Aboriginal Cordage in Western North America.Robert L. Hoover. El Centro, California: Imperial Valley College Museum Society, Occasional Paper No. 1, 1974. 52 pp.

This paper reports the excavation and analysis of the archaeological deposit in Ord Shelter (CA-SBr-2846), located in the south-central Mojave Desert, California. The site was excavated in October, 1971, by a field party from the University of California, Riverside. It contained a small bed of bunch grass, adjacent to and under which were found three fragments of basketry, a bone tool, miscellaneous fragments of sinew and cordage, pieces of a carrying net, and a cache containing two bundles of snares. The site is of interest because its well-preserved assemblage was left there perhaps by only a single individual nearly 2000 years ago.

The subspecies of Dicoria canescens discussed in this paper are widespread in the Arid West, ranging from northwestern Sonora and southwestern Arizona through the California deserts, north to Churchill County, Nevada, and east into Utah (Abrams and Ferris 1960[IV]:144). In view of this distribution, and in consideration of the data from the Coachella Valley, it would seem probable that Dicoria has been a much-overlooked aboriginal food source that was of considerable importance in eastern California and at least the southern part of the Great Basin, as well as regions to the southeast. It would have been particularly important when foods traditionally stored for winter use (such as pine nuts and mesquite beans) were in short supply.