Where Have All the Red Elderberries Gone? A Collaborative Macrobotanical Analysis of Settler-Colonial Impacts on a Vital Coast Salish First Food

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2019, Willamette Cultural Resources Associates identified a diffuse and deeply buried archaeological site on the Green River, south of Seattle, Washington during construction monitoring of a large levee replacement project. The site is in close proximity to ćabćabtac, or “red elderberry place.” Macrobotanical analysis indicates that the site was used for mass processing of red elderberry (sćabt - Sambucus racemosa,) prior to intense settler appropriation of the area beginning in the 1850’s. Yet by the early 1870’s, red elderberry is absent from the vicinity according to General Land Ordinance cadastral surveyor notes. Ethnobotanical and ethnohistoric documentation are clear that settlers were well aware that red elderberry was highly prized by Coast Salish people, although they themselves thought the fruit “insipid.” We offer multiple lines of evidence, including consultation with Tribal knowledge-keepers, review of historic maps and other archival, ethnohistoric and, ethnographic sources along with our macrobotanical analysis to argue that settlers may have intentionally destroyed red elderberry to drive Native peoples away from this vital node in a carefully maintained network of traditional native foods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41692.0