Draft:Dale R. Croes

Dale Croes with his granddaughter, Liliko, who is wearing a chief's hat made by Ed Carriere. Picture taken at the 2023 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Annual Conference.

Dale R. Croes is an American archaeologist and former professor who has led many wet site archaeology excavations in Washington State between the 1970s to present. His primary work was as research assistant to Richard Daugherty at the Ozette Indian Village Archaeological Site, and as director of the Hoko River Archaeological Site and the Qwu?gwes (Mud Bay) Archaeological Wet Site. Croes advocated partnerships between archaeologists and indigenous peoples and his pioneering work in wet site archaeology.

Early life

Croes was born on September 2, 1947 in Fresno, California to Everett Clayton Croes II, a U.S. Army Infantry Tank Commander. He has an older brother and a younger sister. Croes moved to many places during his childhood due to his father's work as an executive for the Greyhound Bus Corporation. Croes attended middle school in Salt Lake City, UT where he was first introduced to the idea of archaeology by his art teacher. Croes and his family moved back to California in 1962, but moved to Washington State two years later.

In Washington, Croes attended Bothell High School, from which he graduated in 1965. He then applied to the University of Washington in Seattle, WA and was accepted. Croes began his undergraduate career in Mathematics, but after receiving a D in Calculus transferred to Anthropology. While at the University of Washington, Croes was a student of Erna Gunter and Bill Holm. In 1968, Croes joined a summer field school held by the university and spent six weeks excavating at shell middens on Lopez Island, one of the islands making up the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

In his senior year at UW in 1969, Croes attended a lecture given by Dr. Roald Fryxell that discussed the newly discovered Marmes Rockshelter site and the excavation project undertaken by Washington State University. This presentation included a slideshow in which Fryxell showed images taken from the WSU Ozette site near the mouth of the Hoko River that showed a preserved twine basket. Inspired by this presentation, Croes decided to apply to Washington State University for his graduate work. Croes graduated from the University of Washington in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeology.

Croes married in 1984 but divorced and was remarried to his wife, Mary Wright-Croes, in 1991. Croes has a son, Jaered, two stepsons: Trevor and Kevin, and grandchild.

Education and career

Starting in the fall of 1969, Croes entered WSU's Master of Arts in Anthropology program and was offered a position as a research assistant to Dr. Fryxell. It was during this time that Croes met Dr. Richard "Doc" Daugherty, a prominent WSU archaeologist in charge of the Ozette Indian Village site. Croes completed his Master's degree in 1973 and continued into his PhD, which was chaired by Daugherty. Croes held multiple faculty educational positions at different universities outside of Washington State University, including teaching at Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle Central Community College, Evergreen State College, Edmonds Community College, Northwest Indian College, and South Puget Sound Community College. After working as am adjunct faculty at Washington State University, Croes retired in 2013 but continued his work with the Pacific Northwest Archaeological Society and began his partnership with Ed Carriere shortly after. In addition to his numerous faculty appointments, Croes held multiple project director and principle investigator positions. Croes has also been a member of numerous professional societies, including the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), Canadian Archaeological Association, American Anthropological Association (AAA), Northwest Anthropological Society, and the Wetland Archaeological Research Project, of which he held the position of Pacific Coordinator.

Ozette Indian Village

At Ozette, Croes first worked as a research assistant for Dr. Daugherty tasked with drawing the stratigraphy of the site. Croes began his Master's thesis in the Spring of 1971, focusing on the scientific observation and generalization of Ozette basketry. Croes continued his work with Ozette for his doctoral dissertation, which he completed in 1977. While working at Ozette, Croes began his training in Ozette-style basketmaking. Croes completed both his master's thesis and PhD dissertation on ancient basketry and cordage artifacts from the site.

Hoko River

After completing his education with WSU, Croes began his post-doctoral appointment and joined the Hoko River Wet Site and Rockshelter excavation as principle investigator and director of excavation. The project site was a 3,000 year old water-logged fishing camp. This work lasted over a decade, strengthening Croes' ties with the Makah Indian Nation with whom he collaborated with during the Ozette excavation. Significant contributions from the study at the 3,000 year old site included collaboration between Croes, his students, and tribal experts to conduct experimental work with ancient wooden shanked fishhooks resulting from the recovery of 300 fishhooks of the same design from the site. 5,000 artifacts were recovered during the excavations and the project is recognized as one of the most important wet site projects in archaeology, due to its high success and establishment of hydraulic excavation techniques.

