18 Conclusion KENT G. LIGHTFOOT, ANN M. SCHIFF, AND THOMAS A. WAKE IN THE SECOND VOLUME of The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California series, a collaborative team of scholars from the California Department of Parks and Recreation and U.C. Berkeley details the investigation of the Native Alaskan Neighbor- hood. This Neighborhood is one of four ethnic residen- tial areas that made up the Russian mercantile colony of FortRossfrom 1812 to 1841. NativeAlaskan sea mammal hunters, primarily Chugach and Kodiak Island Alutiiq men, and Native Californian workers and spouses, mostly Kashaya Pomo, Southern Pomo, and Coastal Miwok women, as well as kaiur (convict) laborers, all lived together here. While a few Native Alaskan families lived in the Neighborhood, most households were interethnic in composition, the majority consisting of Kodiak Island men and Kashaya Pomo women. Alutiiq men from the same or nearby homeland villages established households with related groups of Pomo and Miwok women from the "vicinity of Ross, " "the Great Bodega (Bay)," and "the Slavianka (Russian) River" (Istomin 1992). According to the eyewitness accounts summarized in chapter 1, some vestiges of traditional Native Alaskan sociopolitical practices occurred in the Neighborhood. The archaeological remains of the Neighborhood consist of the Native Alaskan Village Site or Village (CA- SON-18971H) and the Fort Ross Beach Site (CA-SON- 1898/H). The former is located directly south of the reconstructed Stockade walls on an uplifted marine terrace, while the latter is situated directly below the Native Alaskan Village Site in the Fort Ross Cove. The Village was the primary residential area for single Native Alaskan men, Native Alaskan families, and interethnic households. The Beach site is a complex midden deposit associated with the nearby Village and with various mercantile and recreational activities that took place in the Fort Ross Cove. The purposes of the ongoing archaeological investi- gation are threefold. The first purpose is to provide the California Department of Parks and Recreation with pertinent information for managing and protecting these two sites as significant archaeological resources in the Fort Ross State Historic Park. The second purpose is to contribute to the active public interpretation program m the Park by emphasizing the critical and demanding roles that native workers played in the day-to-day operation of the Ross Colony. The results presented in this volume will be used to plan and promote a "culture" tail in the Park that will take Park visitors beyond the reconstructed Stockade complex to view the archaeological remains of the Neighborhood where Native Alaskan and Native Californian peoples lived and worked. The third purpose of the investigation is to address two research objectives of the Fort Ross Archaeological Project that concem incorporating indigenous peoples into a pluralistic, mercantile colony. The first objective is to evaluate the degree to which native workers partici- pated in the broader Russian-American Company world system, and whether increased access to manufactured goods and domesticated foods may have stimulated cultural change among the Native Alaskan and Native Califomian laborers. The second research objective examines the implications of interethnic interaction and cohabitation in early pluralistic communities, such as Fort Ross, for the creation and transmission of cultural innovations among peoples from different homelands. THE RESEARCH PROGRAM We generated a research program to study the or- ganizational principles, world views, and identity con- Conclusion 421 struction of residents in Neighborhood households. The degree to which nonnative foods and manufactured goods were consumed and cultural innovations created and/or adopted may be related, in part, to the identity strategies chosen by individuals and households. Village residents could have negotiated many different identity stragies at Fort Ross: they could have remained faithful to their trditional values and prestige systems; they could have manipulated their "public" identities to assimilate into other cultural groups for perceived social, political, and economic advantages; or they could have created identities that were neither purely Native Alaskan, Native Californian, nor Russian, but something new and differ- ent. Our research program examines how organizational principles and identity constructions were actualized in daily practice in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood. This program involves the careful examination of how Village households produced, consumed, and discarded material culture; how they conducted day-to-day domestic chores and recreational activities; and how they created and defined space in and around household complexes. These routinized performances are then compared to and contrasted with what is known of the daily practices of late prehistoric and early historic Alutiiq villages on Kodiak Island and the Kurile Islands and of the Kashaya Pomo settlements in the greater Ross Region. A field saegy was implemented to delineate the archaeological context and spatial organization of arti- facts, faunal and floral remains, architectural features, extramural space, and refuse deposits across the Neigh- borhood. Fieldwork was initiated in the summers of 1988 and 1989 at the Beach site, where we excavated 29 profile units along a 30 meter erosional surface, a 2-by-.5 meter unit in the East Bench, and a 2-by-3 meter block in the Southwest Bench. Price's geoarchaeological study indicates erosional processes, bioturbation, and down- ward transportation have created an extensive colluvial deposit of artifacts, faunal remains, and sediments at the base of the marine terrace. A pit feature was unearthed and recorded in the Middle Profile. Other features, as well as materials deposited in situ, may still be found in the East Bench. The investigation of the Native Alaskan Village Site took place in three phases in the summers of 1989, 1991, and 1992. The first phase involved topographic mapping, systematic surface collection, and geophysical survey. Thirty-eight 2-by-2 meter units and five collection crosses were surface collected, providing information on the spatial distribution of artifacts and faunal