This a detailed account of excavations on the Beckstead St. Lawrence Iroquoian village site which took place in 1977 as a result of the site being threatened by a road-widening project. After quoting from the earliest references to the site by the settlers and an explanation of the excavation plan, the author describes and discusses the archaeological features.

A report on the activities of the Archaeological Survey of Canada, National Museum of Man for the years 1977 to 1979.

This timely volume offers a compilation of twenty-four articles covering a wide spectrum of topics in Iroquoian archaeology. Culled from leading publications, the pieces collectively represent the current state of knowledge and research in the field. A comprehensive research bibliography with more than 500 entries will be a key resource for specialists and non-specialists alike. Both text and bibliography are structured in five sections: Origins; Precolumbian Dynamics; Postcolumbian Dynamics; Material Culture Studies; and Contemporary Iroquois Perspectives, Repatriation, and Collaborative Archaeology. Along with seminal essays by major figures in regional archaeology, the book includes responses by Haudenosaunee writers to the political context of contemporary archaeological work. This collection will prove indispensable to scholars in all areas of Iroquois studies, students and teachers of Iroquoian archaeology, and professional and avocational archaeologists in the United States and Canada.

The early history of the Onondaga Iroquois and their cultural responses to the European invasion are illuminated in this valuable study, Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois. Drawing on a wealth of archaeological evidence and historical documents, James W. Bradley traces the origins of the Onondaga, beginning around a.d. 1200. Much attention is devoted to the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, which were marked by the introduction and growing popularity of European trade goods. Bradley shows how the Onondaga creatively used and viewed these exotic objects; such items as axes and kettles were adapted to meet traditional Native needs. ø During the period shortly after the first encounters with Europeans, the Onondaga successfully adjusted to changes in their world rather than being overwhelmed by them. Their accommodation resulted in such celebrated cross-cultural creations as wampum and the League of the Five Nations.

Part 1 of the final volume of A History of the Native People of Canada treats eastern Canada and the southern Subarctic regions of the Prairies from A.D. 500 to European contact. It examines the association of archaeological sites with the Native peoples recorded in European documents and particularly the agricultural revolution of the Iroquoian people of the Lower Great Lakes and Upper St. Lawrence River. Part 2 was never completed, as the author passed away.

From Labrador to Lake Ontario, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to French Acadia, and Huronia-Wendaki to Tadoussac, and from one chapter to the next, this scholarly collection of archaeological findings focuses on 16th century European goods found in Native contexts and within greater networks, forming a conceptual interplay of place and mobility. The four initial chapters are set around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence where Euro-Native contact was direct and the historical record is strongest. Contact networks radiated northward into Inuit settings where European iron nails, roofing tile fragments and ceramics are found. Glass beads are scarce on Inuit sites as well as on Basque sites on the Gulf’s north shore, but they are numerous in French Acadia. Ceramics on northern Basque sites are mostly from Spain. An historical review discusses the partnership between Spanish Basques and Saint Lawrence Iroquoians c.1540-1580. The four chapters set in the Saint Lawrence valley show Tadoussac as a fork in inland networks. Saint Lawrence Iroquoians obtained glass beads around Tadoussac before 1580. Algonquin from Lac Saint-Jean began trading at Tadoussac after that. They plied a northern route that linked to Huronia-Wendaki via the Ottawa Valley and the Frontenac Uplands. Finally, four chapters set around Lake Ontario focus on contact between this region and the Saint Lawrence valley. Huron-Wendat sites around the Kawartha Lakes show an influx of Saint Lawrence trade in the 16th century, followed by an immigration wave about 1580. Huron-Wendat sites near Toronto show an unabated inflow of Native materials from the Saint Lawrence valley; however, neutral sites west of Lake Ontario show Native and European materials arriving from the south. A review of glass bead evidence presented by various authors shows trends that cut across chapters and bring new impetus to the study of beads to discover 16th-century networks among French and Basque fishers, Inuit and Algonquian foragers and Iroquoian farmers. With contributions from Saraí Barreiro, Meghan Burchell, Claude Chapdelaine, Martin S. Cooper, Amanda Crompton, Vincent Delmas, Sergio Escribano-Ruiz, William Fox, Sarah Grant, François Guindon, Erik Langevin, Brad Loewen, Jean-François Moreau, Jean-Luc Pilon, Michel Plourde, Peter Ramsden, Lisa Rankin and Ronald F. Williamson.

This study investigates the prehistoric transition from egalitarian to ranked social structure at Kitselas Canyon, Skeena River, British Columbia. It contributes to archaeological theory by developing and testing a model of the evolution of cultural complexity. A culture historical contribution is also made in the development of a prehistoric local sequence for Kitselas Canyon.

A Passion for the Past celebrates the late archaeologist James F. Pendergast. The book includes twenty-two essays on subjects ranging from archaeological ethnicity to Native perspectives on archaeology, and features several texts on the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, a subject dear to Pendergast’s heart.