Clamstown Field Course, May 2023
In early May, 2023, I teamed up with Gitga’at Oceans and Lands Department, Hartley Bay School, and a handful of graduate student researchers from Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia to bring a class from Coast Mountain College in Prince Rupert down to an ancient village site on Fin Island, in the territory of the Gitga’at Nation. Entitled “People and Place: Indigenous Connections to Place and Landscape in Northwest BC”, this course explored how coastal Indigenous peoples have managed, modified, and stewarded their lands for millennia, and examined the formation of culturally significant landscapes through a study of oral histories, traditional ecological knowledge, anthropological ethnography, and archaeology.
The site we visited is a very large ancient village site, as well as an exceptionally rich clam harvesting location for Gitga’at peoples both past and present. Coast Mountain College students partnered up with graduate student researchers, as well as Gitga’at Guardians from Hartley Bay to study aspects of human occupation, use, and management of the location: we conducted an archaeological excavation at one area of the village site that we know to be 4500 to 3000 years old; we surveyed the forest around the site to explore how past occupants had intentionally planted and tended culturally important food and medicine plants close to their village; and we conducted an experiment in the intertidal zone to try and understand the impacts of human harvesting on butter clam health. We were joined each day by school students from Hartley Bay who came to learn and participate in the ongoing research at their ancestral village site. The college students learned about the long-term occupation and management of places by Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples, came to understand how and why these lands and waters still hold immense significance for Indigenous communities today, and learned valuable skills for doing research (and general camping skills!) on the beautiful north coast.
I owe a huge thank-you to Gitga’at Guardians John Reece, Shelby Fisher, George Fisher, Isiah Dundas, Donald Reece, and Brody Danes, as well as to Bruce Reece, Chris Picard, and Simone Reece at Gitga’at Oceans and Lands Department. We also thank Cam and Eva Hill, and Ryan Saunders from Hartley Bay School, as well as all the Hartley Bay school students for their enthusiasm and helpful hands. Significantly, Max Miner (UBC), Kim-Ly Thompson (SFU), and Katie Dierks (SFU) provided instruction, expertise, support, and collected fantastic data for their ongoing research at this amazing site!
This project was generously supported by a UBC Indigenous Strategic Initiative Fund Grant (Principal Applicant: Max Miner).
Drone Photography in this gallery by George Fisher, Gitga’at Guardian. All other photos by B. Letham.
