Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Minor's (1995) efforts to invalidate the conclusions he ascribed to me regarding the prelittoral stage are unnecessary and misdirected. In misunderstanding and thus misrepresenting what I have said about that stage, he constructed straw men. In referencing faunal evidence from Tahkenitch Landing in an attempt to refute the existence of the pre-littoral stage, he failed to acknowledge the fact that various resources found in the littoral zone are also found in the open ocean and in the upstream reaches of rivers. In citing the evidence from Indian Sands in an attempt to corroborate his beliefs, he failed to consider relevant data and lost sight of the fact that radiocarbon dating is an indirect dating method that hinges on associations.