Grant Keddie

LATE PLEISTOCENE MOUNTAIN GOATS (OREAMNOS AMERICANUS) FROM VANCOUVER ISLAND: BIOGEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS

Abstract Although Oreamnos americanus is absent from most Pacific Coast islands, including Vancouver Island, 12,000-year-old skeletal remains were recovered in 2 caves on northern Vancouver Island. The specimens may represent early postglacial immigrants or a relict population derived from a coastal glacial refugium. Limb bones of the fossils are within the size range of modern specimens, suggesting a postglacial origin. O. americanus probably became extinct on Vancouver Island during the early Holocene warming, but inadequacies in the prehistoric faunal record prohibit a determination of a terminal date. The modern distribution of O. americanus on Pacific Coast islands reflects both prehistoric extinctions and low colonization rates across water barriers.

Aboriginal Use and Context of Pipes, Tobacco, and Smoking in Northwestern North America

This chapter provides the first synthesis of tobacco and smoke plant use throughout three regional zones in and adjacent to British Columbia, Canada: the Interior Plateau of Southern British Columbia, the Northern Coast of Alaska and British Columbia (BC), and the Southern Coast of BC. Each region has different histories and is examined to reveal what we know about the use, distribution, chronology, styles, and social context of both pipes and tobacco. This examination reveals that the First Nations inhabitants of two regions used different species of tobacco and had a variety of ways of consuming them. On parts of the Northern Coast of BC and southeastern Alaska it was sucked in balls placed behind the gums, while in the Southern Interior of BC it was smoked in pipes for the last 1000 years. The limited presence of mostly fragmentary pipes in pre-contact times on the Southern Coast suggests these artifacts were exotic trade items, or may represent very limited or specialized use of smoking pipes in some areas.