Editing Pacific Northwest (section)

===Indigenous peoples===
{{See also|Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast|Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau}}

The Pacific Northwest has been occupied by a diverse array of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] for millennia. The Pacific Coast is seen by some scholars as a major [[coastal migration (Americas)|coastal migration route]] in the [[Prehistoric migration and settlement of the Americas from Asia|settlement of the Americas]] by late Pleistocene peoples moving from northeast Asia into the Americas.<ref name="surovell2003">{{cite journal |title= Simulating Coastal Migration in New World Colonization |last= Surovell |first =Todd A. |journal= [[Current Anthropology]] |publisher= [[Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research]] |issn= 1537-5382 |volume= 44 |issue= 4 |year= 2003 |pages= 580–91 |doi= 10.1086/377651 |jstor= 10.1086/377651 |s2cid= 144347880 }}</ref>

The coastal migration hypothesis has been bolstered by findings such as the report that the sediments in the Port Eliza Cave<ref name="sfu2005">Ward, Brent (2005). Port Eliza Cave. SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 2005. Retrieved on July 4, 2018 from http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/port_eliza {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618090649/http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/port_eliza |date=June 18, 2018 }}</ref> on [[Vancouver Island]] indicate the possibility of survivable climate as far back as 16 [[Y and yr|kya]] (16,000 years ago) in the area, while the continental ice sheets were nearing their maximum extent.<ref name="alsuwaidi2006">{{Citation |title=A Multi-disciplinary Study of Port Eliza Cave Sediments and Their Implications for Human Coastal Migration |author=Majid Al-Suwaidi |year=2006 |publisher=Library and Archives Canada (Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) |isbn=0494032995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Az-9AQAACAAJ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229002143/https://books.google.com/books?id=Az-9AQAACAAJ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 29, 2020 |quote=''... A multi-disciplinary study at Port Eliza cave on Vancouver Island has refined the timing and character of late Wisconsinan environments and has significant implications for the human Coastal Migration Hypothesis ...''}}</ref> Other evidence for human occupation dating back as much as 14.5 kya (14,500 years ago) is emerging from [[Paisley Caves]] in south-central Oregon {{as of|lc=yes|2008}}.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/nov/ancient-site-human-activity-found-oregon-coast | title = Ancient site of human activity found on Oregon coast | publisher = Oregon State University | date = November 6, 2002 | access-date = December 22, 2015 | archive-date = December 8, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151208083243/http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/nov/ancient-site-human-activity-found-oregon-coast | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.fsl.orst.edu/wpg/events/W09/Davis%20CRP%202008.pdf |author=Loren G. Davis|title=New Support for a Late-Pleistocene Coastal Occupation at the Indian Sands Site, Oregon|work= Archaeology: North America |volume=25|pages = 74–76 |date= 2008}}</ref> However, despite such research, the coastal migration hypothesis is still subject to considerable debate.<ref name="jablonski2002">{{Citation | title=The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World | author=Nina G. Jablonski | year=2002 | publisher=University of California Press | isbn=0940228505 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RI32r548fUwC | quote=''... Recent discoveries and events have breathed new life into the coastal migration theory, which suggests just the opposite of the ice-free corridor hypothesis—that maritime peoples first traveled around the North Pacific Coast then followed river valleys leading inland from the sea. Having a coastal route available, however, does not prove that such a maritime migration took place. Archaeological evidence for early boat use from islands along the western margin of the Pacific may support the idea that such a journey was technologically feasible, but archaeological data from the Pacific coast of North and South America are presently ambiguous about the origins of the earliest coastal occupants. ...''}}</ref><ref name="turner2003">{{Citation |doi=10.2307/3557086 |title=Three ounces of sea shells and one fish bone do not a coastal migration make |author=Christy G. Turner |year=2003 |pages=391–395 |publisher=Society for American Archaeology |url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14790600 |journal=American Antiquity |volume=68 |issue=2 |jstor=3557086 |s2cid=163953019 |access-date=January 7, 2017 |archive-date=May 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531131645/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14790600 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Due in part to the richness of Pacific Northwest Coast and river fisheries, some of the indigenous peoples developed complex [[Sedentism|sedentary]] societies, while remaining [[hunter-gatherer]]s.<ref name="Diamond1999">{{cite book|last=Diamond|first=Jared|title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|url=https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam|url-access=registration|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=1999|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-06922-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam/page/90 90]}}</ref> The Pacific Northwest Coast is one of the few places where politically complex hunter-gatherers evolved and survived to historic contacts, and therefore has been vital for anthropologists and archaeologists seeking to understand how complex hunter and gatherer societies function.<ref name="Pauketat2012">{{cite book|last=Pauketat|first=Timothy|title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yf8j0b7gLvUC&pg=PA160|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|pages=160–162, 167}}</ref> When Europeans first arrived on the Northwest Coast, they found one of the world's most complex hunting and fishing societies, with large sedentary villages, large houses, systems of social rank and prestige, extensive trade networks, and many other factors more commonly associated with societies based on domesticated agriculture.<ref name="Pauketat2012"/><ref name="Harris2001">{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Marvin|title=Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Xc9DMbB5KQC&pg=PA85|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2001|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0-7591-0135-7|page=85}}</ref> In the interior of the Pacific Northwest, the indigenous peoples, at the time of European contact, had a diversity of cultures and societies. Some areas were home to mobile and egalitarian societies. Others, especially along major rivers such as the Columbia and Fraser, had very complex, affluent, sedentary societies rivaling those of the coast.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pauketat|first=Timothy|title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yf8j0b7gLvUC&pg=PA173|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|pages=173–175}}</ref>

In British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, the [[Haida people|Haida]] and [[Tlingit]] erected large and elaborately carved [[totem pole]]s that have become iconic of Pacific Northwest artistic traditions. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, thousands of indigenous people live, and some continue to practice their rich cultural traditions, "organizing their societies around cedar and salmon".<ref>Nash, Gary B. ''Red, White, and Black''. Pearson. Los Angeles 2015. Chapter 1, pg. 5</ref>