remains across the surface of the Village site. Both magnetometer and soil resistance surveys were undertaken, although only the latter results are reported in this volume. Tschan's interpretation of the geophysical anomalies suggests a diverse range of features is. found in the north, central, and south areas of the Village. The surface investigation of the Village guided the second phase of fieldwork involving the excavation of a 1-by-I meter test unit (South Central Test Unit), a block of three 1-by-I meter units (West Central Trench), and two trenches consisting of five and seven 1-by-I meter units (East Central and South trenches, respectively). The third phase of investigation was the areal exposure of culturl features defined in the East Central and South trenches. The East Central Area Excavation exposed units to the north and west of the original trench. In the 23 square meter block comprising the East Central Trench and Area Excavation, we unearthed a pit feature and a bone bed deposit composed of hundreds of fire- cracked rocks, faunal elements, and artifacts. The South Area Excavation involved horizontal excavation to the north, west, and south of the initial trench. The total excavation block of 27.25 square meters revealed two intact bone bed deposits, a pit feature, a line of wooden posts, a linear feature of clay, an extensive layer of rock rubble, and natural bedrock outcrops. SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS The organizational principles and daily practices of Village households are evident in how they strucatred space and conducted routine activities involving the consumption and discard of material culture. Specifi- cally, we summarize significant findings conceming the spatial structure of the Neighborhood, trash disposal patterns, the modification and reuse of the Neighborhood landscape, the widespread scavenging and recycling of manufactured goods, the processing and cooking of meat dishes, and the production and use of native craft goods. SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF THE NAT!VE ALASKAN NEIGHBORHOOD The Village was linearly organized so that residents could arrange their houses, extramural work areas, and trash dumps along the eastem edge of the marine terrace with a clear unobstructed view of Fort Ross Cove and the Pacific Ocean. Some Villagers resided in a row or two of structures in the north and centrl areas that paralleled the terrace edge, while in the south area the Village opened up into an L-shape where the majority of residents lived in several rows of houses constructed across the entire width of the site. The north area, closest to the Stockade walls, is characterized by the most complex archaeological deposits. It contains not only Village site materials but also later (American Period) remains of agriculural buildings, fences, a store, and a gas station. Tschan's interpretation of the geophysical results indicates the location of corrals, barnlike structures, and possibly pipelines and gas tanks. No subsurface investigations were undertaken in the north area. The central area-beyond one or two rows of houses along the terrace edge-is relatively clean of surface 422 The Native Alaskan Neighborhood artifacts and faunal remains, as well as subsurface geophysical anomalies. We believe it was largely open space during the occupation of the Village site and may have served as a communal place or plaza ground. We further speculate that the area may have been used for ceremonies, dances, and assemblies where the entire Village community could gather. Not being characteristic of either Alutiiq settlements on Kodiak Island or nearby Kashaya Pomo villages, this central open space could reflect organizational innovations imposed by the Russian-American Company. Tschan's identification of a large structure directly south of the open area is intrigu- ing, since both the Alutiit and Kashaya constructed large buildings (kazhim and assembly or dance houses, respectively) for ceremonial functions. Most of the evidence of house structures is found in the south area. The geophysical survey and surface investigation show that architectural features were constructed along the southem edge of the central open space and that several tiers of structures were probably built directly south of these. The eyewitness accounts and illustrations of Khlebnikov, Payeras, Duhaut-Cilly, Belcher, and Voznesenskii, described in chapter 1, indicate that 14 to more than 20 houses once stood on the Village site, and that diverse architecturl styles were employed in their construction. Some houses were Russian-style log or plank structures, while others were the "flattened cabins" of the "Kodiaks." We excavated the partial remains of two pit structures that resemble in floor plan and depth the shallow semi-subterranean houses described by Shubin on the Kurile Islands. These pit features are at least 3.4 to 5 meters in length and dug only about .3 meters below the former ground surface. No internal pits, hearths, or other features were found, although only a limited area of each structure was exposed because of the overlying bone bed features. The East Cental Pit Feature contains two large redwood posts and the remains of a third. While these posts may be associated with the original structure, we feel they are part of a later American Period fence built across this pit feature. Both pit features were used prior to or during the 1820s and 1830s. Twelve small redwood posts, eleven of them in a linear configuration, were exposed to the east of the South Pit Feature. We believe these posts are contempo- raneous with the NAVS occupation and may represent a fence line that contained a modest garden plot or pen for small animals. Constructing this fence line involved the excavation of a shallow trench along the length of the post line. The posts were then placed in the trench and secured with dirt and rocks. This method of construction is analogous to that used in the Stockade complex, where a trench was first dug, within which the lower sill, wall posts and puncheons were then positioned, secured, and buried. The archaeological remains of aboveground struc- tures were not clearly defmed during our investigation. The linear clay feature unearthed in the South Area Excavation, however, may be part of the