Making space for a historical archaeology of Indigenous peoples/Pour une archéologie historique des peuples autochtones

Session Hosting Format: 
in-person session
Date/Time: 
Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 10:40am to 3:40pm
(ADT)
Room: 
Yukon Room
Organizer(s): 
  • Solène Mallet Gauthier, University of Alberta
  • Emily Haines, University of Alberta
Contact Email: 
Session Description (300 word max): 

ENG

We often tend to associate the historic period with Euro-Canadian occupations while archaeological considerations of Indigenous peoples are mainly constrained to the “prehistoric” period. When Indigenous peoples of the historic period are studied, they are often only positioned in contrast to Euro-Canadians, or found in the background of their economic activities (e.g., the fur trade). These trends perpetuate the ideas of “acculturation” or “disappearance” of Indigenous peoples when confronted with Euro-Canadian contact and contributes to the erasure of the Indigenous presence in the historic period. The past few years have seen the development of a more inclusive understanding of historical archaeology that makes space for Indigenous peoples and their experiences. In fact, studying Indigenous archaeological occupations from the historic period allows for the examination of cultural change, resilience and the continuation of Indigenous peoples and cultures into the present.

We invite papers (virtual or in-person in English or French) that focus on the experience of Indigenous peoples during the historic period, historic Indigenous occupations, and papers that reinvite Indigenous peoples into the narrative of historic Canadian archaeology and history. This session aims to create a space for discussions for this topic to grow within Canadian archaeology, but we welcome contributions from other parts of the world that relate to this topic.

FR

Nous avons souvent tendance à associer la période historique aux occupations Euro-Canadiennes, alors que les peuples autochtones sont souvent confinés à la période dite préhistorique. Lorsqu’ils sont étudiés, les peuples autochtones vivant à la période historique servent souvent de contraste aux Euro-Canadiens ou sont retrouvés dans l’arrière-plan de leurs activités économiques (comme la traite des fourrures). Ces tendances perpétuent des idées selon lesquelles les peuples autochtones auraient été « acculturés » ou auraient tout simplement « disparu » lorsque confrontés à une présence Euro-Canadienne grandissante mais contribuent également à l’effacement de la présence des Autochtones de la période historique. Une archéologie historique plus inclusive a commencé à se développer au cours des dernières années et a permis de prendre en compte les expériences des peuples autochtones. Dans les faits, l’étude des occupations autochtones de la période historique permet d’examiner les questions de changements culturels, de résilience mais aussi de souligner la continuation des peuples et cultures autochtones dans le présent.

Nous invitons les communications (virtuelles ou en personne, en français ou en anglais) portant sur les expériences des peuples autochtones durant la période historique, sur les occupations autochtones de cette période, ainsi que les travaux qui cherchent à réinsérer les peuples autochtones dans le récit de la période historique au Canada. Cette session cherche à créer un espace de discussion pour participer au développement de ce sujet en archéologie au Canada, mais nous invitons également les présentations en lien avec le sujet qui portent sur d’autres régions du monde.

Presentations
10:40 AM: Re-reading Fur Trade Archaeology as Métis Archaeology in western Canada
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Kisha Supernant - University of Alberta

Much historical archaeology in Canada has focused on the fur trade, with explorations of trading posts, forts, and other associated sites. These studies have tended to focus on the economies of European traders and, at times, Indigenous-fur trade relations. However, every fur-trade post, especially in western Canada, was built and largely staffed by Métis families. The focus on the European fur traders demonstrates the ways in which whiteness is centered in fur trade archaeology, although these places are deeply connected to the emergence of the Métis Nation and Métis coalescence as a distinct Indigenous identity. In this paper, I re-read the archaeological work of several fur trading posts along the North Saskatchewan River with a Métis lens, shifting the focus from the small number of European to the large number of Métis families who lived, worked, and made a home at fur trading post. This shift opens new interpretive possibilities for Indigenous historical archaeology in Canada.

11:00 AM: Reconsidering Connections Between European Trade and the Iroquoian Depopulation of the St. Lawrence River Valley Using a Bayesian Approach
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Jonathan Micon - University of Georgia

The depopulation of the St. Lawrence River Valley by Iroquoian-speaking people has long fascinated archaeologists in northeastern North America. This departure had profound effects on surrounding Indigenous societies and ultimately opened the St. Lawrence River to European colonization in the seventeenth century. As the story goes, between 1450 and 1580, St. Lawrence Iroquoians were attacked and assimilated by their Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee neighbors over competition for European objects. Though there is little archaeological evidence to support this narrative, it has remained at the center of many scholarly discourses on the matter. In this paper, I use recently published radiocarbon timelines from southern Ontario and New York State alongside material proxies for St. Lawrence Iroquoian movement to explore the relationship between the timing of Iroquoian movements away from the St. Lawrence Valley, the emergence of inter-regional conflict, and the onset of European trade. I contend that any honest and accurate understanding of the factors driving depopulation must be contextualized within Iroquoian social and historical developments. These developments preceded depopulation and the beginnings of European trade by over a century and continued to influence Iroquoian relationships to the St. Lawrence Valley well after 1580.

