Kenneth Ames
Kenneth Ames was Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Portland State University. He was an expert in cultural evolutionary theory and the Archaeology of North America and East Asia, with special emphasis on western North America and the Northwest Coast. He served as the director of PSU's Wapato Valley Archaeological Project, which includes (among other sites) major excavations of Cathlapotle and the Meier Site. He has published dozens of articles and books, most recently Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia (UW Press, 2013). He passed away in 2019.
Author's Entries
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Cathlapotle
Cathlapotle is the archaeological site of a major Chinookan town located in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, at the place where Lake River, Gee Creek, the Lewis River, and the Multnomah Channel join the Columbia near Ridgefield, Washington. It was founded in its current location at about AD 1450. Of …
Oregon Encyclopedia
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Chinookan Plankhouses
The Chinookan peoples of the Lower Columbia River built a variety of shelters, depending on season and purpose. The best known are plankhouses, post-and-beam structures built using Western red cedar posts and planks for walls, roofs, and sometimes floors. Chinookan plankhouses were part of a Native architectural tradition that in …
Oregon Encyclopedia
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Meier Site
The Meier site, the subject of an archaeological excavation that documents an early community on the lower Columbia River, is located near Scappoose, on the margin of the Columbia floodplain. The site, named for the farmer who once owned the land, contains the remains of a single, large, …
Oregon Encyclopedia