foundation of a log or plank building. Furthermore, the rock rubble found in this area may have served as foundation stones and/or facilitated drainage for aboveground structures. Farris (1990) found similar rock rubble in his excavation of the Fur Warehouse in the Fort Ross Stockade. An important discrepancy between archival docu- ments and our archaeological investigation is the location of the original Native Alaskan settlement as illustrated in the 1817 map. The map places the Village "core" in the cental area that is largely devoid of architectural remains. Either the area was subsequently cleaned after early occupation and transfonned into an open space, or the original location was mapped incorrectly. Aron Crowell (personal observation, 1996) notes that native dwellings at the Three Saints Bay Colony on Kodiak Island were omitted from some Russian charts, presum- ably because they were not considered significant cultural features of the landscape. It is very possible that NAVS houses were quickly sketched onto the 1817 map, or inaccurately added at a later time. We suggest the houses portrayed in the 1817 map are located in the south area of Village, and that the distance separating the southern wall of the Stockade from the Village "core" on the map is in error about 20 to 30 meters. Vilage household residents created most of the archaeological deposits in FRBS by discarding trash over the edge of the terrace. FRBS served as an "artifact trap" in which materials travelling down the steep slope were caught at the base of the marine tenrace. Some lithic flakes and tools were deposited in prehistoric times in the underlying clay statum, but the majority of the artifact assemblage appears to have been discarded during the Russian Period. Mercantile and recreational activities conducted in the Fort Ross Cove resulted in the deposi- tion of other materials at or near FRBS. As outlined in chapter 1, the Cove was an industrial area where Belcher, Payeras, and Wrangell observed a landing and storage shed for baidarkas, a cooperage, a blacksmithy, a tannery, and a carpenter's shop not far from FRBS. Shipbuilding activities that took place near FRBS produced four brigs (Runiantsev, Buldakov, Volga, and Kiakhta) from 1818 to 1824. The partial remains of the old bathhouse described by Payeras, Wrangell, and Bancroft, and outlined in chapter 1, were found at FRBS. We detected a clay-lined pit that had been thermally altered by extremely hot temperatures, and that contained a stone bench. The flat rocks making up the stone bench are fire-cracked, although the floor of the pit contains only small particles of charcoal. This feature resembles the "stove of stone" described by Payeras in 1822 that served as the bath- house furnace by producing steam when sprinkled with Conclusion 423 water. We suggest that a sweltering fire was built in the concave-shaped clay pit around the stone bench, allowed to burn down to embers, and while keeping the rocks red hot, used as a source of steam for the bathhouse. The furnace was probably cleaned out subsequent to its last use. Payeras noted that the steam rose through iron grates into two "high" rooms where individuals enjoyed the therapeutic cleansing of the steam bath. The two upper rooms were probably part of a wooden structure with benches built into the side of the hill, of which little remains today. TRASH DIsPoSAL PATTERNS Village residents were highly structured in their disposal of refuse. The partial excavation of two NAVS pit features and the FRBS bathhouse furnace indicates that buildings were periodically swept clean, at least prior to their abandonment. Few artifacts and faunal remains are found on the floors of the three structures. Village household residents also maintained related extranural space in a tidy order. The early 19th century ground surface (yellow-brown sandy loam) exposed along the northeastem edge of the East Central Pit Feature is relatively sterile of culturl materials, indicating it had been kept clean of trash. The area directly east of the South Pit Feature, where a row of small redwood posts was unearthed, contains relatively few artifacts and faunal remains. This paucity of materials is significant since fence lines can serve as barriers in the accumulation of trash, again suggesting that the area had been cleaned periodically. Finally, the central "open" area separating the north and south sections of the Village appears to have been maintained as a "clean zone," where refuse was prohibited or periodically swept clean. Households disposed of their trash in bone bed deposits located in the Village and/or tossed garbage over the side of the marine terrace, where erosional processes and gravity eventually carried heavier materials into the FRBS archaeological deposits. These bone beds are discrete refuse dumps where thousands of animal bones, shellfish remains, fixe-cracked rocks, and artifacts were discarded on newly created surfaces, often in the fill of abandoned house structres. We interpret the bone beds as household dumps to which nearby families would carry trash for disposal. This interpretation is based on the shallow depth, modest size (less than 4 meters in diameter), and large number of refuse dumps that may be distributed across the residential space of NAVS. We unearthed three bone bed deposits in our modest excava- tion. The toss pattem of faunal remains and artifacts in the East Central Bone Bed suggests that people living directly to the south were dumping materials from containers while standing on the south side of refuse area. The presence of articulated fish bones, whole aba- lone shells and sea urchin spines, and clusters of animal bones from the same species indicates that bone beds were covered with sediments shortly after deposition, and that the refuse dumps were protected from trmnpling and other post-depositional processes. Bioturbation is minimal in the bone beds, in contrast to the majority of the other archaeological deposits excavated in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood and the greater Ross Region. The features remained intact because the dense accumulation of fie-cracked rock and underlying rock rubble (in the South Bone Bed and Abalone Dump) discouraged, protected, and even sealed these bone beds from intru- sions by