Exploring Stó:Lō-Coast Salish Interaction and Identity in Ancient Houses and Settlements in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia

Abstract

Social scientists recognize a complex and iterative relationship between the built environment and social identities. Here, we explore the extent to which household and settlement remains may be used as archaeological correlates of collective identities among the Stó:lō-Coast Salish peoples of the Fraser River Valley. Using data from six recently tested archaeological sites we begin with the household and explore expressions of identity at various social-spatial scales. The sites span the period from 4200 cal B.C. to the late A.D. 1800s and include settlements with semi-subterranean houses of different forms as well as aboveground plank houses. Across this timeframe we see both change and continuity in settlement location, layout, size, and house form. Our data suggest that although group identities have changed over the millennia, selected social units have persisted through many generations and can be linked to present-day identities of the Stó:lō-Coast Salish.

Social Zooarchaeology of a Northwest Coast House

“…Household archaeology, contrastingly, has been a wellrepresented research orientation in this general area of the Northwest Coast. Recent studies by Lepofsky et al (2000Lepofsky et al ( , 2009, Grier (2001Grier ( , 2006, and Ames (1995Ames ( , 2006Ames et al 2008) have been particularly influential (also see Coupland et al 2009;Samuels 1991Samuels , 1994Samuels , 2006.…”

Characterizing crystalline volcanic rock (CVR) deposits from Galiano Island, B.C., Canada: Implications for lithic material procurement at the Dionisio Point locality

“…Marpole lifeways have received significant attention in the literature, as it is the first period on the southern BC coast with substantial large cedar plankhouse villages (Burley, 1980;Matson and Coupland, 1994;Thom, 1995). Archeologists have long hypothesized significant connections between the development of large houses and villages on the Northwest Coast and the emergence of new forms of social inequality and, germane to our current study, formalized regional interaction networks (Ames, 1995: 181;Ames and Maschner, 1999;Beattie, 1981;Burley, 1980;Burley and Knusel, 1989;Lepofsky et al, 2009;Moss, 2011;Schaepe, 2009). Importantly, the Marpole and subsequent Late Period are characterized by formalized regional exchange networks of lithic materials, both raw and finished (Grier, 2003).…”

“What We’ve Said Can be Proven in the Ground”: Stó:lō Sovereignty and Historical Narratives at Xá:ytem, 1990–2006

“…40 Excavated materials indicate that Xá:ytem was first occupied roughly 9,000 years ago, and while residential structures were not built until approximately 4,500 years later, after that point generations of Salishan people lived in them consistently. 41 These findings contribute significantly to our contemporary understandings of Coast Salish peoples' dwellings and social organization prior to contact. 42 As STC chairman Clarence Pennier said at the time, the archaeological evidence demonstrates that Stó:lō had a "much more structured society than they gave us credit for."…”