Published In

Human Ecology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2015

Subjects

Mariculture -- Northwest Coast of North America, Clam culture -- Northwest Coast of North America, Traditional ecological knowledge, Kwakiutl Indians -- Subsistence activities

Abstract

The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America actively managed natural resources in diverse ways to enhance their productivity and proximity. Among those practices that have escaped the attention of anthropologists until recently is the traditional management of intertidal clam beds, which Northwest Coast peoples have enhanced through techniques such as selective harvests, the removal of shells and other debris, and the mechanical aeration of the soil matrix. In some cases, harvesters also removed stones or even created stone revetments that served to laterally expand sediments suitable for clam production into previously unusable portions of the tidal zone. This article presents the only account of these activities, their motivations, and their outcomes, based on the first-hand knowledge of a traditional practitioner, Kwakwaka’wakw Clan Chief Kwaxistalla Adam Dick, trained in these techniques by elders raised in the nineteenth century when clam “gardening” was still widely practiced.

Description

© The Author(s) 2015

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The original version of this article was revised due to a retrospective Open Access order.

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-015-9743-3

DOI

10.1007/s10745-015-9743-3

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/30457

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