Scott Byram has conducted extensive research on intertidal wood stake fishing weir sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. Byram’s research integrates indigenous archaeology with ethnohistory. Recent articles address the effects of colonization on the Yaquina Tribe, the massive loss of shell mounds to early coastal road construction, and the effects of the 1700 A.D. Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami on Native communities of the Oregon coast. His research with David Lewis on indigenous trade across subarctic North America has opened new inquiry into long distance trade and other interaction between Native groups east and west of the Rockies. Byram is currently investigating 19th century archival maps depicting shell mounds and other archaeological sites along the coast and tidewater of California. He also works as a consultant in cultural resource management, often in collaboration with Indian tribes in Oregon and California.
Northwest Ethnohistory
Colonial Power and Indigenous Justice: Fur Trade Violence and Its Aftermath in Yaquina Narrative, Oregon Historical Quarterly (2008)
Oregon Archaeology
Shell Mounds and Shell Roads: The Destruction of Oregon Coast Middens for Early Road Surfacing, Current Archaeological Happenings in Oregon (2009)
Brush Fences and Basket Traps: The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Tidewater Weir Fishing on the Oregon Coast (2002)
Anthropologists recognize the economic importance of fishing weirs in the harvest of marine resources by...