small burrowing animals. MoDIFIcATioN AND REUSE OF THE NAVS LANDSCAPE Although the Native Alaskan Village was occupied for less than thirty years, a number of rebuilding and filling episodes took place that produced an artificially constructed landscape. Residential space in the Village was continually reused and redefined throughout its short occupation. In the East Central Area, the pit feature was first constructed, used, and then abandoned. It was then filled with sediments and leveled to the old ground surface, where a bone bed deposit was created on a new artificial surface. When the bone bed was no longer used as a trash dump, it appears to have been rapidly covered with sediments. In the South Area, another pit feature was dug, occupied, and forsaken, then filled with sediments making it level with the original clay/bedrock surface. Rock rubble was then dumped on top of this fresh surface, raising the elevation of the ground surface .2 to .5 meters. A linear clay feature was then erected on the rock rubble, possibly as part of the foundation of an aboveground structure. The South Bone Bed was then deposited directly over the remains of the clay feature and rock rubble, and the Abalone Dump was created nearby on the rock rubble substratum. Both bone bed deposits were covered with sediments shortly after their fmal use as trash repositories. In the South Central Test Unit, a similar pattem of landscape modification was observed where rock rubble was intentionally dumped on the clay/bedrock stratum, raising the ground surface of this area about .1 meters. MANUFACTURED GOODS The European/Asian artifacts in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood represent a relatively discrete assemblage that dates almost exclusively to the Russian occupation, primarily during the 1820s and 1830s. The tight dates of the historical materials are relatively unique at Fort Ross, since most other archaeological deposits excavated to date in the Russian Stockade contain a variety of materi- als dating to the later American Period (post-A.D. 1846), when the buildings were used as a hotel, saloon, dance hall, and storage facilities. The ceramic assemblage from the Neighborhood consists primarily of refined earthenwares (primarily 424 The Native Alaskan Neighborhood handpainted blue, transferprint blue, and handpainted polychrome), as well as some porcelains, stonewares and yellowwares. The ceramics are fragmented into small pieces, of which only a handful can be refit together. The absence of any complete or reconstructible vessels strongly suggests a secondary context for the ceramics. While plates, saucers, teacups and other ceramic forms are represented, it appears that few of the ceramic vessels were used in their primary forms at NAVS or FRBS. The distinct possibility exists that some ceramics were scavenged from other Fort Ross locations (Stockade and Russian Village dumps) to be used as raw material in the production of native artifacts. This interpretation is bolstered by the large number of waterwom and highly eroded ceramics recovered from NAVS. It is also possible that pipestem fragments were recycled by NAVS residents and cut into "'preformed" beads. However, direct evidence for the modification of ceramic sherds into bead blanks, pendants, or other ornaments at either NAVS or FRBS, is minimal (about 1% of the NAVS sherds are modified), a point we return to below. The window and vessel glass artifacts in the Neigh- borhood are ubiquitous but highly fragmented into many small pieces. The glass sherds are so minute and disjointed that vessel identification is almost impossible. The majority of the "black glass" fragments are probably pieces of case transported botdes that may have con- tained alcoholic drinks. Few of the vessels appear to have been used as liquid containers in the Neighborhood, but rather they probably were scavenged from the Stockade or Russian Village garbage dumps as sources of raw material in the production of native artifact forms. About 5.2% of the total glass at NAVS and FRBS is modified, most being vessel glass reduced into flakes, scrapers and some projectile points. Window glass fragments exhibit less evidence of intentional modifica- tion. Their spatial distribution in the South Bone Bed and directly east of the East Central Bone Bed indicates a close association with other architectural remains. The discmte clusters of pane glass fragments and nails may represent the dismantled remains of glass-windowed structures. The metal artifact assemblage is dominated by iron and, to a lesser extent, bas nails. Nail wire bits, spikes, and platy iron fragments are also common, followed by relatively rare occurrences of copper strips, pieces of buttons and button hooks, lead foil segments, lead bullet molds and sprues, and a copper bowl fragment. Silliman notes that the metal assemblage is not as diverse as other Russian-American Company assemblages associated with native peoples (e.g., Schiff 1995; Shubin 1990), and many objects such as saws, axes, adzes, shovels, razors, scissors that were listed on inventories of materials shipped to Fort Ross were not recovered. Many of the nails are bent, some intentionally shaped into hooks and other forms or possibly twisted when removed from metal items indicate these materials were probably discarded by their primary users as rubbish. Although NAVS residents may have been the principal users and disposers of some metal artifacts, it is very possible that they were recycling metal refuse from other peoples' dumps and/or collecting lost or forgotten items from industial work areas for reuse in new contexts. Some of the nails (e.g., the brass tacks used in shipbuilding) may have been scavenged from other Ross locations and used in the construction of NAVS structures or as raw material in the production of native artifact forms, such as fish hooks. While the original users of the ceramic, glass, and metal artifacts at NAVS remain ambiguous, the glass beads were shipped to Ross for the primary consumption of native workers. The beads appear to have been manufactured primarily in Europe, most in Italy (Venice and Murano), some in Bohemia, and none in China. The bulk of the beads are hot-tumbled, drawn, monochrome and polychrome, undecorated embroidery varieties-the least expensive