The Trade Bead Assemblage from the Chinook Middle Village at the Station Camp Site: Western Terminus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Pacific County, Washington

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on Glass Beads and Ornaments in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation discusses a trade bead assemblage excavated from the Chinook Middle Village at the Station Camp/McGowan Site (45PC106), a location that can be considered the western terminus of the historic Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803–1806. The camp was situated at the likely site of a seasonally occupied Chinook village dating to the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The National Park Service undertook data recovery excavations at the site in 2005–2006 ahead of planned development of the site for the commemoration of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, discovering the remains of at least five Chinook plank houses and their associated artifact assemblages. The bead assemblage, which includes 662 glass beads and 20 copper beads, affords a glimpse of trade materials from the earliest period of Euro-American/Chinook contact. The beads’ manufacture, origins, and historical associations are discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Research on Glass Beads and Ornaments in North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35920.0