Archaeology
is a science dedicated to improving our understanding of our collective human
past through study of physical remains left behind. Artifacts are perhaps
the best known unit of study. These include all portable objects (from stone
tools to forks) that have been made, modified or used by human beings. Features
are objects, such as cooking hearths, rock walls, or storage pits, that cannot
be removed without destroying their basic integrity. Clustered concentrations
of artifacts and features on the landscape typically are defined as archaeological
sites. The patterned configuration of sites with their associated features
and artifacts provides a valuable archaeological record of long-term human
use of a place –a record no less important at Mount Rainier than at
parks, such as Mesa Verde in Colorado or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, better
known for their spectacular archaeological remains.
Although artifacts and features may be studied and appreciated in isolation from one another, it is their context --their spatial and temporal relationship to one another, to geological features in the ground, and to other sites across the landscape-- that provides the most meaningful information about the past and gives the objects and sites their greatest scientific value. Archaeological remains at Mount Rainier represent a uniquely important record of long-term human activity in the park. So long as it remains intact, that record provides a means to develop a better understanding of ancient peoples’ ways of life, how the mountain fit into broader regional subsistence and settlement patterns, and how those patterns changed through time.
Charred bone and plant remains found in archeological sites, for example, provide information about animals and plants hunted and gathered long before they were documented in historical records. These remains can indicate the age of the site, and the seasons in which people visited that location. In addition, they can answer questions about past habitat conditions and animal species inhabiting park landscapes.
From their manufacture stone tools and the debris can tell us about the
technology of native peoples and how they organized their hunting and gathering
activities. Site distribution patterns inform us as to how they allocated
use of space. Even more recent archaeological remains such as old cans, bottles,
machinery and other abandoned objects can tell us about aspects of the lives
of local people which were never written down in historical documents.
Mount
Rainier National Park maintains active relations with six Indian tribes located
in its vicinity: the Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin Island, Muckleshoot, Yakama,
and Cowlitz. All but the Cowlitz trace their modern tribal identity to one
or more of three treaties signed in 1854 and 1855. The Upper Cowlitz, or Taidnapam,
did not sign a treaty with the United States, but like the treaty tribes,
maintained traditional ties to landscapes that later became part of Mount
Rainier National Park. Tribal people journeyed to the park in the summer and
early fall to hunt and to gather berries, medicinal plants and other resources
of use to them throughout the year. They continued to pursue these activities
even after the park was created in 1899, and the mountain remains important
to them to this day.
Because of the park’s growing archaeological record, we know that the ancestors of modern tribal people ranged widely over the mountain’s mid to upper elevation landscapes. We also know that, as early as 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, when Mount Rainier was largely draped in ice and permanent snowpack, people lived in the plains and valleys within its view. Sometime between about 9,000 and 8,500 years ago the mountain’s mid-slope settings became free of permanent snowpack and developed plant and animal communities similar to modern subalpine parklands. From limited archaeological testing, we have learned that, by 4,000 years ago, Indian people were hunting and gathering at places like Sunrise and other park mid to upper elevation landscapes. We do not yet know how early this use began, but it is reasonable to believe that it began as early as productive plant and animal populations became established on the mountain about 8,500 years ago.
It was once widely believed that Indian people seldom used Mount Rainier’s imposing mountain landscapes. That view began to change in 1963 with the discovery of the park’s first archaeological site –a rockshelter later found to be about 1,200 years old and containing charred goat, mountain beaver, deer, elderberry and wild hazelnut remains in association with pit features, fire cracked rock, broken projectile points, and profuse stone tool re-sharpening flakes and debris. Archaeological studies at Mount Rainier began in earnest in the late 1990s with completion of the park’s first systematic survey and archaeological overview, and development of a permanent position to oversee protection of the park’s prehistoric and more recent historical cultural resources. In addition, an archaeological field school conducted by Central Washington University (CWU) between 1997 and 2001 provided valuable insight into the use of the northeastern portion of the park.
Our present understanding of prehistoric Mount Rainier is based on systematic
surveys and small to moderate size testing projects such as these. Site specific
reconnaissance projects and geological studies also are made possible by construction
and maintenance activities in the park. At present, approximately 3.5% of
the park’s land area has been inventoried for archaeological remains.
These inventories have documented over 75 prehistoric sites and isolated artifacts.
These are predominantly lithic scatters, collections of debris from the manufacture
and re-sharpening of 
chipped
stone tools. Patterned variation in artifact content and setting suggest that
different sites were used for long-term base camps, short-term hunting camps,
kill sites, and butchering sites. Other sites include places where cedar bark
was stripped from trees, places food was stored in talus slope pits, and places
where tool stone was extracted.
Inventoried archaeological remains at Mount Rainier also include over 35 historic period sites and isolated artifacts. Most of these represent late 19th to early 20th century mining, recreation and early park development, and consist of old camp sites, trash, abandoned roadbeds, mine adits, and remnant structural remains.