Cultural Continuity and Persistence in Upland Environments: Insights from an Archaeology Field School in the Homeland of

Home to the sʔukʷnaʔqín (Okanogan) people, the Okanogan Highlands of northern Washington is a region characterized by mountainous terrain with diverse habitats ranging from forests to desert shrub-steppe. While oral traditions and archaeological and ethnographic data speak to a long history of cultural use of diverse ecologies by Okanogan people, archaeological evidence of human habitation in upland areas here and elsewhere on the Plateau remain poorly documented, in part due to historical sampling biases that have tended to favor river and lake environments. This talk describes ongoing research as part of an archaeology field school in the Mt. Hull-Whistler Canyon area of the Okanogan Highlands that was designed to explore the continuity of culture and place and connections between community, landscapes, and ancestral foods in upland environments through time. The field school was developed in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Spokane Bureau of Land Management, and…