The Cascade Phase at the Kelly Forks Work Center Site, Idaho: Exploring Regional Variability Across the Intermountain West

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Cascade Phase archaeological culture has been recognized across a broad region of the Intermountain West including the Northern Rocky Mountains, Columbia Plateau, and Great Basin. Cascade Phase sites typically date to the early to middle Holocene period and are identified by a suite of stone tool types including foliate Cascade projectile points and a variety of cobble tools thought to represent intensive food processing. While there are patterns in the archaeological record across the diverse range of ecological landscapes with Cascade Phase assemblages, there are outstanding questions about temporal and regional variability in settlement organization during the Cascade Phase. Exploring this variability can provide information on the process of settling into local ecological landscapes during the Holocene, and relationships with traditional land use practices of descendant communities living in these regions today. This poster reports on excavation of a Cascade Phase occupation at the Kelly Forks Work Center Site on the North Fork of the Clearwater River, Idaho. The Kelly Forks site is positioned in the Bitterroot Mountains in the traditional territory of the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe, providing insight into Cascade Phase settlement and land use in this region and connections to traditional Nimíipuu subsistence practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40408.0