New study details what Tsleil-Waututh people of B.C. ate 500 years ago

Say Nuth Khaw Yum Park (formerly known as Indian Arm Park), home to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, is shown in this image. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Crafted from a food source that was abundant, varied and rich in nutrition, the diet that the səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) had prior to the arrival of settlers was worlds away from what it is now.

New research between the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and the University of British Columbia uses archeological records and Indigenous oral histories to piece together what was on the menu between 1000 CE and European contact in approximately 1792 CE.

While the Nation’s diet spanned all manner of mammals, marine life and fowl, the research found its four main pillars to comprise salmon, forage fish, shellfish, and marine birds.

The bounteous Burrard Inlet had provided ceaseless nourishment, with thriving populations of Pacific salmon, Pacific herring, eulachon, surf smelt, anchovies, flatfish and sturgeon untouched by colonization and industrialization, said the study’s lead author, UBC PhD candidate Meaghan Efford.

“The inlet provided so much food for thousands of years, mainly because the Tsleil-Waututh Nation were using specific stewardship and cultivation techniques that ensured their harvest was sustainable over that period of time,” she said.

Efford said the ancestral diet would have been incredibly high in protein, with each person consuming over 200 grams per day, on average. Today, the recommended allowance for protein is around 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, around 60 grams for a person weighing 75 kilograms.

As a result of the consumption of marine fowl like dabbling ducks, large amounts of fat in the diet would have combated the cardiovascular diseases, blood vessel disorders and organ issues that can be brought on by high-protein diets, said Efford.

The study, A Fish-Focused Menu: An Interdisciplinary Reconstruction of Ancestral Tsleil-Waututh Diets, is part of wider PhD research Efford has carried out alongside the Nation to learn more of its pre-colonial existence.

The majority of the findings, including that of the Nation’s pre-settlement diet, confirms much of what the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has been proclaiming for decades, said Efford.

Michelle George, a cultural and technical specialist at the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, said stories of a Burrard Inlet teeming with life have been passed down from generation to generation, but the picture painted is so different to what remains today, the stories feel more like folk tales than fact.

“My family always told me that when the tide was out, the table was set, and there would be more than enough food to feed a family, feed a large community, and have leftovers to feed on the next day,” she said. “That was continuous, every day. All of Burrard Inlet was a clam bed.”

George said Efford’s research provided support and reassurance to the Nation, who have long had their Indigenous oral history ignored in favour of Western science. The scientific "back-up” should spur a more serious response from local communities and environmental groups, who often need official stats and figures to feel compelled to make a change, she said.

While there is “still a lot of work to do”, George said the efforts to rewild and restore the inlet have gained traction in recent years - and the fruits of those efforts are starting to become apparent.

Last spring, the Nation’s Treaty, Lands and Resources (TLR) department completed a four-year marine restoration project designed to protect and preserve the inlet. The undertaking included eelgrass and native plant restoration alongside the removal of creosote waste and marine debris.

Healthy habitats encourage the bounce back of marine life populations, which in turn replenishes the Tsleil-Waututh Nation diet and helps educate the community on their own culture, said George.

“We have a lot of Elders returning to reserves after a lifetime spent away, they’re coming back and finding their family, and a lot of those people want to be taught about their Tsleil-Waututh diet,” she said.

“Information like this is crucial because then we get to teach them what their family used to eat. Maybe then those people can go on to try seafood for the first time. It’s about bringing this culture, this way of living, back to our people.”