West Coast Shell Middens

How collaborative archaeology has transformed understandings of shell middens on the Pacific Coast

Challenging the misconception of middens as only accumulations of refuse, West Coast Shell Middens provides case studies from the Pacific Coast of North America that highlight the underappreciated social significance of these sites. This volume discusses new interpretations and perspectives on shell middens that have emerged from collaborative archaeology grounded in Indigenous perspectives.

The chapters in this volume feature analysis of data from sites as far north as Prince Rupert Harbour in British Columbia, Canada, and as far south as San Felipe Bay in Baja California, Mexico. Authors demonstrate how Indigenous peoples deliberately sculpted shorelines to create enduring cultural landscapes, intertwining ecology, infrastructure, and archaeology. The volume also uncovers patterns of midden destruction that contributed to colonial erasure of Indigenous history. In modeling the use of oral histories and traditional ecological knowledge, the collection works toward bridging the gap that many still perceive between Indigenous pasts and presents.