Mud Bay Village Site
We believe that the Creator is with us in everything we do, so it was really no surprise that the extensive tribal village site at Mud Bay was discovered at the same time our Museum Library and Research Center was being designed. We now have a safe Home for Sacred Belongings.
The site is being partially excavated through a cooperative effort of the Squaxin Island Tribe and South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC). Unearthed during this excavation was a rare cedar bark gill net full of hundreds of coho salmon. Only four other such nets have been discovered throughout the entire West Coast, none of which are made of cedar bark. The find stirs the imagination and conjures up dreams of youth learning to fish and being unable to pull against a strong tide, thus loosing their impressive catch.
"We have so many fishermen," said Cultural Resources Director Rhonda Foster. "This really ties us to our ancestors."
Carbon-14 testing of the net took place in the fall of 1999 and indicates the site to be approximately 500 years old.
Also found during the excavation were two sets of fish traps, two cedar fish baskets, shell jewelry, a large number of stone and bone artifacts and fibrous basket-making materials. Approximately ten percent of the site is scheduled to be excavated. The items recovered are used to help us understand the every day lives of our tribal ancestors.
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A Young Tribal member examines the Mud Bay site exhibit |
College and tribal officials agreed to partially excavate the site on Mud Bay in Eld Inlet after the property owner contacted the college. He expressed an interest in further study of the area near his home where he had discovered numerous artifacts, including ancient fish traps that are more than 100 feet in length, tools, fire-cracked rock, basketry materials and shell middens.
"This is an extremely rich village site," said SPSCC Anthropology Professor Dale Croes who also took part in the Ozette site excavation at Makah.
A natural spring at the site has kept the net and 95% of the other artifacts made of wood and fiber in tact throughout the centuries. As water seeped down through the layers of mud accumulated by years of logging siltation, oxygen was depleted. Bacteria, which break down wood and fibrous materials, could not survive without oxygen.
The students' findings are being digitally recorded and include thousands of images, charts and data that are available through the MLRC and the college.