ABSTRACT
Warfare played an important role in the structure of historic Northwest Coast society and recent archaeological research demonstrates that warfare has a long history in the region. The first evidence for conflict on the Northwest Coast occurs by 3000 B.C. and is seen primarily in non-lethal skeletal injuries. By A.D. 200–500 warfare is seen in the construction of defensive sites, the formation of large amalgamation villages, a shift in village settlement to more defensible locales in southeast Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands, and a population decline along the British Columbia mainland coast and the Gulf of Georgia. By A.D. 900 another apparent escalation of conflict is seen archaeologically as a proliferation of 268defensive site construction and a shift in subsistence in some areas. In the early nineteenth century, conflict was prevalent throughout the region despite a population density lower than any in the last 1000 years, casting doubt on materialist explanations for warfare based on the ethnographic data, while supporting a more historical perspective.
