Deep in Time and Vast in Expanse: The Dene Language Family in Western

Deep in Time and Vast in Expanse: The Dene Language Family in Western North America

Session Hosting Format:

in-person session

Organizer(s):

Kevin P. Gilmore HDR
John W. Ives University of Alberta (emeritus)

Contact Email:

Session Description (300 word max):

The story of the Dene language family starts early in the Pleistocene, a mid-Holocene inflection of Siberian origin, and eventual expansion to encompass many parts of western North America. The theme for the session will be broad, looking at the Dene experience from deep time to the present day, the initial migration south and west from the northern Canadian and interior Alaskan homeland to the coast of the current states of California and Oregon, the western Great Plains, and eastern Great Basin, and the eventual dispersal and differentiation of the different groups to modern homelands. We welcome a diversity of approaches and topics, and the intent of this session is to expand on the narrower focus of the Apachean Origins session at the 2022 CAA meeting in Edmonton to include all aspects of the Dene experience, from their arrival in the North to their role in the Southwest culture area as agents of innovation, trade and social evolution.

Présentations

Adoption of the Bow and Arrow Across the Dene Language Family Was Not a Simple Process

Format de présentation : In-Person

Auteur-e(s) :

John W. (Jack) Ives - University of Alberta

Ideas concerning adoption of the bow and arrow in North America have surfaced over the decades, occasionally with reference to the role ancestral Dene people had in its spread toward the American Southwest. The Kehoes suggested the Avonlea Phase represented Dene people emerging on the northern Plains from the Subarctic bearing complex bows. More recently, Garvey et al. (2026) indicated that Southwestern arrival of Arctic derived complex bows “almost certainly reflects the retention of the technology by Apacheans as they moved from the Sub-Arctic.” These proposals fail to address several evidentiary flaws, among them the facts that: 1) late period bow forms for the Yukon and Northwest Territories are known, were adopted late, and were self-bows; 2) Inner Asian derived complex bows arrived with the mid-Holocene Arctic Small Tool tradition, but subsequently disappeared; 3) complex bow technology only reappeared with the Thule spread, now known to have occurred in the AD 13^th century; and 4) archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence indicate that Apachean ancestors were far to the south by then. Dene language family geography actually created multiple vectors for the transmission of bow technology to and by ancestral Dene populations, involving the Northwest Coast, Plateau, and northern Plains.

Jade exchange and Dene migration in western Canada

Format de présentation : In-Person

Auteur-e(s) :

Todd Kristensen - Archaeological Survey of Alberta
John Duke - University of Alberta
Jesse Morin - Simon Fraser University
David Meyer - University of Saskatchewan
Terra Lekach - Independent
Rachel Carroll - University of Alberta
Robert Losey - University of Alberta
John Ives - University of Alberta

Nephrite (jade) was used for over 3000 years in western North America to make ground stone celts. A small proportion of these labour-intensive tools were transported over a thousand kilometres east across mountains and linguistic boundaries to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Nephrite celts are among the most widely dispersed artifacts in pre-contact Canada but lack clear utilitarian value in the regions to which they were traded; they may have been gifts or prestige items acquired by exchange. We link these artifacts to a chronological period that may overlap with Dene migration through the commercial production centres of nephrite celts in British Columbia. Detecting Dene migration has largely eluded northern archaeologists but jade celts may serve as a small and proxy indicator of a cultural and economic fluorescence stimulated by new Dene participants in the Plateau Interaction Sphere, one outcome of which was long-distance exchange of jade across the Dene world and beyond.

Pronghorn During Cultural Interactions at Promontory Cave 1, Utah

Format de présentation : In-Person

Auteur-e(s) :

Grace Kohut - Lifeways of Canada Limited, Calgary, Canada
John Ives - Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Hailey Kennedy - Ember Archaeology, Sherwood Park, Canada
Joel Janetski - Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University, Provo, USA
Tatiana Nomokonova - Department of Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

Promontory Cave 1 (42BO1), overlooking the Great Salt Lake in northern Utah, has been recognized as an important setting for interactions between incoming Subarctic groups, possibly of ancestral Dene origin, and peoples of the Great Basin during the thirteenth century CE. Decades of archaeological work at the cave have produced a substantial assemblage of faunal remains representing a variety of species. In this presentation, we focus on pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), highlighting its significance in these cultural encounters. Using zooarchaeological methods, we assessed carcass processing practices, demographic composition, and the seasonality of pronghorn use at the site. The fundings indicate that complete carcasses were likely transported to the cave, and that their heads were processed with notable care, as evidenced by traces of brain extraction and possible tongue removal. Demographic and seasonal analyses show that that both male and female pronghorn from nearly all age categories, from fetal to old adult, were consumed at Promontory Cave 1 during fall, winter, and spring.