on the market in the early 19th century. Ross notes that the cheap embroidery beads are often lost in domestic contexts where day-to-day activities occur, while more expensive decorated beads tend to be found in ceremonial contexts where wealth displays and/or ritual activities take place. The bead color preference of the NAVS residents is relatively unique for coastal western North America. Most Pacific coast contact sites contain a majority of white and blue beads, especially those dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The bead assemblage at NAVS consists primarily of white/clear/gray, red, green, and black colors. Few blue, purple or yellow/amber beads are found. The distinctive bead assemblage at NAVS probably reflects the com- bined color preferences of its multiethnic residents, or possibly even the unusual color choices of the local California Indians who lived in the Village. FOOD PROCuREMENT AND PROCEsSING Native residents consumed a diverse range of meat dishes prepared from marine mammals, terrestrial game, domesticated animals, fish, birds, and shellfish. The mammal assemblage consists primarily of pinnipeds (harbor seals, California sea lions, Steller's sea lions, Otariidae or eared seals) and artiodactyls (black-tailed deer, cows, sheep, pig, and elk). Insectivores, rodents, lagomorphs (rabbit), carnivores (wolf, coyote, dog, bobcat, mountain lion, grizzly bear), and sea otters are present but in low numbers. Wake notes that the scarcity of sea otter remains indicates that its valuable pelt, as well as its meat, were processed during the hunt or elsewhere in the Ross Colony. Porpoise and whale bones that exhibit evidence of butchering were also recovered in low numbers. The fish assemblage is dominated by cabezon, lingcod, and rockfishes that were probably caught from wooden planks. The bent nails and largely defective the rocky shoreline using hook and line. Gobalet Conclusion 425 observes that many of these rocky intertidal and subtidal fLsh are quite large, indicating a size preference in the specimens brought back to the Neighborhood for dinner. Most of the other fish remains are also marine in origin, including surfperch, black or rock prickleback, Pacific hake, requiem sharks (e.g., leopard sharks), buffalo sculpin, rock or kelp greenling, and even banracuda. Freshwater specimens, such as salmon, steelhead trout, minnows, and suckers, are veiy rare, indicating that the either the residents of the Neighborhood did not fish in the adjacent Fort Ross Creek and undertake fishing expeditions along the nearby South Fork of the Gualala River or Russian River, or that the fish were processed elsewhere. The bird assemblage is dominated by seabirds, primarily the common murre as well as cormorant, gull, pelican, and a few albatross remains. Waterfowl (duck, goose, loon, and American coot) are also present at NAVS and FRBS but in much lower numbers. A few fragments of bald eagle and California condor were also recovered. Chicken remains are also present in a few of the archaeological deposits. The shellfish assemblage consists mostly of gastropods and bivalves harvested from nearby rocky intertidal habitats. The majority are small gastropods, including other snail (Gastropoda), turban, limpet, periwinkle, dogwinkle, and a few olivella. The NAVS and FRBS archaeological deposits also contain many mussels and fewer numbers of chitons, barnacles, and abalones, while sea urchin spines and fragments are found almost exclusively at NAVS. Estuaine species are infrequent and include a few clam shells. Despite the flotation of sediment samples and the careful sorting of both light and heavy fractions from many deposits at both NAVS and FRBS, litde direct evidence of plant foods was recovered. Although the paucity of charred floral remains may be related to biases in their preservation, the neutral pH of most of the sediments, and the relatively intact deposits of the bone beds suggest otherwise. Most likely the processing and deposition of plant foods were undertaken in other contexts not yet excavated at NAVS or FRBS. The presence of millingstones, handstones, and pesdes in the bone bed deposits suggests that acorns and other nuts and seeds may have been processed near these refuse dumps. The butchering evidence and spatial patteming of the mammal remains in the bone bed deposits suggest the marine mammal, terrestrial game, and domesticated animals were processed and cooked in similar ways. Neighborhood residents used steel tools to dismember bones and to fillet meat portions. Special cuts of meat were prepared for some meat dishes, especially flipper elements that were removed from harbor seals and sea lions. Flipper elements are considered a great delicacy among Unangas and Alutiiq peoples. However, the meat of the marine and terrestial mammals appears to have prepared for cooking. Clusters of mostly unburned mammal remains in association with medium- and large- sized "cooking" stones (especially fire-cracked rocks and ground stone "other"), small gastropods, and small quantities of charcoal suggest they may have been slow roasted in underground ovens. Employing the traditional culinary conventions of the Kashaya Pomo, we suggest that several tiers of hot rocks, seaweed, and meats were placed in ovens and cooked for five to eight hours. The contents of the ovens were then consumed and the re- maining refuse deposited in the nearby bone beds. Most of the artiodactyl remains exhibit evidence-spiral frac- tures and opposing impact points produced by bipolar cracking of bones using hammers and anvils-of marrow extraction. Other foods such as shellfish, birds, and fishes may have also been cooked in the ovens. However, the spatial patterning of the few fish remains mapp in situ indicate they may have been cooked separately, while the ubiqui- tous distribution of abalone and other mollusks suggests they may have been cooked with the mammals and also consumed as separate meals. NATIVE CRAFTS Some of the traditional technological practices and material culture of Native Californians and Native Alaskans are observed in the artifact assemblage of the Neighborhood. A diverse range of chipped stone artifacts is found at the Village and the Beach site, including shatter, cores, unmodified flakes (primary cortical, secondary