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The Ayaawx is the ancient law of Ts’msyen people situated on the northwest coast of British Columbia. With principles for spiritual, social, political and economic relations, the Ayaawx has been taught both directly and indirectly in daily and ceremonial living for centuries. The Ayaawx holds transformational change as a natural event in human relationships with each other, the land, and the supernatural world. Yet the Ayaawx is not studied in depth in post secondary institutions in British Columbia or defined as a resource for program development by governments or a reliable resource by us as Ts’msyen people. Statistical data on Indigenous Canadians is prolific indicating the severity of suffering caused by social and legalized oppression. Indigenous peoples of Canada have received health, social, psychological, psychiatric and educational services from the federal and provincial governments for over one hundred years and yet the suffering remains inordinately high. For example, less than sixty years ago Sm’algyax was spoken by children, adolescents, adults and elders in Ts’msyen communities and individuals and House Groups knew the protocol for resolving conflicts in families and the community. The organization and interpretation of this dissertation has been structured here in the format of a contemporary Adaawx, (sacred story), with Sm’algyax, (Ts’msyen language) as the main reference for meaning when discussing the impact of cultural oppression and in identifying the main principles of the Ayaawx that will assist individuals, families and communities in transforming suffering. Transformation is a common act in Adaawx, art objects, dramatizations and song. Woven throughout Adaawx, the principles of the Ayaawx are a vital resource not only to transform suffering, but it is also a guide to direct all human beings into a progressive future.

This dissertation was undertaken in collaboration with the Nisga’a First Nation of northwestern British Columbia to document their traditional plant knowledge. This information was gathered through collaborative audio recorded open-ended discussion with 21 Nisga’a elders, supplemented with material from the published literature and archival sources. Background information with respect to the Nisga’a culture, language, geography, plant classification and resource management is documented in the past and as exercised today. Nisga’a names or uses of 110 plant species are described. Of these, 72 species were documented as having been used for food, 52 for medicinal purposes; 12 for spiritual purposes and 70 for technological purposes. The role of plants in traditional Nisga’a culture is further explored through comparisons of plant distribution, plant names and pre-contact trade between the Nisga’a and their immediate neighbours, the Gitxsan, Tsimshian, Haida, Tahltan and Tlingit First Nations. Maps are presented which highlight the distribution of seven plant species traditionally important in these cultures: Shepherdia canadensis (soapberry), Vaccinium membranaceum (black huckleberry), Oplopanax horridus (devil’s club), Corylus cornuta (beaked hazelnut), Malus fusca (Pacific crabapple), Veratrum viride (false hellebore), and Taxus brevifolia (western yew). Currently, one of the plants most important to the Nisga’a is wa’ums or devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus). Devil’s club stems were measured in clearcuts of different ages to examine how quickly this important spiritual and medicinal species recovers after logging. Results suggest that although devil’s club does persist after clearcut logging, stems of a suitable size are rarely found in cutblocks less than 10 years old and that time since logging only partially accounts for the persistence or recovery of this species. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of historical Nisga’a plant knowledge. The gender of those who have held and transmitted traditional knowledge and the gender of present knowledge holders is tabulated and discussed. Results suggest that although both men and women hold and pass on traditional knowledge, women were and still are more commonly involved in its transmission to the next generation. Current plant uses are highlighted and prospects for the sustainable use of plants for personal and commercial purposes are discussed. / Graduate

