Open Collections

Description

<b>Abstract</b><br/>

The study of past subsistence offers archaeologists a lens through which we can understand relationships between people and their homelands. Tsleil-Waututh Nation is a Coast Salish Nation whose traditional and unceded territory centres on Tsleil-Wat, Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada. Tsleil-Waututh people are fish specialists whose traditional diet focuses primarily on marine and tidal protein sources. In this research we draw on the archaeological record, Tsleil-Waututh oral histories, community knowledge, fisheries ecology, and historical records to build an estimated pre-contact diet that ancestral Tsleil-Waututh people obtained from Tsleil-Wat. Based on prior archaeological research, we assume a high protein diet that is primarily (90-100%) from marine and intertidal sources. The four pillars of sTsleil-Waututh pre-contact diets (salmon, herring, clams, and waterfowl) 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 pre-contact diet averaged across seasons, ages, and biological sex from approximately 1000 CE up until early European contact in approximately 1792 CE. This work offers an empirically based reconstruction of Tsleil-Waututh lifeways and subsistence practices, which were based in a myriad of stewardship techniques, and that they were forced to halt due to colonial polices. This research offers a baseline that aids in understanding the pre-contact relationship between Tsleil-Waututh Nation and their territory.</p>; <b>Methods</b><br />

All samples were analysed within the Ancient DNA and Proteins (ADαPT) Facility in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. A total of 245 fish vertebrae were analysed using the method published in Buckley et al. 2009, modified as described in Richter et al. Briefly, ca. 10–30 mg of bone was subsampled and demineralized 0.6 M HCl at 4°C. Samples were rinsed in 200 μL of 0.1 M NaOH to remove humic compound, then rinsed three times in the same volume of 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate solution (NH4HCO3) pH 8.0 (AmBic). Samples were gelatinized through incubation in 100 μL of AmBic at 65 °C for 1 h at 65, before being enzymatically digested overnight at 37 °C in 0.4 μg of trypsin. Digested samples were acidified to 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and purified using Pierce™ 100 μL C18 tips (ThermoFisher). One microliter of α-cyano-hydroxycinnamic acid (matrix) was added to 1 μL of collagen extract and spotted in triplicate with onto a 384 spot MALDI target plate alongside calibration standards. MALDI-TOF was conducted on a Bruker Ultraflex III mass spectrometer with a Nd:YAG smart beam laser, with a SNAP averaging algorithm used to obtain monoisotopic masses (C 4.9384, N 1.3577, O 1.4773, S 0.0417, H 7.7583). Triplicate spectra were averaged and visually inspected using mMass software to identify diagnostic markers published in Richter et al. The raw MALDI spectra are uploaded here. </p>