April 2015, Volume 43, Issue 2, pp 201-212
Kwakwaka’wakw “Clam Gardens”
Motive and Agency in Traditional Northwest Coast Mariculture
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.
