William J. Folan's Canadian Contributions to Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Session in Memory of William J. Folan: Cities, Settlement, and Climate" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Although most recognize William Folan’s contributions to Mayan archaeology, his early career was devoted to significant national heritage projects in Canada. From 1965 to 1972, Willie carried out two unprecedented large archaeological projects for Parks Canada. It was a ground-breaking time in Canadian archaeology, and Willie was on the cutting edge. In 1965 he excavated all of Fort Côteau-du-Lac, built during the War of 1812. The archaeological structures were stabilized to create a National Historic Park. In 1966, Willie initiated the Yuquot Project, a multidisciplinary study of the Mowachaht village of Yuquot (aka Nootka and Friendly Cove), a National Historic Site on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This first extensive archaeological investigation in the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) culture area unexpectedly revealed the continuity, consistency and gradual change of a single culture over 4,000 years. The Yuquot ethnohistorical research was the basis for Willie’s PhD dissertation in anthropology at Southern Illinois University in 1972. In all his projects, Willie generously trained and inspired young, passionate archaeologists and anthropologists. This paper describes Willie’s early contributions from Canada.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Session in Memory of William J. Folan: Cities, Settlement, and Climate   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36000.0