FbTa 59, a possible clam garden on the central coast. Source: Elroy White / Xanius M.A. thesis.
I’ve only met Elroy once or twice but he seems like a sharp guy and I was looking forward to reading his 2006 thesis, which turns out to be an exceptional work – ambitiously trying to implement Eldon Yellowhorn’s “internalist archaeology” in his home territory (Heiltsuk) on the central coast. This project, which focuses on fishtraps, is exemplary in a couple of ways. First, as a cutting edge exercise in the practice of archaeology, indeed, practice as theory. The combination of field archaeology, internalist work with a dozen elders, and extensive videography was a great exercise. (PS Elroy, post some videos!). Second, well, fishtraps are exceptionally interesting and need more study. Essentially, we are just guessing about the specific functions and efficiencies of these features. Elroy gathers a lot of information from elders, including interesting longitudinal data showing how quickly these features silt up — evidence in some ways for their silt retention qualities and also a suggestion there may be a lot of partially or totally obscured fishtraps out there. And, as above, Elroy appears to find some “clam gardens” (diagram) in Heiltsuk territory. Maybe it’s because my doctoral SSHRC project was going to be on fishtraps until I got talked out of that and into a GIStraightjacket, but I love’em. Anyway, you can get yourself a copy of this high quality MA theses here, at SFU dSpace.
Incidentally, for an earlier, wider scope take on subsistence and settlement and fish traps on the central coast, you can also download John Pomeroy’s 1980 PhD thesis (which doesn’t show up under “archaeology” in their classification or keyword scheme for some reason.)
Elroy White (Xanius) with intertidal fishtraps. Credit: Ecotrust Canada.