This thesis studies the relationships between newcomers employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Simpson and the Ts’msyen people who came to live outside the fort from its establishment in Ts’msyen territory in 1834 until the founding of a Christian Ts’msyen village at Metlakatla in 1862. I argue that a mutually intelligible – if not equally understood – world was developed at this site in which the lives of these newcomers and local Ts’msyen people became intertwined and somewhat interdependent. While this world was not characterized by universal conditions of fellowship and trust it did involve shared Ts’msyen-newcomer participation in significant cultural activities, the repurposing or remaking of each other’s customs, and jointly developed practices in which customs from both groups were intermingled. I propose that some of these practices, particularly those of law and marriage, can be considered as culturally hybrid. This study suggests the compromised position of the HBC on the northern Northwest Coast, Ts’msyen cultural disposition, and dynamics of power within and between these groups fostered the development a mutually intelligible world and hybrid Ts’msyen-newcomer practices. Far from any centre of British power, greatly outnumbered by the Ts’msyen, and soon out-armed, the newcomers of Fort Simpson were particularly vulnerable. Ts’msyen people, it is claimed, generally valued innovation and had a long-established system for acquiring ownership of changes brought from outside into their communities. Ts’msyen women had a special role in this process. Moreover, both the Ts’msyen and the newcomers had hierarchically structured societies in which displays of power and authority were important. These local circumstances were fundamental to the formation of the hybrid institutions of marriage and law at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams and to the other complex social and cultural interactions of the two groups documented here. While this study acknowledges that Ts’msyen and newcomer people had distinct motivations for entering relationships with each other, for sharing and cross-participating in customs of the other, and for developing new joint and hybrid practices, it argues that for both groups power and authority were crucial factors. The distinct circumstances which made a mutually intelligible world possible at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams came to an end in 1862. The return of smallpox in Ts’msyen territory, the removal of the missionary William Duncan and his followers from Fort Simpson to Metlakatla, and the increasing colonial regulation of Indigenous people brought an end to the brief period of accommodation and collaboration between HBC newcomers and Ts’msyen people.

Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the northwest coast of North America, as they are in many regions of the world, due to changing environmental factors, in particular glacial isostasy and eustasy, resulting in low visibility and survival of archaeological deposits. This dissertation outlines methods and results used to locate late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites on the Dundas Island Archipelago on the Northwest Coast culture area of British Columbia, Coast Tsimshian Territory, where archaeological sites older than 5,000 years BP are not known. Part of the reason for this is that masses of glacial ice accumulated on the Cordilleran Mountains of North America during the last glacial maximum, which depressed mainland coastal regions isostatically in relation to sea levels. As a result of lateral displacement of subcrustal material, areas to the west of the Cordillera bulged and landforms were raised relative to the sea. With deglaciation, the depressed crust began to rebound and the forebulge subsided resulting in rapidly dropping sea levels along the mainland to the east and rapidly rising sea levels along outer coastal islands to the west. These processes occurred in concert with sea levels that began rising eustatically following the last glacial maximum. Between the inner and outer coasts lies the Dundas Island Archipelago. This research project hypothesized that the study area was close to a sea level hinge lying between these two regions with very different sea level histories. With less significant shoreline movement, it was further anticipated that shoreline situated archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene might be found in close proximity, although slightly higher than the present day shoreline. This dissertation addresses the following question: Where are late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites situated on the Dundas Island Archipelago? To address this question, this dissertation details the methods and results used to determine a sea-level and vegetation history for the Dundas Island Archipelago and the archaeological prospection that was undertaken along relict shorelines. Pollen analysis of sediments from a lake core identified a sequence of six vegetation zones beginning before 12,385 BP. Based on diatom identification of cores from four lake basins, combined with supporting indicators, a sea level curve for the Dundas Islands was constructed showing a slow regression of shorelines from 13 m above the barnacle line to present day elevations over the last 12,000 years BP. Drawing upon these palaeo-environmental data, areas were selected for archaeological survey and prospection. Field testing of these selected areas resulted in the identification of five archaeological sites dating to the early Holocene. These are the first archaeological sites dating older than 5,000 years BP that have been found and dated in Coast Tsimshian Territory. The elevations and radiocarbon dates on all archaeological deposits are consistent with the sea level curve based on palaeo-environmental data points. Overall, this dissertation draws upon palaeo-environmental methods and results for the purpose of identifying and interpreting archaeological sites situated on raised marine landforms.