Entangled in the Fur Trade:
Or the Archaeology of Contact on the
Lower Columbia River
The Fur Trade Era on the Lower Columbia River has often been presented by scholars through the lens of Euro-American documentary sources. Archaeological research on the lower river since 1987 provides significant lines of evidence of local and regional Native responses to and participation in the fur trade. The term “entanglement” is used by anthropologists to describe how contact was not a one-way street. In this case, for example, the fur traders entered an ancient, well-established system of trade, exchange and values. The word also encompasses the multiple ways in which Native peoples engaged in the fur trade at multiple scales (individual, household, community, region).
Co-sponsored by the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology