Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 26

Analysis of Animal Remains from the Old Fort Point Site, Northern Alberta

by Anne Meachem Rick

Mammals

Three hundred and sixty-five mammal bone fragments were recovered from the site, of which 61 (16.7 per cent) were identified and 304 (83.2 per cent) were unidentifiable primarily because of their fragmentary nature. At least ten species occur, representing a minimum of 14 individuals.

Lepus americanus. Snowshoe or varying hare

Six bones of this species were found, including two right pelvic bones, three leg fragments and a right lower jaw. Two pieces came from the sub-floor pit in the north room, one from the southwest room and three from the north pit outside the building. One of the pelvic elements has faint cut marks across the ilium which may represent an attempt to disarticulate the leg at the hip socket. At least two individuals are present.

Varying hare skins, mainly in their white winter form, were exported from fur-trade posts (Sabine 1823: 665) and Indians also used the skins for making robes, mittens and other items of apparel (Preble 1908: 201). However, the hare's major role in the economy of Indian and fur trader was as food, and hares were a mainstay of diet at many wintering posts. Preble (1908: 199) noted that in 1901 at Fort Smith some Indians "were living principally on rabbits, taking them in snares." He goes on to describe the method of preserving hares as follows: "They freeze in the snares and are kept for weeks and months in this state without deterioration, and figure extensively on the winter bill of fare at the northern trading posts" (Preble 1908:201).

This species is noted for undergoing spectacular variations in abundance, such fluctuations being greatest in northwestern Canada (Banfield 1974: 82). During a population cycle of approximately 10 years hares may increase from several animals per square mile to several thousand and then fall again, with consequent suffering on the part of humans dependent on them. Innis (1970: 277) mentions one instance of privation in the Athabasca district due to scarcity of hares.

As a result of the reduction of supplies which made dependence on the country increasingly necessary, a failure in the supply of rabbits in 1810 was the cause of starvation in the district in which several people died and others were forced to live on beaver skins and other furs.

Varying hares were called "rabbit" by fur traders (Richardson 1836: 496), ga in the Chipewyan language and wapoos in Cree (Hohn 1973:166).

Castor canadensis. Beaver

Two lower leg bones from at least one beaver were recovered from the slope west of the structure. A left tibia distal end is burned in one place and exhibits a number of cuts which ring the bone just above the articulation. Guilday et al. (1962: 71) interprets cuts in this position as skinning marks where the pelt was cut from the foot.

The beaver not only was the basis of the Canadian fur trade, but also was considered tasty food by traders and Indians. Richardson (1836:495) states that "The flesh is much prized by the natives as an article of diet, — a roasted beaver being the prime dish on their [the Indians'] feast days."

Canis species. Dog, coyote or wolf

Three Canis pieces were found, representing two or more individuals. An upper jaw fragment (left premaxilla and maxilla) containing teeth from fill in the northwest pit and a temporal fragment found outside the building west of the central room are probably from a wolf; they are assigned only to genus because of the possibility that wolf-dog hybrids were present at the site. The jaw fragment shows slight wear polish along the nasopremaxillary suture and also on the premaxillary surface dorsal to the incisors. An isolated upper incisor from the central room is probably from a dog although on the basis of size it might have come from a coyote. However, during the early 1800s the coyote's range supposedly extended only to approximately the 55th parallel; according to Banfield (1974: 289) it was not until 1829 that the species began its northward colonization into the Mackenzie District, Yukon Territory and Alaska.

The two wild canids are sometimes impossible to distinguish from domestic dogs on the basis of bone remains and in northern North America, where wolves and dogs were deliberately interbred, lines of separation blur even further. Richardson (1836: 492-93) says of the two latter species.

The wolves and the domestic dogs of the fur countries are so like each other, that it is not easy to distinguish them at a small distance; the want of strength and courage of the former being the principal difference. The offspring of the wolf and Indian dog are prolific, and are prized by the voyagers as beasts of draught, being stronger than the ordinary dog.

Gnawed mammal, bird and fish bones at the site, point to the presence of dogs although scavenging by wild carnivores could account for some of the chew marks. Dogs were used at fur-trade sites to haul supplies, especially loads of frozen fish being taken from fishing stations to wintering posts (Krause 1976). Such dogs were fed mainly on fish but also ate other scraps and bones. There were dogs at Fort Wedderburn I (although perhaps not many), for Krause (1976: 26) implies that they were present in his statement that Fort Wedderburn was moved to Old Fort Point in the winter of 1817 because there were not enough dogs to haul fish from the fishery there back to the original fort site. Presumably any dogs present at Fort Wedderburn I were brought to the new site at Old Fort Point.

Fur traders were not averse to eating their dogs (and anything else that was even faintly edible) when food was scarce. Krause (1976: 31) says that fishermen in the Old Fort Point area during the spring of 1821 consumed dogs because the fishing season had been poor.

Alopex lagopus. Arctic fox

Seven bones from right and left hind legs and from a right front leg were found and, judging by size, all could have come from the same individual. Provenience makes it even more likely that the bones represent one animal, since six came from the northwest pit and the seventh was found in the area around this pit. The MNI is one.

The bones are assigned to this species rather than to the similar but larger red fox on a size basis. All seven fragments fall within the size range of Artic fox (and below that of red fox) as determined from measurements of specimens at the National Museum of Natural Sciences. Six bones are adult since their epiphyses are fully fused; the seventh, a tibia shaft fragment, appears adult but since the epiphyseal regions are lacking, fusion cannot be demonstrated.

Western Lake Athabasca is slightly beyond the usual southern limit of the Arctic fox's range. However, these animals make occasional migrations into the Athabasca region during late fall and winter depending upon food and weather conditions. Preble (1908: 217) remarks of this species:

In winter many of the animals migrate southward in search of food, the extent of this wandering varying greatly with the amount of snow and from other causes. During the winter of 1900-1901, the snowfall being light, they penetrated much farther south than for many years previously. We saw a number of skins which were taken during that winter in the vicinity of Fort Smith, where they had not appeared for several years.

Extralimital records (Banfield, 1974:297, map 131) show that Artic foxes are known from areas some distance south of Lake Athabasca.

Vulpes vulpes. Red fox

The large number of red fox bones is mainly due to a series of 12 caudal vertebrae found in fill of the north pit. The remaining seven bones, except for a femur fragment of indefinite provenience, were recovered from the north room and the area outside that room to the west and northwest. There were at least two individuals at the site. A humerus has faint cut marks at the distal end of the shaft.

Red foxes were common in the area and Preble (1908: 217) says of them,

During the early winter the Peace-Athabasca delta is a favorite trapping ground. The foxes are said to be attracted by the large numbers of wounded ducks and geese which escape during the fall hunt. Upward of 50 black and silver foxes, in addition to large numbers of skins in the red and cross phases, a large proportion taken in the immediate region, have been traded at Fort Chipewyan during a single season.

Lutra canadensis. River otter

Only one otter bone was found, a pelvic fragment from the northwest pit.

Otters occurred throughout the northwest and yielded valuable furs; in 1821 a large, prime otter skin was worth two beaver skins and a small one was equivalent in value to one whole beaver (Innis 1970: 319).

Mustelidae. Weasel family

A lower left canine tooth lacking most of the root and with a worn enamel surface is assigned to this family. It probably came from a skunk (Mephitis mephitis) or marten (Martes americana). The tooth was excavated from the western part of the central room.

Alces alces. Moose

Four vertebrae and three long-bone fragments were identified as belonging to two or more moose. Three of these vertebrae, probably belonging to the same individual and deposited together, were found in fill of the southernmost of the southwest pits and the fourth came from the west part of the central room. The long-bone pieces were excavated from the west part of the central room and the north room. Two fragments of radius plus ulna and an atlas show cut marks.

