Salish Agriculture

Komo Kulshan, or Mount Baker, is an active volcano in the northern Cascade Range of Washington state. Fertilized by Komo Kulshan’s volcanic events and millennia of salmon spawning, the Skagit River Valley, just southwest of Komo Kulshan, hosts some of the most fertile soils in the world.

Inhabited for at least ten thousand years by Coast Salish First Nations, the Skagit Valley’s ecosystem has changed greatly and rapidly since settlement by Europeans in the late 19th century – as seen in the figure below, the Skagit Valley grows over 90 commercial crops – of these crops, four are native to Northern America: pumpkins, corn, raspberries, and blueberries.

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It is interesting to contrast these crops with the 70-odd crops eaten by Coast Salish Nations prior to European arrival. Some of these crops have horticultural value in the current marketplace such as: blueberries, salal, spruce, raspberry, oaks, strawberries, and vetch.

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And below, a chart showing what the Skagit River Estuary area would have looked 10,000 years ago.

skagitriverdelta

The Skagit River is in close proximity to the San Juan Islands – which were named after San Francisco De Elize in 1792. Settlement by Europeans was not made until 1845 when the Hudson’s Bay Company claimed San Juan Island. Prior to this settlement, Coast Salish groups inhabited the islands for at least 8000 years.[1] 

When they were gathering food the Indian people never stopped in one place. Didn’t have no reservation then. They went from place to place… They had seasons for these moves. Like right now there’s the herring season… Steelhead run in December… They know when the clams are good. They know all these seasons. — James Joseph[2]

This food management strategy sounds like what agriculture should be attempting to achieve – natural regeneration of resources powered by the changes of season. European settlers have been actively farming the Skagit River for about 170 years – that’s about two percent of the total time that Coast Salish peoples have inhabited the area.

The San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild perennially hosts an Agricultural Summit for the San Juan Islands agricultural community. Farming on the San Juan presents an interesting challenge – the soils are relatively poor in the area, deer populations are rampant and unbalanced, and the islands experience high-population fluctuations in the summer seasons. Furthermore, each island has distinctive topography.

Below is a photo of birds, mammals, and sea-based proteins that were eaten by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest.

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Burke Museum

Is cormorant the next trendy protein on restaurants’ menu?

[1] https://www.nps.gov/sajh/learn/historyculture/the-pig-war.htm
[2] edited by Ann Nugent, with special assistance from Eva Kinley ; drawings by Adrienne Hunter. (1982). Lummi elders speak. Lynden, Wash. :Lynden Tribune,

 

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