Paper short abstract:

Archaeobotanical remains provide concrete evidence for the breadth, depth, and complexity of pre-contact Indigenous resource management regimes. This paper examines how the Katzie First Nation uses the results of archaeobotanical research to challenge settler legal and policy jurisdictions.

Paper long abstract:

First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples’, whose territories encompass the modern Canadian nation-state, have actively fought since first contact with European colonists, to maintain and regain cultural, territorial, and economic sovereignty. Direct action, court cases, and engagement in modern-day treaty making are a few of the mechanisms employed by Indigenous peoples of Canada in their bid for recognition and recompense. Archaeological methods and results have been used in many cases to support pre-contact ownership and longevity, often to meet legal tests whose parameters have been set by, and are tested in, settler contexts. In this paper, we examine what archaeobotany, the study of ancient relationships between people and plants, has to offer Indigenous peoples’ rights and title cases. We speak to methodological and interpretive practices of this field, and using the case of Katzie First Nation, suggest ways in which archaeobotanical remains provide concrete evidence for the breadth, depth, and complexity of pre-contact resource management regimes required by legal conventions of settler nations to demonstrate pre-contact sovereignty. We close with thoughts on how these results directly influence land use policy in Katzie territory and how they inform this community’s bid for sovereignty.