The moose was an important animal to the economy of the fur-trade posts, being a major source of red meat along with caribou and often bison and elk. As late as 1903-04 some northern posts still depended on moose meat; over 40 moose were killed that winter in the Fort Simpson area (west of Great Slave Lake on the Mackenzie River) to supply the fort (Preble 1908:132). Richardson (1836: 498) writes that the moose "furnishes the best and most juicy meat, with the exception of the rein-deer, the flesh of which, when in season, is more delicate. A full-grown fat moose deer weighs 1000 or 1200 pounds. The skin, when dressed, forms the best leather for mocassins."

The Chipewyan name for moose is deneee, in the Cree dialect of the Fort Chipewyan area it is called mooswa, and this is the origin of its English name (Hohn 1973:170).

Rangifer tarandus. Caribou

Seven bones including vertebrae, leg fragments and part of a right lower jaw were identified as caribou. Four pieces were found outside the building to the west; two lower leg fragments came from the central room and the jaw from the southeast room. The MNI is one. Butchering cuts occur on a leg fragment (proximal end of a metacarpal) and a vertebra.

Barren-ground caribou reach the Lake Athabasca region in winter when the herds migrate south into the forest from the tundra, but the animals usually pass by the eastern end of the lake rather than the western end. The larger woodland caribou occur to the west and southwest of the lake throughout the year, making only short seasonal movements. The identified bones are closer in size to the woodland form.

Cervidae. Deer family

Five bones can be assigned to family but not to genus or species, although they resemble caribou most closely. A small piece of an ulna came from the northwest pit and three other fragments were found west of the building; the provenience of the fifth piece is unknown. Two fragments exhibit cut marks. A separate individual cannot be assumed on the basis of these bones, for none of them duplicate any elements in the caribou or moose categories.

Bison bison Bison

Two front leg fragments, a radius and ulna, were recovered from the excavations north of the building. Both pieces are part of the same individual. The ulna fragment has faint cut marks on the medial side of the olecranon. These bones compare well in size with a radius and ulna of an adult male wood bison (NMC 39875) in the National Museum of Natural Sciences collections. Athoracic vertebra spine fragment from the north southwest pit has also been assigned to this species.

Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) ranged over the Lake Athabasca-Great Slave Lake area in the 19th century but the herds were smaller and less abundant than those of the plains bison to the south. Franklin's 1819 expedition (quoted in Preble 1908: 145), while travelling near the mouth of the Athabasca River, "observed the traces of herds of buffaloes, where they had crossed the river, the trees being trodden down and strewed, as if by a whirlwind." As late as 1885, Fort Chipewyan hunters still killed a few bison every winter, but by the end of the century wood bison were so scarce that legislation was enacted to protect the few remaining animals. Most of the bison now at Wood Buffalo National Park are a mixture of remnants of the original herds and imported plains bison.

Pemmican, a concentrated, long-lasting food made from pounded dried bison meat, fat and sometimes dried berries, was a staple food of voyageurs while travelling.

Unidentified bone: Size uncertain mammal

Three small charred pieces of bone were found in the eastern part of the central room. Not only were the fragments unidentifiable, but it was impossible even to determine the approximate size of the animals from which they came.

Unidentified bone: Medium mammal

A single toe bone from an animal about the size of a cat was recovered from the northwest pit.

Unidentified bone: Medium to large mammal

One hundred and seventy-four small bone fragments in this size class were found at the site, both within (54 fragments) and outside (120 fragments) the building. A group of 73 tiny pieces, 58 of which were burned, was found in the northernmost of the southwest pits and may represent material washed into the pit from the fireplace in the northwest corner of the southwest room. A few fragments were also found in the north and northwest pits. Two pieces bear cut marks.

Unidentified bone: Large mammal

One hundred and twenty-six unidentified large mammal bones were found at the site. Fifty-two rib fragments were recovered, one from the north room and the remainder from various locations outside the building (including one fragment from the north pit and one from the northwest pit). Most of the remaining 74 bones were long-bone fragments and a few pieces of vertebrae. Only three were found inside the building. The northwest pit contained two long-bone fragments and the north pit held three. Many bones had visible cut marks. Much of this large mammal bone is probably caribou, moose and bison scrap; several very large rib fragments are within the size range of bison.