A Fish-Focused Menu: An Interdisciplinary Reconstruction of Ancestral Tsleil-Waututh Diets

Abstract

The study of past subsistence offers archeologists a lens through which we can understand relationships between people and their homelands. səl̓ilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) is a Coast Salish Nation whose traditional and unceded territory centers on səl̓ilwət (Tsleil-Wat, Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada). səl̓ilwətaɬ people were fish specialists whose traditional diet focused primarily on marine and tidal protein sources. In this research, we draw on the archeological record, ecology, historical and archival records, and səl̓ilwətaɬ oral histories and community knowledge to build an estimated precontact diet that ancestral səl̓ilwətaɬ people obtained from səl̓ilwət. Based on prior archeological research, we assume a high protein diet that is primarily (90–100 percent) from marine and tidal sources. The four pillars of səl̓ilwətaɬ precontact diets (salmon, forage fish, shellfish, and marine birds) offer anchor points that ensure the diet is realistic, evidence-based, and representative of community knowledge. We consider the caloric needs of adults, children, elders, and those who are pregnant or lactating. Finally, we consider the variation in the edible yield from different animal species and their relationships in the food web. Together, these data and anchor points build an estimated precontact diet averaged across seasons, ages, and biological sex from approximately 1000 CE up until early European contact in approximately 1792 CE. The reconstruction of səl̓ilwətaɬ lifeways and subsistence practices, which were based on a myriad of stewardship techniques, aid our understanding of the precontact səl̓ilwətaɬ diet and the relationship between səl̓ilwətaɬ and their territory.