cortical, interior), edge-modified flakes, unifaces, bifaces, and projectile points. Most are manufactured from cherts and obsidians locally available in the southern North Coast Ranges. However, in contrast to the discretely dated European/Asian artifacts, the majority of the chipped stone artifacts may have been originally produced and used in prehistoric times. Archaeological deposits at both sites that date to the 1820s and 1830s, such as the bone beds, include a mix of prehistoric and historic lithics that are dated by obsidian hydration. The large percentage of prehistoric obsidian artifacts found in historic contexts suggests that historic stone tool manufacture was minimal at either site. Lithic production was probably limited to minor maintenance of notched projectile points and bifaces that may date to late prehistoric or historic times. The association of prehistoric and historic chipped stone artifacts with historic ceramic, metal, and glass artifacts may be interpreted as evidence of "mixed deposits" created by widespread rodent disturbance at Fort Ross. Broadly distributed, low-density lithic scatters dating back 6,000 or more years are commonly found along the marine terraces of the Fort Ross Region. The Native Alaskan Neighborhood appears to have been constructed on top of one or more earlier prehistoric lithic scatters-an observation that may account for the been treated similarly once the meat packages were almost ubiquitous distribution of chipped stone artifacts 426 The Native Alaskan Neighborhood in the archaeological deposits. However, the co-occur- rence of prehistoric and historic materials in the bone beds is more complex. The discovery of prehistoric obsidian artifacts in these intact features suggests that Village residents were scavenging prehistoric lithic remains from nearby archaeological deposits and reusing them as expedient tools and as curated artifacts in historic contexts. Village residents may have been using the nearby scatters as resource zones for selecting flakes and formal tools for use in various domestic activities in and around their homes. The relatively sparse number of primary and secondary flakes and shatter in the bone bed deposits indicates that households were highly selective in choosing which prehistoric remains they recycled, scavenging primarily interior flakes and formal tools for reuse. In contrast to the ubiquitous distribution of chipped stone artifacts, ground stone artifacts (handstones, pestles, basin millingstones, and slab millingstones), and "cooldng" stones (cobbles, fire-cracked rocks, and ground stone "other') are found primarily in and around the bone beds at the Village site and in the East Profile and East Bench at FRBS. While the handstones, pestles, and millingstones are presumed to have been used for processing plant foods, the medium- and large-sized "cooking" stones are believed to be associated with underground ovens. Some may also be hearth stones, and other small rocks may be "cooking" stones used to boil gruels in watertight baskets. Village residents appear to have recycled exhausted ground stone tools by breaking them up into cooking stones. Many of the ground stone "other" artifacts are broken and fire-altered pieces of millingstones and handstones. Ground stone tools are rarely found in nearby prehistoric lithic scatters on the marine terrace, and they are not common in the prehistoric clay stratum in FRBS. While direct dating of the ground stone assemblage is not yet possible, the strong association of the ground stone tools and "cooking" rocks in the bone bed deposits as well as in midden deposits in the East Bench and East Profile suggests that most were procured, used, and discarded by early 19th century Village residents, and are not associated with prehistoric use of the Ross area. Ground slate tools and production debris are minimal in the Neighborhood, in contrast to the widespread use of slate tools in Alutiiq settlements on Kodiak Island until at least the 1840s. Mills describes a total of eleven ground slate artifacts in the vicinity of the Village, including unmodified fragments of slate, broken slate rods, frag- ments of double-edged slate blades, slate tablets, and a small tabular fragmenL The double-edged blades appear to be portions of end-blades, knives, or lances, and at least one specimen resembles an Alutiiq-style whaling lance. The slate rods and tablets appear to have been scavenged from other Ross locations (Stockade complex, Russian Village) and reworked into new tools. The most conclusive evidence of Native Alaskan material culture in the Neighborhood is the worked bone artifact assemblage consisting of large and small dart points, harpoon arrow points, harpoon shaft (socket) pieces, finger rests, and composite fish hooks that were part of the sophisticated maritime hunting and fishing technology of these North Pacific peoples. Other worked bone implements include buttons, awls, fasteners, and plain and incised bird bone tubes. The production of bone artifacts at the Village site is amply demonstrated by cores of whale ribs, grizzly bear humerus and radius bones, and elk antlers; hundreds of chopping and carving flakes; amorphous worked bone chunks; and handholds. The workshop debris represents the full sequence of reduction stages in the production of bone tool kits related to marine mammal hunting and fishing. Village bone workers first prepared and reduced the cores to appropriately sized blanks, and then roughly shaped the blanks by detaching the chopping or planing flakes. This was followed by fine shaping with a knife in which the craftsperson removed longer, thinner, narrower, curved carving flakes. The final step involved the removal of handholds and detailed finish work. The bone workers utilized metal tools, probably small to medium knives, in the shaping and finishing of bone artifacts. They relied on knives rather than saws even when employing the score and snap method to shape cores and preforms and to remove unwanted bone segments. Village household residents were probably involved in the processing and stitching of kamleikas (waterproof jackets) from pinniped intestines and the construction and repair of skin boats (baidarkas and baidaras) using seal and sea lion skins. They probably also produced birdskin parkas from the