Portland State Magazine Fall 2019

25 >> analysis, but it wasn't until Butler and Sterling secured funding from the National Science Foundation in 2012 that they could take a deep dive into those findings. IN THE FIRST major research project to come out of the excavation, faculty and students from Portland State,Western Washington University and the University of Rhode Island analyzed the animal remains and the evidence of plank houses: posts, walls, hearths and trenches.The large, diverse sample gave them new insights into the ways that the animals, and in turn, people responded to recurring catastrophic events.The team's findings were published in a 2019 special section of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, "Tracking Human Ecodynamics at Čḯx w icәn, a 2700-Year-Old Coastal Forager Village in Northwest North America." "Perhaps the simplest takeaway message here is one of resilience in the socio-ecological system," Butler says "After each natural disaster, people returned, rebuilt and adapted to changed environmental and social circumstances. "They were able to live there for close to 3,000 years and the only thing that broke their occupation periodically were these earthquake and tsunami events," she adds. "To have a community live sustainably for that long is a testament to their relationship with the local world." Among the team's key findings: The Klallam people relied on more than 100 species of shellfish, fish, birds and mammals for millennia.The breadth of resources available to them and their knowledge about where and when to forage for certain creatures contributed to their resilience. Analysis shows that shellfish and fish were acutely affected by the tsunamis, but the people were extremely adaptable.There's evidence that a tsunami caused one plank house to collapse, only for people to rebuild a new one at the same location with a slightly different floor plan. One house was discovered to have been occupied for 800 years Images clockwise from top left: One of the more than 800 etched stones found at Čḯx w ic n. Photo by Seattle Times. Plank houses depicted in a mural at the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, Washington. Photo by Sarah Sterling. Dashed line shows the Salish Sea watershed. Drafted by Kendal McDonald.