11:20 AM: Teacups on the Prairies: Finding Métis Meanings Within English Ceramics
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Dawn Wambold - Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, University of Alberta

During the 1870’s, the Métis employed a hunting strategy which involved overwintering on the prairies to position themselves within proximity to the dwindling bison herds. The members of these overwintering communities were referred to as hivernants. English transferware ceramics, including those associated with tea, are one of several diagnostic belongings used to identify Métis hivernant sites. These fragile belongings seem incongruous when the seasonality and mobility of these bison hunting sites is considered. Previous studies have attributed the initial adoption of ceramics as an expression of status and social role within Métis settlements such as Red River. These same studies propose that the use of ceramics persisted into the hivernant lifestyle as part of a symbolic expression related to social interaction and integration. As a Métis archaeologist, I reopen the investigation into the use of English ceramics at hivernant sites and apply the Métis epistemologies of wâhkôhtowin and keeoukaywin to my research. By doing so, I reinvite the Métis into the narrative of their own histories and help to tell the story of teatime on the prairies in a more culturally relevant manner.

11:40 AM: The role of historic archaeology in interpreting the First Nation experience of the Klondike Gold Rush
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Christian Thomas - Yukon Government
  • Allie Winton - Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation
  • Debbie Nagano - Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation
  • Lee Whalen - Yukon Government

The history of Canada is often centred on the colonial narratives of pioneers and explorers, and celebrated through monuments established at historic settlements. In these narratives the history of Indigenous peoples gets treated as an abbreviated preface to the history of a place.  Much of the founding mythos of the Yukon is similarly situated around the events related to the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. In 2004 Canada placed Tr’ondëk-Klondike on the tentative list of sites to be nominated for World Heritage recognition. During the development of the nomination, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation observed that many of the site attributes originally put forward for consideration in this process excluded the First Nation experience of a colonial event that dramatically impacted their society. While a broad and complex suite of information sources were ultimately resourced to develop the nomination, in this talk we will focus on the role of archaeological interpretation in expressing a more authentic understanding of the Klondike Gold Rush.  

01:00 PM: Learning from the recent past in Inuit Labrador
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Laura Kelvin - University of Manitoba
  • Lisa Rankin - Memorial University

The conceptual divide between pre-contact and post contact archaeology is Eurocentric, and has often resulted in European-focused research during the post-contact era. This divide also limits our understandings of the past as it often silos methods and theories, and severs the continuity of Indigenous pasts, presents, and futures. Although archaeologists are increasingly recognizing the many issues surrounding this divide, Inuit archaeology throughout much of Inuit Nunangat is still focused on the time prior to European contact. However, Inuit archaeology in Labrador has always been primarily focused on the post-contact time period, and offers unique insight into the importance of Indigenous-centered, post-contact archaeology. Much of Inuit archaeology in Labrador has come about through community partnered research, and has been driven by direct questions from Inuit communities. Inuit archaeology in Labrador highlights the value post-contact, Indigenous-centered archaeology can have to contemporary Indigenous communities and the study of archaeology.

01:20 PM: Beaver Persistence and Resistance: Collaborative Research on Human-Animal Relationships
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Jessica Metcalfe - Lakehead University
  • Elizabeth Carpenter - Lakehead University
  • Victoria Wanihadie - Tsattine Resurgence Society

Beaver people (Dane-zaa or Tsattine in the Beaver language) have lived in the Peace region of northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia since time immemorial, but colonial impacts have resulted in frequent lack of recognition within their own territories. In this presentation, we describe the origins and development of a collaborative project that aims to assert Beaver presence in northwestern Alberta and investigate past and present relations between Beaver people and animals. Initially we planned to begin our project with land-based collaborative learning, but when this was delayed due to the global pandemic we turned to documenting colonial impacts on Beaver people and their ongoing persistence and resistance. We have produced an interactive timeline that is intended as a resource to help Beaver people and settler-Canadians better understand the events that contributed to the situation in which we now work and live. We argue that the ongoing injustices perpetrated against Beaver people demands a critical approach to archaeology that asks who benefits from our research and why, and includes Beaver people in respectful, meaningful, and beneficial ways. As others have pointed out, this may involve work that goes outside the boundaries of what is generally recognized as archaeology.