skins and feathers of the common murres, gulls, and cormorants. In addition to Lutke's (1989:278 [1818]) observation that a Native Califomian woman had learned to sew kamleikas at Fort Ross, the archaeological evidence of these Native Alaskan crafts at NAVS in- cludes conical bone points and awls. The large numbers of pinniped and seabird remains recovered from the bone beds and other archaeological contexts may be the by- product of kamleika, baidarka, and birdskin parka production, not just food refuse. EVALUATING THE Two RESEARCH OBJECTIVES We conclude Volume 2 with a discussion of the two research objectives that guided our investigation of the Native Alaskan Neighborhood. NATIVE WoRKERs' PARTICIPATION IN THE EARLY 19TH CEVTURY WORLD SYSTEM How was the broader world system represented in the material culture of the non-European employees in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood? The results of our investigation indicate that these workers had either Conclusion 427 limited access to domesticated foods and European/Asian artifacts and/or minimal interest in the accumulation of these goods. The cattle, sheep, and pig remains in the faunal assemblage probably represent meat that was paid or rationed to Village residents for Company work. The ceramic, glass, and metal assemblages at NAVS and FRBS are conspicuous by the underwhelming number of whole artifacts, the highly fragmented and disjointed nature of most artifact classes, and the virtual absence of reconstructible ceramic and glass vessels and panes. Non-European laborers in a mercantile colony such as Fort Ross should have had access, in principle, to a diverse range of products from Asia, America, and Europe. By the time Ross was colonized, the Company had established a trade network with American merchants that gready expanded the range of manufactured goods and luxury foods offered to its employees. As detailed by Farris, Company records indicate that a varied assortment of textile, ceramic, glass, and metal goods were shipped to Fort Ross. It appears, however, that most of the goods (with the exception of the glass trade beads) were not destined for consumption at Ross, but rather were earmarked for trade with Spanish and Mexican settle- ments to obtain wheat, beef, tallow, and other agricultural products for the Company's North Pacific colonies. The archaeological investigation supports eyewitness ac- counts that Ross workers were poorly paid, that Com- pany goods were very highly priced in relation to wages, and that most people were substantially in debt to the Company. We believe that native workers did not obtain most of the manufactured goods deposited at NAVS and FRBS directly from the Company, either as payment or pur- chase in the Ross store. Most of the European and Asian goods in the Neighborhood were not new and appear to have been reused after being discarded or handed down by other Ross employees. The one major exception is probably the glass bead assemblage. Yet the beads are primarily the inexpensive embroidery varieties. This further suggests that the purchasing power of the native workers at Ross was limited. Our interpretation of the archaeological record suggests that residents of the Neighborhood were the first multi-medium recyclers in California, reusing materials on an unprecedented scale that was many decades ahead of their time. They were scavenging ceramnic and glass sherds, reusing bent nails and defective metal objects, reworking ground slate tablets into new forms, procuring prehistoric obsidian flakes and tools from nearby sites and expediently employing them in new contexts, and systematically processing exhausted ground stone tools into "cooking" stones. It seems clear that the Russian-American Company provided little direct support or assistance to the residents in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood. These workers were almost completely on their own. Similar to the early years on Kodiak Island, the residents of the Neigh- borhood were responsible for feeding and clothing themselves and for producing or obtaining from fellow workers and relatives most of their material culture. It is even possible that kamleikas and birdskin parkas pro- duced at Ross by kaiurs and native women for the Company were then exchanged back to Native Alaskan hunters for payment for work rendered, a transaction commonly employed by the Russian-American Company in other North Pacific colonies. As noted in Schmidt's letter of 1824 (in Khlebnikov 1990:131-32), women and children at the Village had to support themselves when their spouses were away hunting. Schmidt observed that the Company did not assist them in any way, and that food shortages were common. The situation was dire enough for the Native Alaskan men to request that the hunts be terminated early so that they could return to Ross to support their families. The Native Califomian women and children who remained at NAVS during hunts probably supported themselves on stored foods, by gathering shellfish in the adjacent rocky intertidal habitats, and by fishing for cabezon, ling cod, and rockfish with hook and line from the nearby shore. Our findings indicate that the Native Califomians in the Neighborhood probably depended upon frequent assistance from their outlying network of social and kin ties in the greater Ross Region. They may have facili- tated the procurement of venison and other foods by scavenging glass, ceramic, and metal objects at Ross for redistribution to the broader Native Califomian commu- nity. Local demand by Native Califomians for European/ Asian objects existed. As discussed in Volume 1 (p. 150), tobacco, food, and clothes paid to non-European workers at Ross were gambled away, presumably to Pomo communities who resided in "the woods" some distance from the Russian outpost. There was also demand for other objects, such as glass trade beads, that were directly transferable into local indigenous cultures. However, much of the demand was apparently not for finished manufactured goods (e.g., ceramic vessels, glass bottles) per se, but as sources of raw material used in the produc- tion of Native Califomian artifact forms. In addition to the evidence of worked glass and ceramic pieces in the Neighborhood, Ballard's (1995:154-55) recent analysis of archaeological