Kent Lightfoot

The historic Fort Ross community provides an ideal case to evaluate native responses to the early 19th century North American fur trade. Fort Ross was administered from 1812 to 1841 by the Russian-American Company, a mercantile monopoly that represented Russia's interests in the lucrative North Pacific fur trade. It served as a staging area for sea otter and fur seal hunts in northern California. The Russian-American Company recruited peoples from across Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim as part of their multi-ethnic workforce. Ethnic Russians made up a relatively small portion of the Ross community. The majority consisted of native Alaskan workers in which Koniag Eskimos dominated, followed by Chugach Eskimos, Aleuts, as well as Tanaina and Tlingit Indians from the Alaskan mainland. Other workers included Creoles (people of mixed Russian/native ancestry), Yakuts from Siberia, native Hawaiians, and at least one African-American. Kashaya Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples from nearby tribelets were recruited as laborers and as mates in the formation of inter-ethnic households.

The research team from the ARF and the Anthropology Department is addressing inter-ethnic interactions in a pluralistic mercantile colony.

Much of our recent research has been focused on the study of the Native Alaskan Village Site situated south of the Fort Ross stockade. Here resided Native Alaskan men and families, as well as inter-ethnic households composed of Koniag Eskimo men and Kashaya Pomo women. A detailed study of the site may provide information on the role that multi-ethnic relationships played in stimulating cultural change in colonial communities.

The field investigation has been conducted in three phases. In the first phase, completed in the summers of 1989 and 1991, a meticulous investigation of the landscape was undertaken, including contour mapping, surface collection of artifacts, and geophysical survey using remote sensing. Fourteen shallow surface depressions or leveled platforms were defined where concentrations of stone tools, glass and ceramic artifacts, and animal bones were found.

In the second phase, initiated in the summer of 1991, we tested whether these surface depressions represented former house locations with household refuse deposited around their perimeters. The excavation of two surface depressions revealed a dense concentration of animal bones, marine shells, fire-cracked rocks and redwood posts. The "bone bed" consisted of hundreds of faunal elements (sea mammal, terrestrial game, domesticated mammal, fish, marine shell), historical artifacts (ceramics, stone tools, glass items), and fire-cracked rocks.

The third phase of investigation in the summer of 1992 continued the excavation of the two surface depressions. The goal was to define the boundaries of the "bone beds" and to determine whether the surface depressions represent architectural features. Two large excavation blocks revealed three separate "bone beds" and at least two house structures, including a subterranean structure measuring about 6 meters in diameter and 70 to 80 cm. in depth.

The "bone beds" are unusual in coastal California sites. The bone and shell are large, intact specimens, representing a diverse range of animal species, including whale. Butchering marks are clearly visible on many of the skeletal elements. Complete abalone shells and limb bones suggest the materials were not trampled by residents, and that plowing has not significantly altered the deposits. Our current interpretation is that the house structures of Native Alaskan families and inter-ethnic households were abandoned, filled in, and then used as work areas and refuse dumps in which faunal remains, native Alaskan artifacts, Kashaya Pomo artifacts, and European materials were deposited. Detailed analyses of these materials are now on-going at the ARF. The research is greatly facilitated by collaboration with Kashaya Pomo tribal scholars, including Otis Parrish, Vana Lawson and Violet Chappell, and with the Kodiak Area Native Association of Kodiak Island, Alaska. A monograph on the Native Alaskan Village Site is planned for publication in the ARF Contributions series in 1994/95. It will be the follow-up volume of the 1991 publication, The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California (ARF Contributions No. 49).