01:40 PM: Les missions Saint-François-de-Sales (Odanak) et Saint-François-Xavier (W8linak) : Une occupation traditionnelle w8banaki du territoire avant, pendant et après l’arrivée des Européens
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Roxane Lévesque - Grand Conseil de la Nation Waban-Aki
  • Louis-Vincent Laperrière-Désorcy - Grand Conseil de la Nation Waban-Aki

Au début du XVIIIe siècle, les jésuites installent les missions Saint-François-de-Sales et Saint-François-Xavier sur Alsig8ntegw (rivière Saint-François) et W8linaktegw (rivière Bécancour), respectivement, deux rivières d’importance sur le territoire traditionnel de la Nation W8banaki appelé le Ndakina. Ces missions, implantées à l’emplacement de campements w8banakiak déjà existants, verront l’installation de plusieurs familles w8banaki qui continueront d’occuper, d’utiliser et de parcourir le territoire selon leurs traditions ancestrales. Malgré les divers ajustements que la présence européenne a entrainé au fil des siècles, les W8banakiak continuent de pratiquer fièrement leurs activités traditionnelles, telle la vannerie de frêne noir, la chasse, la pêche, le piégeage et la cueillette. L’utilisation et l’importance des rivières et de leur bassins versants comme voie navigable afin de parcourir le territoire ancestral, d’une extrémité à l’autre, est identifié dans les vestiges archéologiques, l’histoire écrite, la tradition orale et encore aujourd’hui par les activités entreprises sur le territoire par les membres de la Nation W8banaki. Nous présentons ici une synthèse des différentes recherches et projets réalisés au Bureau du Ndakina sur Alsig8ntegw et W8linaktegw pour illustrer l’utilisation et l’occupation traditionnelle du Ndakina à travers le temps.

02:00 PM: Transcending Time: Exploring households and their social organization at ts’unay
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Angela  Burant - University of Saskatchewan

The existence of the shíshálh Nation within Lekw’emin (Jervis Inlet) during the precontact period has been well established, but minimal research has been conducted to show their continued presence throughout the historic period. As part of the shíshálh Archaeological Research Project (sARP), my research focused on the village of ts’unay, located in Lekw’emin, just north of modern-day Sechelt, British Columbia. This village site was inhabited up to the contact period until smallpox left the village nearly deserted, giving it the colonial name of Deserted Bay. The members that sustained the population occupied ts’unay throughout the contact period, even after the logging industry began to develop camps within the inlet system. Last summer, I conducted fieldwork at ts’unay to locate the historic houses and connect them to living members of the shíshálh Nation. Using spatial analysis, I will utilize archaeological remains found at the site to establish activity areas and any status differences. The community shared their lived histories relating to the site, including insights into its layout and the family affiliation associated with each household. This research will allow us to show the continuation of shíshálh people occupying land within Lekw’emin, and link living descendants with ancestral households.

02:20 PM: The Archaeology of 18th and 19th Century Indigenous-Land Relationships in the Grand River Valley, Ontario
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Gary Warrick - Wilfrid Laurier University

In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg (Mississauga) were inextricably linked to the lands and non-humans of the Grand River valley, southern Ontario. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that Indigenous-land relationships in the Grand River valley remained relatively the same for thousands of years and that they continue today despite the impacts of settler colonialism and despite historical and ongoing efforts by settlers to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their land. This paper will show how archaeological and historical evidence can dismantle the myths that are behind the erasure of Indigenous peoples from the colonial landscape and reinstate the Grand River as an Indigenous cultural heritage landscape.

02:40 PM: The Difficulties in Identifying 19th-Century Indigenous Sites in CRM
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Matthew Beaudoin - TMHC

CRM archaeology in Ontario is increasingly being challenged to justify why a 19th-century archaeological site is or is not considered an Indigenous site. At its core, this question forces us to examine many of our base assumptions about the conceptual short-cuts that commonly used to make interpretations. This paper examines many of the common assumptions that are used by CRM archaeologists to identify 19th-century Indigenous sites and discusses the implications of these assumptions and the impacts on the contemporary Indigenous communities.

03:20 PM: An Exploration of Historical Archaeology and Urban Indigenous Histories in Canada
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Emily Haines - University of Alberta, Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology
  • Solène Mallet Gauthier - University of Alberta, Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology

Urban spaces are heavily associated with settler colonialism and the functions of the state in what is now known as Canada. However, many Canadian cities have continued to host large Indigenous populations from their foundation to the modern day. The lives of Indigenous peoples throughout the historic period in these urban settings has rarely been explored archaeologically, with a far greater emphasis on prehistoric Indigenous presence being common. In this paper, we’ll briefly explore the historic lives of Indigenous peoples in Edmonton (Alberta) and Montréal (Québec) through their actual and potential archaeological footprints. We will examine the historical archaeological work that has been undertaken in these locales, the possibilities for an urban Indigenous historical archaeology that illuminates the varied experiences of Indigenous peoples during this period, and comment on the role archaeology can play in disrupting the narratives that continue to exclude Indigenous peoples from urban spaces by associating Indigeneity with hinterland and settler society with urbanity.