
Toquaht. They
covered the
area by foot and
by boat, looking
for any signs of
human activity.
“Some things
are obvious,
such as fish
traps, village
sites marked by
crushed shells
from people
eating clams,
and pictographs
(red ochre paint-

 

 

Students
excavate
to the
bottom
of the
site, a
depth

of three

metres.

 

 

.