SPSCC and Qwu?gwes (Mud Bay)

In 1995, Croes took on a teaching position at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) in Olympia, WA. Four years later, Rhonda Foster, a former student who worked as the Director of the Culture and Heritage Department for the Squaxin Island Tribe contacted Croes about a possible research site on Squaxin land. From 1999 until his retirement in 2013, Croes ran a summer archaeological field school with SPSCC and the Squaxin Tribe. Significant finds from this dig include a cedar bark gill net, cedar limb rope, and numerous intact woven baskets. The gill net, Carbon-14 dated in 1999, indicated the Qwu?gwes site to be approximately 500 years old.

Sunken Village Wet Site

For two years, Croes was the director of the National Historic Landmark wet site located near Portland, Oregon. While directing the project, he worked alongside the Siletz, Grand Ronde, and Warm Springs Tribes. In addition to the equal partnership collaboration between Croes and multiple confederated Tribes, the project team also included international archaeologists, including those from universities in Japan. During his time directing the Sunken Village Wet Site project, Croes and his team excavated and recorded over 100 hemlock-branch-lined acorn leaching pits at the site, the results of which were later analyzed for use in experimental archaeology projects.

Pacific Northwest Archaeological Society (PNWAS)

Croes is the founder and continued director of the Pacific Northwest Archaeological Society (PNWAS). PNWAS is a Seattle-based regional forum 501C3 Charitable Organization . PNWAS was founded in 1985 with the intention to create a forum "for individuals and organizations to declare their support for the preservation of the rich archaeological resources" throughout the Pacific Northwest and to "help bring public archaeological programs to people" throughout the region. The organization offers its members access to workshops, public talks and lectures, and the ability to volunteer and engage with archaeological excavations that are directed by professional archaeologists.

Contributions to archaeology and cultural resource management

Equal partnership approaches in archaeology

While working at the Ozette Indian Village site as a graduate student at Washington State University, Croes, directed by Dougherty, participated in Makah cordage and basketmaking classes to learn traditional methods from Makah Elders. Through his influential experiences at the site, Croes became a staunch advocate of equal partnership approaches in the field of archaeology. Croes' efforts towards equal partnership approaches is evident across the numerous projects he completed during his career in archaeology.

In 2013, Croes began his partnership with Ed Carriere, a Squamish Elder and Master Native American Basketmaker. They have continued working together and through their partnership and have contributed extensively to the knowledge of archaeological wet site basketry. Ed is credited with having made 600 baskets over his career, based on sales records, and having replicated baskets recovered throughout Salish Sea territory dating to 4,500 years old. Their partnership was described by the 2023 SAA Archaeological Record as "nothing less than a new paradigm for collaborative partnerships between indigenous groups and archaeologists". The equal partnership approach taken by Croes and Carriere to preserve ancient Salish traditional basket making knowledge, which they described as "Generationally-Linked Archaeology", sets an excellent standard for benefits of merging scientific and cultural knowledge in contemporary archaeology.

Wet site archaeology

Croes is responsible for significant contributions in methods and analysis techniques to wet site archaeology. After his introduction to basketry and cordage techniques at Ozette, his work on wet site archaeology continued into his other projects, and has been noticed across the field as novel and significant contributions to the methodology. Of note is his work at the Hoko River site, among others, which was regarded as having introduced useful and effective techniques both in wet site excavation and analysis. In recent years, his partnership with Carriere has resulted in efforts to analyze and replicate the 2,000-year-old basketry from the Biderbost wet archaeological site currently held at the University of Washington (UW) Burke Museum.

Awards and select publications

Croes and Carriere at the 2023 Society for American Archaeology conference receiving the SAA Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis.

Over the course of his career and continuing into retirement, Croes published 55 peer-reviewed articles and 12 books, and has also contributed to numerous articles and documentaries. In 2023, Croes received the 2023 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis for their contributions to basketry and cordage studies in the Pacific Northwest. His recent book, written with Ed Carriere, on wet site basketry replication was published in 2018 "Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry: Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science" focuses on their work in understanding the evolution of traditional basketmaking on the Northwest Coast. Croes and Carriere have continued to write together, publishing both books and papers for academic journals. Croes' continued involvement with organizations such as PNWAS even after retirement, and commitment to furthering archaeological outreach can also be seen in "Pacific Northwest Archaeological Society (PNWAS): Reaching the Northwest Advocational Public for 36 Years".

References

Category:American archaeologists