materials from "Metini," situated directly north of the Stockade complex, indicates that Native Californians were reworking ceramic sherds into a vari- ety of shapes (triangular, trapezoidal, oval, rectangular, circular, and irregular) for beads, pendants, and other artifact forms. Glass artifacts at Metini were reworked into projectile points, bifaces, preforms, and edge- modified flakes (Ballard 1995:157). The possible collapse of regional exchange networks in the early 19th century that had long provided coastal Pomo and Miwok with access to obsidian and other 428 The Native Alaskan Neighborhood interior resources may have contributed to the growing demand for glass and ceramic materials in the hinterland of Colony Ross. As noted in chapter 16, obsidian trade networks were altered by and even terminated with Spanish, Mexican, and Russian colonization of northem California. The circulation of Annadel and Clear Lake obsidians into the Fort Ross Region decreased dramati- cally at this time. Napa Valley sources dominate the historic obsidians on Ross survey sites as described in Volume 1, but relatively few are found at either NAVS or FRBS. By recycling materials at Ross, Village residents could replace obsidian from interior sources with glass and prehistoric obsidian scavenged from nearby archaeo- logical deposits and refuse dumps. In addition, by providing recycled goods to nearby indigenous communi- ties, access to whatever obsidian was available from the interior could be secured if needed. Viewed in this light, Native Californian residents in the Neighborhood served as cultural brokers between the Ross Colony and the outlying Native Californian community. They were probably the major distributors of European/Asian materials whose meaning could be translated directly into the world view of Pomo and Miwok peoples. So long as there was a demand for Ross materials, the Native Califomian residents at the Village remained locked into a broader regional exchange network that made them less vulnerable to food and resource shortages at Ross. While a few objects were ground into shape and reused at NAVS and Metini, we suggest that the most desirable ceramic sherds, glass pieces, and metal objects were traded to surrounding communities where they disappeared into the back country. If this interpretation has any validity, then the highly fragmented and disjointed European/Asian goods left behind at Ross are largely rejects in this regional recycle trade. THE IMPLICATIONS OF INTEREENIC INTERACTION AND COHABITATION Did the synergistic interplay of interethnic house- holds in the Native Alaskan Neighborhood promote significant cultural change in the material culture of Native Alaskan and Native Califomian residents? The results of our investigation indicate that pluralistic interactions between Russians, Siberians, Native Alas- kans, Creoles, and Native Califomians at Ross did not stimulate many innovations in the culturl practices of Neighborhood residents. There is, of course, some evidence for cultural change. The menu emphasized large game, domesticated animals, and sea mammals- unlike any traditional Alutiiq or Pomo diet. New raw materials were now employed in the production of native artifact forms. Metal tools were used to butcher meats and to carve and shape bone tools. Kashaya Pomo conventions of cleanliness and trash disposal were combined with the Alutiiq custom of covering trash areas witli new surfaces, practices that produced innovative landscape modifications at the Neighborhood. Evidence outlined in chapter 17 suggests that winter commemora- tive ceremonies, possibly celebrating the return of Native Alaskan hunters, were jointly sponsored by Native Califomians and Native Alaskans. Most of the changes observed in the Neighborhood do not represent major transformations in the culural values of either the Native Alaskan or Native Californian peoples. There is little indication that native residents implemented srtegies of upward mobility or the construction of new culturl identities. They maintained their respective identities by adhering to traditional values and distinct ideologies as practiced in their homelands. Our investigation suggests that Kashaya Pomo conventions were followed in the domestic practices of some interethnic households, while Alutiiq ideals were employed in the layout of village space. Pomo domestic practices include the preparation and cooking of meat dishes in earth ovens, the regular cleaning of house space and associated exramural locations, the tossing of refuse into discrete dumps, and the primary use of Native Californian material culture (e.g., millingstones, chipped stone artifacts). There is little evidence of Alutiiq domestic equipment or fumiture in the household trash. Most Alutiiq practices observable in household refuse are clearly related to the production and maintenance of sophisticated maritime hunting and fishing tool kits. Beyond the individual house and its maintained extramual space, the broader organizational layout and setting of the Village followed Alutiiq principles. The linear arrangement of the houses along the exposed marine terrace with clear views of the Pacific Ocean and baidarkas stored in the Fort Ross Cove are clearly Native Alaskan conventions. It appears ta the Native Califomian women and Native Alaskan men who made up the interethnic households at Colony Ross attempted to maintain their own separate identities while making accommodations and some concessions to their respective spouses. This point is best exemplified by the East Central and South bone beds. Both refuse dumps contain the remains of artiodactyl, pinniped, fish, bird, and shellfish meals. The households using both areas prepared special cuts of meats (e.g., flippers) as Native Alaskan delicacies that were then cooked together with other meat dishes in underground ovens according to Kashaya Pomo prac- tices. But even the slow roasting of meats in under- ground ovens may have been a compromise between spouses. Other methods of Kashaya cooking involving the placement of meat directly on coals were apparently not practiced given the paucity of burned bones. Under- ground ovens may have been most appropriate for preparing many different meat dishes for ceremonies taking place in the Neighborhood. These ceremonies also