Ancient Marine Management in Northern Coast Salish Territory, British Columbia, Canada

On the Northwest Coast of North America, extensive ethnographic evidence indicates the extent  to which the region’s First Peoples managed their marine and terrestrial ecosystems.  Archaeologists, however,  have been slower to consider more ancient evidence of management.  This presentation  explores the archaeological evidence of marine resource management in the traditional territory of the Northern Coast Salish, on British Columbia’s southern coast. We examine ancient marine management through a series of nested, spatial scales that include the analysis of zooarchaeological fish remains and intertidal stone and wood features.   We argue that the construction of intertidal features and associated management of marine resources played a part in ensuring equal access to and sustained exploitation of a suite of marine resources throughout the late Holocene.