5,000 Years of Kalispel Food Security: A Multiproxy Approach to Food Processing, Preference, and Access in the Past

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Food, Land, and Communities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Food security is fundamental to strong, resilient food systems, and healthy communities. It exists when all people have consistent access to nutritious and culturally appropriate foods, gathered and distributed in socially acceptable ways. Archaeology offers a means of documenting and understanding deep time histories and legacies of food security, highlighting millennia of subsistence solutions across climatic and social conditions. In this paper, we explore the archaeology of food security and resilience of the Pend Orielle Valley of the Northwest plateau, in partnership with the Kalispel Tribe. We thoughtfully examine interdisciplinary approaches to food security, justice, and sovereignty before examining the archaeological record of plant food availability, access, preference, and sustainability over the last 5,000 years. We specifically look to macrobotanical, geoarchaeological, and fire-cracked rock data lines from communal food processing and consumption features within nine sites located in ancestral Kalispel lands. As we continue to work together, we share these records of food security and provisioning with the Tribe so they can continue to define their own contemporary food system that honors and acknowledges these culinary traditions and histories of resilience.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Cultivating Food, Land, and Communities

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39959.0