[LINK] "Study undermines narrative of B.C. First Nations as simple hunter-gatherers"

[rfmcdonald]

Last week, the Vancouver Sun shared Geordon Omand's Canadian Press article examining the intensive nature of food production among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific coast of North America.

The discovery of an expansive system of historic clam gardens along the Pacific Northwest coast is contributing to a growing body of work that's busting long-held beliefs about First Nations as heedless hunter-gatherers.

A team of researchers at Simon Fraser University has revealed that First Nations from Alaska to Washington state were marine farmers using sophisticated cultivation techniques to intensify clam production.

In an article published recently in the journal American Antiquity, lead author Dana Lepofsky argued that the findings counter the perception of First Nations living passively as foragers in wild, untended environments.

"Once you start calling someone a hunter-gatherer there's something implied ... about not really being connected to the land or sea and not needing much from it," she said.

"Even if they aren't formal agricultural plots in the way that Europeans recognized, they were still cultivating the landscape."