Ancient dog diets on the Pacific Northwest Coast: zooarchaeological and stable isotope modelling evidence from Tseshaht territory and beyond

Abstract

Domestic dogs are frequently encountered in Indigenous archaeological sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. Although dogs depended on human communities for care and provisioning, archaeologists lack information about the specific foods dogs consumed. Previous research has used stable isotope analysis of dog diets for insight into human subsistence (‘canine surrogacy’ model) and identified considerable use of marine resources. Here, we use zooarchaeological data to develop and apply a Bayesian mixing model (MixSIAR) to estimate dietary composition from 14 domestic dogs and 13 potential prey taxa from four archaeological sites (2,900–300 BP) in Tseshaht First Nation territory on western Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Two candidate models that best match zooarchaeological data indicate dogs predominantly consumed salmon and forage fish (35–65%), followed by nearshore fish (4–40%), and marine mammals (2–30%). We compared these isotopic data to dogs across the Northwest Coast, which indicated a pronounced marine diet for Tseshaht dogs and, presumably, their human providers. These results are broadly consistent with the canine surrogacy model as well as help illuminate human participation in pre-industrial marine food webs and the long-term role of fisheries in Indigenous economies and lifeways.

“A Part of the People”: Human-Dog Relationships among the Northern Coast Salish of SW British Columbia

“…Robust future analyses of dog-people interactions across regions would combine the kinds of data and knowledge presented here with historical linguistics. Another area of study that holds promise for further elucidating past human-dog relationships is stable isotope analysis (e.g., Hillis et al 2020). Future directions for research should also build on our genetic data by incorporating whole genome sequencing and calculating population diversity indexes.…”

The history of Coast Salish “woolly dogs” revealed by ancient genomics and Indigenous Knowledge

“…To test for dietary differences between Mutton and the SB dog, we performed stable isotope analysis of δ 13 C and δ 15 N on bone collagen and hair keratin. The SB dog has high δ 13 C and δ 15 N values similar to archaeological dogs from the PNW ( 22 ), indicating a traditional marine-based diet ( Figs. S13-S14) .…”

Estimating Volumes of Coastal Shell Midden Sites Using Geometric Solids

“…A considerable amount of archaeological survey and excavation has been conducted in the study area over the last 50 years (Haggarty and Inglis 1985; Hillis et al 2020; McKechnie 2014; McMillan and St. Claire 1982, 2005; St. Claire 1975). In the early 1980s, the entirety of the Broken Group Islands was systematically surveyed as part of the process of establishing a cultural heritage baseline for Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (PRNPR; Haggarty and Inglis 1985).…”