Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1983 - 67

The K'san Historic Indian Village in Hazleton, British Columbia, an impressive
reconstruction of a large Tsimshian historic village, features examples of native arts
and craftSya carving school and native dancing .

west miniature carvings from all sides
and enter open-to-the-public storage
where hundreds of items, ordinarily seen
only by staff, are available to researchers
and other interested visitors. Be sure to
visit the outdoor reconstruction of a
Haida village.
The Simon Fraser University Museum
of Archaeology and Ethnology at
Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver,houses
representative collections from B.C.
archaeological projects conducted by the
Tiniversity.Toursof research facilities and
collections, including a radiocarbon
dating laboratory, can be arranged if
you contact Editha Stevens, Curator of
Education at Simon Fraser University.
Many smaller museums with archaeological material are scattered throughout the province. Especially noteworthy
is K'san Historic Indian Villagein Hazleton. There you can explore an impressive
reconstruction of a large Tsimshian historic village, including arts and crafts, a
native carving schooland native dancing.
Native villages
You can visit many Indian communities with monuments that have been
recently restored. These include the
Carrier villages of Moricetown and Hagwilget, and the Gitksan (Tsimshian)
villages of Kispiox, Kitwanga, Kitwancool, and Kitsegukla, all situated along

the Bulkley and Skeena rivers in northcentral B.C. These villages retain numbers of totem poles, some of considerable
age and quality. The villages are directly
accessible from Highway 16 (Prince
George to Prince Rupert), with the exception of Kitwancool and Kispiox which
are 20 to 30 miles away on good secondary roads. Most totem poles can be
photographed from the road, but you
should request permission if you want
to walk around the village. These sites
are magnificently scenic, set among the
snow-clad peaks of the Coast Range
adjacent to the rivers. K'san village
reconstruction is in the same area, and
you can visit the Museum of Northern
B.C. in Prince Rupert.
From Prince Rupert you can take the
Alaska Coastal Ferry north along the
Alaskan "panhandle" where there are
many other native village or house reconstructions; or take the B.C. ferry to
Queen Charlotte Islands, home of the
Haida, where you can visit the museum
near Skidegate and see the native villages of Skidegate and Masset, each with
one or more totem poles. With special
permission from the bands, it is also
possible to charter a floatplane and fly
south along Moresby Island to discover
several abandoned Haida village sitesscenic ruins of leaning gray totem poles
tangled in green rain forest. They are to
the Northwest Coast what the Maya

ruins of the Peten jungle are to Mesoamerica. But they are completely inaccessible by land and explicit permission
must be obtained from the Skidegate
Band Council (for the villages of Cumshewa, Skedans, Tanu, and Ninstints)
and also from the provincial Parks
Branch for Ninstints.
The most impressive of these sites is
Ninstints, followedby Skedans. Contact
Nick or TVishaGessler of Queen Charlotte Islands Museum for further information. Commercial tours, guided by
experts, regularly visit these sites. If you
are interested (the tours range in style
from rugged ocean-kayaking expeditions
to sailing in luxury aboard a 135-foot
yacht), contact Jim Allen, Ecosummer
Expeditions, Ltd., 1666 Duranleau St.,
Granville Island, Vancouver, B.C., V6H
3S4.
On the southern coast, Kwakiutl villages at Cape Mudge, Quadra Island,
site of the Kwakiutl Museum, and Alert
Bay, at the north end of Vancouver
Island, also have totem poles and house
reconstructions. And in the interior of
B.C. there are restorations of Interior
Salish pithouses at Shuswap Lake Provincial Park between Salmon Arm and
Kamloops and at Anahim Lake, between
Bella Coola and Williams Lake. The
latter is accessible only by a 400-mile
round trip on gravel roads. Youcan visit
good local museums at Kamloops and
Penticton; this lake country is especially
scenic in summer.
sites
Archaeological
Although there are some 14,000 recorded archaeological sites in B.C., none
have yet been set up specifically for
public visits. Some, however, are available through fortunate association with
parks or Indian reserves. You will be
fascinated by:
* Rebecca Spit Earthworks. This is a
small trench-embankment complex on
Quadra Island (north end of Strait of
Georgia) near the Kwakiutl village of
Cape Mudge. It is representative of
prehistoric earthwork fortifications once
widely distributed over the south coast,
but now almost entirely destroyed by
modern development.
* Nanaimo Petroglyphs. Just off Highway 1,south of the city of Nanaimo, there
is a small park with a number of complex
prehistoric carvings on a flat bedrock
surface. These include sea monsters, seen
as "whales," "birds," etc., of unknown
age and function.
* Sproat Lake Petroglyphs. There are
surprising fantastic animals carved on a
cliff face in Sproat Lake Provincial Park
west of Port Alberri, Vancouver Island.
* St. Mungo Cannery Site. On the Lower
Fraser River delta within greater Vancouver, this large prehistoric shellmidden is currently being excavated as
part of a highway salvage project. At
this writing, the excavation is open to
continued on page 79
/June1983 67
May

Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1983

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1983